Building on the success of the Festival de Cannes’ Immersive Competition launched in 2024, the Marché du Film is proud to introduce the Immersive Market, a new B2B initiative designed to spotlight the latest advancements in immersive art.
This groundbreaking event will take place from 13 to 19 May 2025 aboard the Art Explora, an exceptionally large catamaran dedicated to hosting cultural projects. This extraordinary venue will provide a unique setting to foster connections and expand distribution opportunities for immersive works on an international scale.
A key highlight of the Immersive Market is the Curators Network, a seven-day program featuring pitching sessions, workshops, and exclusive social events. This platform will bring together top museum curators, cultural venues and amusement park programmers from around the world to explore emerging trends, test new strategies, and connect with the international immersive art community. Participants will discover innovative projects, either in development or completed, covering a diverse range of themes and formats, including AI installations, XR performances, MR headset experiences and video mapping.
In addition to the Curators Network, the Immersive Market will also feature Immersive Spotlights, a series of inspiring talks, hand-on workshops and industry mixers, designed to spark conversations and accelerate connections between immersive professionals and key players from intersecting industries such as generative AI, performing arts and fashion.
Guillaume Esmiol, Executive Director of the Marché du Film, said: “The Immersive Market is the natural extension of the Immersive Competition launched last year and illustrates our ongoing ambition to develop innovation at Cannes. We want to play our part in helping spatial storytellers find distribution opportunities and, at the same time, foster stronger connections between the filmmaking industry and immersive professionals. This is perfectly aligned with our strategy to make Cannes a unique place of artistic and technological innovation.”
The choice of venue is a key element of this new initiative. The Immersive Market will take place aboard the Art Explora, the world’s largest catamaran designed by naval architects Axel de Beaufort and Guillaume Verdier and constructed at the Perini Navi shipyard in Italy. With its extraordinary dimensions (47m length, 18m width, and a 55m mast), the Art Explora boasts an extraordinary and prestigious 400m2 event space, conveniently located just a five-minute walking distance from the Palais des Festivals – the main venue of the Festival & Marché event.
Frédéric Jousset, President and Founder of the Art Explora Foundation said: “I am particularly proud of this collaboration between the Art Explora Foundation and the Cannes Film Festival, which is launching its first Immersive Market aboard the Art Explora boat. We look forward to welcoming aboard those who imagine and shape the virtual worlds of tomorrow — digital creation professionals who produce the best in innovation. By hosting this new major professional event, we aim at promoting digital creation and innovation, which we will then share with the widest and most diverse audience possible.”
Are you a producer or distributor with a catalog of immersive works looking for location-based distribution opportunities?
Are you a museum curator, cultural venue programmer, or managing a space dedicated to immersive experiences, searching for original works using XR, AI, or video mapping technologies?
Don’t hesitate to apply to join the Curators Network, the Immersive Market’s new matchmaking program!
➡️ To apply, please contact Mathieu Gayet at: mgayet@festival-cannes.fr