The Immersive Creators Catalyst is the first project grant funded by WIIT and Meta to specifically support European immersive projects produced or creatively led by women, non-binary and gender diverse creatives. The Immersive Creators Catalyst aims to unlock the potential of talented women and underrepresented groups driving European immersive media projects.
WOMEN IN IMMERSIVE TECH EUROPE
Women in Immersive Tech Europe is a European NGO that wants to break barriers and be an inspiration for Women in Immersive Technologies all over the world. The WIIT community is a place to connect, meet like-minded women and underrepresented groups from across Europe and beyond, and find the resources to learn and grow.
WIIT’S Immersive Creators Catalyst
The Immersive Creators Catalyst will be distributed with the support of European XR programs who will nominate European based women, non-binary and diverse gender XR creators with their promising projects. The goal of this fund is to help in the development and/or production of their projects/prototypes and to offer more visibility in the industry. Among the training and market initiatives around Immersive Technology, WIIT Meta Grant has chosen to work with three European programmes for their pedagogical value and successful impact: the Biennale College Cinema Virtual Reality & the Venice Gap Financing Market, the Stereopsia Booster and the European Creators’ Lab.
An independent jury will select the grant winners from the nominations. The winning projects will not only receive financial support over the following months, but also the support of the WIIT community and mentors. The Immersive Creators Catalyst is managed by Astrid Kahmke.
➣ ELIGIBILITY criteria
- European (at least core team)
- Immersive
- Female(identified) led, which is either producer or creative lead(s)
- In development or in production
- Participated in one of the partners‘ programs
➣ Facts
Submission to be completed until March, 24th
Jury meeting will be on April 8th, 2022
80,000 € are available for 2022
➣ Programs that nominate
1. Biennale College Cinema Virtual Reality & the Venice Gap Financing Market
Since 2016 La Biennale di Venezia offers the Biennale College Cinema – Virtual Reality for the development and production of Virtual Reality projects, and selects each year around 10 VR projects presented by teams of director and producer, coming from all over the world. The project teams work with a dedicated group of tutors including story developers, creative technologists and visual advisors, to fully develop their projects.
The Venice Gap-Financing Market is a platform for selected projects that aims to support European and international producers to secure financing for their projects through one-to-one meetings with potential and pertinent international professionals.
2. Stereopsia Europe
Stereopsia Europe is a gathering of entrepreneurs, investors, content creators, scientists, and audiences seeking new voices and fresh perspectives since 2009. The Forum is well known for its top-level conferences but also features a Festival for the best XR contents produced in Europe, and the Crystal Owl® Awards. The Booster for narrative projects, collaboratively organized with the European Creators’ Lab, hosts around 10 European projects each year.
Stereopsia Booster and Festival are high value programmes selected by WIIT Meta Grant to nominate projects for the Immersive Creators Catalyst.
3. European Creators' Lab
The European Creators’ Lab, funded by the Creative Europe Media Program since 2017, revolves around spatial creation, immersive storytelling, UX design. It is an inspiring sandbox for creative minds and visionary artists to explore the opportunities that prepare the soil for future narratives and projects. More than 200 XR creators from about all over the world joined the Development and Booster Labs so far, mentored by international award winners, thought leaders and visionaries.
Numerous collaborations and close network ties have emerged from the labs. They form an important nucleus of the European XR ecosystem. Lots of projects have been "born" in the Development Labs and about 10 projects per year have been hosted in the Booster, which is organised together with Stereopsia Europe. The head of the European Creators' Lab is Astrid Kahmke.
➣ How to get the funding to the projects: Grant Management
Astrid Kahmke is co-founder and head of the European Creators’ Lab, a training initiative for XR creators and producers funded by the Creative Europe Media Program of the EU since 2017. She is one of the leading networkers in the European XR eco system. Her decades of experience in project- and event management, and her expertise in the field of artistic and creative audiovisual projects from film to VR make her an internationally renowned expert and decision maker for the XR industry.
Astrid spent nearly 20 years in the film industry and has a background as producer for international feature films, which won numerous awards in the past. As Creative Director of the Bavarian Film Centre, a startup incubator for media professionals, she innovated the “First Movie Program” for debut filmmakers, and designed, realised and led numerous trainings in the field of digital and immersive storytelling. Since 2019, she has also been the director of the Virtual Worlds Festival as a co-founder. Astrid has just founded her consulting company YONDERS GmbH, which focuses on project management, production, event and everything to do with storytelling for immersive media.