This year was the first that the South by South West (SXSW) festival started up its SXSW Virtual Cinema officially, and the festival has already opened up submissions for next year for those who want to enter their virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) projects.

Although the festival had been showcasing VR and MR projects – both 360 video and games – already, the popularity of VR – and MR now – has warranted its own seperate section. “While SXSW has been showcasing VR projects in many different ways for years, we’re now expanding our program and opening up submissions for the first time.”

The SXSW Virtual Cinema will be in conjunction wihth the VR.AR Track Conference programming, which takes place 14th – 16th March 2017.

Each submission much fulfill the criteria that is stated on the submission page: it must be under 20 minutes in length; there must be a working 360 online version of the project on an external site, including your own, YouTube, or anything else of the sort; the link must work through March 2017.

Each submission will cost $25 (USD), and you will need to fill out the submission form.

One example of a 360 film that showcased during this year’s SXSW VR showcase was Career Opportunities in Organized Crime, a mockumentary that follows a film crew who is documenting a recruitment video for the Russian mafia. This recently announced its release as a full feature film, which will become available for Cardboard, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and soon Gear VR for $1 a download.

Notifications of applicants’ final status will be sent through before 1st March 2017.

For more on the latest that’s going on for SXSW 2017, as well as all the news, updates, and features in the world of VR, make sure to check back with VRFocus.

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