The Immersive: All around Cinema competition section of the 28th TiDF

The innovative Immersive: All around Cinema competition section embraces works that make use of the most up-to-date technologies to showcase different views of an extended reality, paving new ways for the reception and interpretation of the moving images and the art of cinema as a whole.

The Golden Alexander Immersive will be bestowed to the section’s best film, accompanied by a 2,000-euro cash prize.

The Immersive competition section of the 28th TiDF lines up 8 films echoing powerful social, environmental and historical vibes, while touching upon a series of issues related to the boundaries of human consciousness, the intricate force of artistic creation and the complex pathways of memory. Among the films featured in the Immersive competition section we are welcoming a Greek entry, Peel Me by Maria Leonida, whereas the film D-Day: The Camera Soldier by Chloé Rochereuil, which reenacts the story of a soldier who recorded first-hand one of the bloodiest and most heroic chapters of World War II.

Warehouse C - Ground Floor

Pier Α, Port of Thessaloniki

Duration & Working Hours: 05-15/03/2026 /// 13:00-21:00

Ticket price: 3

In addition, the installation HeartBeat, Son cœur a trouvé sa cadence dans le silence des rencontres by the French visual artist Fanny Fortage, also known as Bonnie Lisbon, will be showcased within the framework of the 28th TiDF’s Immersive section. This interactive performance explores the human connection through the beats of the heart, bringing forth a non-verbal encounter on the basis of a universal language. Sitting one opposite the other and fitted with Beats per Minute sensors and insulated headphones, two people listen only to each other’s heartbeat amidst a state of absolute silence. At the same time, two colored spheres right on top of them, pulsating to the beat of the two hearts, illustrate the moments of synchronization and dιvergence of the two participants. Each session is addressed to two spectators and its duration is 15 minutes.

Fanny Fortage aka Bonnie Lisbon is a visual artist, a VJ, a steady collaborator of the Loewe fashion brand, as well as the founder of the famous art studio ENTER.black, whereas her work has been showcased at acclaimed festivals and institutions (New Images Festival, Gaîté Lyrique, CPH:DOX, SAT Montreal, among many others).

West Entrance Guardhouse - Gate 1

Pier Α, Port of Thessaloniki

Duration & Working Hours: 05-15/03/2026 - 13:00-21:00

Free Admission

The Immersive: All around Cinema Jury is composed of:

Avinash Changa (Creative Technologist, XR Director)

Carla Navarro (Strategic Events Producer)

Nikos Papageorgiou (Dr. Art Historian, Archeologist)

Let’s take a glance at the films of Immersive: All around Cinema competition section:

Another Place

Domenico Singha Pedroli

France-Thailand, 2025, 19΄

Renée is a ghost. Forced to flee Thailand in 2022 after a Facebook post, she now seeks asylum in France. Her case remains unresolved, further complicated by being a trans woman. Alone and unprotected, she drifts through Paris, missing her cats and seeking connection, until, through her fragile lightness, a way home emerges.

EGON SCHIELE - a personal encounter

Gerda Leopold

Austria-Germany, 2025, 35΄

Α cold night in late October 1918, just before the end of World War I. Vienna is blighted by disease and hunger. Egon Schiele, caught in a febrile delirium, begins to draw a portrait of us and starts telling his story. He asks questions and our answers influence the storyline – turning this into our own, deeply personal encounter.

Lacuna

Maartje Wegdam, Nienke Huitenga Broeren

The Netherlands, 2025, 34΄

Sonja has no memory of the crucial moment in her childhood that saved her life: the separation from her parents in 1943. Combining conversations with Sonja, mesmerizing 3D modelling, animation and personal footage, you accompany her through skewed memories, elusive images and re-imaginations of loss and grief during the Second World War.

Less Than 5gr of Saffron

Négar Motevalymeidanshah

France, 2025, 7΄

Golnaz, a 23-year-old immigrant Iranian girl, tries to cope with her new life in Germany. She finds a pack of Saffron that reminds her of home. Golnaz cooks some rice to add saffron, a heartwarming dish from her past, but she didn’t expect that this moment would bring her back into the most traumatic events of her life. Three years ago she survived a tragic drowning that took away her family while traveling illegally in a boat.

Out of Nowhere

Kristina Hoffman, Andreas Wuthe

Austria-Germany, 2025, 10΄

Out of Nowhere explores how preserving alluvial forests, marshes, and wetlands can help us face the challenges of a changing climate. Told through the eyes of Anna, a lifelong resident of Hallein in Austria, the experience flows from a personal memory of a devastating flood to reveal how reconnecting with nature may be key to protecting ourselves.

Peel Me

Maria Leonida

Greece, 2026, 20΄

Peel Me is a journey into the world of waste. An interactive experience exploring food waste in our everyday lives and the hidden value of every fruit and vegetable peel. By immersing the user in locations almost impossible to visit, Peel me raises questions about the future where beauty and ugliness, usefulness and uselessness gain new meaning.

Reality Looks Back

Anne Jeppesen, Omid Zarei

Denmark, 2025, 21΄

This story drifts through the quantum echoes of everyday life — split déjà-vu, Schrödinger’s hamster, and the soft clouds of possibility just out of reach. Anne, a quiet observer, re-watches all the subtle, uncanny ways we try to make sense of reality’s shifting fabric.

The Time Before

Leo Metcalf

UK, 2025, 15΄

Olly searches his memories to understand himself, drifting between childhood drawings and surreal underwater dreams. Fragments reveal a broken family, an abusive father, a fading mother, and a sister who urges escape through imagination. As memory and fantasy blur, the film reflects on the stories we tell to survive.

Special Screening - Out of Competition

D-Day: The Camera Soldier

Chloé Rochereuil

France-USA, 2025, 20΄

Eighty years after the end of World War II, this immersive documentary uncovers the untold story of Sgt. Richard Taylor, one of the first to land on Omaha Beach, not with a rifle but with a camera. This 20-minute experience blends cinematic storytelling with immersive technologies to bring the past back to life.