In Bucharest, films are no longer watched only from a seat: audiences can step into the story. Romania’s first immersive cinema festival, Future Frames, mixes VR headsets with live performance, and some works already carry international prizes, including from Cannes.

“Katábasis,” by France’s Ugo Arsac and winner of Best Immersive Work at Cannes in 2026, takes viewers through the unseen world under New York — where people live, work or hide. The festival offers the same story in two modes: as active VR characters or as an immersive-space experience.

Reactions in the room are instant. Some lift a virtual phone and find themselves beside a giant statue; others quickly forget where they are physically. “It overwhelms you fairly fast once you enter the virtual world,” one spectator told Știrile ProTV.

Romanian works are on the bill too. “Human Violins – Prelude,” directed by Ioana Mischie, was selected two years ago for Cannes’ immersive competition. Mischie, artistic director of Future Frames, says immersive screenings bring generations together to talk — and in VR you can shape a story or step into a character’s skin.

Interactive installations blend art, photography and mathematics. Director Adi Voicu describes immersing audiences in a gendarmerie van or inside a mathematician’s mind — “rough” zones that, he says, contradict classical cinematic discourse.

Adrian Diaconu, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, recalls contributing a chalkboard with a famous maths problem to the film “A Beautiful Mind.” Alexandru Baltă, who coordinates UNATC’s new-media design master’s, stresses that much of what appears at the festival grows out of research.

Future Frames runs through the weekend as Romania’s first platform dedicated to immersive cinema — from VR to installations that ask spectators to move, touch and decide.

Source: Când spectatorii devin parte din filmul pe care îl urmăresc. Primul festival de film imersiv din România: „Te copleșește” — Știrile ProTV