VR EFFECT! Virtual Reality Cinema

Virtual Reality has landed at the National Museum of Cinema.

The National Museum of Cinema hosts CineVR in the Aula del Tempio — a brand-new area dedicated to virtual reality. Created in collaboration with Rai Cinema, the project aims to promote digital culture, innovation, and new technologies related to the world of film. CineVR is Italy’s first permanent movie theatre entirely devoted to VR, featuring a daily program of films designed and conceived specifically for this immersive medium. The lineup is updated monthly with new titles and also includes temporary selections presented during festivals and special events.

Program

CineVR2 | February 4 to March 2, 2026

Simone “Funi” Fougnier (FuniLab)

Tales from Soda Island

(USA 2021-2023, 7 capitoli, VR360°, col., v.o.) 

Tales from Soda Island is an immersive virtual reality series that explores storytelling through hand-drawn spaces, music, and emotions. Created entirely in VR using Quill software, the project unfolds as a collection of short cinematic experiences set on an imaginary island where everyday moments slip into myth and dream.

Viewers are not positioned as players, but as witnesses, moving through living illustrations that surround them 360°, guided by music, sound, and gestures rather than spectacle. Created by Simone "Funilab" Fougnier and produced by Studio Syro for Meta, the series highlights virtual reality as a poetic and narrative medium, blending animation, cinema, and music to create intimate worlds that feel both personal and collective.

Tales from Soda Island will take you on an immersive journey through the complex musical ecosystem of Soda Island. You will discover strange creatures, ancient rituals, and cosmic symphonies that work together in harmony to produce a story unlike anything you have ever seen before.

Tales from Soda Island Trailer

Simone “Funi” Fougnier, known as FuniLab, is a visual artist and immersive director working at the intersection of sound and image. After nearly two decades in design and illustration for the music industry, he discovered virtual reality in 2017 and co-founded Studio Syro, a collective pioneering hand-painted storytelling in VR.

Funi’s practice blends painterly aesthetics with immersive technology to explore how music can become landscape and narrative can unfold as a living space. His acclaimed projects, including the surreal anthology Tales from Soda Island and the immersive album The Art of Change, have been showcased at Venice Immersive, SXSW, and the Dubai Museum of the Future. In 2025, he expanded his work into live performance, bringing fully VR-rendered visuals to the final Tipper & Friends show at Red Rocks. His creations dissolve the boundaries between audience and artwork, digital and physical, sound and sight — a space where music can be seen and images can be heard.

From February 4 to March 2, the National Cinema Museum in Turin will present the first two chapters of the series. In the following months, the exhibition will continue with the distribution of subsequent chapters and special making-of content, accompanying the audience on a journey through the vibrant animated universe of Soda Island.

Chapter 1 - The Multiverse Bakery – 6’

Begin your journey to Soda Island. In the first chapter of the series, The Multiverse Bakery, you will witness a strange ritual with shifting rooms, magical chaos, and cosmic delights.  [Trailer]

Chapter 2 – The Neon Jungle – 11’ 

The journey continues to Soda Island, embarking on an adventure through the Neon Jungle, following a Tadpolotl on its mission to deliver a package through the twisted depths of the jungle.  [Trailer]

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CineVR is included in the Museum admission ticket.

Due to the immersive technology of VR devices, the use of VR headsets is allowed only to people over 12 and is not recommended to pregnant women, people with epilepsy, heart or visual conditions, and people with pace-makers, cochlear implants, hearing aids.