VIRTUAL REALITY: Film fest brings the silver screen to you

THE Byron Bay Film Festival is bringing the audience closer than ever with their new initiative.

The judges of the Byron Bay Film Festival 2020 will use the virtual theatre to judge the 2020 Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year nominees.

IF YOU are not able to go to Byron but the much-loved Byron Film Festival will be coming to you via virtual reality this year.

On Saturday, October 31, the Byron Bay Film Festival will be holding a virtual reality screen at 7pm which can be accessed via phone, tablet or computer.

If you are the proud owner of a VR headset, you can view the experience in the immersive virtual reality setting.

In what will be a magical 360-degree experience, the festival will create a state-of-the-art virtual Byron Bay Theatre, where a movie screen hovers on either side of Byron’s iconic lighthouse, under a full moon

J’aimee Skippon-Volke, BBFF’s Festival Director, said this creative concept would enable the festival nominees who live interstate to still be part of the experience.

“This screening traditionally sits just before our Closing Night Gala, and usually every nominee is in attendance. With 1/3 of our 2020 nominees living in Melbourne we felt that it was important to create a screening that every filmmaker could take part in.”

“We thought it would be apt to use the brand-new space of Virtual Reality to highlight brand new cinema talent.”

The festival has chosen to use this unique Virtual Reality Theatre to screen 10 short films

made by the 2020 Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year nominees, aged from 17 to 24.

Judges for the competition include David Stratton, Richard Wilkins and David Wenham.

To join in the virtual reality event on the night, go to www.bbff.com.au/virtual-reality-theatre or www.byronbay.com.