This Year's Venice Film Festival Features a Dedicated Virtual Reality Island

The past few years have seen virtual reality, technology spawn some pretty nifty things in the world of film and TV. Film festivals from Cannes to Byron Bay have added VR programs to their lineups, and cities across the globe have introduced festivals dedicated entirely to the technology.

But you know VR has really taken hold whenthe world's oldest major film festival jumps on board, and in a big way.

Kicking off its 74th run this week, the Venice Film Festival looks to have its sights set firmly on the future, hosting its inaugural Venice Virtual Reality competition and even taking over an abandoned island to showcase the selections.

Creepily enough, Lazzaretto Vecchio was once a quarantine island and leper colony, but during the festival, which runs from August 30 - September 9, its hospital hallways and semi-renovated buildings will instead play host to a lineup of VR installations. There'll also be a dedicated VR theatre inside a former hangar, complete with revolving seats.

The Venice Virtual Reality program features just 22 VR pieces from over 100 submissions. Six of those are huge, room-scale installations, which find visitors interacting with the space around them, and sometimes even with live performers.

Highlights include Danish film Separate Silences, which features a near-death experience in hospital; and Alice - The Virtual Reality Play, an Alice in Wonderland-inspired piece from France, where viewers interact in real time with the film's characters.

Credit: submarinechannel.com / Image: La Biennale di Venezia