It has been announced that "MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM: Silver Phantom," a VR film from the popular anime "Gundam" series, has been selected for the VR Series category of the official competition at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, which will be held in Annecy, France in June, and will be officially exhibited there.
The Annecy International Animated Film Festival was established in 1960 when the animation section of the Cannes Film Festival became independent. It is the world's longest-running and largest animated film festival. It will be held from June 8th to 14th.
The setting of "MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM: Silver Phantom" is UC0096 (Universal Century 0096), and the protagonist is a member of the unofficial mercenary organization Argent Keel, which is neither the Federation nor Zeon. The organization is tasked with assassinating Azami Megine, a high-ranking Federation official who is in collusion with Zeon, but just before the mission, the Federation's Jegan unit attacks the fleet, and in the midst of the chaos, the "silver Gundam" that they secretly own is released into space.
It was co-produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks and Atlas V, a French VR production company that has worked on "Gloomy Eyes" and "Battlescar". Kenichi Suzuki is the director, Ryoji Sekinishi is the scriptwriter, Tsukasa Kotobuki is the character designer, and Mika Akitaka is the mechanical designer. Shoko Nakagawa sings the theme song "ACROSS THE WORLD". It was released for Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest 3 in October 2024. It was also nominated for the Immersive category at the 81st Venice International Film Festival in 2024, and has attracted worldwide attention.
