The XR section of the ongoing 26th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) is redefining the future of cinema with the most advanced imaging technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) stunning audiences as they enter a new world of immersive audiovisual entertainment.

The 10-day "Technology+" program features screenings of 26 outstanding works from both domestic and international creators, allowing audiences to experience the trends in immersive, interactive, and cutting-edge entertainment.

Audiences can transcend the traditional screen experience and get a first-person perspective into these fictional worlds. With sensory boundaries infinitely extended, the virtual world becomes tangible, offering a maximum sense of reality.

The films are categorized into four themes, namely "Eastern Charm", "The Secrets of Art", "Me and Myself", and "Supernatural". By leveraging cutting-edge technology, this showcase promises movie enthusiasts a cinematic experience of the highest quality.

"This virtual reality project gives me a real sense of operation and has lifelike scenes. And it has a 360-degree angle of view, so that I can see these story lines up close," said a visitor.

The changes brought by science and technology to film production are a hot topic at this year's SIFF, including the text-to-video large artificial intelligence (AI) model, which has caused a stir in the content creation industry since its launch.

"In fact, change is always there. When I first got into this industry, we used film to make movies, then computers, and now computer graphics. And now we can produce a lot with AI," said Tony Leung Ka-fai, a famous actor from Hong Kong who serves as one of the jury members of the SIFF Golden Goblet Awards.

"Here we can achieve the synthesis between virtual backgrounds and real characters. The entire plan is actually a function for collecting our future digital assets. The most important thing is to reduce costs," said Zhang Jiang, assistant general manager at the Shanghai Film Group’s Shanghai Film Technology Plant.