Tilda Swinton-Narrated Installation Leads London Film Festival’s Immersive Art and Gaming Program
An installation narrated by Tilda Swinton will lead London Film Festival Expanded, a new lineup of immersive art, extended reality, and gaming experiences at this year’s event.
The 68th BFI London Film Festival, running Oct. 9-20, has in partnership with American Express unveiled the fest’s program addition in a bid to celebrate moving images “in all its forms,” from shorts and features to television, immersive, and, for the first time, video games.
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Central to the expanded program are five major installations set to be presented across London at iconic city venues including Bargehouse at Oxo Tower Wharf, BFI Southbank, BFI IMAX and Outernet London.
Impulse: Playing With Reality from U.K. studio Anagram, narrated by British star Swinton and informed by over 100 hours of interviews, playfully explores Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and provides deeper insight into the condition and neurodiversity in general.
Arcade, a major immersive audio installation from Darkfield, will be set inside a shipping container
and presented in near-total darkness at BFI Southbank. Combining spatial sound and sensory effects with the nostalgic aesthetic of 1980s video games, the narrative explores the evolving relationship between players and avatars.
Presented in partnership with Outernet London – the largest digital exhibition space in Europe – The Great Endeavour by Liam Young promises a cinematic experience that envisions a future where we achieve planetary transformation through coming together to remove carbon from the atmosphere.
Last Minute will map installations from artists Adrien M and Claire B. Inspired by Claire B’s personal experiences of grief and pregnancy, the art captures the concept of the minute just before death and just before birth at Bargehouse.
The fifth installation, Superradiance. Embodying Earth, by Memo Akten and Katie Peyton Hofstadter, will be presented in partnership with Digital Body Festival London, is a multiscreen video and sound installation at BFI IMAX combining AI with dance.
In addition to the major installations, LFF Expanded will also present a program of free activities taking place at Bargehouse at Oxo Tower Wharf, on London’s Southbank. For the first time at the festival, video games will be showcased via an interactive games lounge where audiences can play for free, including Playing Kafka, a video game based on the life and work of Franz Kafka.
There will also be a program of four free XR works at Bargehouse that explore how Virtual and
Mixed Reality can offer new perspectives on physical and mental health.
“LFF Expanded has become integral to the LFF experience and I invite audiences to go to the limits of their imagination and beyond with the program this year,” said festival director Kristy Matheson.
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