Congratulations to the team behind The Unknown Patient for the piece’s win in the 2018 Adelaide Film Festival AFTRS Virtual Reality Competition. Directed by Michael Beets and based on the true story of a soldier in a Sydney mental institution who was of unknown identity for twelve years, The Unknown Patient is a real-time interactive VR experience. The piece’s presentation at the festival was its Australian premiere, direct from Venice Film Festival.
The competition’s Jury, consisting of acclaimed artist and VR creative Sue Austin, AFTRS Head of Cinematography Kim Batterham, and Google Creative Lab’s Mathew Tizard, said of the winning work “The Unknown Patient revisits a story from Australian history that explores the nature of memory in ways that only VR can approach. We were impressed by the quality of the storytelling, dynamic rendering and lighting, the feeling of presence, and the use of performance capture – all of which intensify the viewer’s sense of immersion.”
Full details of winners at this year’s Adelaide Film Festival can be found here.