Steven Soderbergh Presents Blockchain Award to NFT-Funded Film ‘Calladita’

While Web3 has yet to catch on outside of the cryptocurrency space, Film3 had a big moment in the spotlight in Park City, Utah, on Saturday when ‘Calladita,’ a new film by director Miguel Faus, was named the winner of the Andrews/Bernard Award .

Established by acclaimed director Steven Soderberg and the Decentralized Pictures platform, the award provides $300,000 in post-production funding to notable English-language films and shorts.

“Winning this award from Steven Soderbergh is a dream come true for me and the entire Calladita team and community,” said Faus Decrypt via direct message, adding that he believes Film3 is the future of independent cinema and is the reason “Calladita” exists.

“Calladita” tells the story of Ana and, according to Faus, is a portrait of the Catalan bourgeoisie, with a mixture of realism and satire.

“The film touches on themes of class difference and injustice from a deep and sophisticated perspective, moving away from simple clichés and caricatures,” Faus wrote in the film’s description.

Unlike traditional films, the team behind Calladita financed the film using NFTs. This practice took off in 2021 and 2022, as other filmmakers, including iconic directors Spike Lee and Kevin Smith, turned to digital collectibles to fund films and drive engagement.

“This film started as a crazy idea in my mind that I might be able to finance my first film through an NFT collection, and a few months later, thanks to 500 geniuses on the internet who believed in us and created our NFTs, we had to make the movie,” Faus said. “To have it now awarded by a legend of independent cinema like Steven is a dream come true.”

With NFTs, film productions can create unique digital assets and sell them to collectors, investors and fans. Now, instead of just buying a ticket, movie lovers can own a piece of digital movie history while directly funding the next Hollywood blockbuster.

“What blockchain allows us to do is not only fairly and transparently determine who is most deserving of the funding we offer,” Decentralized Pictures co-founder Leo Matchett said during a panel at the Film3 on the Mountain conference, held in conjunction with the annual Sundance Film Festival . “But it also has this incentivized behavior mechanism built in.”

Joining Matchett for the panel discussion — moderated by Decrypt Studios’ Alanna Roazzi-Laforet — were fellow Decentralized Pictures co-founders Mike Musante and Rebecca Barkin, president of metaverse platform Lamina1.

“The use of tokens goes back to, how do you get people to vote? How do you get them to spend time reviewing the projects?” said Musante. “So we created a symbol that is the incentive to get people to vote.”

Launched in the summer of 2021 by Mike Musante and producers Roman Coppola and Leo Matchet, with a $50,000 documentary funding award from The Gotham Film & Media Institute, Decentralized Pictures is a blockchain-based platform where filmmakers can submit film pitches, pay a contribution fee in the project’s original token, FILMCredits (FILM).

In April 2022, Soderberg funded the $300,000 grant on the Decentralized Pictures platform. At the time of the launch, he told IndieWire that he was interested in seeing if blockchain film financing works. For “Calladita” it did.

While the world may not be ready to buy a monkey JPEG, the idea of ​​directly funding and supporting their favorite creators could be the spark that launches a Web3 and Film3 revolution, creating a direct connection between filmmakers and their audiences.