Frances Adair Mckenzie’s VR work The Orchid and the Bee selected for the Annecy International Animation Film Festival

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Montreal, May 20 (Canadian-Media): An immersive Virtual Reality (VR) work by interdisciplinary artist Frances Adair Mckenzie, 'The Orchid and the Bee', produced at the National Film Board (NFB), will have its world premiere at the eminent Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where it will screen in competition as part of the official VR selection, media reports said.

Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Image credit: Official site

The project was selected from among 80 submissions.

Some of the seven works in competition will be accessible on the Viveport platform, in collaboration with HTC Vive and with the support of creators and producers. More details will be provided by the festival in the coming weeks.

Inspired by Darwin’s theory of evolution,  'The Orchid and the Bee' unfolding in three acts, is an ode to nature’s struggle for existence, blending VR technology with the tactile materiality of stop-motion animation.

The survivors in 'The Orchid and the Bee' are neither the strongest nor most intelligent, but are most adaptable to change.

Mckenzie's mischievous sense of play is brought to the realm of virtual reality as her story unfolds in three acts.

• Act 1: When under threat, adult immortal jellyfish revert to a sexually immature polyp form.
• Act 2: Humans nurse sinister relations with pigs, all for the love of bacon.
• Act 3: Some orchids have evolved to trick male bees into mating.

Plasteline-moulded puppets integrated into VR to place the spectator inside a rotating spiral of evolutionary events.

​The NFB is a leader in developing new approaches to stereoscopic 3D animation and animated content for new platforms.

Groundbreaking animation are produced by the NFB at its studios in Montreal and at NFB centres across Canada, as well as with many of the world’s leading auteur animators via international co-productions.

Three NFB productions or co-productions have been selected for the short film competition at Annecy, which will take place this year online from June 15 to 30: Theodore Ushev’s The Physics of Sorrow, Andreas Hykade’s Altötting and Jean-François Lévesque’s I, Barnabé
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