Hologram whales and immersive street life

InBanyorama: a VR experience of life on the street (50,000 euros, Curious Company, Hamburg), users are immersed in an interactive 3D world and experience the day of a homeless person with various tasks and challenges. Directors Henning Westerwelle and the team from the Hamburg-based non-profit organisation GoBanyo are behind the project. The aim of the interactive 3D experience is to create understanding and thus sensitisation for dealing with people on the street. Script Writer Dominik Bloh has just been honoured with the Federal Cross of Merit for his work. A publication is planned for summer 2023.

What is the best way to tell history live in the cinema? This question is posed in Live cinema: The improbable city (25,000 euros, Karin Dohr, Hamburg) nine Hamburg-based Script Writers. The aim is to create a feature-length, hybrid, live-streaming film format including a mobile camera team that makes (Hamburg) city history tangible in a completely new way.

Deceptively real whales are the subject ofThe singing whale (10,000 euros, Ocean Mind Emotion Pictures, Kiel) by Daniel Opitz. The Schleswig-Holstein filmmaker wants to breathe real life into a singing humpback whale as part of a life-size and holographic "Bigger Than Life Experience".

Fundings have also been awarded in recent months to four projects that are still in their infancy. One such idea grant goes to Lui Avallos and his projectQueer Utopia (10,000 euros, Mundivagante Studio, Lisbon), with which the Portuguese-Brazilian VR artist won the XR Pitch Battle 2022 of the MOIN Film Fund. With a socio-political approach in his VR installation, he attempts to create a kind of 'queer memory' - and to take viewers into the emotional world of older, queer people. Copacetex (9,650 euros) is the name of the new project by Hamburg-based Lea Theres Lahr-Thiele, in which she wants to visualise moving image content on textiles using AR technology. 8,900 euros in idea funding will go toSuper 8 Cherry Blossoms by Ricarda Saleh Rojas from Hamburg. A poetic VR experience in which users experience a spring day with blooming cherry blossoms. A mix of feature film, documentary and VR game comes from Henning Westerwelle and Jeffrey Lisk from Hamburg, who worked withFrom Scratch: What hip hop did to the North. A VR Story (5,000 euros, Curious Company, Hamburg) aims to trace the success story of hip hop in Hamburg.

SHORT FILM

In Britt Dunse's new short filmHAI or HYÄNE (18,000 euros, Berlin), the North Sea island gang of children around Fritzi, Runar, Marten, Ava and Bo have a problem. Mum Leo's new boyfriend drives away the invisible gnome Nisse because he doesn't believe in him - and puts the new family in danger. The film is co-produced by the Flensburg-based company von Dorsch.

The "Kurz + Innovativ" Committee promotes both short films and innovative audiovisual formats, from XR experiences and 360-degree films to immersive story worlds.

A detailed overview of all funded projects can be found here.

Insa Wiese, Birgit Glombitza, Sophia Ayissi Nsegue and Helge Albers made the funding decisions in the short film category on 14 December 2022.

Britta Schewe, Cesy Leonard, Ralph Heinsohn and Helge Albers made the funding decisions in the Innovative Projects area on 14 December 2022.

The CEO of MOIN Film Fund alone decides on the allocation of funding in the area of "idea funding". The funds are not awarded as a success-based loan, as is usually the case, but as a grant. Integrated into the funding is dramaturgical support, which is provided by MOIN Film Fund. Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.