For many visual artists, video installations and short films are far from enough for their creative thirst, so narrative features have become a territory for conquer, a panel held Sunday at the 41st International Film Festival Rotterdam has revealed.

Belgian video artist Nicolas Provost is one of them. After making multiple award-winning short films over the last ten years, Provost made his first narrative feature, "The Invader," last year. He said that every step of making features for him was new and he had to keep learning. He said he wanted to make his film reach as many people as possible, so one question that was always on his mind was "whether the story can fascinate viewers." Meanwhile, he admitted that "films smelling arty are hard to find distributors."

Nevertheless, these video artists try to stay independent while making films. One artist noted that he raised money by himself for his feature film for he did not want to be shackled by producers and financial prospects.

Stuart Comer, a film curator of the museum Tate Modern, explored the reason behind this trend. He said that this generation of artists grew up while watching feature films on TV. Their experiences were so closely related to moving images, Comer said, so telling a story in a feature length film becomes an ultimate choice for them.

As artists explore the cinema world, art galleries have begun to play a role in production financing. Meghan Tomeo, a project manager of Anton Kern Gallery, said that her gallery used some proceeds from selling paintings to fund the film, "It Looks Pretty from a Distance," an award entry at this year’s Tiger Awards directed by Anka Sasnal and Wihelm Sasnal.

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