THE JENA FULLDOME FESTRIVAL - WHO WE ARE
In 2007, a group of committed students and teachers met in the Jena Planetarium to experience their first own works in the new 360-degree medium. The FullDome Festival was born. It is now the oldest, continuously happening fulldome festival.

What are we doing?
With about 800 contributions from 30 nations and close to 10.000 visitors from 2007 till today, the FullDome Festival is most probably the biggest international festival of its kind. Visitors see and evaluate a variety of international fulldome films, they meet professional, student and independent producers and take part in workshops, presentations and expert talks. Festival curators, an international jury and the festival directors evaluate the submitted works and select the most innovative productions for the festival awards.

The FullDome Festival not only offers a comprehensive overview of the state of the medium to the public, it is also the ideal forum for artists and producers to present their shows to a qualified audience. We encourage artistic experiments in the 360-degree dome. It is amazing to see new approaches to the medium at each festival.

Finding kindred spirits, getting inspired by new ideas and starting collaborations are strong points of the annual FullDome Festival.
A core mission of the FullDome Festival has always been to encourage students to stretch the envelope of what’s possible in the dome. Many students who contributed to the festival in previous years are now employed in planetariums and immersive media companies. If you are looking for talent, the Jena Festival is the place to go.

Where are we heading?
The evolution of immersive fulldome media is an opportunity to continuously rethink the festival’s structure and program. How do we best serve the community? How do we match the expectations of producers, planetarium people and the public? The Jena FullDome Festival wants to encourage people from planetariums, fulldome theatres, universities, museums, creative artists, pioneers and vendors to embrace fulldome as an educational tool, as an immersive art form, and as mind-altering experience.

 

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE JANUS WINNERS 2024

Best Fulldome Short - Recoding Entropia, by François Vautier, France
Best Fulldome Feature - Secrets from a Forest, by Jim Brandenburg, USA
Best Fulldome Science - Spark-The Universe in Us, by Ryan Wyatt, USA
Best Fulldome Art and Experiment - I saw the Future, by François Vautier, France
Best Fulldome New Talent - Bad Trip, by Emese Pálovics and Bianca Faddi, Hungary
Best Fulldome Education - Chemistry of Live, by Anna Öst, Sveden. Award sponsored Eugenides Foundation / IPS, Manos Kitsonas (Greece)
Best Fulldome Innovation - Total Eclipse, François Guinaudeau, Sébastien Samyn, Canada.
Fulldome Special Jury Award - The Voyage of Arka Kinari. by Janire Najera, Matt Wright, UK
Fulldome Audio Award - Into the Microverse, by Hendrik Huthoff, Raúl Erdossy, Germany

 

Photos by Zheng Xingyu

Janus Awards ready for the action

 

Micky Remann making the announcements

 

Kai-Ting Chang testing JANUS' weight, before passing it on to the winners

 

FullDome Festival Jury - Ralph Heinsohn, Michaela French, Dan Tell

 

Best Fulldome Short -Recoding Entropia, by François Vautier. Dan Tell with Certificate

 

Best Fulldome Feature - Secrets from a Forest, by Jim Brandenburg

 

Best Fulldome Science - Spark-The Universe in Us, by Ryan Wyatt

 

Best Art and Experiment - I saw the Future, by François Vautier. Dan Tell with Certificate

 

Best New Talent - Bad Trip, by Emese Pálovics and Bianca Faddi

 

Best Education - Chemistry of Live, by Anna Öst. Award sponsor Eugenides Foundation

 

Best Innovation - Total Eclipse, François Guinaudeau, Sébastien Samyn. Kai-Ting with JANUS

 

Special Jury Award - The Voyage of Arka Kinari. by Janire Najera, Matt Wright

 

Fulldome Audio Award - Into the Microverse, by Hendrik Huthoff, Raúl Erdossy

 

JURY STATEMENTS

Best Fulldome Short: RECORDING ENTROPIA, François Vautier, France

Compared to other audiovisual media, Fulldome experiences always demonstrate their particular strength best by drawing their audience into depth of perception using clever spatial image compositions and perspectives. They make complex structures comprehensive and, above all, sensually perceptible. Creating such a convincing immersive experience with a strong aesthetic concept and visual strategy, a balanced rhythm and harmonic audio design in a fulldome short is a great artistic challenge. Recording Entropia succeeds in combining all these stylistic elements into a strong narrative that overwhelmingly captivates the audience.

Best Fulldome Feature: SECRETS FROM A FOREST, Jim Brandenburg, USA

Often, as we contemplate the infinity of the cosmos and wonder of the stars in the dome theater, do we lose ourselves in vastness and the feeling of Earth as a small speck in the Universe. Secrets from a Forest reminds us of the enormity of our own world, the interwoven lives and communities that grow in the forests around us. This unique story invites us to feel our connection to our fellow earthlings in surprising ways. Exceptional live-action footage and resonant audio blend the voices of nature and human artistry together, reminding us of our inextricable reliance on the living beings of the forest and how our hearts and souls can sing together.

Best Fulldome Science: SPARK: THE UNIVERSE IN US, Ryan Wyatt, Matt Blackwell, USA

If the question was how to communicate science in the fulldome medium the appropriate and exciting way: here is the convincing answer. The show is fascinating on many levels – amongst many means especially by the stunning visualizations and elegance of the well-designed and carefully considered camera movements. "Spark" not only shows the production team's expertise in producing "fulldome moments", but is particularly strong when it reaches out to public audiences (instead of fulldome experts) that are not familiar with the world of science. Clever details, such as the decision to explain scales and sizes in a human-centered way and to integrate them repeatedly into the ongoing plot, prove to be particularly convincing.

Best Art & Experiment: I SAW THE FUTURE, François Vautier, France

Combining an artfully edited historical recording with stylish visual aesthetics and innovative 360° animation, this film is a confronting provocation that commands our attention. Based on the speculative future predicted by 20thC science fiction author Arnold C. Clarke, this powerful film brings a heightened awareness to our limited ability to see and/or imagine beyond a relatively short temporal horizon. This immersive experience is imbued with a polarity that shifts between excitement and terror as underlying questions about our relationships with technology, our endless drive for progress and the future of humanity emerge.

Best Fulldome New Talent: BAD TRIP, Emese Pálovics, Bianca Faddi, Hungary

The dome theater is a transportative environment and fulldome films have long explored the ability of the medium to take us elsewhere in reality with scientific data, and into imagined worlds of artists’ visions. Such immersion also has great potential to invite us into the world of subjective experience–often exploring the positive aspects of a psychedelic experience. In contrast, Bad Trip evokes a negative experience, composing an unsettling domescape of an inner world of pain and discomfort. Inventive animation and poetic narration explore the ability of the medium to build empathy and connection–between each other, and with ourselves–even through darkness and pain.

Best Fulldome Education: CHEMISTRY OF LIFE, Anna Öst, Drew Berry, Sweden

Many programs for the dome have explored the microcosmos, taking us down to the cellular and molecular level to explore the chemical basis of biology, or the infinitesimal world of the subatomic. Chemistry of Life stands out, beautifully breaking down the science at a comfortable level for a general audience, while keeping the narration moving at an inviting, entertaining pace. Stunning visuals explore the molecular basis of both plant and animal life on our planet, while also explaining how we know what we know through scientific tools and processes. All these elements combine into one of the most fun and educational chemistry lessons we’ve ever seen.

Best Fulldome Innovation: TOTAL ECLIPSE: CHASERS OF THE LOST SLEEP, François Guinaudeau, Sébastien Samyn, Canada

The fulldome production community knows about (and is sometimes worn out of) the challenges of designing shows that meet the big variety of planetarium requirements and standards. From show duration, dome orientation (horizontal or tilted), the sheer amount of scientific facts, the appropriate language, the technical requirements of image production, the use of actors and characters to the choice of visual style and the best audio. "Total Eclipse" not only manages to master these conceptual and formal challenges with ease, it also dares to explore new paths, aesthetic perspectives and surprising styles. Fulldome family entertainment is rarely this pleasantly crazy, funny, innovative and at the same time aesthetically well handcrafted.

Special Jury Award: THE VOYAGE OF ARKA KINARI, Janire Najera, Matt Wright, 4PI Productions, UK

Contemporary fulldome experiences commonly invite audiences to journey outward to the realms of deep space and imagined digital realities. The Voyage of Arka Kinari offers a beautiful counterpoint to these narratives, taking us on an earthbound documentary adventure with seafaring artist-explorers and musicians Filastine & Nova. As the film follows this extraordinary eco-art project around the globe from conception through to realisation, it reveals the impact individuals, imaginative ideas, creativity, passion, courage and persistence can generate in our world.

Fulldome Audio Award: INTO THE MICROVERSE, Raúl Erdossy, Hendrik Huthoff, Germany

The Spatial Audio track of "Into the Microverse" scored with its idea and realisation and was ranking highest of all the audio entries for me.
From the concept to the technical realisation, almost everything was right. The sound design and spatial mix were particularly convincing. Speech, music and effects were professionally realised and create a plausible listening experience at a high level.

 

 

NEVER ENDING JENA DOME PARTY

FullDome Festival Part 2 – IPS Special & IMERSA Day
July 18-20 2024.

Best of new Fulldome Films
This section features a best-of selection of fulldome films from the 18. Jena FullDome Festival, May 2024, nominated for a JANUS-Award by the international expert jury. Excitement grows when the winners of the 2024 JANUS-Awards will be revealed. The ceremony is part of the IPS Special FullDome Festival and will be streamed live to the world from the Zeiss-Planetarium Jena, Friday, July 19th. at 7 p.m. EST. Here is the Link

Fulldome Festival Live Performances
The Jena FullDome Festival has been pioneering the art of immersive live performance. The IPS delegates will be treated to extraordinary samples of music, theatre and 360-stage performances in the evening program. Shows include the world premiere of the immersive Music Theatre The Grey Cloth on the opening night, July 18th, an extravagant live concert on closing night, July 20, jointly presented by IMERSA and FullDome Festival Foundation, and lots of live shows inbetween.

Frameless Forum Panels
Two high class panels on Jul 18. and 19. will engage committed individuals from the Planetarium and Immersive Media scene in moderated conversations and presentations. Panelists will introduce themselves with a sample of their work followed by panel discussion.

IMERSA-Day
A special IMERSA Day will be held on 20 July 2024. Where better to hold this workshop than at the home of the FullDome Festival: the Zeiss-Planetarium Jena? Here, attendees will immerse themselves (no pun intended) in the world of fulldome and explore new and best practices in immersive media, spatial audio and related genres. The day will culminate with a combined FullDome Festival & IMERSA gala event and live concert!

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Thank you all artists, producers, visitors from near and far who contributed to the 18th Jena FullDome Festival with your presence, productions, presentations, networking, insights and good spirits!

Photographer Xingyu Zheng captured precious moments from the nomination ceremony, streamed from the Zeiss-Planetarium Jena to the worldwide fulldome community May 25, 8 pm, when it was announced, who is nominated to win a JANUS-Award in the 2024 competition.See the complete list of nominees below

Watch the recording of the nomination livestream

The announcement of the JANUS-Award winners will take place during the IPS special FullDome Festival, July 19th, again streamed live from the Zeiss-Planetarium Jena.And put in your calendar the date for the 19th Jena FullDome Festival: May 15-18 2025!

• 100 Years of Eternity. Tobias Wiethoff, Felix Deufel. Germany
• The Voyage of Arka Kinari. Janire Najera, 4Pi Productions. UK
• I Spread. Alejandra Rios Ruiz. Mexico
• Pax Rata Fiat. MASSO, 1V4N. Spain
• Secrets from a Forest. Jim Brandenburg. USA
• Dialogue in Silence. Chih-Jung Hsu, Chia-Yi Shi. Taiwan
• Bad Trip. Emese Pálovics, Bianca Faddi. Hungary
• Recoding Entropia. François Vautier. France
• Links-Rechts. Benedikt Pfisterer. Poland/Austria
• Niyah and the Multiverse. Adler Planetarium. USA
• Spark: The Universe in Us. Ryan Wyatt, Matt Blackwell. USA
• Chemistry of Life. Anna Öst, Drew Berry. Sweden
• Dark Biosphere. Javier Bollain. Spain
• I Saw The Future.François Vautier. France
• Total Eclipse: Chasers of the Lost Sleep. François Guinaudeau, Sébastien Samyn. Canada
• Into the Microverse. Journey through the Amazing World of Microbes. Raúl Erdossy, Hendrik Huthoff. Germany
• Inwardness. Sulfation. Nemati Meisam, Schokufar Farshad. Canada/Germany

The winners of the JANUS-Awards will be announced at the IPS Conference FullDome Festival in Jena, July 19, 2024.

Kate Ledina and Micky Remann moderating the ceremony

Ralph Heinsohn, member of the Jury, explains the decision making process of the jury.

Nominees Matt Wright and Janire Najera

The teacher from Poland who supervised the work of nominee Benedikt Pfisterer.

Nominee Javier Bollain.

Nominee Hendrik Huthoff.

 

BREAKING NEWS 1

The Clubnight in the Planetarium is sold out - join the livestream and celebrate at home!

BREAKING NEWS 2

Find out who is nominated for a JANUS-Award. Watch the nomination gala, streamed live and free from the Jena Planetarium

 

The Universe is just big enough for this Festival!

Let‘s pick out a few highlights from the program of the 18th FullDome Festival at the Zeiss-Planetarium Jena:

e.g.: May 23, 20:00 Live performance in cosmic 360° format:
EMIKA: IF WE DISAPPEAR

An acoustic-visual trip: The British-Berlin multimedia artist will not only enchant you with her great voice, piano playing and hypnotizing beats - you can expect a live performance with impressive 360-degree visuals in a wondrous location!
Emika will be presenting her latest album “Falling In Love With Sadness” in a show designed for the planetarium. The 360-degree visuals are specially composed for this show. In other words: This concert experience can only take place in the Planetarium!
Tickets EMIKA If we disappear

e.g. May 24, 20:00 Live performance under the XXL planetarium dome:
CON:TRUST with TOBIAS MATHES

The amazing avant-garde pop accordion duo, complemented by 360 visual artist Tobias Mathes. Marius Staible and Daniel Roth, “two guys who trust the accordion”, are highly qualified musicians from the Franz Liszt School of Music in Weimar who take the sound of the accordion to a whole new level. Their performance on the Supertalent TV show left even Dieter Bohlen speechless and drew ovations from the audience.
The cosmic visual accompaniment in the planetarium sky is provided by Weimar media artist Tobias Mathes.
Tickets ConTrust und Tobias Mathes

e.g. May 25, 22:00 till almost open end … Clubnight in the dome
CLUBNIGHT: 30 YEARS MUNA SHOWCASE

Together with MUNA, the FullDome Festival transforms the planetarium into a club in a class of its own. We are celebrating 30 years of MUNA and 13.85 billion years of the universe. Today, however, it’s not the stars that will capture your attention, but a composition of sound, visuals and light. Surrounded by galactic sounds, gravity loses its power. Be part of our psychonautics crew.
https://planetarium-jena.de/programm/clubnight/

e.g. May 26, 5:00 p.m. live
JUBILEE SINGERS GOSPEL CHOIR

The Jubilee Singers from Jena have dedicated themselves to energetic gospel music. The choir has been part of the Jena cultural scene since 1988, but is also performing nationally and internationally. As a choir of the Friedrich Schiller University, the Jubilee Singers represent both the city and the university through their concerts. We are delighted to welcome them to the FullDome Festival Jena for the very first gospel premiere under the stars!
Ticketes Jubilee Singers Gospelchor

All-round projection Festival
While the Jena Planetarium is transformed into a concert hall with all-round projection in the evening, during the day it is the venue for the 18th FullDome Festival with the latest 360° film productions from all over the world.
But that's not all: current topics from the field of immersive media will be discussed in the Frameless Forum program. For example: Kinetarium, the interactive multiplayer planetarium. Susanne Seiler - Psychedelics and Immersion. Prof. Michael Markert - Ai-Aided Design for Immersive Media: Applications, Opportunities, Limitations.
Click here for the complete festival program with all concerts, films and talks:
https://fulldome-festival.de/program

 

2024 - Special FullDome Year!
Each year is special, but 2024 will be super special for Jena FullDome Festival friends! Here is why.
The regular, 18th. FullDome Festival is happening May 23-26 2024 at the Zeiss-Planetarium Jena. It will feature all the highlights that old and new visitors have come to expect: Fulldome films and premiere shows in various categories, Frameless Forum talks and panels, immersive live performances in the night, professional meetings with collegues and artists and unexpected friendly surprises inbetween.
Tickets for the May 23-26 2024 FullDome Festival are only available in our online ticket shop.

2024 Double chance: IPS Special in July!
The festival in May is not all there is in 2024! A few months later, July 18-20 2024, we are honored to be curating a special program for the delegates of the conference of the International Planetarium Society (IPS). Program | IPS 2024
The meeting of representatives from all around the Planetarium world starts in Jena and will then migrate to Berlin where the program continues July 21-24.

Tickets for the July 2024 IPS Special FullDome Festival are only available through thge IPS. Wait for announcements. https://www.ips-planetarium.org/

All films accepted for the regular Jena FullDome Festival in May are automatically eligible to be included in the special IPS-FullDome Festival, July 18.-20..This implies that who ever wants their show to be part of the IPS-Event in July, will have to go through the the regular FullDome Festival submission process.

Who is in the 2024 jury?
Three international experts will view and assess all FullDome Festival submissions submissions and pick the best for the JANUS-Awards. It was decided with the IPS organizers, that the actual JANUS-Award ceremony will take place at the Zeiss-Planetarium Jena a spart oft he IPS conference on July 19th. 2024, 7 p.m. EST. The announcements will be streamed live from Jena to the rest of the world.
Whatever the jury decides will be kept top secret until the official Award ceremony in Jena. All fulldome shows nominated for a JANUS-Award by the jury will be shown in the IPS Fulldome best of program.
We are honored and thankful that these three individuals dedicate their time and expertise to serve in the 2024 jury.
May we introduce:

Dan Tell

 

Dan Tell is Manager of Planetarium Engineering for Alexander F. Morrison Planetarium, Hohfeld Hall and immersive venues at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. His planetarium career has focused on empowering presentations through technology and integration of astronomical data into simulation software systems, with special focus on using geospatial data to drive immersive storytelling on Earth and other worlds.

He has served as President of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association, the oldest and largest of the United States’ regional planetarium organizations, where he also served as Secretary and has been recognized as a Fellow. Dan has served on advisory committees for the International Planetarium Society including the Vision 2020 and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committees.

Dan’s career as a planetarian began in 2003 as a high school intern at the Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium in Grand Rapids. Since then has had a hand in creating hundreds of live shows, events and lectures in addition to dozens of recorded shows from traditional slide-based programs to modern fulldome video productions. This has included collaborative projects with planetariums around the world, and with other immersive venues, such as the 3D theater at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center visitor complex, and DeepSpace8K presentations for the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dantell/

 

Dr. Michaela French

 

Dr. Michaela French is an artist, lecturer and researcher working with light and time-based media across a broad range of artistic contexts. Her artistic practice is grounded in an ecological systems-based approach. Michaela produces innovative artworks for museums and gallery exhibitions and creates award-winning immersive media experiences in 360° fulldome space. In addition, she designs and facilitates participatory workshops through her Ecological Artistic Observatory research platform.

Michaela has worked in the fulldome sector for over twenty years. She collaborated on the world’s first 360° fulldome video artistic research project and has written, directed and designed award-winning fulldome films. Michaela is a committed advocate for the creative potential of fulldome as an artistic medium, and is co-founder and chair of the Fulldome Creative Network.
https://michaelafrench.com/

 

Ralph Heinsohn

Ralph Heinsohn is professor for audiovisual media at Aalen University in Germany. As a Designer, Producer und Curator of immersive Media he has produced award-winning fulldome-shows, founded and directed the section of immersive media at one of germanys oldest film festivals, the Nordic Film Days Lübeck und managed the digitalisation of the so-called „Sternkammer", the worlds oldest school planetarium from 1931 at the GGS school in the city of Lübeck, Germany. Until March 2023 he was Creative Director of the Science Dome at Germany's largest science center, the experimenta Heilbronn. At Aalen University he represents the field of Audiovisual Media for the study courses „User Experience Design“ and „Information Design" and he is head of the university's Central Media Lab. His focus is the strategic development of immersive media and their implementation in enterprises, culture and science communication.
Hochschule Aalen - Prof. Ralph Heinsohn (hs-aalen.de)

Our festival jury will chose the winners of the JANUS-Awards in these categories:

Best Fulldome Short
Best Fulldome Feature
Best Fulldome Art and Experiment
Best Fulldome New Talent
Best Fulldome Science
Best Fulldome Education – Sponsored by the Eugenides Foundation www.eef.edu.gr
Best Fulldome Innovation
Special Jury Selection

Plus:
Fulldome Audio Award (Will be decided by a jury of sound specialists)
Fulldome Live Act Award (Will be decided by the festival directors)