Immerse\Interact – 10 projects selected

18 December 2025

The Immerse\Interact Grant Scheme is a collaboration between the Creative Industries Fund NL and the Netherlands Film Fund. The goal of the grant scheme is to enhance crossovers, including in digital culture, film and design, between both funds. Immerse\Interact explores the future of storytelling within the world of immersive media, like VR, MR and AR. Interactive media productions can also be supported.

Under this grant scheme, producers and individual makers can apply for both a development grant and a realisation grant. A maximum of six development grants will be awarded per round. In this round, too, out of the ten projects supported, six development grants were awarded.

The grant scheme’s advisory committee characterised this round as average, both in terms of the number of applications and the level. Of the projects assessed, the scores were close together, with few outliers in either direction.

recurring themes

In the projects supported, we recognise some overarching themes. For instance, several projects focus on heritage, memory and the disappearance or transformation of places and communities. Makers reconstruct or depict places that are disappearing (or threatening to disappear) and explore how memories live on. De Glazen Kerk clings on to a bankrupt church and community, Where My Street Remains reconstructs Gaza from personal archives and Lost Hood highlights urban past and archives.

The theme of climate and ecology is also represented. Projects explore ecological crisis, deterioration and impermanence and try to elicit empathy through sensory immersion. We see this, for example, in From Who The Evening Flows, where a poetic reflection on climate anxiety is given via light and sound, DeMare on ocean degradation and Ghost Towns on legacy and collective responsibility.

selection

Entangled Voices – Stichting Monobanda PLAY
The project Entangled Voices by Stichting Monobanda PLAY explores a new way of approaching and exhibiting AR. Participants grow plants, fertilise them and work together to eventually deliver a great sacrifice – all through voice interaction. By means of a virtual layer embedded in an existing festival environment, the project invites participants to extend the play space across the entire festival site. Through costume design and interaction, audience members become performers themselves. The development phase is working towards generating a working prototype. A step-by-step plan is also being drawn up for the further development of both the experience and this new form of exhibiting. For this project, Stichting Monobanda PLAY is working with project leader Eva Marsalkova, programmer Harm van de Ven, concept artist Funilab and Schweigman & for dramaturgical coaching.

De Glazen Kerk – QWERTY/AZERTY Studios
The background to the project De Glazen Kerk (Church of Glass) is the bankruptcy of the church of the grandmother of Matthijs Vuijk, the maker behind QWERTY/AZERTY Studios. Vuijk translates the desire to capture what was in danger of disappearing into a poetic 15-minute VR essay. The user explores, from the perspective of a 900-year-old church in Kortgene, the transformations of the community, from religion to neoliberal capitalism. With a church building as the main character, the VR experience offers new insights within this theme. The work investigates how major social shifts permeate small communities and the human understanding of spirituality. By means of 3D scans, sound design and point-cloud technology, the church is brought to life as a silent witness to the past, present and future, to create new perspectives and insights in the search for meaning within society. The intended outcome after the development phase is a working prototype with at least one elaborated scene, a production plan, script and plan for release. There is a collaboration with creative director Melanie Courtinat, creative producer Mateo Vega and creative technologist Sjoerd van Acker.

Lost Hood – K.O. Productions
Lost Hood by K.O. Productions is a location-based narrative that uses AR and GPS localisation, where participants are guided through the Spuistraat in Amsterdam. It begins with a scavenger hunt inspired by the Kabouterbeweging (1970s Gnome protest movement), gradually revealing the city as a canvas of graffiti, street art and political intervention. During the experience, the participants explore safe spaces, meet the squatters’ movement and witness the coronation riots. They symbolically disable overflying drones with flowers from lost flora. Although initially tied to the Amsterdam location, the project is designed to be adapted to the local context of other cities. The artistic direction for this realisation phase is in the hands of Abner Preis. Theo Tegelaers and Erik Kessels provide support in communication and reach. Studio Zesbaans handles the technical development of the app and the AR experience. Archive material for the app comes from the photo archive of Bert Verhoef, Amsterdam Museum, city archive and Beeld&Geluid.

View all supported projects here in the awarded grants archive (in Dutch).

numbers

Of the 27 applications assessed, 11 received a positive assessment. The available budget of € 500,000 was not sufficient to award a grant to all 11 applications, so prioritisation was necessary. Ten projects were awarded grants.

follow-up

The new round of Immerse\Interact opens on 14 January 2026, 15:00 CET. You have until 16:00 CET on 31 March 2026 to submit your application. If you have any questions about this grant scheme, our colleagues will be happy to help you at immerseinteract@stimuleringsfonds.nl.

The Fund is closed from 24 December 2025 to 4 January 2026. You also cannot create an account for the application platform during this period. Read more here about our closure during the festive season.