Changing Perspective
Digital Autumn:
Digital Autumn is a cross-cultural VR initiative introduced by Less Media Group in partnership with the French Institute
Since its inception in 2022, Digital Autumn has attracted over 10,000 viewers, many of whom experienced virtual reality as an artform for the very first time.

This growing audience reflects the festival’s ongoing mission to introduce French innovative digital experiences to new communities across the region.
The 2024 edition of Digital Autumn centered around the theme “Changing Perspective”, exploring how immersive technologies can shift our ways of seeing, understanding, and engaging with the world. This theme is particularly resonant in virtual reality, where viewers are not just passive observers but active participants — placed inside the artwork, experiencing new viewpoints both literally and conceptually. By inviting audiences to step into different realities, the program underscored VR’s unique power to foster empathy, curiosity, and deeper emotional connection.
The main program featured 11 cutting-edge immersive artworks, including several recently awarded pieces available exclusively to festival audiences.

In each country and city, the core VR selection was enriched with other forms of French digital art — ranging from augmented reality installations and 360° mapping projections to interactive experiences like Aqua Alta.

This multifaceted approach allowed audiences to engage with digital creativity in diverse and unexpected ways.
In 2024 Digital Autumn marked the third and largest edition of the festival to date, further establishing its position as a leading showcase of French digital and immersive art in Central Asia and beyond. The exhibition began in Tashkent and continued across four cities in Kazakhstan — Almaty, Astana, Atyrau and Aktobe — before concluding in two largest cities in Russia.
Key visual for the Digital Autumn VR festival in 2024 was created by digital media artist Anastasiia Kraynyuk from Belgrade, Serbia.
TASHKENT
14.09 – 22.09.2024
ASTANA
24.09 – 06.10.2024
ALMATY
15.10 – 27.10.2024
SAINT PETERSBURG
01.11 – 10.11.2024
MOSCOW
15.11 – 18.11.2024
ATYRAU
12.12 – 22.12.2024
AKTOBE
21.05 – 28.05.2025
MOSCOW
06.11 – 10.11.2024
SAINT PETERSBURG
21.11 – 23.11.2024
Past Events ↓
Programme ↓
FLOW
Flow is a turbulent day, driven by air.

Fragments of the life of a woman, a city and a hurricane, when all we can see is the air around us as the invisible becomes visible.
360° animation / 2023
produced by Lucid Realities
& Valk Production
Duration:
15 minutes
Venice Immersive 2023
Winner of the Jury Special Prize
Goliath:
Playing with Reality
Through mind-bending animation, explore the limits of reality and a true story of mental health and the power of gaming.

Echo (narrated by Tilda Swinton) guides you through the many realities of Goliath, a man who spent years in isolating mental health institutions but finds connection in multiplayer games. Combining heart-felt dialogue, mesmerising visuals and symbolic interactions, weave through multiple worlds to uncover Goliath's poignant story.
Interactive VR / 2022
produced by Floreal Films
Duration:
20 minutes
Venice Immersive 2021
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize
Emmy Award 2022
Outstanding Interactive Media Innovation category
-22.7°C
Electronic music producer Molecule cuts himself off in a hunter village in Greenland. He recorded sounds of the Arctic there to compose music.

The -22.7°C experience offers a sensory and musical immersion into the Arctic circle, based on his adventure. The viewer/user experiences artistic creation in an extreme environment and discovers the Far North. He explores the sounds of this spectacular nature and becomes aware of its fragility. This hybrid project combines the best of immersive technologies, cinema creation and sound experimentation for a unique adventure.
360° Video / 2019
produced by Zobra Production
Duration:
10 minutes
Isle of the Dead
A timeless journey, based on Arnold Böcklin’s painting.

Isle of the Dead is a timeless journey, starting from an everyday apartment towards our final destination, guided by Charon, ferryman of the Underworld.

This VR experience is a loose recreation of the eponymous work painted in 1883 by the Swiss symbolist painter Arnold Böcklin.

The famous masterpiece also inspired a symphonic poem by Rachmaninov, which makes a perfect soundtrack to accompany the experience.
360° Animation / 2018
produced by Les Produits Frais (Oriane Hurard), Arte France, 2018
Duration:
8 minutes
Notes on Blindness:
Into Darkness
Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness is an immersive virtual reality project based on John Hull’s sensory and psychological experience of blindness.

In 1983, after decades of steady deterioration, writer and theologian John Hull became totally blind.

To help him make sense of the upheaval in his life, he began documenting his experiences on audio cassette. Over three years he recorded in excess of sixteen hours of material – a unique testimony of loss, rebirth and renewal, excavating his interior world of blindness. These original diary recordings form the basis of this project, a six-part interactive documentary using new forms of storytelling, gamplay mechanics and virtual reality to explore his cognitive and emotional experience of blindness.

Each scene will address a memory, a moment and a specific location from John’s audio diary, using binaural audio and real time 3D animations to create a fully immersive experience.
Interactive VR / 2018
produced by ARTE
Duration:
20 minutes
XR Peabody Awards 2022
Peabody Legacy Interactive Winner
Empereur
Empereur is an interactive, narrative experience in virtual reality, inviting us to travel to the heart of a brain: that of a father who has become aphasic.

In a monochrome rendering inspired by traditional animation, this intimate story is seen as a journey with surrealist overtones, exploring aphasia as a faraway land.
Interactive VR / 2024
Produced by Atlas V
& France Television
Duration:
40 minutes
Venice Immersive 2023
Winner of the Achievement Award
The Hangman at Home
“What does the hangman think about when he goes home at night from work?”

Inspired by the 1922 Carl Sandburg poem of the same title, this VR single-user immersive experience explores themes of acknowledgement and participation. It is not about hanging people, but about the awkward intimacy that comes with being human, and the connection between spectator, witness, and accomplice. The animated, interactive experience invites you into five interwoven stories, capturing pivotal moments in people’s lives.
Interactive VR / 2021
produced by Floreal Films
Duration:
25 minutes
Venice Immersive 2020
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize
Cannes Film Festival 2021
Best XR work
On the Morning You Wake
(To the End of the World)
Hawaiians suddenly confronted a real and urgent nuclear threat — one that we all currently face, but rarely acknowledge.

On the Morning You Wake (to the End of the World) is a virtual reality documentary that immerses the audience in the first-hand experience of citizens in Hawai’i to make clear the fundamental injustice of a world where nuclear weapons exist.

Premier — at Sundance 2022 Film Festival.
360° Animation / 2022
produced by Atlas V
Duration:
38 minutes
SXSW Film Festival
Jury Award Winner
Éternelle Notre-Dame
Éternelle Notre-Dame is a technological challenge that allows visitors to immerse themselves in the history of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and its treasures, from its construction in the Middle Ages to the current restoration work.

It's a journey through time and space, giving visitors the chance to discover every aspect of this iconic monument through a genuine virtual reality experience in which they become real players in the monument's rebirth.
360° Animation / 2022
produced by Orange
Duration:
5 minutes
Missing Pictures:
Naomi Kawase
MISSING PICTURES is a VR documentary series that takes you behind the scenes of a film that never saw the light of day. Japan's best-known filmmaker revisits a project she considered after her 2015 film The Delights of Tokyo.

Oh Debu tells the story of Aya, a young woman who is overweight and very sentimental. With this story, Naomi Kawase admits she wanted to challenge herself by making a comedy with a tone far removed from the poetic naturalism of the rest of her work.
360° Animation / 2022
produced by Atlas V
Duration:
15 minutes
Planet ∞
In a world in ruins, only fungi and mold grow in the middle of gigantic dried insects bodies. When a weather change occurs, rain irrigates the arid planet and floods it gradually. In the water springs an ecosystem, populated by giant carnivorous tadpoles.
360° Animation / 2017
produced by Barberousse Films, Arte France
Duration:
6 minutes
Digital Autumn:
Changing Perspective
Digital Autumn is a cross-cultural VR initiative introduced by Less Media Group in partnership with the French Institute
Since its inception in 2022, Digital Autumn has attracted over 10,000 viewers, many of whom experienced virtual reality as an artform for the very first time.

This growing audience reflects the festival’s ongoing mission to introduce French innovative digital experiences to new communities across the region.
The main program featured 11 cutting-edge immersive artworks, including several recently awarded pieces available exclusively to festival audiences.

In each country and city, the core VR selection was enriched with other forms of French digital art — ranging from augmented reality installations and 360° mapping projections to interactive experiences like Aqua Alta.
The 2024 edition of Digital Autumn centered around the theme “Changing Perspective”, exploring how immersive technologies can shift our ways of seeing, understanding, and engaging with the world. This theme is particularly resonant in virtual reality, where viewers are not just passive observers but active participants — placed inside the artwork, experiencing new viewpoints both literally and conceptually. By inviting audiences to step into different realities, the program underscored VR’s unique power to foster empathy, curiosity, and deeper emotional connection.
This multifaceted approach allowed audiences to engage with digital creativity in diverse and unexpected ways.
In 2024 Digital Autumn marked the third and largest edition of the festival to date, further establishing its position as a leading showcase of French digital and immersive art in Central Asia and beyond. The exhibition began in Tashkent and continued across four cities in Kazakhstan — Almaty, Astana, Atyrau and Aktobe — before concluding in two largest cities in Russia.
Key visual for the Digital Autumn VR festival in 2024 was created by digital media artist Anastasiia Kraynyuk from Belgrade, Serbia.
Past Events
SAINT PETERSBURG
01.11 – 10.11.2024
MOSCOW
15.11 – 18.11.2024
TASHKENT
12.12 – 22.12.2024
ATYRAU
14.09 – 22.09.2024
ASTANA
24.09 – 06.10.2024
ALMATY
15.10 – 27.10.2024
MOSCOW | SAINT PETERSBURG
06.11 – 10.11.2024 | 21.11 – 23.11.2024
MOSCOW
06.11 – 10.11.2024
SAINT PETERSBURG
21.11 – 23.11.2024
AKTOBE
21.05 – 28.05.2025
Programme ↓
FLOW
Flow is a turbulent day, driven by air.

Fragments of the life of a woman, a city and a hurricane, when all we can see is the air around us as the invisible becomes visible.
360° animation
15 minutes
Venice Immersive 2023
Winner of the Jury Special Prize
_flow_mobile
Empereur
Empereur is an interactive, narrative experience in virtual reality, inviting us to travel to the heart of a brain: that of a father who has become aphasic.

In a monochrome rendering inspired by traditional animation, this intimate story is seen as a journey with surrealist overtones, exploring aphasia as a faraway land.
Interactive VR
40 minutes
Venice Immersive 2023
Winner of the Achievement Award
_empereur_mobile
Goliath:
Playing with Reality
Through mind-bending animation, explore the limits of reality and a true story of mental health and the power of gaming.

Echo (narrated by Tilda Swinton) guides you through the many realities of Goliath, a man who spent years in isolating mental health institutions but finds connection in multiplayer games. Combining heart-felt dialogue, mesmerising visuals and symbolic interactions, weave through multiple worlds to uncover Goliath's poignant story.
Interactive VR
20 minutes
Venice Immersive 2021
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize
Emmy Award 2022
Outstanding Interactive Media Innovation category
_goliath_mobile
The Hangman
at Home
“What does the hangman think about when he goes home at night from work?”

Inspired by the 1922 Carl Sandburg poem of the same title, this VR single-user immersive experience explores themes of acknowledgement and participation. It is not about hanging people, but about the awkward intimacy that comes with being human, and the connection between spectator, witness, and accomplice. The animated, interactive experience invites you into five interwoven stories, capturing pivotal moments in people’s lives.
Interactive VR
25 minutes
Venice Immersive 2020
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize
Cannes Film Festival 2021
Best XR work
_hangman_mobile
-22.7°C
Electronic music producer Molecule cuts himself off in a hunter village in Greenland. He recorded sounds of the Arctic there to compose music.

The -22.7°C experience offers a sensory and musical immersion into the Arctic circle, based on his adventure. The viewer/user experiences artistic creation in an extreme environment and discovers the Far North. He explores the sounds of this spectacular nature and becomes aware of its fragility. This hybrid project combines the best of immersive technologies, cinema creation and sound experimentation for a unique adventure.
360° video
10 minutes
_-22.7°C_mobile
On the Morning You Wake
(To the End of the World)
Hawaiians suddenly confronted a real and urgent nuclear threat — one that we all currently face, but rarely acknowledge.

On the Morning You Wake (to the End of the World) is a virtual reality documentary that immerses the audience in the first-hand experience of citizens in Hawai’i to make clear the fundamental injustice of a world where nuclear weapons exist.

Premier — at Sundance 2022 Film Festival.
360° animation
38 minutes
SXSW Film Festival
Jury Award Winner
_On the Morning_mobile
Isle of the Dead
A timeless journey, based on Arnold Böcklin’s painting.

Isle of the Dead is a timeless journey, starting from an everyday apartment towards our final destination, guided by Charon, ferryman of the Underworld.

This VR experience is a loose recreation of the eponymous work painted in 1883 by the Swiss symbolist painter Arnold Böcklin.

The famous masterpiece also inspired a symphonic poem by Rachmaninov, which makes a perfect soundtrack to accompany the experience.
360° animation
8 minutes
_isle_mobile
Éternelle Notre-Dame
Éternelle Notre-Dame is a technological challenge that allows visitors to immerse themselves in the history of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and its treasures, from its construction in the Middle Ages to the current restoration work.

It's a journey through time and space, giving visitors the chance to discover every aspect of this iconic monument through a genuine virtual reality experience in which they become real players in the monument's rebirth.
360° animation
5 minutes
_notre_mobile
Notes on Blindness:
Into Darkness
Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness is an immersive virtual reality project based on John Hull’s sensory and psychological experience of blindness.

In 1983, after decades of steady deterioration, writer and theologian John Hull became totally blind.

To help him make sense of the upheaval in his life, he began documenting his experiences on audio cassette. Over three years he recorded in excess of sixteen hours of material – a unique testimony of loss, rebirth and renewal, excavating his interior world of blindness. These original diary recordings form the basis of this project, a six-part interactive documentary using new forms of storytelling, gamplay mechanics and virtual reality to explore his cognitive and emotional experience of blindness.

Each scene will address a memory, a moment and a specific location from John’s audio diary, using binaural audio and real time 3D animations to create a fully immersive experience.
Interactive VR
20 minutes
XR Peabody Awards 2022
Peabody Legacy Interactive Winner
_notes_mobile
Missing Pictures:
Naomi Kawase
MISSING PICTURES is a VR documentary series that takes you behind the scenes of a film that never saw the light of day. Japan's best-known filmmaker revisits a project she considered after her 2015 film The Delights of Tokyo.

Oh Debu tells the story of Aya, a young woman who is overweight and very sentimental. With this story, Naomi Kawase admits she wanted to challenge herself by making a comedy with a tone far removed from the poetic naturalism of the rest of her work.
360° animation
15 minutes
_missing_mobile
Planet ∞
In a world in ruins, only fungi and mold grow in the middle of gigantic dried insects bodies. When a weather change occurs, rain irrigates the arid planet and floods it gradually. In the water springs an ecosystem, populated by giant carnivorous tadpoles.
360° animation
6 minutes
_planet_mobile