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Berlin / Potsdam - In its second round of funding in 2019 for Innovative Audiovisual Content, Medienboard supported seven projects with a total of 445,000 euros.

Medienboard Managing Director New Media Funding, Helge Jürgens: "New technologies such as virtual reality are becoming increasingly important with innovative games and digital formats. Another positive development is the introduction of VR as an own section at well-known film festivals. Following the Venice Film Festival ('Venice VR') and Cannes ('Cannes XR'), the Filmfest München has now launched its 'Virtual Worlds' competition programme in which 4 MBB-funded projects are currently running – the VR scene is expanding and the medium is increasingly establishing itself."

"A Game About a Flame" (Keller and Riecke, 70,000 euros) is an emotional 3D sidescroller for which a prototype is being created, all thanks to funding. In the role of a little girl, players try to protect the ultimate fire in a threatening world surrounded by darkness. The fire represents her hope, which must be kept alight. In order to survive, the players are also dependent on the fire with conundrums; as long as the girl is in the light of the fire she's safe. 

The GPS-based mobile game "scoutside" (vividchain, 100,000 euros) transforms the real world into a common playing field. As scouts, the players immerse themselves into a picturesque parallel world consisting of a colourful 2-D landscape with trees, cliffs and ponds. By collecting and exchanging resources people in the real world can become acquainted with, true to the developers' motto: “We make social games social.”

 The room-scale VR experience "Twin Marilyn" (INVR.SPACE, 80,000 euros) combines sequences from David Lynch's series “Twin Peaks” with the biography of Marilyn Monroe. Before Lynch and Mark Frost achieved television history with “Twin Peaks” they worked on a film biography about Marilyn Monroe. This however did not come about, but the "Twin Peaks" plot displays numerous parallels to Monroe's life. In “Twin Marilyn”, users move through rooms from Monroe's and Laura Palmer's life to find connections. The experience is designed as an installation with multiple rooms.

"Berlin 1928 - Unter den Linden" (Timetravel Berlin, 80,000 euros) is a journey through time situated in Berlin's golden 1920s. The virtual bus trip through the Brandenburg Gate, across Pariser Platz and along the magnificent Unter den Linden boulevard is the first part of an AI-controlled VR simulation of the European metropolis in the 1920s. 

The multi-platform project "Memories" (Lupa Film, 50,000 euros) deals with the structural expropriations of Jewish families during the Nazi regime. It consists of a web-based digital project for ZDF's cultural platform, a TV documentary for ZDF, 3SAT and DW as well as a website. The goal is to make provenance research and restitution in their scientific, legislative and socio-political facets accessible to a wider public. The focus is also on commemorating robbed collectors: interactive interviews, photo galleries, animated objects and virtual room views are shown. 

"Monkey Swag" is entering the next round: The mobile and console game "Monkey Swag – Trading Card Game" (Tiny Crocodile Studios, 40,000 euros) is a family-friendly, deck-building card game with Medienboard funding the prototype. Players assemble a deck from a wide selection of cards to duel in wild sea battles. The first one to destroy the opponent's ship wins. Damage is caused by the firing of cannons, but inspiring speeches can also motivate the crew or board enemy ships.

Spanish choreographer Blanca Li (projects among others for Coldplay, Beyoncé, Blur, Paul McCartney and Daft Punk) is adapting parts of the operetta of the same name as a VR experience for the international co-production "The Merry Widow" (Actrio Studio, 25,000 euros). The universe around Count Danilo and Hanna, a ravishing and wealthy widow from the fictional land of Pontevedro, is populated with both real and virtual characters. Users are carried from one big dance scene to the next as guests and seen and experienced by others in virtual space. “The Merry Widow” will be touring as a live performance as well as being judged in VR arcades and VR stores. The prototype is being supported.

Find all funding decisions => here.