The Imaginary Friend

64th TIFF: Greek Premiere

Become an Imaginary Friend! A grieving child struggles to separate reality from fantasy. He creates YOU –his (imaginary) friend– to fight the monsters in his mind. Although you have fun together, he starts to grow disconnected from his surroundings… Are you helping or just making things worse?

Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Steye Hallema

Script: Steye Hallema

Sound: Francois Fripiat

Music: Jens Bouttery

Actors: Deni Welzijn, Jose Montoya

Production: Studio Biarritz

Producers: Corine Meijers

Co-production: Casette for Timescapes

Co-producers: Submarine Channel

Production Country: The Netherlands, Belgium

Production Year: 2023

Duration: 25'

Niki Golob

Steye Hallema

As the son of a magician, Steye also sets out to create magic and wonder. He loves to use immersive technologies, as they grant him the ability to make the audience part of the magic. He is the creative lead of the critically acclaimed Smartphone Orchestra project – an orchestra put together with solely the phones of an audience. With this unique set-up, Steye and his team tell stories with the audience rather than to them. Steye’s innovative storytelling projects have won several awards and nominations and have been showcased worldwide at A-list festivals like Tribeca, SXSW, IDFA Doclab, and Bifan. Steye has previously worked as Creative Director for the Disney-backed XR start-up, Jaunt XR, and acted as creative lead for the MediaLab of the Dutch broadcaster VPRO. Currently, he is the creative director at 4DR Studios – a full volumetric video Capture studio in the Netherlands.