Mathieu Gayet

Source: GIFF

Mathieu Gayet

The 13th edition of the Geneva Digital Market (GDM), the Swiss event focused on audiovisual innovation, opens today (November 3), providing a showcase for creatives while celebrating work produced amid challenging social and economic times.

GDM, which takes place as part of the Geneva International Film Festival (GIFF)  will also explore where traditional film, TV and streaming are colliding with XR, social media content.

“More people than ever are exchanging ideas for content creation and crossing between methods,” says Mathieu Gayet, GDM’s head of industry.

Original XR and VR projects are being used as inspiration and a source for developing fresh IPs into films and TV series.

“What we focus on at the GDM is the quality of the work of the creators, the writers, the directors,” Gayet emphasises. “Our goal is first to serve the author, the people who are making the content for any kind of platform or distribution model.”

The GDM is taking place at GIFF’s main venue Théâtre Pitoëff, for the second year in a row, after its move from the Radio Télévision Suisse’s shiny floor studios, following positive notices from last year’s attendees who enjoyed being in the heart of the festival action.

GDM events this year include a dive into 20 years of YouTube evolution and its effect on emerging platforms and content creation. The panel will ask the age-old question: How to stay visible and profitable in the face of changing algorithms, competition from other networks and new formats.

Another anticipated GDM panel will examine the potential for XR creations to transition from virtual reality headsets to more traditional screens, potentially becoming high-impact films or series.

Speakers include Eloise Singer, the Emmy-nominated, multi-award-winning producer, writer and director and founder of Singer Studios, who created and directed The Pirate Queen (2024) starring Lucy Liu, Trailblazer (2025) with Daisy Ridley and also executive produced Rare Beasts and The Last Rifleman.

She will be joined by the UK’s Liz Rosenthal, curator of Venice Immersive and Venice Immersive Market, and Virginie Béjot, commissioning editor at Arte interactive, to mull challenges and opportunities.

“People are coming back to directing films from directing immersive content,” says Gayet. “There is a common language spoken between directors who are shooting TV shows, cinema or XR content.”

While XR can maintain its own bubble due to the nature of its multi-user location-based elements that place it close to live performance and theatre, there is an emergence of XR content using short animated and real film footage. Indeed, GIFF’s International Immersive Experience section includes the non-location-based short film, Less Than 5gr of Saffron by Négar Motevalymeidanshah, which won a special jury prize at Venice Immersive.

Coupled with the dawn of the Apple Vision Pro, the likelihood of crossover between traditional screens and VR creations will only increase, Gayet believes. 

The GDM is also hosting discussions on key issues stemming from AI and intellectual property and fiction in the age of user-generated content from studios to smartphones.

But at the heart of the GDM is a laser focus on providing the creators – the writers, directors, YouTube, film, TV or XR – a home to meet, greet and exchange thoughts on the future of the audiovisual industry.

“If you have good content, it will find a space somewhere,” Gayet says. “It’s still true today that if you have a VR project, if you have a good video on YouTube, if you have a film, if you have a TV show, if the quality of writing, directing and producing is present, then it will travel.

“Even in the worst socio-political context, we’ve seen films, TV shows, content produced and distributed,” he continues. “It’s a way of communicating with an audience and sharing good spirits and heavy concerns.”

He believes the VR ecosystem over the past three years has provided particularly impactful content.

“Creators are one of the pillars of society. They are often the first to be attacked when democracies and societies are in danger. We are lucky that GDM is able to share their concerns, solutions via their craft and put it in front of people.”

GDM is taking place in Switzerland from November 3-9.

 

 

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