Summary
A Long Goodbye tells the story of Ida, a 72-year-old pianist living with dementia. In this animated, interactive VR experience, we walk in Ida’s shoes. We experience a day in her life, as her reality is fading. The apartment, where she spent a lifetime with her beloved husband Daniel, first feels empty and undefined. When we interact with objects and play the tape recordings of her husband, her playful world gradually comes to life, as if drawn in paint before our eyes.
Festivals
Festival | Venice Immersive: Venice Immersive Achievement Prize (2025)
Kate Voet & Victor Maes
Director
Kate Voet is a Belgian film director and screenwriter from Brussels, having studied English literature and linguistics, theater studies and film directing at the University of Amsterdam, LUCA School of Arts in Brussels and The New School in New York City. With her film projects in development, she participated in several workshops and markets such as Torino Film Lab, the Venice Gap Financing Market and IDFA Doclab Forum. Victor Maes graduated from LUCA School of Arts Brussels’ film program in 2015, and took courses in advanced cinematography at the Global Cinematography Institute in Los Angeles. He’s interested in exploring new technology, like VR and games, as well as revisiting analogue film. Originally he graduated as a director with a short animation film, which led to ‘A Long Goodbye’, the animated, interactive VR experience about Ida, an elderly pianist living with dementia, which he co-wrote and co-directed with Kate Voet. ‘A Long Goodbye’ premiered at the 82nd Venice Film Festival where it was awarded with a lion for the Venice Immersive Achievement Prize. So far the project has continued to travel to Film Fest Gent, Thessaloniki Film Festival, IDFA, Clermont Ferrand, FIPADOC and SXSW among other festivals, winning several more awards.
Gallery
