Show notes
I spoke with Venice Immersive curators Liz Rosenthal & Michel Reilhac about sneak peak of their 2025 selection, which is their largest selection yet. See more context in the rough transcript below.
[UPDATE August 10, 2026]. Here's all of my 30+ hours of interviews from Venice Immersive 2025
#1650: Sneak Peak of Venice Immersive 2025 Selection with Curators Liz Rosenthal and Michel Reilhac
#1750: Doug Liman's "Asteroid" Short Immersive Film with Google Gemini Story Extension + Kickoff of Venice Immersive 2025 Coverage
#1751: "Ghost Town" Narrative Integration in Puzzle Adventure with Exquisite Worldbuilding
#1752: Blending Embodied Game & Narrative Genres with "One True Path, Part 1"
#1753: Mixed Reality Town-Building and Sim Game "Wall Town Wonders"
#1754: Screen Life Thriller "LILI" about Surveillance Fuses Game Design, Film, and MacBeth Adaptation
#1755: Hand-Tracked Sign Language as Story Beat Triggers in "Eddie and I"
#1756: Exploring Narrative Potential of Generative AI in "8pm and the Cat"
#1757: Embody a Geranium in Immersive Comedy about Boredom in "The Great Escape"
#1758: Reckoning with Mental Health Taboos in Japan with "If You See a Cat" Immersive Animation
#1759: Mother-Daughter Team Explore Personal Challenges with Depression and Anxiety in "Mirage" Immersive Animation
#1760: Immersive Fairy Tale about Automation with "The Sad Story of the Little Mouse Who Wanted to Become Somebody"
#1761: Unpacking the Immersive Orchestral Mix of "1968" with Massimiliano Borghesi
#1762: Fusing Experimental Immersive Animation with Cutting-Edge Orchestral Spatial Audio Mix in "1968"
#1763: Blending Theater and 360 Video in "Re-Launching-Luigi-Broglio"
#1764: Mixing Hand-Drawn Animation with 360 Video in "The Time Before"
#1765: Immersive Action Thriller "Mulan 2125" Pushes the Edge of Graphical Fidelity
#1766: Formula 1 LBE Experience "Black Cats & Chequered Flags" is an Immersive Biopic of Alberto Anscari
#1767: Immersive Journey through Special Effects Pioneer Carlo Rambaldi's Paintings in "Alien Perspective"
#1768: Symbolic Journey through Lithuania's Artist Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis' Paintings in "Creation of the World"
#1769: Mixed Reality Musical on Avatars and Identity in "First Virtual Suit"
#1770: Eastern Philosophy-Inspired Fusion of Theater and XR with "Mnemosyne"
#1771: Environmental Storytelling in "The Great Orator" VR Diorama with Generative AI Experiments
#1772: Climate Change Spatial Montage "Out of Nowhere" Aspires to Move Towards Rewilding Prevention
#1773: "Collective Body" Assigns Elemental Avatars Based Upon Archetypal Dance Movements
#1774: Combining Live Dance and Music in Immersive LBE Performance "L'ombre (The Shadow)"
#1775: The Continuous Spatial One-Shot of Backlight's "La Magie Opera" LBE
#1776: The Spatial Grammar Innovations of Dialectical Contrasts and Abstraction within "The Big Cube"
#1777: Active Imagination, Associative Dream Logic, & Embodied Interactions in "Sense of Nowhere"
#1778: Collaborative Social Game and Story of "Happy Shadow"
#1779: "Heartbeat" Immersive, 1-on-1 Biometric Synchronization and Involuntary Collective Agency
#1780: Recap of VRChat Worlds Gallery at Venice Immersive 2025 with Mike Salmon
#1781: Winner of Venice Immersive 2025 "The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up" Innovates on Gaussian Splats & Spatial Storytelling
#1782: "A Long Goodbye" Wins 3rd Place Prize at Venice Immersive with Emotionally-Moving Story on Dementia and Spatial Grammar Innovations
#1783: "Less Than 5gr of Saffron" Wins 2nd Place Prize at Venice Immersive with Spatial Poem Quill Animation
#1784: The Incredible Spatial Transitions of "Dark Rooms" with Radical Consent Innovations
#1785: The Landmark Achievements of "Blur" in Fusing Theater, Montage, Mixed Reality, and LBE VR
#1786: Collective Reading Experience of "Constantinopoliad" Provokes Discussion on Defining "Immersive"
#1787: Blending the Elements of Experiential Design & Process-Relational Foundations of the Elements
Here's an Venice Immersive Program Cheat Sheet by Voices of VR podcast (PDF), which has an overview of the four categories of immersive experiences ordered by longest booking times to shortest (amount of time required for scheduling purposes) as well as the actual runtime, the number of people who can see it per slot, and then the number of people who can see it per day. This should hopefully help for your scheduling process.
I typically book experiences to roughly corresponding to hours. The Biennale scheduling website will open up on Thursday, August 21st, and it will not let you double book yourself. So I personally find it easier to book the longer experiences first, and then fill out my schedule with shorter experiences, and then experiences that generally have higher capacity. Note that Ancestors (capacity of 48 people), and L'Ombre (capacity of 50 people), and each of the VRChat sessions only have one booking time per day, and so these are also worth prioritizing if you want to see them and they should have lots of capacity throughout the week. The One the Other Earth may be one of the more logistically difficult experiences to see as you'll need to make a trek up to the main Venice island. I'd recommend trying to keep your schedule clear for at least an hour before and afterwards.
Here's a Venice Immersive Schedule Helper that I put together to help navigate the schedule.
Here's a placeholder for my other coverage of Venice Immersive 2025 to be updated after the festival.
Venice Airport to Lido Island
The best way to get to Lido from the Venice airport is either via the Red or Blue Line of the Alilaguna Public Transport water taxi, which you can get tickets either after you come out of customs or you can go to the water taxi dock at the Venice airport, and there's a booth there.
Picking up badge at Palazzo del Casinò
I usually pick up my badge at the bottom of the Palazzo del Casinò, which is at Lungomare Guglielmo Marconi, 1861, 30126 Lido VE, Italy
Venezia 2000 to the VR Island (Lazzaretto Vecchio)
The best way to get to the VR Island of Lazzaretto Vecchio from the docks is the bus. The buses leave every 15-20 minutes, and it's a 3 minute ride, and another 5 minute walk to the island. Here is a link to the bus route and the addresses. I believe it is either the A, N, or C or CE routes. I believe the bus stop names are S.Maria Elisabetta and then I get off at the Gallo Sant'Antonio stop.
The address of the VR island is Isola del Lazzaretto Vecchio, Lazzaretto Vecchio, 30100 Venezia VE, Italy
There is a water taxi that you can find the pick-up spot by looking at the google map and get directions there. It takes 1 minute of a ride, but there is only one taxi that can be a 10-15 minute wait depending on how busy it is.
Also be sure to check out XR Must's interview with Liz and Michel, which I found a lot of helpful info in.
Some of the artist statement videos are starting to get posted onto the BiennaleChannel YouTube page.
Here's a list Best of Experiences and Best of Worlds from VRChat that are already available if you'd like to get a head start on this year's program.
Already Released - BEST OF EXPERIENCES
The Midnight Walk
Ghost Town
One True Path, Part 1
Wall Town Wonders
D-Day: The Camera Soldier - Apple Vision Pro
Submerged - Apple Vision Pro
Adventure: Ice Dive - Apple Vision Pro
Already Released - BEST OF WORLDS - VRChat links included
vent. by Premium²
What is Virtual Art – Volume 1 by Jessien
FLASHING WARNING by xlxxl
Flat Earth by Niko Lang
Neuron by Juice…
Powdergame by Pema Malling
[NOT REPLAYABLE YET] FZMZ Pointzero by ReeeznD [VR_SMEJ]
よるとうげ -Yorutouge- by mikkabouzu / Kikuo [VR_SMEJ]
Ritual （v․1․3) by DrMorro
The Reality of Hope by Joe Hunting
[NOT PUBLISHED YET] -- Mirage by TOKYO WAIYOZ
Natura’s Queendom by Anders Fray, Starheart
[NOT PUBLISHED YET] -- Uncanny Lounge by Christopher Lane Davis, Rick Treweek
the colony - flat 804 by Glory Nya
Scale Journey by S_ASAGIRI
exhibition ⁄ back seeing by haruki_haru
東雲風船 - SHINONOME BALLOON - by sakanaplus
CyberLove ｜ A7 サイバーラブ by Artsy Glitch
Experience by NOOTAU
Dracula’s Castle by Tanner White
NeoWorlds by Widget365
Light Aquarium by phi16
Break 15˸ Arcanum by PK / rekluma
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Music: Fatality
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