It was over twenty years ago when the film industry was introduced to the Internet in Cannes with promising new technology that would revolutionize the film business. Websites, Social Media, Newsletters, Screenings, and Trailers are now common place for theatrical distribution. DVDs and Blu-ray Discs are a thing of the past while Internet-backed streaming platforms launched by Netflix, HULU, and Disney+ have become the standards for home entertainment.
This year in Cannes, the blockchain, Crypto and NFT-sponsored events were the highlights for the film festival. In fact, FTX was the lead sponsor and official cryptocurrency partner of the amfAR Gala Cannes. For years, The Gala Cannes has been sponsored by spirit brands, fashion and beauty partners or film organizations.
This past week, the tech start-ups crowding Cannes offered new buzzwords — “NFT,” “metaverse,” “Web 3.0” — with the promise to revolutionize and democratize the movie business. The technologies and platforms powering this new era is misunderstood – more so than the Internet was back in 2000. At the core is the blockchain, a protocol that can be used to create a decentralized digital database. The blockchain is a digital ledger used to verify transactions made for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Etherium and others. They establish the base for the underlying code of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, which can be thought of as legal deeds for digital goods or services.
Blockchain and NFT technology can be used to build digital ecosystems, including Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, or DAOs, where executive decisions, such as the greenlighting of a film project or casting of talent, are voted on by the users/owners of the DAO, which is executed automatically via digital “smart contracts” without the need for human intervention.
Steven Soderbergh’s company Extension 765 recently partnered with Decentralized Pictures (DCP), a blockchain-powered filmmaker platform founded by Roman Coppola, Leo Matchett and American Zoetrope’s Michael Musante. Ahead of Cannes, DCP announced a new partnership with the Gotham Film & Media Institute that will provide a $50,000 award for selected documentaries. DCP uses blockchain technology for project submissions, audience voting, and data insights while being decentralized, democratic and transparent.
“Our mandate is to focus on supporting filmmakers from underprivileged and underrepresented backgrounds, to give them access to an industry which from the outside can be very daunting and difficult to understand,” says DCP Founder Leo Matchett.
“At the moment we are just scratching the surface with the potential of this technology,” says Phil McKenzie of the London-based film financier Goldfinch. “Web 3.0 — using cryptocurrencies, the blockchain and smart contracts — can solve a lot of challenges that we face as filmmakers, as financiers, as distributors and as sales agents. It could change how we fund content, how we release it, how we make it.”
NFTs offerings such as exclusive digital artwork or other crypto assets connected with a project, could be “substantially more effective” than traditional crowdfunding via sites like Kickstarter, McKenzie states, because an NFT is a “true asset with real ownership” that gives fans a real stake. Using blockchain technology and smart contracts throughout the production and distribution process could allow companies to easily and transparently trace how funds move in and out of a project, “something the traditional film industry really struggles with.”
Crypto film company Film.io, lets fans and creators invest in and help greenlight film projects while earning Fan Tokens, the digital currency used on the decentralized platform. “This isn’t just about crowdfunding,” says Film.io co-creator Chris J. Davis. “It’s about providing our creators with a full-service kind of application to take them through every aspect of making a movie [and] connecting up with like-minded individuals who might have complementary skill sets. So if you need a lookbook or a poster, there will be people who are already part of our community who can do that and are looking for projects they can invest their time, energy and talent in.”
It’s an exciting new era for motion pictures with the promise of NFTs in creating new revenue streams and allowing fans to participate in the film process closer than ever before.