April 24th, 2025

Press Materials Available Here

 

Tribeca Festival 2025 Announces Immersive Program: "In Search of Us," in Partnership with Onassis ONX and Agog

 

The 24th Edition of the Festival Presents Bold Immersive Work at the Forefront of XR and New Media in Exhibition Hosted by Water Street Projects at WSA

 

Single Tickets on Sale for Tribeca Members April 24 and General Public April 29
Tribeca Membership and Festival Passes Available at TribecaFilm.com

 

 

New York, NY, April 24, 2025 – The 2025 Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, today announced its Immersive program, titled In Search of Us, a genre-defying exhibition spotlighting 11 groundbreaking projects—including six world premieres—by visionary artists working at the forefront of immersive storytelling.

 

In partnership with Onassis ONX and Agog: The Immersive Media Institute, this year’s immersive lineup continues Tribeca’s legacy of championing new forms of creative expression. The program will be hosted by Water Street Projects at WSA, transforming the space into a hub of innovation, reflection, and collective imagination.

 

Building on 14 years of Tribeca Immersive, the 2025 edition highlights works across filmmaking, futurism, activism, video games, XR and music, created by award winning artists including Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Kidus Hailesilassie, Cameron Kostopoulos and Tribeca alumni Idris Brewster (TF ‘21, ‘23), Meghna Singh (TF ‘21) and Simon Wood (TF ‘21).

 

"Artists have always stood at the vanguard of transformation, using their voices to tell stories that shape our world. Tribeca has always championed bold experimentation and cutting-edge storytelling through technology,” said Jane Rosenthal, Co-Founder of the Tribeca Festival and CEO of Tribeca Enterprises. “In true Tribeca form, In Search of Us spotlights artists who are using these emerging technologies to break through, capture imaginations, and tell some of the timeliest stories of our day.”

 

The selected projects use AI, XR, multi-media installations and site-specific technology to explore themes ranging from environmental change and personal connection to cultural heritage and reimagined futures, inviting audiences into immersive worlds where they can interact with powerful narratives in meaningful and unexpected ways.

 

“This program offers a moment to pause - to reflect, to find beauty, and to reimagine the role of art in a world often driven and dominated by rapid innovation,” said Afroditi Panagiotakou, Artistic Director of the Onassis Foundation. “We are honored to collaborate with esteemed partners the Tribeca Festival and Agog, and to stand alongside visionary creative leaders, who, like us, are dedicated to nurturing artists and ensuring their work reaches diverse audiences through meaningful experiences in new media and digital art.”

 

From playful installations to deeply emotional journeys, In Search of Us invites audiences to engage with stories that spark curiosity, challenge perceptions, and connect us to something larger than ourselves. Through these 11 dynamic installations, In Search of Us embraces the idea that there is no “us vs. them”—only the ongoing search for connection, understanding, and collective truth.

 

“The Tribeca Festival is a reminder that, even in a fractured world, storytelling can help us bridge divides and see each other more clearly,” said Chip Giller, Agog Co-Founder and Executive Director. “These works challenge and move us, inviting us to imagine new futures together. They represent the kind of bold, creative stories we need now, inspiring empathy and sparking dialogue .”

 

Tribeca Immersive: In Search of Us is not just a showcase; it’s a shared space for discovery, empathy, and transformation. The Tribeca Festival 2025 immersive selections include:

 

2025 TRIBECA FESTIVAL IMMERSIVE PROJECTS

 

AI & Me: The Confessional and AI Ego, (Germany) - U.S. Premiere.
Part of the AI & Me series, The Confessional and AI Ego dive into the provocative dynamics between humans and artificial intelligence. Sit down and see what AI thinks of you—funny, raw, and completely unapologetic. By mots (Daniela Nedovescu and Octavian Mot).

Boreal Dreams (Denmark, United Kingdom, Belgium, United States) - North American Premiere.
In this dynamic simulation, Boreal Dreams delves into the relationship between climate and consciousness, exploring how environmental shifts impact how we dream, think, and sleep. Traverse the Boreal zone in a fully realized virtual world based on fieldwork, data collection, and real time technology. By Jakob Kudsk Steensen.

A Father’s Lullaby (United States) - New York Premiere. / Lullabies Through Time (United States) - World Premiere.
A Father’s Lullaby is a poetic, community-based interactive installation centering on formerly incarcerated fathers as a locus for collective memory, care, and transformative change. The accompanying AR, Lullabies Through Time, is a site-responsive experience designed to bridge past, present, and future – tracing the enduring legacies of racialized systems of control and confinement, in order to reclaim public spaces as sites of healing, reconnection, and future-building. By Rashin Fahandej.

The Founders Pillars & The Power Loom
The Power Loom (South Africa) - World Premiere. / The Founder Pillars (South Africa) - New York Premiere.
The Founders Pillars is a two-part installation: The Power Loom, a multimedia installation that digitally weaves African textiles, and a site-specific Augmented Reality (AR) experience that uses those very patterns and visualizations to transform the columns of the New York Stock Exchange into a memorial to enslaved peoples. By Lesiba Mabitsela, Meghna Singh, and Simon Wood.

Fragile Home (Czech Republic) - North American Premiere.
Fragile Home is a mixed reality experience that transforms its surroundings into a Ukrainian home, populating the virtual domestic space with objects, voices, and melodies that tell a story of displacement, memory, and resilience. By Ondřej Moravec and Victoria Lopukhina.

In the Current of Being (United States, France) - New York Premiere.
In the Current of Being is a haptic VRexperience that shares the true story of Carolyn Mercer, a survivor of electroshock conversion therapy. Physically connect with Carolyn’s story through wearable haptic vests, sleeves and gloves that will allow the participant to share her experience through the profound sensation of touch. By Cameron Kostopoulos.

The Innocence of Unknowing (United States) - World Premiere.
The Innocence of Unknowing is an AI archival project, two-channel essay film, and live performance examining news media coverage of mass shootings in the U.S. since the 1960s. By studying footage of retreat over time, the work investigates the impact of public violence on contemporary culture, using AI as a collaborator. By Ryat Yezbick and Milo Talwani.

New Maqam City (United States) - New York Premiere.
New Maqam City invites you to remix, manipulate, and vibe to music from across North Africa and the Middle East. Incorporating everything from Gnawa beats to synthpop, Macrou, and 808 drum patterns, this interactive installation catalyzes a transcendental state inspired by Sufi mysticism and communion through music. By MIPSTERZ.

Scent (United States) - World Premiere.
Scent is a cinematic interactive experience in which, as a dog, the player roams a war-torn city, witnesses mass atrocities and carries out one quiet task—guiding human souls toward reincarnation. By Alan Kwan.

There Goes Nikki (United States) - World Premiere.
There Goes Nikki is an AR ode to the late poet Nikki Giovanni in which Giovanni recites her poem “Quilting the Black-eyed Pea (We’re going to Mars)”. Set against a cosmic backdrop and guided by her voice, the experience leads viewers on a journey through black memory, imagination, and liberation. Poetry becomes a portal to the universe Giovanni imagined for herself, and for all of us. By Idris Brewster, Michele Stephenson and Joe Brewster.

Uncharted (United States, Ghana, Ethiopia) - World Premiere.
Enter Uncharted, an immersive cosmic choreography where the body becomes a vessel for ancestral storytelling. Mapping 6,500 characters from African and diasporic writing systems, the piece fuses AI Data sculpture with one of the world’s oldest technologies - the human body. Through dance, this language archive comes alive in a new form of pan-African storytelling. By Kidus Hailesilassie.

 

Learn more about the Tribeca Festival programming team at TribecaFilm.com.

 

The full short film lineup for the 2025 Tribeca Festival is detailed below. For more updates on programming follow @Tribeca and #Tribeca2025 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. A Tribeca Membership or 2025 Tribeca Festival passes and ticket packages can be purchased at tribecafilm.com.

About the Tribeca Festival
The Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, brings artists and diverse audiences together to celebrate storytelling in all its forms, including film, TV, music, audio storytelling, games, and immersive. With strong roots in independent film, Tribeca is synonymous with creative expression and entertainment. Tribeca champions emerging and established voices, discovers award-winning talent, curates innovative experiences, and introduces new ideas through exclusive premieres, exhibitions, conversations, and live performances.

 

The Festival was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in 2001 to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of lower Manhattan following the attacks on the World Trade Center. The annual Tribeca Festival will celebrate its 24th year from June 4–15, 2025 in New York City.

 

In 2019, James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems bought a majority stake in Tribeca Enterprises, bringing together Rosenthal, De Niro, and Murdoch to grow the enterprise.

 

About the 2025 Tribeca Festival Partners
The 2025 Tribeca Festival is presented by OKX and with the support of our partners: AT&T, Audible, Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, Canva, CHANEL, City National Bank, DirecTV, Don Julio Tequila, Fiji Water, Indeed, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, NBC4 and Telemundo 47, NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, National CineMedia, New York Magazine, Spring Studios New York, The Wall Street Journal, Variety, Vulture, and Whalar.

 

ABOUT ONASSIS ONX
Onassis ONX is a global platform by Onassis Culture dedicated to the development of new media art and digital experiences. It empowers creators to craft digital worlds and immersive experiences of exceptional artistic quality, utilizing cutting-edge technologies while ensuring financial sustainability. With flagship locations in both New York and Athens, Onassis ONX offers artists capacity-building activities, incubation and acceleration services, seed funding, and more. As a field-building platform in the global new media art landscape, Onassis ONX collaborates with industry leaders, institutions, and international networks to foster the growth of XR/VR, AI, Spatial Computing, and Digital Art. To learn more, visit Onassis ONX | Onassis Foundation

 

ABOUT AGOG: THE IMMERSIVE MEDIA INSTITUTE
Agog: The Immersive Media Institute is a philanthropic organization founded by Chip Giller and Wendy Schmidt that helps people use extended reality (XR) to create human connection, cultivate empathy, and inspire action toward a more just and sustainable future. Agog brings together nonprofit leaders, thinkers, and creators to harness the power of emerging media like virtual and augmented reality to develop new ways to communicate, learn, inspire, and collaborate. Agog’s initial areas of focus include social justice and equity; high-impact storytelling and world-building; policy and ethics; education and outreach; and research. To learn more, visit agog.org.

 

ABOUT WATER STREET PROJECTS & WSA
Water Street Projects is a roving interdisciplinary nonprofit platform amplifying creative voices. Our projects include performance art, fairs, festivals, music shows, culinary experiences, and visual arts which champion diversity and global points of view. WSA is a cultural ecosystem and hub of artists, producers, and creative businesses. Housed in an iconic Fox and Fowle 1980s skyscraper, WSA interweaves working, production, wellness, and social spaces. WSA takes an artist-first approach, and provides a new anchor and catalyst for cultural life within Lower Manhattan. The WSA ethos is indebted to entrepreneur Mark Wadhwa, whose cultural venue 180 Strand in London serves as a model.

 

Press Contacts
Tribeca
Annie Davis | adavis@tribecafilm.com Nicole Elice | nelice@tribecafilm.com
Cultural Counsel | onassis.onx@culturalcounsel.com

 

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