The Venice Film Festival is one of the few festivals that recognizes and showcases virtual worlds as part of its programme. The mostly VRChat worlds (although not exclusively) programme is selected by Venice Immersive curators Liz Rosenthal and Michel Reilhac, with Michael “Mike” Salmon as the pre-selector and Worlds Gallery architect.
In general, “worlds” are not often highlighted, as they’re often seen as something casually created by builders as spaces to hang out with friends. But there can be real artistry in the form, and the development of the Worlds Gallery at Venice Immersive grew out of necessity. “It was all inspired because of COVID.That’s where our fascination and love for VR chat began,” says Liz.
Cover: Best of Worlds, Venice Immersive 2026 📸 Drusiton
From Lockdown Experiment to Worlds Gallery
Since the 2020 festival wasn’t in person, Liz and Michel decided to build a series of worlds as a hub in VRChat where they could gather people and show that year’s selection. That first world was designed by Louis Cacciuttolo (as an observatory!) and immersive works were published online with the help of Viveport and Meta. Creators and attendees gathered in the world for Q&As, red carpets and a closing event. There was one world in competition, FINDING PANDORA X from Kiira Benzing, which won Best VR Immersive User Experience.
Mike, who had extensive experience in VRChat, thought there was potential to build on this first attempt. “It was during that festival that I thought, if this is going to happen again, then it would make sense to include more worlds and spend some time taking Liz and Michel around and showing them the crazy stuff that we and the Metaverse crew had been playing with.”
Thus, the appreciation for virtual worlds was born.
COVID really defined our discovery of the wealth of innovation, of talent, of creativity that we discovered in VR chat, and very quickly, with Mike guiding us through the jungle of the 1000s of worlds, Liz and I felt that that’s where the most unusual and individual creativity was being expressed, even more in many ways than through the normal network of the studios and different places where immersive was being done. Every year, we’re just stunned by how rich the field is – Michel Reilhac
In 2021, they had more time to develop the design of the space, and organized an entire program of VRChat events, like meditation sessions, Q&As and club nights, and the first section of worlds. But at the same time, there was also a small VR exhibition physically in the Casino, with booths where you could watch projects either in 3 or 6DOF. They were in between the real world and the virtual.
The second year, we had a little bit more time to build something that would work for an online festival, and we had this underwater area which had portals to all the experiences, so all the pieces that were in the selection had their own little preview worlds, says Mike Salmon. People would then go onto Viveport and Oculus to look for the experiences. We did a lot of work in that VRChat world. The closing party was also in that world, it became iconic. We reused it again the next year.
When they moved Venice Immersive back to Lazzaretto Island, they made space for the Worlds Gallery, and developed the concept – having different booths and structuring the visits in world hops – that they’re still using today.
It’s ironic to build a physical space to house the virtual worlds, but it was also important to place the virtual worlds within their natural context, and have a structure to make the viewing accessible, especially to those not familiar with VRChat.
World hopping is such an integral part of the VR chat experience, that idea of being taken on a journey,” Mike points out. “We wanted to make sure that the way that we were displaying the work was an authentic VR chat experience. But, also, VR chat can be a little overwhelming. There are quite a few controls to learn if you’re new, so we need to be kind and gentle with those folks. [It was clear the best way was to have] hosts take people on a guided tour around a number of spaces; otherwise, it would be someone walking up to a booth, putting on a headset and jumping into an empty VRChat world – it wouldn’t have the magic of social VR.
Slowly, over the years they’ve developed a fairly complex backend system using Discord and streaming headsets, and working out what they need to teach people in the space. There’s always a 15-minute onboarding session at the beginning, so everyone understands the basics of moving around and about in time in space. There’s an Italian tour guide, and then two other tour guides – one to lead and one who’s able to split off the tour and help if someone is struggling.
To develop the world hops, Mike goes through each world, designing way points for the tour guides so that they follow a specific path when they’re doing the tours. They create a Venice Hub World, which is used at the festival as the “base camp”, to get everyone trained and ready. They also publish that world, which has portals to all the worlds that are in the selection, and folks from the VRChat community can enter that world, see the festival selections and do their own versions of the world hops.
Curating the Chaos of VRChat
As a practice, curation is not always just discovering the best new work; it’s also about finding excellent work that’s already out there and introducing it to those who don’t know how to find it. This aspect is a huge value for something like virtual worlds.
I spend far too much time in VR chat over the course of the year, and I have a spreadsheet. Most days, I will look on BluSky, where there are groups of folks who are VR chat photographers that take beautiful artistic imagery shots from worlds within VR chat. I spend a lot of time following those folks, finding what they’re looking at. Whenever I’m online, I open VRChat in the background, always checking where my friends are at any one point. Whenever I see anything that looks even vaguely interesting, it goes on my spreadsheet.
For this year’s selection, that spreadsheet ended up being around 800 worlds. I whittle that down to between 50 and 80 for Liz and Michel, so that during the selection process we do a daily world hop, and I take them around the top of that list, and then from that they choose what they want to put into the festival – Mike Salmon
Beyond that, what really has great value in the work that Mike does is that not only do we look at the worlds for their sake – for what they look like, what their sound is, what the experience is – but Mike is also able to provide us with context for them. Who’s making it? Is it an isolated person that no one has ever seen or heard of before, or is it a collective? Is it something that is part of a series? Is it something that has a particular message or a particular context within which it has a special meaning? There are all these connections between world builders – Michel Reilhac
In general, the Venice Immersive programme is very diverse, with work from different entry points, different places, different and new forms and formats, emerging trends, etc… The world’s gallery has the same approach. I asked if when it comes to virtual worlds, if they are also considering the social aspect, the creative aspect and the technical aspect?
Absolutely. Our main mission that we defined for ourselves is really to celebrate creativity, and that can be expressed in many different ways, just like you said. And we do the same for VR chat worlds. Some worlds we see are amazing, but they feel a bit like a reproduction of things we’ve seen in the past. We tend to choose worlds that aren’t absolutely perfect, but they’re trying something completely new, whether in the design, the sound or the type of interaction that you have within the world. We do try to present a patchwork of different trends, different attempts, different types of experiments in interactive storytelling in VRChat. We seek that spark of invention in everything – Michel Reilhac
The selection also has to consider comfort level, especially since many people have difficulty with some movements in the headset. Mike notes HORSE CANYON (NProwler, 2023) as an example, which was a wonderful experience, a beautiful world where you sit on the back of a horse and go around beautiful canyons, with a little story that runs through it. “But that locomotion technique of being on a horse and bouncing was quite tricky for people, and we had to make an important decision. Do we say that we don’t show this because some people are going to find it difficult, or do we show it and just make sure that we’re warning people up front that the experience could be intense? I’m so happy that we made the decision that the content is fantastic and we should show it but warn people upfront.” And they try to estimate where the user stands in terms of their familiarity with just basic movement and interaction in VRChat, so they don’t make people uncomfortable in worlds that are too complex for them if they’re beginners.
A Platform Where Anyone Can Build
Liz and Mike point out that VRChat is very accepting of PCVR, and one of the few places where pushing the boundaries of what PCVR can do is acceptable. PCVR enables you to do a lot more sophisticated interactions and renderings and capacity, “so it really is a place where I think the future of social virtual art and entertainment is built,” Liz points out.
The artistry of being together in virtual worlds is explored in such a creative way. Every year, we might show worlds where someone has invented something or created a space where you would never possibly imagine doing something or exploring something in a way or being together in a way or collaborating in a way is possible, and that is what was really exciting – Liz Rosenthal
But it also always amazes me the amount of people working on multiplayer VR experiences who don’t experience VRChat. It’s so inspirational, and I think it would change the genre of of multi-person VR and location-based entertainment if people spent more time on this platform.”
There is a certain percentage of the VRChat audience that gets so enamored with what they’re doing that they pick up Unity for the first time, and because the creation [even my kid can do it!], and distribution platform is so simple, it means that anyone can make anything. You don’t have to make an app, or do the network structure, etc…, all of that stuff’s been done – Mike Salmon
We had a piece that was literally a recreation of a STORM DRAIN (by Cattus). It was just that, but it was such an amazing experience being in this thing that was at such a scale, such a sense of ambience about it.. But that would never make it to an app store, never make it the Metastore. So VRChat becomes the democratized platform, like the YouTube of VR, because it takes a few YouTube tutorials, a free download of Unity, and anyone can make anything. And they do, which means that there’s some amazing stuff out there, and there’s also some absolute nonsense. That’s why I really love the fact that things like Venice and Raindance exist because of those curatorial moments.
The Worlds Gallery is mostly VRChat (although they do showcase work from other platforms), and that’s because, as Mike says, “there’s a big gap in the quality between a lot of the work that is in VRChat and on other platforms. Because for most of the social platforms, the point of them isn’t necessarily to be the greatest artist or make the most beautiful piece of work. It’s about creating a cool space to hang out with your friends and chat.”
One might assume that after building a virtual world, the next stepping point for an artist would be to create a more stand alone piece, coming back with an immersive work. But Liz notes it’s actually the other way around.
We’ve had artists who were so enamored by VRChat, like Kevin Mack, who made some incredible worlds. He is a very well known digital artist, and in 2021 he had the piece ANANDALA in competition, and he had to do his Q&A in VRChat and come into our world, and he was so blown away that he did an amazing world NAMUANKI that was in competition (2022) – Liz Rosenthal
Or Keisuke Itoh, from Japan, who is a very popular graphic artist, and who transitioned to VRChat with TYPEMAN, one of pieces most successful at making you dance. It was such a pleasure and so spontaneous. I think that one of the reasons why it worked so well is because of the ethos of VRChat. It’s a place where people go to play, but also to meet, and there is a social fluidity in and availability in VRChat that creates a vibe, that creates a spirit for almost candid presence with one another – Michel Reilhac
They have world builders who are masters (and prolific) and whose work they’ve shown over and over – sometimes even multiple worlds a year – but have never built work outside of the platform.
You have to also understand that people who make worlds in VRChat work very fast. It’s a haven for mastering Unity, and they become true virtuosos. And they can just go and do it in their leisure time, building worlds in just a matter of weeks. Transitioning to a more traditional type of production means waiting months, sometimes years, to get the financing to go through all the system and then you know the inputs from different people. It’s a completely different dynamic and completely different way of relating to time in terms of production and development. So the freedom that those individuals who build worlds in VRChat enjoy is very very special – Michel Reilhac
The Punk Rock of Immersive Creation
This year, there are two worlds in the regular Venice Immersive competition. Liz says that both of them are lovely representations of VRChat, and very sophisticated in different ways.
We’re very happy that we have these two worlds in competition because it breaks through VRChat and breaks the mold of the world’s gallery. It brings those works into the immersive world, and helps us convey the vision that we have that these creators are true artists, and that’s where we want to take them, and that’s how we want to support them.
Fins is an absolute master lighter of spaces. He creates these fantastical worlds, these beautiful, beautiful environments. And NEL BLU is a kind of nostalgic look at childhood.
BACK TO THE EXPERIENCE is a documentary in a way, Jessien taking you through a series of on a journey through different worlds to explore how people have built worlds and the kind of techniques they use and the kind of things that you can experience. So it’s a wonderful sort of encyclopedic look. He was in the programme last year with a piece from VOMA – Virtual Online Museum of Art, so it’s great to have a work by him in competition this year.
I’m always excited to have PATRIKI VR by DrMorro on the roster. He’s one of my favorite artists, even in general. His worlds are so labyrinthine, obviously made by someone who understands architecture and design, but also deeply weird. We also have Lavryou‘s FROZEN SIGNAL, who’s a very prolific world builder. It’s the first time they’ve been part of Venice, and we have three of their worlds – incredibly rendered, sort of spooky sci-fi frozen worlds.
This is another thing that I love – there’s no format for what we’re working on with these worlds. So some worlds are tiny little places, we probably get round it in like five minutes. But it’s just a thing that someone has made and is beautiful in its own right. And then other experiences, it’ll take five hours. It’s messing with the idea of what content is and what it needs to be, because it can be enjoyed as part of a world hop. It doesn’t matter if an experience only lasts 30 seconds. It’s fine if it’s just a sculpture on its own in its own space. It doesn’t have to exist as an app or something you’d pay a ticket price for – Liz Rosenthal
Over the years, we’ve had more people commenting that some of the best things that they’ve seen at the festival have been in VR chat, which always makes me incredibly happy. A lot of the other works that are out there are by very accomplished artists who have managed to go out to multiple government institutions and secure hundreds of thousands of euros or dollars to make their work, and we’re working with folks that have knocked something up in like three months as a solo developer. So it’s like punk rock records getting in the top 10 – Mike Salmon
Bringing that punk spirit to Venice shows that there’s value not just in artistic vision but also the social nature of the world’s ecosystem.
It’s always amazing to see the community in VR chat. There’s a lot of solidarity and helping, and we feel that it’s as much a social phenomenon as an artistic endeavor. It’s fascinating to understand how this community evolves and the social value and the social meaningfulness of this phenomenon – Michel Reilhac
