13th ANNUAL LUMIERE AWARDS HONOR IMMOTION'S "GORILLA TREK" VR EXPERIENCE

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Feb. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Immotion Group, a leading provider of location-based VR edutainment, has won the 2023 Lumiere Award in the Best Use of VR category for its ground-breaking GORILLA TREK documentary experience. Immotion's President (LBE) Rod Findley, Writer/Producer/Director Ken Musen, and Editor/Writer Howard Vu were on hand to accept the award at the Beverly Hills Hotel on February 10th.

Advanced Imaging Society's Lumiere Award honors distinguished creative and technical achievement in film and TV, and this year's other winners include James Cameron, Baz Luhrmann, and Damien Chazelle. For Immotion, this achievement highlights its successful collaboration with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Led by the Fossey Fund's CEO and Chief Science Officer, Dr. Tara Stoinski, Immotion's VR team spent six-months planning the two-week excursion into the Virunga Mountains of Rwanda. There, they visited daily with a family of mountain gorillas, documenting their intricate social and family dynamics.

The result is Immotion's 7-minute motion-based VR experience, GORILLA TREK, which transports viewers to the mountains of Rwanda where they trek alongside the renowned primatologist, becoming almost a member of the gorilla family. 

"With Virtual Reality, viewers are magically transported to exotic locations that normally they would never visit on their own, and interact with animals that they would normally never get to see," said Musen upon accepting the award. "It's why VR is the perfect tool to spotlight conservation issues around the world."

Immotion's mission is to spread the gospel of conservation by placing multi-seat VR theaters into zoos and aquariums and is currently in over 30 locations worldwide. "Gorilla Trek is the crown jewel in our zoo offering and we are honored to be recognized by the AIS," said Rod Findley, President (LBE), Immotion. "We look forward to sharing this amazing experience with new zoo partners around the world."

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund is dedicated to the conservation, protection and study of gorillas and their African habitats, and Dr. Stoinski and the Fossey Fund team work tirelessly to protect the gorillas of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Fossey Fund's integrated approach to conservation includes close collaboration with local governments and communities as well as with partners from around the world.

Immotion also partnered with Habitat XR for production services and logistical help in Africa, as they provided state-of-the-art VR cameras to create the 3D, 360 VR experience.

SOURCE Immotion