Cosmic Cinema
Cosmic Cinema New Era, New Skin: The Entire City Transforms into a Cosmic Theater
Celebrating its 30th anniversary, "Beyond Reality," the new media section of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), presents its most daring exhibition yet under the slogan "New Era, New Skin," proposing a paradigm shift for a new era. Moving beyond the limitations of physical screens where virtual worlds and real spaces organically blend, Beyond Reality illuminates the expansive future possibilities of cinema combining technology and art from diverse angles.
This year, Beyond Reality connects cultural hubs throughout the city into a single narrative multiplex, starting from [Fantastic Portal], a massive media gateway at the Bucheon City Hall Lawn Square. The convergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and immersive technology goes beyond changing creation methods. It redefines how audiences experience artwork and solidarity with technology.
Breaking away from traditional VR screening methods, this exhibition showcases the essence of evolved XR content. This includes interactive installations reacting to audience feedback and high-end immersive sound (Spatial Audio) that reconstructs time and space. Audiences step directly into a overlapping stage of virtuality and reality to see, hear, and feel, becoming active participants who co-create the narrative through sensory feedback.
This year¡¯s lineup is more diverse and unrivaled than ever. The festival welcomes audiences with a special Quebec section representing North American new media experimentation, led by a VR¡¤2D¡¤360-degree dome retrospective of master filmmaker Fran?ois Vautier, ahead of the 140th anniversary of Korea-France diplomatic relations. Additionally, an epic lineup hitting the pinnacle of tech-art unfolds, ranging from the Sanrio Virtual Festival, which implements globally famous IPs in virtual space, to a K-POP VR multi-user experience capturing fandom enthusiasm in a collective viewing format.
Your gaze, movements, and active choices become the direction of the story and a new narrative for Bucheon. We invite you to Beyond Reality, the start of a special journey experiencing the new senses presented by future cinema.