The 2023 Geneva Digital Market (GDM) is becoming a key destination for traditional and non-traditional film, television and immersive filmmakers to gather to talk funding, distribution, partnerships and network building.
The 11th edition of the industry platform of Geneva International Film Festival (GIFF) is overseen this year by incoming head of industry Mathieu Gayet.
“The GIFF is one of the first festivals to have curated virtual, augmented and XR storytelling projects,” he says of what excites him about the role. “”I studied cinema and law and I worked for the cinema industry in Paris, France before I moved to extended reality (XR) storytelling and to technological innovation.”
Gayet takes over from Paola Gazzani Marinelli who moved on to the Digital Creation Hub, an institution backed by RTS and SSR this year, after being head of digital and professional programs since GDM’s birth in 2014.
As one of the first film festivals to spotlight immersive filmmaking the GIFF’s industry programme will see industry representatives gather to interact with the latest trends in this field. The event provides a vital platform for new and upcoming titles from Europe, Asia and North and South America.
The XR Coproduction Session of 15 European projects in development or pre-production seeking co-production partners is central to GDM ambitions and activity. Among those tabled this year are projects from Denmark, Italy, France, Ireland, Luxembourg and the UK. Titles include Then, Now, Tomorrow from Finnish creator Hanna Västinsalo and US producer Cyril Abraham. The project details three encounters with an ageless man and is based on a Finnish folk tale called Kalevala.
Another XR co-production is UK-French collaboration Remind, billed as a game of adventure and reflection which opens with the words “Welcome! You are dead! Well, not “dead” dead, but not still…”.
Greece-UK-France co-production Paradise Lost, being developed by artist and developer Yolanda Markopoulou, details the story of the final minutes of her great-great grandfather’s life as a political prisoner in Smyrna, Turkey, in 1922. It aims to create a journey through time and space.
And Iranian artist Negar Motevalymedianshah is attending with her dialogue- free project Less Than 5 Gr of Saffron, which follows the story of a young Iranian immigrant trying to adjust to her new life in Germany.
“I’m very fond of the pitching session with 15 projects on the ground meeting dozens of decision makers,” says Gayet, who has attended previous GIFF and GDMs in various capacities before taking on his present role. “It’s very rewarding if you bring people to Geneva and they leave with some ideas of new funding, distribution opportunities or partners. I hope we will become part of the journey for those creators.”
The separate Swiss Interactive Sessions, showcasing 10 local digital productions to international programmers and curators, will run alongside the XR Coproduction Session.
GDM is also hosting several talks and panels across its five-day event.
Industry events include a talk entitled ‘Innovation and Storytelling: The Potential of New Technologies’, which will examine how audiovisual industries are always seeking to push innovation in the field of narrative, whether in form or content. The talk will be delivered by Christina Lee Storm, a Hollywood veteran who has worked for Netflix, Dreamworks Animation and Rhythm & Hues Studios. Storm is the founder and CEO of US banner ASHER XR.
Also on the agenda is a look at AI and emerging techniques for filmmaking with Jamie Umpherson. head of creative at US company Runway on hand to discuss Runway’s AI Film Festival. The festival was stablished in 2022 and is billed as an international celebration of the arts and artists embracing new and emerging AI techniques for filmmaking.
Further talks will mull the female gaze and VR, looking to explore why the immersive arts – more than any other medium – must take viewpoint into account.
The team behind GIFF entry Murals, an immersive XR work created by Alex Topaller, Daniel Shapiro of New York-based creative studio Aggressive and Ukrainian 3D artist Artem Ivanenko, with virtual production studio ATM Virtual and PixelRace will take part in a case study as part of a panel discussion entitled ‘War & Peace: Bearing Witness to Conflict through Innovative Storytelling’.
Murals uses cutting-edge 3D scanning technology to place viewers face to face with the war devastation in Ukraine, juxtaposed with UK artist Banksy’s poignant murals left on the rubble of people’s homes, schools and infrastructure.
GDM’s Digital Night on November 8 will feature previews of Amazing Monster by Jonathan Droz and Rencontres – Intruders by Mathieu Pradat, as well as the presentation of the Film and Beyond prize to Jean-Michel Jarre.
GIFF is hosting the world premiere of large-scale installation The Eye And I, which Jarre created with Taiwanese artist Hsin-Chien Huang.
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