International Festival of Science Documentary Films

WHEN: 28. 4. – 3. 5. 2026
WHERE: Olomouc, Czech Republic

FIVE QUESTIONS TO DOMINIK VONTOR, Head of Programming

In Olomouc, Czech Republic, the 61st International Festival of Science Documentary Films is waiting for explorers who are interested in learning about science through a mix of media and music. The media mix, of course, includes a VR Section. Therefore we would like to introduce this festival to you:

We spoke to Dominik Vontor, the head of programming about the main theme and how we can experience it.

There you go:

1. The International Festival of Science Documentary Films was founded in 1966. Can you describe the aim of the festival and tell us, in which year you added immersive media to the festival?

Throughout all 61 editions, the festival has always been organised by Palacký University, the second oldest university in the country — first as a place for discussing new research among academics, later opening itself to the public. Over the past 20 years, the festival has grown into a respected international event with a strong Industry programme, five competition selections, and over 300 programme blocks every year. It is worth mentioning that the festival is still organised by the university, yet the majority of the staff are university students or alumni. Thanks to that, the festival keeps its family-friendly, open and up-to-date vibe. Immersive media have been connected with AFO for over seven years. In the first stage, we experimented with the format itself — an external curatorial team was selecting either newly developed projects that overlapped with each year’s edition topics, or had a relevant connection to scientific understanding. Since 2025, the festival has established an Immersive Media competition. The main reason was the aim to bring the curatorial decisions to the programming team and to open the selection to projects beyond strictly headset-based experiences. Olomouc is a university city with baroque and fortress architecture, and we always aim to introduce our audience to new venues. The intersection of a venue’s history and unique atmosphere with the immersive installations of the Immersive Zone always creates unexpected connections — whether you walk into a space you would never expect to host a VR zone, or you immerse yourself in the projects within such a distinctive environment. We have brought the Immersive Zone to the baroque Jesuit Dormitory, a theatrical hall, and this year we opened the Immersive Zone in the Red Church of the Scientific Library in Olomouc.

2. What is in your view the strength of immersive media for science communication?

We live in an era of profound social uncertainty, where access to reliable information can no longer be taken for granted. As a society, placing trust in scientific evidence, engaging with research, and finding common ground has become an increasingly complex challenge. In this context, the effective communication of complex scientific knowledge — in ways that are both comprehensible and meaningful — is more important than ever. This is precisely where immersive media demonstrates its unique strength. Interactive forms of storytelling, digital technologies, and direct encounters with artists and scientists have the potential to bridge the gap between specialised knowledge and public understanding. The reasoning is intuitive: we learn and comprehend far more readily when we are able to experience something firsthand — when we can interact with it, explore it, and when it has the capacity to move us emotionally. It is for this reason that I believe presenting science through film, virtual reality, and other interactive formats is a key to unlocking broader civic engagement. These are not merely aesthetic tools; they are instruments of access — making the unfamiliar approachable and the complex navigable for audiences who might otherwise remain at a distance from scientific discourse.

3. Did you have a topic underlying the curation for this years’ edition?

Even though every year’s edition has its own main topic — this year’s is Common Ground — and we can definitely find connections to exploring the relationships between humans, technology, and media in the projects selected, our main idea is mainly to discover new creative and interactive technologies that challenge the borders of factual and documentary film storytelling. We are eager to better understand what „immersive“ truly stands for within these projects. That is also the main reason we call our selection the Immersive Media Competition rather than simply an XR zone, VR competition, or otherwise.

The selection this year brings the audience into worlds such as a historical journey with important figures of the Czech 20th century (in a 360° film with a custom-made installation of a train compartment Steps of Progress), to a contemplative audio AR walk through the streets of a main cemetery, telling a story based on the scientific hypothesis of the Moon’s creation (Ashes to Ashes), to a physical-analogue game that offers the user the experience of rover landing and element collecting on an alien planet (MAMLAS-1), to experiencing the connection between human and AI in an interactive chatbot simulator (Anamnesis), to interacting with objects and being emotionally immersed in the factual story of devastating flooding (Out of Nowhere) or nuclear waste storage (Blue Archives), or to immersing oneself in planetary screenings that examine the night sky and cosmic stories or use the technology to experiment with creative storytelling (Little Eve, Ways of Knowing, Starry Animals, Reality Looks Back).

4. What are the criteria for the immersive award?

As you can now understand, our selection is truly broad. This goes hand in hand with the great emphasis we place on selecting the jury. We always invite three jury members, each from a slightly different field, to ensure that the projects are reviewed fairly and from multiple perspectives. The jury is composed of XR artists, developers, academics, filmmakers, and story developers working in new media and digital technologies beyond the classic flat screen. Their main task is to evaluate the selected projects across four key criteria: originality and innovation, artistic execution, the use of technology and format, and the overall impact of immersion.

5. What is your plan for next year?

The upcoming edition will mark a pivotal moment in establishing our competition as a significant and enduring presence within the festival, while bringing internationally recognised projects in diverse formats to our community. The programme will run for a full week, welcoming not only the general public but also schools and students through specially curated morning visits. Venues have been selected to reflect the breadth and ambition of the selection: the main immersive zone at the Red Church will host the majority of the installation works; the digital full-dome space at Fort Science will offer an entirely distinct viewing experience; and the Cemetery will serve as the setting for a site-specific augmented reality exhibition.

Documentary photos of the venue 2025 and 2024, photos: Antonín Šrejber, Radka Piskačová