19-Year-Old Director Nakadario's 'Nox' Officially Selected for Competition at 83rd Venice International Film Festival's 'Venice Immersive'

The autobiographical immersive film 'Nox,' directed and developed by artist, engineer, and filmmaker Nakadario (19), who has previously won Apple's WWDC22 Swift Student Challenge, been selected for the Agency for Cultural Affairs' Media Arts Creator Development Support Program, received the demonstration award at the Art and Science Society's NICOGRAPH2024, and been chosen for METI's 'Sofu' initiative, has been officially selected for the 'Venice Immersive' competition section at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival.

Key Points of This Release

- The immersive film 'Nox,' directed by 19-year-old Nakadario, has been officially selected for the 'Venice Immersive' section at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival.

- The work is an autobiographical immersive film that portrays complex PTSD, dissociative disorders, and altered perception and bodily sensations from the perspective of someone who has lived through them.

- Experienceable without controllers, using Meta Quest 3's hand tracking to interact barehanded.

- A 20-minute experience tracing the phases of 'collapse,' 'fragmentation,' and 'reintegration' through 13 scenes and five types of interaction.

An autobiographical immersive film retracing lived experiences of complex PTSD* and dissociative disorders* through the body.

We are pleased to announce that 'Nox (Nox),' the autobiographical immersive film directed and developed by Nakadario (19), has been officially selected for the competition section of the 'Venice Immersive' program at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival.

The director's personal experiences with complex PTSD*, dissociative disorders*, and Alice in Wonderland syndrome* involve psychological states and bodily sensations that are difficult to convey through words alone. This work transforms those experiences into a spatial narrative and interactive journey as an immersive film.

*Complex PTSD… A mental health condition caused by prolonged or repeated inescapable trauma, leading not only to PTSD symptoms but also persistent difficulties in emotional regulation, self-esteem, and interpersonal relationships.

*Dissociative disorders… A mental health condition where, against a background of severe stress or trauma, memory, consciousness, and self-identity become temporarily disconnected, disrupting daily life.

*Alice in Wonderland syndrome… A neurological condition in which one's perception of the size, shape, distance, or passage of time of their own body or surrounding objects differs from reality.

The Venice International Film Festival is organized by 'La Biennale di Venezia,' an international multidisciplinary arts institution founded in 1895. Established in 1932, it is the world's oldest international film festival and holds significant authority in the global film industry, standing alongside the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival as one of the 'Big Three.'

The 83rd Venice International Film Festival will be held in Venice, Italy, from September 2 to 12, 2026. 'Venice Immersive' is an official section dedicated to immersive expressions such as XR, and selected works will be screened and exhibited on 'Venice Immersive Island' located on the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio. It is customary for directors of selected works to walk the red carpet at the festival.

About 'Nox'

'Nox' is an autobiographical immersive film whose title means 'night' in Latin.

Participants move through an illusory space composed of memories, sounds, light, and fragmented consciousness. As hands swell, space collapses, and vision fractures, the participant's own body becomes part of the unstable, shifting world of the work.

The film deals with trauma, dissociation, depersonalization, fragmented identity, and the sensation of reality and self dissolving. Rather than observing these from outside the screen, participants experience them through their own hands, head movements, and body position, transforming invisible internal experiences into embodied narratives.

The work is structured in three phases—'collapse,' 'fragmentation,' and 'reintegration'—through 13 scenes and five types of interaction. At the story's conclusion, the focus is not on eliminating wounded or dissociated parts of the self, nor on simply 'overcoming' them. Instead, it portrays a 'reunion'—meeting once again with the fragmented parts that have existed to protect the self.

Art and Advanced Technology Integration

The work combines Unity Engine, Meta Quest 3's Hand Tracking technology, MR passthrough, 3D Gaussian Splatting, GPU-based fluid simulation, soft-body deformation, and spatial audio. Additionally, crossmodal haptic expressions researched and developed in the predecessor interactive art piece 'Tactus' (winner of the Art and Science Society NICOGRAPH2024 Demonstration Award) have been advanced and integrated into the film's climax as an MR interaction allowing participants to reshape floating water in real space with their bare hands.

Creator as Lived Experience Expert

A major feature of 'Nox' is that it is not a work that observes or explains mental struggles from an external perspective, but one in which the person with lived experience leads conception, direction, scripting, interaction design, and technical development.

The work is grounded in the principle of 'Nothing About Us Without Us'—nothing about us without us.

In films and dramas, dissociated identities are sometimes portrayed as symbols of fear, madness, or violence. However, in this work, they are not depicted as entities to be eliminated, but as parts born to survive unbearable trauma and protect the protagonist.

'Nox' does not aim to shockingly simulate mental illness or unilaterally explain symptoms. Instead, by centering the lived experience of the person affected and inviting viewers into their internal landscape, it opens new possibilities for understanding and dialogue beyond fear and prejudice.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/uS3y05Apa10?si=uPALFyMEZBcUFwmt

Comment from Director Nakadario

I am honored to be invited to walk the red carpet. But the path that brought me here today was by no means a smooth one.

Do you remember a moment when someone's words deeply wounded you? It's often said that people gain strength to move forward by forgetting painful memories. But what if that pain is etched deep into your heart and never fades? What if, triggered by the smallest thing, buried memories resurface with vivid clarity? That is the reality of PTSD.

'Nox' was born from my own experience of being deeply wounded by prolonged stress. Through my struggles with social anxiety, hallucinations, and dissociation, I have depicted both the world I once saw and the world I wanted to see. 'Nox' is a work dedicated to everyone carrying emotional scars.

I often feel this world is like hell, yet at the same time, I want to believe it is beautiful. It is this contradictory feeling that drove me to create 'Nox.' Because VR/MR is a medium that immerses the entire body, I believe I can directly pass on the tactile texture of the world I've seen—something words alone cannot fully express—to someone else.

The production period itself was a battle against symptoms and medication side effects. Still, I thought, 'I'll prove them wrong.'