Winner of the Heritage Audiovisuals Category & Overall Winner of Heritage in Motion 2025
Hands Deep – A Journey into the Demoscene (Finland)
Jury Motivation
“For its innovative storytelling that brings the demoscene to life as both a cultural movement and a living heritage. By combining archival materials, community voices, and the personal journey of new generations, the project demonstrates how museums can act as active agents in preserving and reinterpreting intangible heritage in the digital age.”
Project Description
Hands Deep sheds light on the Finnish demoscene, a unique digital subculture where creativity and coding intersect. The documentary follows three young newcomers—the “miniHackers”—as they create their first demo, interwoven with voices of veteran demosceners and rare archival footage from the 1990s.
Recognized as part of Finland’s Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2020, the demoscene is portrayed here as an inclusive, human-centered community where digital heritage is continuously passed from one generation to the next. The film itself becomes a living part of the scene, capturing the cultural value of this grassroots movement.
Credits
Participating Institutions
Learn more
Project website: Demoscene Project – Postimuseo
Winner of the Virtual and Augmented Reality
HistoryCity (Italy/UK)
Jury Motivation
“For its innovative use of extended reality to create immersive “living history” trails that connect people, places, and stories. By blending first-person narratives, expert commentary, and historical collections, HistoryCity expands the boundaries of cultural heritage and promotes an engaging “museum without walls” experience.”
Project Description
HistoryCity develops free XR apps that deliver immersive audiovisual storytelling, expanding what is considered both tangible and intangible heritage. Each app creates a georeferenced trail across the urban landscape, guided by historical characters whose first-person narratives connect their lives to real sites of the past. These stories are enriched with expert commentary and archival images, virtually returning artefacts to their original contexts.
Since its launch, HistoryCity has created ten city apps and a sister platform, HistoryScapes, in collaboration with civic and cultural institutions. The HIM 2025 submission highlights two recent achievements:
Credits
Participating Institutions
Learn More
Project website: HistoryCity
Winner of the New Digital Experiences
Mouthful of Dust (Australia)
A project of State Library Victoria (Melbourne, Australia)
Jury Motivation
“For its visionary blend of cutting-edge digital technology and creative writing in reframing cultural memory. This project transforms museum artefacts into vivid storytelling devices, reinterpreting a contested national figure with artistic depth, openness, and a cinematic web experience of outstanding quality”
Project Description
Mouthful of Dust is a cinematic web experience that sheds new light on Ned Kelly, Australia’s most infamous bushranger. Through high-resolution 3D scans of Kelly’s armour, boot, rifle, death mask, and the Jerilderie Letter, the project combines cutting-edge digital technology with powerful storytelling.
Five acclaimed Australian writers contribute fresh perspectives — including female, First Nations, migrant and refugee voices — reinterpreting this contested national icon for contemporary audiences.
Credits
Learn More
Project page: State Library Victoria – Mouthful of Dust
Winner of the Heritage Audiovisuals Category & Overall Winner of Heritage in Motion 2025
Hands Deep – A Journey into the Demoscene (Finland)
Jury Motivation
“For its innovative storytelling that brings the demoscene to life as both a cultural movement and a living heritage. By combining archival materials, community voices, and the personal journey of new generations, the project demonstrates how museums can act as active agents in preserving and reinterpreting intangible heritage in the digital age.”
Project Description
Hands Deep sheds light on the Finnish demoscene, a unique digital subculture where creativity and coding intersect. The documentary follows three young newcomers—the “miniHackers”—as they create their first demo, interwoven with voices of veteran demosceners and rare archival footage from the 1990s.
Recognized as part of Finland’s Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2020, the demoscene is portrayed here as an inclusive, human-centered community where digital heritage is continuously passed from one generation to the next. The film itself becomes a living part of the scene, capturing the cultural value of this grassroots movement.
Credits
Participating Institutions
Learn more
Project website: Demoscene Project – Postimuseo
Participants compete for prizes in the following four categories:
Youth, Schools, Students, Academy with a focus on movies made by youth on the topic of world/museum cultural heritage | High school (15 to 18) | Student (19 to 25)
Heritage Audioviduals
Filming Living Heritage – Belgium
Skammata – Cyprus
Hands Deep — A journey into demoscene – Finland
You are at the National Museum — Qatar – Candidate from “Museums in Short” Award
Bled Castle – Slovenia (no website)
Day Release – UK
New Digital Experience
Mouthful of Dust — Australia
The House of Mrs. L – Germany
Gorithia — Through the folds of time – Italy
Genius Loci – Italy (no website)
Invisible Houses – Slovenia
When We Went In: The D-Day Experience in Light and Sound – USA (no website)
Virtual And Augmented Reality
Galileo VR — Life, discoveries, the process – Italy
HistoryCity — Italy/UK
Soviet War Cemetery Experience – Netherlands
Walk of Memory – Slovenia (no website)
Haghia Sophia Visiting Area – Turkey
