VR & AI

Cinema has always sought new ways to engage with reality, to explore it and reinvent it, prompting us to question ourselves and the contemporary world. New technologies (AI, VR, XR) open the door to uncharted territory.

The VR selection is now in its fifth year as part of the PerSo Film Festival: a journey that has traced the evolution of virtual reality in its various formsmore cinematic in style and focused on a hyper-observation of reality – both social and radical – tackling complex themes and, over the last two years, concentrating specifically on ecofeminism and anthropisation. The selection AI opens up this uncharted territory, observing what happens when a new technology becomes a tool through which the human gaze questions itself; it becomes narrative material, subject and dubbio condiviso.

It is within this tension between reality, fiction and, above all, the ‘possible’ that the first AI showcase of the PerSo Film Festival 2026 takes shape alongside VR.

What emerges is a cinema that seeks new ways to engage with stories and people – who are still evolving – and which is capable of making us question whate vediamo e, proprio per questo, di guardare meglio.

Valentina Noya and Elena Rebeca Carini.

CREDITS:

VR Festival Programme: Valentina Noya, Elena Rebeca Carini

AIFestival Programme: Luca Ferretti, Elena Rebeca Carini

We would like to thank the following for their collaboration: the Municipality of Perugia, Le macchine celibi (co-operative), the University of Pavia – Officine Creative, and Diversion Cinema.

Immersive Hub is a project involving a national network of businesses composta da PerSo – Perugia Social Film Festival, Associazione Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Notte Americana Srl, Ru-mòre – Cinema and Audiovisual Experimentation Festival, 8 production.