Infinity Festival Hollywood, aka Infinity Festival, is a multi-day event held annually each November in Los Angeles. The event, which brings together creative talent from Hollywood and Silicon Valley, celebrates “Story Enabled by Technology” through curated exhibitions, panels, screenings and events. The festival is supported by several Hollywood studios and leading tech companies. Infinity Festival Hollywood is held at Goya Studios and the Dream Hollywood hotel, with screenings taking place at various locations in Los Angeles.
History
2018
Infinity Festival began in 2018 as Infinity Film Festival. The event was held in Beverly Hills, from November 1–4, 2018. The former Paley Center, at 465 North Beverly Drive, served as the festival hub, with screenings and special events held in various theaters and other locations in Beverly Hills, including the Writer’s Guild Theater. The festival included over 200 speakers and over 100 screenings including studio premieres, a Tech Lab, a Student Lab, 2 floors of exhibitions, industry networking and a fine art gallery. Festival themes included 3D, 4K, Immersive, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The Student Lab was presented by Chapman University Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business and Moody College of Communication; Sony, Deloitte and Intel. This was also the debut of the Infinity Festival Monolith Awards, which are awarded in various categories recognizing achievements in entertainment and technology. The opening night party was held at United Talent Agency and was co-presented by CES, the Consumer Electronics Show. The 2018 Festival was attended in-person by over 2,000 people and was also seen by over 45,000 people on a Facebook Live event produced by Ridley Scott Creative Group.
2019
The festival expanded in 2019 and moved to Hollywood. Retitled Infinity Festival Hollywood, the event took place at Goya Studios, the Dream Hotel and various theaters around Hollywood, from November 7–9, 2019. The event featured a Main Stage, an Exhibition Hall, a Student Lab, an Innovation Hub and ART+TECH, a fine art gallery. The festival continued its theme of “Story Enabled by Technology” through themes that included 5G, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Immersive Technology and Wellness. Screenings were held at the Dolby Vine Theater and included original films from Disney, Netflix, Pixar and Sony. Exclusive screenings included a CLED screening of “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and “Gemini Man” in 120 FPS 3D. Media partners included People, Entertainment Weekly, IGN, Mashable and Los Angeles radio station KPCC. FNTECH, a California-based event production company, provided all production services for the festival. The opening night event was held on the rooftop of the Dream Hotel. The Infinity Festival Monolith Awards were once again awarded to talent in the tech and entertainment communities. The 2019 festival had over 3500 live attendees.
2020
For 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival was held entirely online with an all-virtual event that was held over eight weeks. The 2020 Infinity Festival began on October 28, 2020, and ran through January 7, 2021. Original material debuted on the Wednesday and Thursday of each of the 8 consecutive weeks (with the exception of Christmas week 2020 and New Year’s week 2021.) The festival was free to attend after registration on FNvirtual, an online platform which was created specifically for the event by FNTECH. Each week’s programming was devoted entirely to one of eight themes: Remote Collaboration, Artificial Intelligence, 3D/Visual effects, Virtual Production, Immersive Experiences, Real Time Storytelling, Entertainment Content, and Wellness Tech. The programming also included ART+TECH, a fine art gallery that featured innovative new media artists including Rashad Newsome and Jam Sutton. Festival speakers included Oscar winning actress and producer Brie Larson, actor and director Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and artist Refik Anadol.
New to the festival in 2020 was a collaboration with Universal Music Group and Capitol Records’ Capitol Royale. During the festival, the Universal Music Group’s Innovation Team hosted a five-week Lifestyle Innovation Challenge, where four teams were challenged to develop a detailed vision for a consumer product. The teams then hosted their final projects in the Virtual Capitol Tower, which provided a 360 navigable version of the iconic Capitol Records tower in Hollywood. The 2020 festival was attended by over 10,000 online visitors and had over 700,000 page views.