Movie

Sundance Film Festival embraces blockchain and crypto film initiatives

Film festivals have seen an increase in blockchain and crypto-funded film projects and initiatives as Web3 technologies continue to merge with the entertainment industry.

Web3 technologies continue to infiltrate various mainstream industries to bring innovation to old systems. This includes legacy creative fields such as the music industry and, more recently, the film industry.

This year, the Slamdance Film Festival, an oscar-accredited film festival for indie filmmakers, will see the premiere of the new film Fuzzy Head, which received its funding through the blockchain-powered crowdfunding platform Untold.io. 

Ali Aksu, the CEO of Untold.io, told Cointelegraph that filmmakers, like those on Fuzzy Head, could use blockchain technology to democratize their financing process and open up investment opportunities to accredited and unaccredited investors.

“The most important aspect of crypto/blockchain integrations in the film industry will be opening up a new asset class to all kinds of investors via compliant security tokens and increased fan engagement via NFTs.”

Recently, Untold partnered with Dapper Labs to accelerate the technology and allow wider access to its programs. The platform has also supported other notable films, including The Comeback Trail, which features Rober de Niro and Morgan Freeman. 

Related: Bluechip NFT project Moonbirds signs with Hollywood talent agents UTA

This is not the first instance of a film festival seeing crypto and blockchain components in films that are premiering. In 2019 the Filmio blockchain platform attended the legacy Sundance Film Festival to scout projects for its blockchain-based entertainment platform.

Last year, Liquid Media Group announced its first blockchain film streaming with a slate of digital panel presentations during the Sundance festival. The company also presented the impact of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on filmmakers and their communities.

In 2022, Russel Crowe’s Prizefighter film used NFTs to partly fund its production and became what the director called an “audience-driven film.”

Aksu said that the utilization of blockchain-based tools by legacy directors and major festivals brings visibility to these tools for independent filmmakers who would highly benefit from them.

“These are also great opportunities to create a real community behind revolutionary movements like blockchain.”

Last year, film director Anthony Hopkins sold out an NFT collection based on characters in films he had already released.

Quentin Tarantino also created NFTs based on his ionic film Pulp Fiction. However, he was later involved in a major lawsuit with the film production company over copyright infringement.

Coinbase CEO announces documentary on cryptocurrency and exchange

Armstrong said that the documentary will capture “the good, bad, and ugly” of building a tech startup from the ground up.

Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong announced in a series of tweets on Oct. 4 that a crypto-centric documentary capturing his journey of building a tech startup from the ground up will be available Oct. 7 on Amazon Prime, iTunes, YouTube and other streaming platforms.

The documentary, Coin: A Founder’s Story, intends to pull back the curtain and show people what it’s really like to build a tech company from the ground up and encourage others who want to do the same.

According to the CEO, documentary director Greg Kohs and his team had “unprecedented access” to Armstrong’s company, capturing the crazy ups and downs over the span of the last three years. The announcement said that the documentary will capture “the good, bad, and ugly” of building a tech startup from the ground up to becoming a public company.

Armstrong shared, “I agreed to do this documentary because I wanted to demystify what it takes to build a tech startup and encourage more people to start companies. I also wanted to demystify crypto.”

The CEO also said he hopes to show that tech founders are just regular folk trying to create a product that people want, adding that “everyone working in crypto believes it can create a more fair, free, and global financial system.”

The CEO encouraged everyone to watch the film, including policymakers, as he believes it will help advance the cause of cryptocurrency, as well as show the motivations of many hard-working individuals steering the industry forward.

On Sept 26, Cointelegraph reported that blockchain company Veritaseum was suing Coinbase for $320 million dollars in an alleged patent infringement case.