Search form

Dome Fest West Coming to Costa Mesa October 8-10

Inaugural 360-degree film festival and conference will feature 32 immersive films screened in a ‘fulldome’ venue; event features new technology presentations, industry panels, and interactive workshops.

The First Annual “Dome Fest West” (DFW) will kick-off at the Orange Coast College Planetarium in Costa Mesa, CA, running October 8-10. The 360-degree film festival and conference will bring together the filmmaking community, Hollywood filmmakers, and up-and-coming immersive content creators. 

The festival will screen 32 films chosen as the best productions of 2020-21, including films nominated for the first “Best of Earth” Award. It will also feature, in partnership with IMERSA, new technology presentations, industry panels, interactive workshops and parties. Event organizers expect up to 1,500 immersive filmmakers from around the globe.

“It’s clear to those of us working within this medium that fulldome content isn’t just for planetariums or science-centers anymore,” remarked Dome Fest West executive director and founder Ryan Moore. “As more digital dome venues come online in the near future, moviegoers increasingly be able to experience Hollywood-caliber immersive content – without wearing bulky VR headsets. Cutting-edge technology innovations have enabled filmmakers to bring compelling new immersive stories and experiences that are fundamentally different than film or television.”   

The event seeks to introduce audiences to the immersive fulldome medium while supporting creators and technology. It will bring together the Hollywood creative community working within the fulldome industry to educate, entertain and inspire. It will also highlight the most creative and marketable fulldome content currently being produced around the world.

DFW is one of four international fulldome festivals which will run concurrently during the October 8-10, 2021 weekend. Other festivals include the Full Dome Festival, Jena, Germany; Full Dome UK in Plymouth, UK; and the Dome Under Festival in Melborne, Australia. Moore, and co-founders Ed Lantz and Kate McCallum, worked with an international team to produce #BestOfEarth as a response to the COVID-19 crisis last year, which included many of the festivals.

A team of jurors delegated by participating festivals will bestow #BestOfEarth Awards across five categories including Best Feature Film, Best Sciene and Education Film, Best Art and Experimental, Best Short and a Juror’s Choice Award to honor creativity and innovation in fulldome media projects.

Dome Fest West is offering tickets to home viewers who wish to screen a 360-degree live stream of the #BestOfEarth nominees and of the awards show. The #BestOfEarth Awards event will be streamed live on October 9 from the Zeiss-Grossplanetarium in Berlin, Germany.

Current sponsors include Experience 360, Vortex Immersion Media, IMERSA, c3: Center for Conscious Creativity and Festoon.

Dome Fest West’s Film Presentations Will Include:

Atlas of a Changing Earth - directed by Tom Lucas

  • The story of how a revolution in one of the most basic of all human enterprises – the making of maps – is shedding new light on our planet’s evolution in the wake of rising global temperatures.
  • Using latest-generation imagery from space, Atlas of a Changing Earth takes viewers into the dynamic processes causing coastal glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica to melt and explores how rising seas could threaten coastlines the world over. These striking new images are produced by the confluence of satellites and supercomputers, revealing Earth in a degree of precise detail scarcely imagined a generation ago.

Beautifica - directed by Michael Saul

  • A celebration of life, this immersive visual music fulldome experience comes from the creators of the award-winning fulldome show Mesmerica. Mixed in 7.0 surround sound, the music and visuals has been designed to transport the audience into an altered sense of time and space.
  • Music is created and performed by musician James Hood. The art and animations are created by artists from around the world.

Living Worlds - directed by Ryan Wyatt

  • An exploration of how life and our planet have evolved together, and how that influences the search for life elsewhere‚ throughout our solar system and beyond. The film helps unlock the secrets of spectroscopy, while giving viewers a chance to visit ancient Earth, and dive underneath the icy crust of Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, all in search of the fingerprints of life.
  • The new show from the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco examines how technologies leave their mark on the cosmos. Viewers are left to imagine how Earth might join the ranks of the civilizations that endure.

Source: Dome Fest West