Press Release

The Plot: Ludoj 2024 – Olympic Games Under the Microscope

"Agon" is set against the backdrop of the fictional Olympic Games of Ludoj 2024 and follows three elite female athletes in their preparation and competition in rifle shooting, fencing, and judo. The film explores how peak sports performance is shaped by political, social, and technological forces, using experimental visual strategies to probe the boundaries between sport, data, and spectacle.

Within this cinematic narrative, the athletes are continuously measured, observed, and recorded through a highly advanced ecosystem of sensor technologies. gfai tech's Acoustic Camera integrates seamlessly into this context, transforming sound into spatial data – making invisible acoustic layers inspectable, comparable, and evaluable.

Precise Sound Mapping in Controlled Soundstages

For key scenes, the production team used controlled soundstages to enable recordings free from disturbing ambient noise. The Acoustic Camera mapped the propagation of acoustic energy here with the highest precision, visualizing micro-events that normally remain hidden: friction between materials, the moment of impact, hesitation, and release – each phenomenon captured as a measurable pattern that complements the physical performance of the performers.

"The Acoustic Camera makes the invisible visible," explains Philip Höhna, Managing Director of gfai tech GmbH. "The collaboration on 'Agon' was a unique opportunity to demonstrate how our technology supports not only engineers and researchers, but also filmmakers exploring the future of sport and data visualization. By visualizing sound on set, the team helped the creatives capture a new dimension of information about movement, timing, and impact – insights that normally remain hidden in traditional production workflows."

From Industry to Film: Technology Transfer as Art Form

The Acoustic Camera was originally developed by gfai tech as the first commercial system for localizing and visualizing sound sources and is used worldwide in industry, automotive, and aerospace development. In "Agon," the system demonstrates how advanced measurement technologies from areas like industrial diagnostics, quality control, and structural analysis can open up new perceptual and analytical territories when applied to cinematic storytelling and human performance.

Borrowed from its established role in wind tunnel tests, acoustic test benches, and vehicle development, the Acoustic Camera in "Agon" expands its function – it does not lose it, but opens new perspectives for performance analysis, preparation, and the representation of the human body.

International Festival Tour After Venice Success

Following its triumph in Venice, "Agon" continues its international festival tour. The film will be shown, among others, in the renowned „New Directors/New Films" program at Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.