Stereopsia EUROPE 2021 concluded with its traditional gala evening, where the brand-new Crystal Owl® Awards were handed out. Shaped like an owl and created by the Cristallerie du Val Saint Lambert in Liège (Belgium), this trophy symbolizes with mystery and elegance the origins of stereoscopy, a scientific discovery at the origin of today’s and tomorrow’s immersive technologies.
The contents and people below were awarded on the stage of the Hotel Le Plaza Brussels where the Gala took place, this Friday, 10 December 2021.
New XR Ceremony at Stereopsia 2021: welcome Crystal Owl Awards!
Crystal Owl® Awards
Best AR Experience – WHEN SHE GETS OUT…
AR – 28min – 2021
“When She Gets Out” is a collection of augmented reality experiences in which Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer brings children along a fantastic journey through artworks displayed in museums. Her playful silhouette strolls around paintings, drawings, sculptures and many other magical worlds created by artists, looking onto them with a naive and enchanted gaze.
DIRECTORS: Gordon & Marie Sellier (France)
PRODUCTION TEAM: Lucid Realities (France), Musée d’Orsay (France)
Best Live Entertainment – WELCOME TO THE OTHER SIDE
6DoF – 45min – 2021
Following the planetary success of Jean-Michel Jarre’s New Year’s Eve virtual concert in Notre-Dame produced by VRrOOm, which broke the world record of the most viewed live-streamed concert on NYE with over 75 million viewers across all types of media, Jean-Michel Jarre graces us again with a new version of the immersive opus, this time, with a fully remastered binaural, Atmos sound.
DIRECTOR: Jean-Michel Jarre (France)
PRODUCTION TEAM: VRrOOm (France)
Best XR Creative Concept – MARCO & POLO GO ROUND
6DoF – 12min – 2021
On the morning of his birthday, Marco discovers the cake Polo has lovingly made and left for him on the kitchen table. He also notices that every object in the kitchen has been battened down with tape and twine as if to safeguard against an oncoming storm. What begins as a beautiful morning for the young couple takes a surreal turn when their world literally falls apart around them.
DIRECTOR: Benjamin Steiger Levine (Canada)
PRODUCTION TEAM: ITEM 7 (Canada), Belga Productions (Belgium)
Best Heritage Experience – KUSUNDA
6DoF – 23min – 2021
Kusunda is a voice-driven virtual reality experience that explores what makes a language fall asleep and what it takes to wake one up. Kusunda shaman Lil Bahadur has forgotten his indigenous mother tongue. His granddaughter, Hima, wants to revive it. Every two weeks a language falls asleep. Most languages at threat belong to indigenous communities, such as Kusunda in Nepal. Kusunda is a language isolate, meaning it’s unrelated to any other language family.
DIRECTOR: Gayatri Parameswaran & Felix Gaedtke (Germany)
PRODUCTION TEAM: NowHere Media (Germany), INVR.space (Germany)
Best 360 Video – GENESIS
3DoF – 13min 2sec – 2021
GENESIS embarks on an emotionally intense virtual reality journey to experience the dramatic milestones in the evolution of earth and mankind. An immersive 24h metaphor of 4.7 bn years of evolution that reveals: We are children of galactic luck, born in the final second of eternity.
DIRECTOR: Jörg Courtial (Germany)
PRODUCTION TEAM: Faber Courtial (Germany), Magenta Virtual Reality (Germany)
Best XR Documentary – SURVIVING 9/11 – 27 HOURS UNDER THE RUBBLE
3DoF – 20min 21sec – 2021
Surviving 9/11 shares the story of Genelle Guzman-McMillan, the last person to be rescued from Ground Zero after spending 27 hours trapped under the rubble. The young Black immigrant woman came to New York to pursue the American Dream. This VR documentary chronicles the defining moments of her life: her first days in NYC, her memories of 9/11, and her life today, 20 years later, as she returns to Ground Zero for the first time since 9/11.
DIRECTOR: Chloé Rochereuil (France)
PRODUCTION TEAM: TARGO (France)
Best Educative Experience – LADY SAPIENS, THE VR EXPERIENCE
6DoF – 12min – 2021
You are Lady Sapiens. You were born 38,000 years ago. As you leave your valley, you meet a huntress who leads you to her clan. A shaman inspires you to bring your personal touch to a cave painting. In her village, you are offered to carve a flint to make your own spear. Finally, equipped with your weapon, you are invited to take part in an impressive collective mammoth hunt. No, women were not harvesting while men hunt. Welcome to the Paleolithic era.
DIRECTOR: Camille Duvelleroy (France)
PRODUCTION TEAM: LITTLE BIG STORY LAB (France)
Best Narrative Experience – MADRID NOIR
6DoF – 42min – 2021
After her estranged uncle is declared dead, a disenchanted young woman arrives in Madrid to empty the apartment that he left behind. Lola is soon compelled to dig into her memories, where she’ll pick up her uncle’s shadowy trail and attempt to piece together the puzzles of the past. Staged as an awe-inspiring theatre production, this charming mystery unfolds across a city that lives in the night, a Madrid now lost to time.
DIRECTOR: James A. Castillo (Spain)
PRODUCTION TEAM: ATLAS V (France)
BEST VR EXPERIENCE – LE BAL DE PARIS DE BLANCA LI
6DoF – 35min – 2021
Adèle celebrates her coming home to Paris with a great ball organized by her parents in her honor. Pierre, one of the guests, will change the course of the party. Each group of spectators will participate together, after choosing their avatar, to a love story unfolding in three acts. They will be guided physically by the principal characters played by the dancers. The journey will take the audience through a virtual musical and fantastic universe, with three main locations to party, and dance.
DIRECTOR: Blanca Li (France)
PRODUCTION TEAM: Film Addict (France)
The Booster / Eurofest XR Awards
THE BOOSTER Narrative – TANGIBLE UTOPIAS (Andra Bria, Ioana Mischie)
THE BOOSTER Narrative – THE ODDSHOWS (Iwan Peter Scheer, Fabrice Gérard, Stéphane Grade)
THE BOOSTER Heritage – THE STONES TELL THEIR TALES
EUROFEST XR Best Content – THE SMALLEST OF WORLDS
EUROFEST XR Best Creator – Gaëlle Mourre
