BFI Reveals Programme for London Film Festival Expanded

In 2020 for the very first time the BFI London Film Festival introduced an immersive lineup to its programming, under the banner LFF Expanded. Today, the festival has revealed its 2021 selection, a mixture of XR works from artists across the world.

LFF Expanded 2021 will feature 18 works across a mixture of disciplines including interactive virtual reality (VR), 360 films, augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and live immersive performance. Because of this mixture, the majority of the programme can only be experienced in person, with a selection of the works viewable online via The Expanse; the same virtual exhibition space the festival used last year.

It’ll feature nine 360-degree videos and immersive works alongside a virtual theatre, all available to audiences globally for free.

The Expanse Selection

• A Life in Pieces: The Diary and Letters of Stanley Hayami
• Adult Children
• Atomic / Ghost in the Atom
• Container
• Laika
• Missing Pictures Episode 2: Tsai Ming-liang
• Noah’s Raft
• Samsara
• Virtually There

The in-person programming is as follows:

• A Life in Pieces: The Diary and Letters of Stanley Hayami 
  • 26 Leake Street – 18 min duration
• Adult Children
  • 26 Leake Street – 16 min duration
• Atomic / Ghost in the Atom
  • 26 Leake Street – 12 min duration
• Captured
  • 26 Leake Street – ongoing duration (participatory experience)
• Container
  • 26 Leake Street – 16 min duration
• Eternal Return
  • 26 Leake Street – 20 minute live performance
• Eulogy
  • Theatre Square / Southbank – 35 min duration
• Fauna
  • 26 Leake Street – 15-30 min duration
• Future Rites
  • Rambert Studio, 13-14 October – 11 min duration
• Inhibition
  • 26 Leake Street – 10 min duration
• Laika
  • BFI Southbank, 26 Leake Street – 15 min duration
• Missing Pictures Episode 2: Tsai Ming-liang 
  • 26 Leake Street – 10 min duration
• Museum Of Austerity
  • 26 Leake Street – 30 min duration
• Noah’s Raft 
  • 26 Leake Street – 12 min duration
• Only Expansion
  • BFI Southbank – 40 min duration
• Samsara 
  • 26 Leake Street – 21 min duration
• Virtually There
  • 26 Leake Street – 23 min duration

“We are excited to present to our audiences this wide range of creators, artists and filmmakers from all over the world and share their incredible projects in specialized exhibitions and settings. With our LFF Expanded artists coming from very different backgrounds and artistic genres, the programme is an exciting array of various art forms and showcases at the forefront of how artists experiment with emerging technologies,” said Ulrich Schrauth, BFI London Film Festival XR Programmer in a statement. This new strand is not about technology, it’s about the stories these creators want to share with us. Stories of cultural, social and political urgency, giving visitors the possibility to get completely immersed in a work of art and challenge their own perspectives on these important matters of our current times.

The BFI London Film Festival and the LFF Expanded programme run between 6th – 17th October 2021, with tickets going on sale 20th September. For continued updates keep reading VRFocus.

Source: https://www.vrfocus.com/2021/09/bfi-reveals-programme-for-london-film-festival-expanded/