Virtual Reality has quickly become the new exciting way to experience graphics like never before. It has been used for video games, Youtube videos, and even used in therapy for treating people with anxiety.  The question that many people are asking regarding Virtual Reality is, “what does the future look like?”

That answer might be coming sooner than expected. This year, at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, virtual reality films were featured.  James George is the co-founder of Scatter and technical director of Blackout, a studio that debuted a film at the film festival.  He did an interview with BBC on this topic and he had an interesting perspective. “This whole desire to move into immersive is a generational shift. A new generation is demanding participation in their media – which you can call interactivity. So everyone showing at Tribeca will have their own slightly different model of VR – and we all have our own means of trying to make it work financially.”

The famous Cannes Film Festival also got their first Virtual Reality entry this year as well.  Alejandro G. Iñárritu is the director of this film entry titled “Carne y Arena.”  The film tells the story of Latin American Immigrants trying to cross the United States border.  Iñárritu was definitely making a statement by creating this experience.  He wanted the viewers to feel a sense of urgency and truly feel like they are experiencing what the characters are.

Viewers may now be able to experience a movie on a completely different level.  It will be interesting to see if this idea of using virtual reality to create film experiences will continue.  Will Hollywood films choose to go down this path? We will have to wait and see.