The 80th International Film Festival took place in Venice, lasting until September 9, 2023. This festival, considered one of the oldest and most prestigious in the world, captivated audiences and critics with a series of new and exciting projects.

In the festival's selection competition, 82 new artistic films were presented, with 23 participating in the competition. Ukraine was represented by four films: the restored film 'Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors' by Sergii Paradzhanov in the Venice Classics program, 'First Day' by Valeriy Korshunov in the Biennale College Cinema – VR category, 'Forever-Forever' by Anna Buriachkova in the Orizzonti Extra competition, and 'Photophobia,' a joint production of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine, which was included in the Giornate degli Autori program.

Damien Chazelle, the head of the jury of the jubilee film festival, announced this year's winners. Jorgos Lanthimos received the 'Golden Lion' for the film 'The Unfortunates,' and the 'Silver Lion' went to the Japanese film 'Evil Does Not Exist' by Ryosuke Hamaguchi. The film 'I, the Captain' brought the award for Best Director to Matteo Garrone. The jury's special prize went to the film 'The Green Border' by Agnieszka Holland. Pablo Lorrain and Guillermo Calderon received the award for the best screenplay for the film 'The Count.' The best actors were recognized as Caley Spain ('Priscilla') and Peter Sarsgaard ('Memory'). The film 'Photophobia' received the Europa Cinemas Label Award.

At the 80th Venice Film Festival, Ukraine was distinguished by the VR project 'First Day' by director Valeriy Korshunov and producer Svitlana Korshunova. This project won in Biennale Cinema College 2023, opening the opportunity for its realization and presentation at the festival. Over two weeks, 'First Day' was presented in mixed reality format, where a large physical installation was accompanied by AR enhancements and a full immersive VR experience.

This VR project allowed visitors to experience the history of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, from a first-person perspective, guiding the viewer through the internal transformation experienced by Ukrainians. The project uses a virtual world based on real events, created based on video footage and scanning of war artifacts in various locations, such as Borodianka, Bucha, and Hostomel.

'We want to share the experience of the first day of war with a wide audience, which, like us once, did not believe that such a thing was possible in their lives. This experience allows Ukrainians today to resist when everyone expected that we would not endure even for 3 days,' says Valerii Korshunov in an interview for ZAXID.NET

The 'First Day' project evoked strong emotions among viewers, ranging from hugs and a desire to learn more to a quick exit from the location. The audience's reaction was impressive, noting a high level of empathy and active participation in the discussion of the project and the war.

Valerii Korshunov is confident that such works of virtual reality not only successfully compete with cinema but also expand the possibilities of storytelling by engaging the audience in interactive and immersive dimensions of events. This new art allows creating socially significant messages and perceiving them in a format unavailable to traditional cinema. The director notes that virtual and augmented reality not only evolve in technological aspects but also become a powerful tool for expressing complex social and cultural issues".