Al Baraneya, the feature debut by Ashgan El-Hamus, has been selected for Venice Giornate degli Autori, the independent section running alongside the Venice International Film Festival.

Selected for the Venice Immersive Competition is Nothing to See Here* by Celine Daemen, which will celebrate its international premiere. Produced by Studio Nergens, the project is an interactive viewing box that invites passersby to become part of a disruptive immersive experience. You encounter your live doppelganger, while a series of strange events surround it and gradually challenge our perception. A film made with AI, about AI. The work had its world premiere at IDFA DocLab.

Daemen is no stranger to Venice Immersive. She previously presented Eurydice, A Descent into Infinity in 2022 and returned the following year with Songs for a Passerby, which received the Grand Jury Prize.

Also part of the Venice Immersive Competition is Honeyboys*, the latest 360 VR experience by Dutch immersive studio Nemo Vos (Tibor de Jong & Doris Konings), produced by Smarthouse in co-production with Timescapes and music by Spinvis. The 36-minute immersive work will celebrate its world premiere at the Venice Immersive Island.

Honeyboys is an artistic and allegorical descent into an estranging landscape of exploitation and desire. Naked, red-haired delivery boys move through surreal landscapes shaped by invisible systems of production and exploitation, inviting audiences to reflect on the contradictions of consumer society.

As part of a Venice Immersive 'Special Event', La Laguna Parla by Steye Hallema (The Smartphone Orchestra) and Harpo 't Hart (The European Confluence of Waterbodies) will be presented. The 25-minute immersive live event marks Hallema's third participation in Venice Immersive, following The Imaginary Friend (2023) and Ancestors (2025).

Several Dutch co-productions are also featured in this year's Venice Immersive selection. Among them is VR experience Finding Frida* by Hilde Kristin Kjøs, which will celebrate its world premiere. Produced by Ripplex Studios AS (Norway), with Dutch co-producer Scopic_Labs, the work is based on the life and artistic legacy of textile artist Frida Hansen. It takes audiences into the forgotten corners of a dilapidated house, where the artist's ghost reflects on the choices, sacrifices and ambitions that shaped her life and artistic career.

Amsterdam 1652: The Hands of the City, by Nienke Huitenga Broeren and produced by ENTR in collaboration with Backlight (FR) also competes in the Immersive Competition.

Amsterdam, 1652. When the old Town Hall goes up in flames, the paths of a whaler, a female printer, and a newly freed craftswoman cross. From the ashes of that single night, they rebuild not only a city but also their own futures. In this shared VR experience, visitors walk together through 17th-century Amsterdam, seen through the eyes of its people, moving through the city as it once was.

Nienke Huitenga Broeren is an award-winning immersive director and producer. Her designs stem from a curiosity for how technology sharpens our understanding of being human. Her latest VR documentary Lacuna (co-directed with Maartje Wegdam) about memory and identity premiered in the immersive competition at Cannes 2025.

ENTR is a platform for creating, presenting and distributing location-based, free-roam, multi-user VR experiences. Today, ENTR presents VR experiences at its permanent venue in Amsterdam and through a mobile plug-and-play format for museums, cultural institutions and events internationally.

Selected Out of competition, as part of an international selection of the best works that have been released or premiered elsewhere since the last edition of the Venice International Film Festival is Spomyny by Sophia Bulgakova. The production was realised with support from Rewire and iii. "Спомини [Spomyny]” is a Ukrainian word for “memories” or even “memoirs”, and an experience deriving from personal and communal accounts of the recent two years of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the form of sonic artefacts collected by Sophia Bulgakova, which presents itself through the installation created out of meters and meters of insulation pipes.

The co-production The Burning Giants* by Thai director Phuttiphong Aroonpheng is part of the Orizzonti programme in Venice. The film was co-produced by Sluizer Film. In The Burning Giants, western Thailand is blanketed by a mysterious smoke that spreads a strange disease among a community living in the mountains.

Beyond Venice Immersive, Tropic of the Mourning Gecko by Stavros Markoulakis will be presented in the Orizzonti Short Films Competition. The film is a co-production by Atalante Productions (GR), Les Films de Juillet (FR) and Nami Films (NL), and will premiere at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival.

The film follows eighteen-year-old Yorgos, who is on the verge of leaving his village in Crete for mandatory military service, when he encounters a young man who awakens a forbidden desire. During the final days of summer, beneath the scorching sun, the future mapped out for him unravels as his dreams give birth to a new skin.

The Pervert's Guide to Utopias* by Sophie Fiennes will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The documentary is part of Venice Open. The film revolves around philosopher Slavoj Žižek and is the final instalment in Fiennes’ trilogy, following The Pervert's Guide to Cinema (2006) and The Pervert's Guide to Ideology (2012). The documentary is a production by Irish company Keeper Pictures and UK-based P Guide, in co-production with The Film Kitchen (NL), VPRO (NL), SPOK Films (SO) and Mattima Films (NO).

The Venice International Film Festival will take place from 2 to 12 September 2026 in Venice, Italy. Visit their website for more information about the festival and its programme.

* Project was supported by the Netherlands Film Fund

Source: SEE NL
Header image: Honeyboys

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