Film & Tech Trends Report February 2025

1. VR Hit the Film Festival Circuits

The Trend: Virtual Reality continues to take market share.

Sundance Film Festival 2025 showcased 15 VR shorts, up from 5 in 2024. X.com filmmakers say it’s the “new indie frontier.”
Sundance, Tribeca, and SXSW now feature full VR film competitions. Unlike gimmicky VR projects from the 2010s, today’s immersive films use AI world-building, haptic feedback, and 360° storytelling.
VR headset sales (Meta Quest 3 affiliate link) jumped 20%+ YOY.
“Virtual Reality is inevitable” – Palmer Luckey, creator of Oculus VR. “If you think about Virtual Reality, and what the ultimate conclusion is – it’s basically technology that you use to see virtual worlds that are as real as the real world except without any of the limitations of the real world. Thinking about it that way, it’s very clear that VR will take off – it’s just a matter of time. Will it take one year, five years, ten years before it’s mainstream? I can’t say. It’s going to depend on how fast we can push this technology, but I think that if you told someone ‘Hey what if you could put on a pair of glasses and be anywhere in the world with perfect quality?’, very few people would say ‘Oh no, that’ll never take off’.”

The Opportunity: VR content is still niche, festivals need coverage, and creators need exposure.

We’ll continue to share new startup investments in this space, but the obvious gorillas in the room are $META and $NVDA.
SXSW 2025 streamed 10 panels virtually and views hit 500k+, up 200% from 2024. Fans want more remote festival access. What else has potential worldwide customers that would want to attend virtually via VR? The opportunities are endless!
Create “VR movie” content/solution. A wave is coming for this space and keyword search volume is rising. Mark Twain famously quote, “When everyone is looking for gold, it’s a good time to be in the pick-and-shovel business.” Service the inevitable questions, repairs, tutorials, etc. that will be required in this space.
Cover VR film festivals as a dedicated journalist or influencer.
Offer VR screening setup consulting for indie theaters.
Build a directory of must-watch VR films (since no centralized list or directory exists).
The keyword search volume for “big screen VR” boomed to 9,900 searches per month. Bigscreen Beyond sells the world’s smallest VR headset: https://www.bigscreenvr.com