Caligari FilmBühne (Wiesbaden, Germany) is one of the oldest cinemas in the Europe – in 2021 it celebrates 95th Anniversary.
Every year it hosts major regional and international cultural events.

goEast Film Festival takes place in Wiesbaden, Germany.
For over 20 years, goEast transforms state capital Wiesbaden into one of the most important international centres for Central and Eastern European cinema.

In May 2020, during the very tough phase of COVID-19 Pandemic, goEast – Festival of Central and eastern European Film had to cancel all physical events.

However, the legendary Caligari FilmBühne, which hosts screenings, Opening and Closing ceremonies for the festival, opened its virtual doors to guests participants of the Open Frame VR Award, which happens within the festival.

Russian VR artist and winner of 2018's Open Frame Award, Denis Semionov, has "recreated" the 94-year-old cinema in virtual reality, together with Open Frame Award curator Georgy Molodtsov.

XR Artist recreated the legendary film theatre and festival prize in his unique artistic technique using photos, videos and his own memories with the help of Oculus Quill:

To make the venue real virtual , goEast partnered with the social XR cultural hub VRrOOm — a broadcast platform dedicated to arts, entertainment and cultural events and launched the space in VRCHAT:

Guests, visitors and participants were able to attend presentations, award ceremonies, take part in interviews, collective 360 film theatre screenings. Non-VR users were able to watch video live streamfrom inside the VRCHAT and Virtual Reality on Festival website.

Polish studio Dream Adoption Society and avatar artist Anastasia Vorobyova developed unique avatars, which guests and the team could use in the festival space. As the festival became international, Anastasia decided to mix different stereotypes about Eastern European people, while mixing male and female stereotypes. The third avatar was attributed to the "Kino-eye" and the man with the movie camera by Dziga Vertov.

Project Team:
Georgy Molodtsov - creative producer, curator (goEast Film Festival)
Denis Semionov - XR artist
Heleen Geritsen - festival director
Jan Peschel (DFF) - festival producer
Natalia Severina - Open Frame Award producer
Louis Cacciuttolo, VRrOOm
Antony Vitillo, New Technology Walkers
Lapo Germasi and Victor Pukhov, Manifattura italiana design
In partnership with VRChat


You can watch recap of the festival in this video: