Helge AlbersCEO of MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein: "With Queer Utopia, Lui Avallos was able to convince the jury: his idea is thematically and technically up to date. With the socio-political approach in his VR installation, he attempts to create a kind of 'queer memory' - and to take the audience into the emotional world of older, queer people. His project is a prototype for our 'Kurz + Innovativ' Committee, which promotes unconventional moving image formats at the interface between technology and talent.

The winnerLui Avallos Queer Utopia" tells the story of 70-year-old homosexual man Gabriel, who is slowly losing his memory. In the VR experience, Gabriel takes the participants on a journey into his queer past - to places that for him are fraught with danger, pleasure and shame. The project was selected for the young talent programme "Biennale College Cinema" at the Venice Film Festival in 2022. "Queer Utopia" is produced by Mundivagante Studio from Portugal.

The jury for the "XR Pitch Battle" consisted of Ralph Heinsohn (designer, Executive Producer and curator of immersive media), Britta Schewe (gretegrote Internetproduktion) and Ulrich Schrauth (Head of VRHAM! Virtual Reality & Arts Festival Hamburg). All three jury members are part of the "Kurz + Innovativ" Committee of the MOIN Film Fund.

MORE ABOUT THE XR PITCH BATTLE Last week, six teams competed against each other in the "XR Pitch Battle" organised by MOIN Film Fund: They each had five minutes - live in front of an online audience - to convince the jury of their innovative ideas. Around 50 international and local teams had previously applied for a place in the XR Pitch Battle.

MORE ABOUT THE FUNDING OF XR PROJECTS MOIN Film Fund supports innovative audiovisual formats from XR experiences and 360-degree films to immersive story worlds - with grants of up to 50,000 euros per funding measure. The "Kurz + Innovativ" Committee is responsible for this and submissions for the funding of innovative moving image ideas are possible on a regular basis. More at:www.moin-filmfoerderung.de/innovatives