Stimuleringsfonds

Ten projects have been selected in the first round of the Immerse\Interact Grant Scheme in 2026. This grant supports the development, realisation and distribution of artistically ambitious immersive and/or interactive media productions.

The Immerse\Interact Grant Scheme is a collaboration between the Creative Industries Fund NL and the Netherlands Film Fund. The scheme aims to strengthen the crossovers between both funds, including in digital culture, film and design. Immerse\Interact explores the future of storytelling within the world of immersive media such as VR, MR and AR. Interactive media productions can also receive support. The scheme offers both a development grant and a realisation grant, available to producers and individual makers.

general impression

In this round, we once again see a range of approaches and technologies: alongside VR, the selection also features MR, embodiment and combinations of VR and installation. Projects use these technologies to make personal experiences tangible, such as grief, isolation, corporeality and identity. Bring Me In by affect lab, for example, tells the story of missing sailors and places 'ambiguous loss' at its centre. The Opposite of Being by Studio Nergens explores how identity is shaped by the gaze of others. And Life So Far by Lisa Schamlé makes the loneliness of motherhood visible.

Several projects focus on memory and history. In Hong Kong Café by Docmakers, the visitor travels to different historical moments in Hong Kong’s past. And Becoming by Puck van Dijk takes young people back to the uncertain summer of 1945: how do you begin adult life in a time suspended between war and peace?

The Opposite of Being – Studio Nergens
The Opposite of Being is a 40-minute VR opera for 10 visitors. The experience challenges participants to reflect on identity: do we have ownership of our bodies and our identities, or are we shaped by the gaze of others? Short, intimate scenes, live lookalikes and layered soundscapes combine to create a total experience in which the dissolution of any absolute reality becomes palpable. Participants move through an architectural labyrinth and experience how difficult it is to achieve a shared perspective with others. Studio Nergens is collaborating with, among others, Nicky de Groot (producer), Asa Horvitz (music and sound), Stefanie Kolk and Olivier Herter (writers) and Sjoerd van Acker (developer). Co-producers are Reynard and Silbersee, and Muziekgebouw and DE SINGEL are partners.

Bring Me In – Affect Lab

Bring Me In – Affect Lab
In 2015, three South African sailors disappeared in the Indian Ocean. Their families never found out what had happened. This 'ambiguous loss' – losing someone without certainty or closure – forms the starting point of Bring Me In. Affect lab's dome performance combines live music, 360-degree imagery and interaction via a smartphone app. Using their phones, visitors emit sound and light signals that are synchronised with the dome and the musicians, making the audience itself part of the experience as they collectively come to terms with the complexity of loss. Affect lab is collaborating with, among others, Lucy Kruger and Liú Mottes (music), Lukas Ruoff (dome imagery) and Luciano Pinna (interactive development). The premiere will take place in 2027, after which the production will tour internationally.

The Cowan Paradox and Other Inconveniences – Studio Sjef van Beers
In The Cowan Paradox and Other Inconveniences by Studio Sjef van Beers, visitors enter a supermarket equipped with a self-scanner running custom software. Through short interactive scenes, they discover how the supermarket, automation technology and labour (including domestic labour) are intertwined. The work shows how the self-scanner shifts labour from a paid employee to the customer, and how supermarkets shape consumer behaviour. It invites critical reflection in a playful way. By the end of the development phase, Sjef van Beers aims to have found the right form of interaction and narrative, and to know how the work can be easily distributed. Those involved include Ibo Ibelings as creative programmer and Oscar van Leest as sound

The selection also includes:

Inside Yara by Eva Heijnen: an installation about boundary-crossing behaviour in which the visitor gains access, via a phone, to the digital world of a 16-year-old girl.
Becoming by Puck van Dijk: an immersive performance installation about the trauma of being caught between war and peace.
Macrophilia by 100% Scripted: a VR experience about power and vulnerability in which visitors experience the performance of a giant dancer.
Onze plek tussen de sterren by Sammie de Vries: an interactive mixed reality space journey about the search for life beyond Earth.
Life So Far by Lisa Schamlé: a performative installation that transforms personal experiences such as loneliness and motherhood into a collective reality.
Hong Kong Café by Docmakers: a VR experience in which the visitor travels through an abandoned café to various historical moments in Hong Kong’s past and pop culture.
A Time of Fire by Jesse van der Kolk and Jelmer Wristers: a 360°-VR documentary about megafires in Southern Europe that brings home the power and vulnerability of fire.

Take a look at all the selected projects in the awarded grants archive (in Dutch).

numbers

In this round, 41 applications were taken into consideration, of which 19 were positively assessed. As the total amount applied for by the positively assessed applications exceeded the available budget of € 500,000, the 10 highest-scoring projects are receiving grants. One project is receiving a lower amount than requested and has submitted an adjusted budget accordingly.