TODAY ETERNAL SPRING VR EARNED A CANADIAN SCREEN AWARD NOMINATION FOR BEST IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE - NON-FICTION
The virtual reality experience based on Canada’s Official Submission to the 2023 Academy Awards® for Best International Feature Film will be available on Meta and Steam VR storefronts beginning March 14. Players can wishlist the experience on both stores now.
Directed by Jason Loftus—who simultaneously directed the feature film version that claimed top audience prizes at Hot Docs, Thessaloniki, and elsewhere—Eternal Spring VR will be free on Steam for the month of March to mark its release.
The immersive film explores the repression of the Falun Gong community in China, which was the subject of the feature film, from the POV of one of the survivors, Jin Xuezhe. While it can be experienced with the headset alone, a custom soundscape was designed to trigger sensations in the Woojer haptic feedback vest, heightening the immersion by providing tactile feedback as players are arrested on the street and subjected to a police interrogation.
“The feature film explores the larger story of this repression, and the protagonists’ harrowing effort to expose it by hacking the state TV signal,” explained Loftus. “But VR has a unique power to bring us closer to someone’s experience. This VR film allows us to walk a mile in the shoes of someone subjected to religious persecution in China.”
Today, on March 6, Eternal Spring VR was named one of three nominees at the 2024 Canadian Screen Awards for Best Immersive Experience – Non-Fiction.
“We’re very grateful to the Academy for this recognition, and offer our congratulations to the other nominees,” said Loftus.
Originally presented at the Available Light Film Festival in Whitehorse in 2023, this marks the first time for Eternal Spring VR to be made widely available. It can be wishlisted at the following links:
STEAM: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2689630/Eternal_Spring_VR/
META:https://www.oculus.com/deeplink/?action=view&path=/app/4667010673316725&ref=oculus_desktop
ETERNAL SPRING (長春) VR, which works as a standalone experience, also adds a new dimension to the animated documentary feature ETERNAL SPRING (長春), which was Canada’s official submission to the 2023 Academy Awards® for Best International Feature Film and also qualified at the Oscars® for Best Documentary and Best Animated Feature. Eternal Spring has played in 86 film festivals on six continents, winning 26 awards and earning another 27 nominations.
MORE ABOUT “ETERNAL SPRING (長春) VR”
Short Synopsis:
“ETERNAL SPRING (長春) VR” is an animated virtual reality documentary that brings us inside the world of a real-life survivor of religious persecution in China. This immersive, 360o accompaniment to the feature film Eternal Spring (Hot Docs winner and Canada’s official 2023 Oscar® submission) features original recorded testimony and vivid artwork from acclaimed Chinese illustrator Daxiong (Star Wars, Justice League comics), brought to life in animation. A custom soundscape enhances the immersion when experienced with the Woojer haptic vest (optional).
Canadian Screen Awards Nomination: https://www.academy.ca/2024/eternal-spring-%e9%95%b7%e6%98%a5-vr/
Website: https://loftysky.com/projects/eternal-spring-apps/
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