Acclaimed artist and filmmaker David Lynch recently appeared in avatar form in Breakroom, the virtual world for live events from Sine Wave Entertainment (a sponsoring partner to New World Notes). Lynch did so to receive an award from Mexico’s Guanajuato International Film Festival (or GIFF), one of world’s largest annual cinema events. Due to the pandemic, GIFF moved many of its scheduled events to a virtual campus built in Breakroom, so hundreds of registrants could safely watch short films in competition, attend panels, even participate in a studio pitch session.
As a longtime Lynch fan, it was a professional highlight to help bring the master creator of dreamlike alternate realities into a virtual world for the first time. Lynch and his assistant safely logged into Breakroom from his home in Los Angeles, from the very same spot where he shoots his famous weather reports. As you might have guessed, getting his iconic hair as accurate as possible for his avatar was the most challenging task. To make it a truly Lynchian event, the entrance to the theater lobby where the director received his award was even made to look like the Red Room from his cult series Twin Peaks. (We did consider adding a backward-talking midget as well, but that’ll have to wait.)
More details and video below. With this event, GIFF became the first major film festival to move its activities to a virtual world, but with the global pandemic still raging, I expect many more will follow. As for Breakroom, it’s recently hosted virtual world conferences for Stanford and the United Nations, and will soon launch a speakers’ events series open to all -- stay tuned.
Arriving in Avatar Form, David Lynch to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award during GIFF, the First Major International Film Festival Hosted in a Virtual World
September 23, 2020 -- Guanajuato/Los Angeles -- The Guanajuato International Film Festival (or GIFF), today announced this year’s festival will be hosted in a virtual world. Live online September 22-23, it will culminate in a special live appearance by the legendary filmmaker David Lynch, in avatar.
While major film festivals continue to seek alternatives for safely operating during the COVID era, GIFF is first to host its activities in a virtual world. Similar to multiplayer games like Fortnite and Minecraft, but with high definition graphics and a retro-futuristic convention hall, attendees will get to explore GIFF’s virtual world through customizable characters, called avatars.
David Lynch will be this year’s top honored guest, safely appearing in GIFF’s virtual world from his home in LA via his hyperreal avatar. (Previous GIFF recipients include Terry Gilliam, Bong Joon-Ho, Tim Burton, and Gus Van Sant.) Mr. Lynch will receive GIFF’s “La Cruz de Plata, Más Cine” award, as well as the silver medal from Filmoteca UNAM.
“We are excited to host GIFF in a virtual world,” said festival director Sarah Hoch “Rather than present our festival through online video with limited interactivity, or risk attendees’ health with a traditional on-location festival, we see this as a way to capture the excitement, serendipity, and networking opportunities we love so much about festivals. We hope this innovative platform inspires the brilliant imagination of David Lynch along with all our other guests and attendees.”
Built in Breakroom, a virtual world for live events and remote teams, with development support from Virtualware and Demiurgo, GIFF Retrofuture recreates all the features of an international film festival, including:
- Pitch sessions with 100 international and Mexican distributors and production companies.
- GIFF Epicenter, the festival's renowned innovation section, with a competition of 15 short films selected by an international jury.
- Multiple filmmaker discussion panels, including a session of renowned Mexican cinematographers such as Carlos Hidalgo (Cantinflas), and a session of film critics discussing utopian futures.
- A virtual recreation of Guanajuato city for exploration and sightseeing.
- An expo area for networking and exhibitor booth crawl of GIFF sponsors.
- Afterparties with dancing, socializing, and enjoying live music in GIFF’s virtual club from Glass Cristina, Silvia and Karmen, Karen y los Remedios, and Ave Paradiso.
- Lectures on virtual worlds by Charlie Fink, renowned futurist and entertainment/ technology executive and Rohan Freeman, CEO of Sine Wave Entertainment, creator of Breakroom, who will give a live demonstration of virtual worlds for use in new forms of narrative, production, and business development.
GIFF awaits you in the virtual world!
About GIFF
Founded in 1998, the Guanajuato International Film Festival is one of the world’s largest cinema events, annually screening thousands of films from over 100 countries to 100,000+ attendees, in spaces as special as the underground streets and tunnels below Guanajuato, and in the famed mausoleum known as the Museum of the Mummies of Guanajuato.
GIFF has helped finance dozens of films, and closely collaborates with other renowned film organizations, including Cannes, the British Film Institute, the American Film Institute, the Museum of Modern Art, USC, and South by Southwest. Honored guests include Bong Joon-Ho, Spike Lee, Tim Burton, Manuel Ojeda, Gaspar Noé, Spike Jonze, Patricia Reyes Spíndola, and María Rojo, among many others.
About Sine Wave Entertainment
Sine Wave publishes massively multi-creator virtual world platform for everyone -- from gamers who want to socialize and create in Sinespace, to organizations which want to host customizable events and meetings in Breakroom, to companies which want to deploy monetizable social applications with industry standard tools on our white label server grid.
A Verified Solutions Partner for Unity, Sine Wave Entertainment is backed by Sussex Place Ventures and Au Capital, and advised by Peter Norris, current chairman of Virgin Group. Sine Wave is based in London with satellite offices in Sydney, Shanghai, and Los Angeles. Follow us on Twitter @sinewavespace and join our Discord server for developers; download Sinespace for free at sine.space.
PR Contact:
[email protected]@sinewavecompany.com
Comments