Stimuleringsfonds

In the context of the Immerse\Interact collaborative grant scheme, the Creative Industries Fund NL and the Netherlands Film Fund are supporting 11 projects within the interdisciplinary media landscape. It concerns 7 development and 4 realization contributions.

25 May 2023

general impression

Of the 15 subsidy applications taken into consideration, 11 are receiving grants. The quality of the proposals was generally high with a wide variety of project forms and themes. Both fiction and non-fiction stories are being told and a variety of media forms are used for this purpose, such as VR, AR, transmedia, installations with interaction or games.

The Immerse\Interact Grant Scheme is aimed at innovative media productions by both individual makers and producers who are exploring the future of digital storytelling in a changing media landscape. The contribution is intended for research, optimizing an artistic concept and/or other preparatory work prior to the actual production phase of a project.

The following projects have been selected for a development contribution:

Cycles – Matunda Groenendijk
The VR project Cycles is a five-minute philosophical immersive experience that uses dance, animation and music to illustrate the cycle of life from different perspectives.

Cosmic Events – Guillemette Legrand
Cosmic Events is an interactive, cinematic installation that combines a playable environment, AI climate models and collective actions for a different experience of climate imaging. The work challenges the cultural limitations of current climate iconography and takes the audience on a journey to compose new world views.

Lady Lazarus – Willemiek Kluijfhout and producer Stichting ZZZAP
In this VR documentary, a woman's apartment comes to life in which she decides to end her life. By touching her belongings, stories emerge of friends who give their own interpretation to the inevitable question of ‘why’. But with each step, parts of the apartment disappear.

Passage to the Past – Studio VRij
Passage to the Past uses AI and VR to bring the history of the Hollandsche Schouwburg to life. This was a theatre in Amsterdam that was used as a deportation centre during the Holocaust. The aim is to allow younger generations to interact with the stories of World War II in a new, impactful way.

Toko waar is thuis – Frances Rompas
Toko waar is thuis is an exploration of origin myths, identity and feeling out of place. While rummaging through the spice trays and tropical fruits in Toko waar is thuis, you imagine yourself in the search of someone with a mixed background who, despite ‘Indonesian silence’, is looking for her origins. Can she create an imagining of her ancestral landscape?

Two Me – Martijn Blekendaal, Keez Duyves and producer Harlem District
Two Me is an installation that allows young people (9+) to create an invisible double of themselves: a virtual guardian angel that they can summon at any time to stand by them in times of uncertainty.

Underground Shelter – Sjors Swierstra and producer Scopic BV
The VR project Underground Shelter brings the experiential world closer in which millions of Ukrainians have been living since the beginning of the Russian invasion. Is it possible – using VR as immersive technology – to experience what it is like to have to live underground and really feel what war is like?

The following projects have been selected for a realization contribution:

Catastrophic Structures – Sjoerd Leijten and Stijn Verhoeff
Catastrophic Structures is an audiovisual installation in which five planetary inhabitants – whose voices are rarely heard – discuss the catastrophic structures that surround them in a poetic-activist landscape. Together, their divergent perspectives form an abstract vision of hope and struggle in an apocalyptic time.

Songs for a Passerby – Celine Daemen
Songs for a Passerby is a VR opera in which you yourself are the protagonist. You take a walk through a melancholic fever dream about you and the things that pass.

De mars – Leo Erken and Frieda Gustavs
De mars is a non-linear opera in VR about how we handle war, inequality, violence and social conflict. The opera revolves around the culture and effects of war in our society. Visitors will find themselves in the shoes of perpetrator, victim and passive observer.

We Are Dead Animals – Maarten Isaäk de Heer and producer Valk Productions (photo above)
We Are Dead Animals is an immersive tableau vivant – a living painting – of paradise with dead animals.

deadline

The next closing date of the Immerse\Interact Grant Scheme is 11 September 2023.

Producers can also submit an application to Immerse\Interact XL by the same deadline. XL grants can be used for activities with international ambitions, to add production value and to provide space for groundbreaking media research in an international context. New projects, but also projects with international potential that have previously received a development or realization contribution from Immerse\Interact can submit an application.

questions?

If you have a question, please contact Immerse\Interact coordinator Sean Gilis (Creative Industries Fund NL) in good time before submitting a proposal. If you have any questions, you can also contact Nienke Doekes (Netherlands Film Fund). The Creative Industries Fund NL and the Netherlands Film Fund are organizing an online information session on 12 July 2023 about contribution opportunities. Register for the session here.