Sydney, Australia: The Australian XR Festival Awards 2024 was the final event of the year for the Australian XR Festival 2024 held at The State Library of New South Wales.
The Australian XR Festival Awards showcase and celebrate leading talent in the creative tech industries including those working in Gaming, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Creative AI, Animation and Digital Arts.
A Strong line-up of finalists included industry heavyweights Toast Interactive, Shared Memory, Nathie and Eye Jack.
The awards ceremony concluded the Australian XR Festival, which included industry events and a public showcase, offering the opportunity for people to experience some of the world’s best creative technology in person.
Festival Director and Founder Matt Kirby was blown away by the quality of the award submissions, as well as the public response to the festival, being held in Sydney for the first time after previously being in Melbourne.
“It gave the people of Sydney the opportunity to experience Virtual Reality technologies – some for the first time – or play their favourite game on the giant screen at the State Library of New South Wales.”
The awards showcased both local and international talent making an impact globally through seven different categories and three special multi-category awards.
US-based Shared Memory took home Best in Console Gaming as well as Best in the World (across all categories) for the global smash hit “Animal Well”. Popular VR Social Media Superstar Nathie won Content Creator of the Year after an impressive year of entertaining content.
Closer to home, Gold Coast-based Toast Interactive won Best in Virtual Reality Gaming as well as Best in Australia for the impressive “Max Mustard”. EyeJack won both Best in Augmented Reality Experiences and Best in Virtual Reality Experiences for “The Dream Machine Experience” which Mr Kirby was an incredible achievement as they were two very different formats requiring thousands of hours of work to complete one let alone two experiences.
Australian XR Festival category winners are listed below:
Best in Animation
Darwin the Dreamer
By Don Dixon
Best in Augmented Reality Experiences
The Dream Machine Experience
By Artistic Director – Nona Hendryx
AR/VR Director & Principal Artist – Sutu Campbell
Executive Producer – Ichun Yen
Producer – Dana Greenfield
Art & Technology Company – EyeJack
Best in Console Gaming
Animal Well
By Shared Memory
Director & Producer & Lead Artist:
Billy Basso
Key Collaborators:
Dan Adelman, Jason Gastrow & Leah Gastrow
Best in Creative AI
When I’m an Astronaut
By Samantha Pillay
Content Creator of the Year
Nathie
Nathaniel de Jong
Best in Digital Art
No Beginning
By ReVerse Butcher & Kylie Supski
Best in Virtual Experiences
The Dream Machine Experience
By Artistic Director – Nona Hendryx
AR/VR Director & Principal Artist – Sutu Campbell
Executive Producer – Ichun Yen
Producer – Dana Greenfield
Art & Technology Company – EyeJack
Best in Virtual Reality (VR) Gaming
Max Mustard
By Toast Interactive
Executive Producer – Nathan Anderson
Executive Producer – Toni Eastes
Executive Producer – Kylee Kay
Creative Director – Richard Eastes
Best in New South Wales
The Dream Machine Experience
By Artistic Director – Nona Hendryx
AR/VR Director & Principal Artist – Sutu Campbell
Executive Producer – Ichun Yen
Producer – Dana Greenfield
Art & Technology Company – EyeJack
Best in Australia
Max Mustard
By Toast Interactive
Executive Producer – Nathan Anderson
Executive Producer – Toni Eastes
Executive Producer – Kylee Kay
Creative Director – Richard Eastes
Best in the World
Animal Well
By Shared Memory
Director & Producer & Lead Artist:
Billy Basso
Key Collaborators:
Dan Adelman, Jason Gastrow & Leah Gastrow
The Australian XR Festival was founded off the back of the hugely successful Qld XR Festival, which launched in 2021 and continues to grow every year.
The Australian XR Festival would like to recognise the wonderful support of the people of Sydney for attending as well as the global creative community for their world-class submissions.
“Year-on-year we are seeing incredible growth both in the creativity of the submissions and the number of people coming to experience them.”
Find The Australian XR Festival Online:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AusXRFestival
Titktok: https://tiktok.com/@ausxrfestival
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ausxrfestival/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ausxrfestival
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AustralianXRFestival/
Website: https://www.australianxrfestival.com
