Crédits photos : © Mirage
Winner of the #Experiences competition at the Laval Virtual Awards 2026, the work Mirage, directed by Naima Karim, took home the prize awarded on 9 April at the Espace Mayenne. Held in Laval for 28 years, Europe’s largest XR event recognises the most promising XR projects each year across a range of categories. The #Experiences competition, reserved for production studios, this year honours an intimate work built within a family, centred on depression and anxiety.
A project born from personal experience
Mirage follows the journey of a young girl struggling with depression and anxiety, set in a desert landscape rich in symbolism. The work is a metaphorical and stylised adaptation directly inspired by director Naima Karim’s own experience with her daughter, who has herself gone through episodes of depression and anxiety. The creation process involved the whole family, an experience the director describes as difficult but cathartic.
On stage, speaking with host Naomi Roth, she reflected on the genesis of the project: “Mirage is about someone on the outside of a person’s support system, who sees that person going through depression and anxiety without really understanding how to help. But also, from the perspective of the person who is suffering, it is very difficult to accept help, or even to accept that something is wrong.”
See, feel, understand
The experience draws on hand-tracking, spatial sound design, original music and a haptic vest to immerse the audience both inside the young girl’s mind and in the helpless gaze of those around her. It is this dual perspective that gives the piece its power: understanding depression from the inside, while also feeling the helplessness of those who want to help but don’t know how.
“Virtual reality, combined with the haptic vest, makes things easier to understand for someone on the outside,” explains the director. “By creating it, I better understood what my daughter was going through, and we understood each other better.”
The result, according to the director, goes beyond the artistic frame. “Many parents realised that their words carry a great deal of power. They may have been trying to help the people around them, but it wasn’t always in the right way. For people suffering from depression, it is also an encouragement to open up a little. It is very difficult, but that acceptance is an essential step, one that can change a life.”
A tour that continues
Mirage is currently making its way through film festivals, before targeting a broader audience: schools, young adults, teachers and counsellors. Naima Karim, who has so far partially self-funded the project (covering the animation studio and composer), hopes that the recognition from Laval Virtual will open doors with distributors and programmers, helping the work reach a wider audience of parents, educators and teenagers concerned with mental health.
