XRMust XR Awards 2025: A Year in Immersive Storytelling

Welcome to the 6th XRMust Awards! This new edition holds no big surprises if you follow us, with awards mainly going to projects that have been screened at the Venice Film Festival—one of the strongest programs of the year and a venue for world premieres. Out of 396 voters, it is clear that the industry’s ambitions remain in mind, with one project coming out on top in five out of six categories (including Best Experience). This is unusual for us, even with the communities involved, where, according to the editions of our XRMust Awards, we still find a tight pool of experiences each year. So, congratulations to BLUR by Craig Quintero and Phoebe Greenberg (PHI Studio, Riverbed Theatre, Onassis Culture)!

NEW! We are delighted to announce our partnership with NewImages for the XRMust Awards. At the closing ceremony of the NewImages Festival (don’t miss this Thursday’s deadline for their call for projects!), on Friday, April 10 at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, we will have the opportunity to celebrate our winner and present the award for the best experience.

The entire Awards list of winners continues to reflect a highly dynamic creative landscape. Whether it’s physical experiences (location-based) or content (films), the level of creativity is on the rise, as are artistic ambitions. Projects such as BLUR, THE CLOUDS ARE TWO THOUSAND METERS UP, and PLAYING WITH FIRE, which are significant in terms of both scale and intent, are memorable and destined to remain in circulation for several years. Animation projects such as A LONG GOODBYE, EDDIE AND I, and DANSE DANSE DANSE – MATISSE are at the heart of a consolidation of the sector in terms of narrative and technique. These are great successes that we salute today, as a new cycle begins. Join us in 2026 for real changes and continued coverage of an immersive sector that is conquering cultural venues around the world – in all formats.

Some notes on the process of this vote

• It is a public, online vote: this raises questions every year. How to see the works? How to vote without seeing ALL the works? This is a legitimate but insoluble problem. We simply look back on the past 12 months, calling on the XR community (very active online) to reward the experiments that stood out. It’s not only a quality vote, but also a joyful call for participation – even if we notice that the winners are always projects that have been widely noticed at festivals for their quality 😉
• We choose to mix all types of experiences (360, 6DOF, interactive, online, …) to reward the best of them. It is assumed, in the idea that the XR is a melting pot of common creation whose forms are multiple. The categories have been revised this year to better reflect this idea of hybrid creation. This puts all the works on the same level, and should encourage the idea that, whatever the format, what’s important is the artistry: the design, the story, etc.
• The number of online voters this year, with our new system is 237. The winners are therefore not simply chosen, but on the contrary benefit from a sufficient number of votes to be legitimate.
• This is also the occasion to wish you a nice year 2025. We’re currently working on a new platform which should be ready by the end of the year, and should offer more information and details on immersive creation in general. Stay tuned! If you want to contact us to update your information on the site, it’s always here: yo@xrmust.com

Thanks to our jury (still very international!): Ondřej Moravec (Director, Curator, Czech Republic), Lazaros Boudakidis (Curator, Greece), Andres Jarach (Creator, Curator, FIPADOC), Laetitia Bochud (Producer, XR4Europe, Virtual Switzerland), Karen Cirillo (Contributor, Turkey), Agnese Pietrobon (Contributor, Italy) + Mathieu Gayet (France) for XRMust. 😘

And if you’re looking for more insights on 2025’s immersive activity, you can always check on Lance Weiler’s list of 50+ Immersive Things, the XR Film Guide by Cinemaleap or Kent Bye’s Voices of VR for a full coverage of last year’s projects. Or follow Ana Brzezińska on Substack, Dr. Michael Golembewski on Medium for inspiration.

Previous results

• XRMust XR Awards 2024
• XRMust XR Awards 2023
• XRMust XR Awards 2022
• XRMust XR Awards 2021
• XRMust XR Awards 2020

XRMust Awards 2025 – FINAL RESULTS

BEST 2025 NON-FICTION WORK

• A LONG GOODBYE, by Kate Voet, Victor Maes (Cassette for timescapes, Tarantula, Valk Productions – read our article with producer An Oost here, and coproducers at Valk Productions and Tarantula here)
• DANSE DANSE DANSE – MATISSE by Gordon, Agnès Molia (Lucid Realities, Tournez s’il vous plait)
• DARK ROOMS by Mads Damsbo, Laurits Flensted Jensen, Anne Sofie Steen Sverdrup (Morph Film, NowHere Media, NAXS Studio, Makropol, Bedside Productions – read our interview)

BEST 2025 SOUND DESIGN

• BLUR by Craig Quintero, Phoebe Greenberg (PHI Studio, Riverbed Theatre, Onassis Culture – read our interview)
• A LONG GOODBYE, by Kate Voet, Victor Maes (Cassette for timescapes, Tarantula, Valk Productions)
• PLAYING WITH FIRE by Pierre-Alain Giraud (VIVE Arts, Atlas V, Philharmonie de Paris)

BEST 2025 INTERACTIVE / PERFORMANCE

• BLUR by Craig Quintero, Phoebe Greenberg (PHI Studio, Riverbed Theatre, Onassis Culture)
• LESBIAN SIMULATOR by Iris van der Meule (Studio Biarritz, Cassette for timescapes, Art & Essai)
• EDDIE AND I by Maya Shekel (Moosh Studio, Reynard Films, Studio Geppetto – read our interview with Reynard Films)

BEST 2025 SPATIAL DESIGN / CREATIVE WORK

• BLUR by Craig Quintero, Phoebe Greenberg (PHI Studio, Riverbed Theatre, Onassis Culture)
• A LONG GOODBYE, by Kate Voet, Victor Maes (Cassette for timescapes, Tarantula, Valk Productions)
• THE CLOUDS ARE TWO THOUSAND METERS UP by Singing Chen (Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation, The Walkers Films, Reynard Films – read our interview)

BEST 2025 STORY / NARRATIVE WORK

• BLUR by Craig Quintero, Phoebe Greenberg (PHI Studio, Riverbed Theatre, Onassis Culture)
• DANSE DANSE DANSE – MATISSE by Gordon, Agnès Molia (Lucid Realities, Tournez s’il vous plait)
• EDDIE AND I by Maya Shekel (Moosh Studio, Reynard Films, Studio Geppetto)

BEST 2025 EXPERIENCE

• BLUR by Craig Quintero, Phoebe Greenberg (PHI Studio, Riverbed Theatre, Onassis Culture)
• THE CLOUDS ARE TWO THOUSAND METERS UP by Singing Chen (Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation, The Walkers Films, Reynard Films)
• A LONG GOODBYE, by Kate Voet, Victor Maes (Cassette for timescapes, Tarantula, Valk Productions)