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Virtual Reality: The immersive cinema programme at the Sehsüchte Festival

Posted by Elizabete Vindule-Mince, Janosch Augustin, Teresa Ziegler

With the new edition of the international student film festival Sehsüchte, which this year has the motto “beyond”, we in the virtual reality department have also initiated some changes. Our deadline for our Call for Entries runs until 11th February 2025 – and this year it is of interest to more artists than ever! In addition to renaming our department from “360°” to “Virtual Reality”, we have also adapted the regulations to allow for more diversity in our programme.

While our department was known exclusively under the name “360°” in previous years, we have deliberately moved away from this restrictive name. We want to make this clear: Our focus is no longer just on 360° films – we are opening up our programme to all types of virtual reality projects!

This expansion is also reflected in our new regulations: from now on, all VR formats are welcome, including standalone experiences, PC-VR projects and 360° films. Both linear and interactive, non-linear projects can now be submitted. These can include student projects as well as debut projects completed after the 1st of January 2022. We look forward to discovering your creative projects and giving them a stage!

Submission is easy: Download the submission form, fill it out and email it to . If you have any questions or comments, you can write to us at any time – we look forward to hearing from you!

To briefly introduce ourselves as a department: This year we are working as a team of three – consisting of Elizabete Vindule-Mince, Janosch Augustin and Teresa Ziegler – and we are looking forward to getting to know you. In previous years, it was sometimes a challenge to receive enough submissions. This was one of the main reasons why we expanded our rules.

Thanks to our intensified scouting, we have already received more submissions this year than in previous years! In order to increase the diversity and internationality of our programme, we have specifically expanded our network and searched worldwide for universities, networks and artists whose projects we would like to see. This strategy is paying off – and we are incredibly proud and happy about the positive response!

A big thank you also goes to the entire Sehsüchte team, without whom this achievement would not have been possible. We look forward to the near future and an exciting VR section!

To ensure that the contacts we make in this edition last, we are working on building a sustainable community for future editions of the festival. We want to create a network that not only means more projects for us, but also connects artists and opens up new networking opportunities for everyone involved. We want to achieve this with the help of community channels, for example on WhatsApp.

So stay tuned for our future plans and feel free to get in touch if you have any interest, suggestions, feedback or projects for us! We are incredibly happy to get in touch with you directly, hear from you and network with you. We in our Festival, which is organised exclusively by students, have the opportunity to value our artists and we want to show that there are real people behind our festival – full of passion and always ready to respond to all enquiries.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Sehsüchte Festival from the 23rd to the 27th of April 2025! We would especially like to invite you to our thoughtfully designed VR area in the Waschhaus, where you can not only experience fascinating VR projects, but also meet us in person. We will be happy to talk to you there, proudly present our carefully curated programme and look forward to exchanging ideas with you. Our aim is to introduce you to exciting projects, hold inspiring discussions and experience an unforgettable festival time together!

With this, we look forward to more submissions, networking and seeing you at the festival! Have a great time!

Elizabete, Janosch & Teresa and the entire Sehsüchte team