The Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, has announced top prizes in the immersive category with the Storyscapes grand jury prize for Best Virtual Reality Immersive Story, the highest recognition for the category, going to Gayatri Parameswaran and Felix Gaedtke’s interactive VR experience, KUSUNDA, a voice-driven virtual reality experience set in Nepal that explores what makes a language fall asleep. The second highest prize, Best Immersive Narrative Competition Award, has been awarded to THE CHANGING SAME: AN AMERICAN PILGRIMAGE by award-winning filmmakers Michèle Stephenson, Joe Brewster (American Promise), and Emmy award-winning artist, Yasmin Elayat (Zero Days VR), which explores themes of racial justice and the 400-year old history of racial inequality in the U.S. while projecting forward a joyful, Afrofuturist world of possibilities.

KUSUNDA is produced by NowHere Media. The VR experience made its world premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival in the Storyscapes competition. The $10,000 cash prize presented with the grand jury prize award will be used for language revitalization efforts within the Kusunda community in Nepal.

THE CHANGING SAME: AN AMERICAN PILGRIMAGE is created by Michèle Stephenson, Joe Brewster, Yasmin Elayat and produced by Scatter, an Emmy award-winning leader in volumetric filmmaking. The VR experience made it’s New York premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival as part of the Storyscapes competition.

The 2021 Storyscapes featured selections of deeply immersive in-person creations, new trends and innovative work across multiple mediums, integrating various forms of location-based participation with interactive VR installations. The Storyscapes Award, presented by AT&T, honors artists who bridge the gap between technology and storytelling.

ABOUT NOWHERE MEDIA

NowHere Media is an award-winning studio in Berlin crafting virtual and augmented experiences that enable audiences to view contemporary issues through a critical lens. We work with nonprofits, media organisations and brand partners to create impactful stories that inspire and engage global audiences.

Our signature is telling untold stories—breaking taboos and silences. We specialise in human rights, conflict, social justice and the environment. From covering war in Syria to chasing snow leopards in the Himalayas, we’re trained for productions in hostile and challenging environments.

Founders Felix Gaedtke and Gayatri Parameswaran have backgrounds in journalism and believe in the power of stories to transform.

As a boutique studio we value quality over quantity, and understand diversity in all its forms to be an asset. For each project, we carefully curate teams to meet specific needs for immersive design—photogrammetry, volumetric capture, animation or multisensory installations.

ABOUT SCATTER NYC

Scatter is an Emmy award-winning creative company. Scatter is recognized for pioneering the emerging discipline of Volumetric Filmmaking through its original volumetric film productions and its AR/VR creativity tools. Scatter’s first product Depthkit is the most widely used toolkit for accessible volumetric video capture. Scatter’s virtual reality title Zero Days VR (Sundance 2017) a documentary about cyber warfare and the Stuxnet virus recently won the Emmy for Original Approaches: Documentary. Scatter is the world leader in volumetric filmmaking experiences and tools. Their mission is to democratize volumetric filmmaking.