MetaCannes: How Web3 Is Leading the Next Wave for Filmmakers
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MetaCannes: How Web3 Is Leading the Next Wave for Filmmakers
The MetaCannes Film Festival will be held online from May 16 to 29, aiming to showcase the possibilities of the emerging Film3 movement.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy: Mattis Meichler
Compiled by: TechFlow
Unlike Cannes' iconic Promenade de la Croisette and Palais des Festivals, the "Villa des Ministres" has historically hosted prominent French figures ranging from government ministers to writer Romain Gary. During the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, another kind of creator— independent filmmakers and directors—gathered in the villa’s garden to launch the inaugural MetaCannes Film Festival.
Held online from May 16 to 29, the MetaCannes Film Festival aimed to showcase the potential of the emerging Film3 movement. Organized by the Web3 crowdfunding platform FF3 and Web3 studio The Squad, it featured feature films, short films, panel discussions, and recorded conversations with leading figures in Film3.
Just as evolving film technology gave rise to the French New Wave cinema of the 1960s, Web3 is now fostering the Film3 movement.
"I like to think of it as the next wave in cinema," said Jordan Bayne, a Film3 pioneer and filmmaker. Dissatisfied with how the film industry operates and having discovered cryptocurrency in 2015, Bayne founded the creative collective Film Squad to explore how independent filmmakers could leverage Web3 to overcome the challenges they face.
Bayne also hopes to use Web3 to empower underrepresented groups in the film industry, she explained. "The Squad was born out of our attempt to solve the pain points faced by filmmakers like me—women, LGBTQIA individuals, Black filmmakers, people of color, and other diverse communities," she told Decrypt. "I think this will be revolutionary."
For her, Web3 offers something traditional Hollywood doesn't—"empowerment for creators across creation, financing, and production," she said. "Because you can leverage your community to amplify and promote a project."
Community and CryptoPunks
Miguel Faus is a filmmaker who seized the opportunities brought by Web3. The Spanish director is currently in post-production on "Calladita," the first European feature film funded through NFTs.
The 30-year-old Faus has already directed two short films—"The Death of Don Quixote" (2018) and "Calladita" (2020), the latter acquired by HBO for distribution. After discovering NFTs during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, Faus realized they could be used to raise funds for a feature-length version of "Calladita."
He decided to create an NFT collection featuring images and sequences from the short film, selling them via a dedicated platform and gaining support from NFT communities such as CryptoPunks. As a CryptoPunks owner himself, Faus rallied around 250 members from that community, along with participants from other communities including Bored Apes, Nouns DAO, and Mfers.
In total, the "Calladita" crowdfunding campaign raised nearly $750,000; an additional $100,000 came from a completion grant awarded by Steven Soderbergh, the director of "Ocean's Eleven," and provided through the Web3 film fund Decentralized Pictures.
While he is now exploring the best release channels for "Calladita," Faus is eager to give back to the community that supported the project. "I want to grow together with the community and make community members feel proud," Faus said. "I’m excited they’ll soon be able to watch the movie. And then, maybe we can make a sequel," he added, noting he has already launched a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) for holders of the "Calladita" NFT collection. "We launched Calladita DAO, which will hold 50% of the film’s revenue, so we hope holders will actively participate in financial management and supporting future projects."
Nick Sadler, co-organizer of MetaCannes, believes the community aspect of Film3 is crucial. As co-founder of the Web3 crowdfunding platform FF3, Nick Sadler served as executive producer of the Oscar-winning short film "An Irish Goodbye," which screened as part of MetaCannes. "Film3 gives a large group of independent filmmakers hope—they previously felt they had no option unless signed by Amazon or Netflix," Nick Sadler told Decrypt. "And it's a great community where people can come together."
"Creators Can Change the World"
"If you change the world for creators, creators can change the world," said Stephen Murray, founder of Bingeable, a decentralized film marketing and distribution platform. An early advocate for decentralization in the film industry, he discovered the Film3 movement in early 2022. "I fell in love with this community," Stephen Murray said. "I realized they already understood what I wanted to do. I started talking with them and piecing together ideas about how to change the world for creators."
Bingeable plans to launch its first two films on the platform in August and October; the project aims to provide filmmakers, actors, soundtrack artists, influencer NFT holders with their own channels to directly sell VOD rentals or NFTs to their social media followers, sharing generated revenues with their communities.
"The difference between what the traditional industry has done for 125 years and what Film3 is doing is that we’re choosing to shift the power balance," Stephen Murray said. "From distribution mechanisms back to creators and their communities—we’re simply saying that creation holds more value than markets and distribution. That’s the philosophy and spirit of Film3 I’ve fallen in love with."
However, Film3 still faces challenges to overcome; the ongoing cryptocurrency bear market has dampened enthusiasm for Web3 technologies like NFTs and highlighted how far Web3 still must go before going mainstream. "Web3 holds many promises and opportunities," said Phil McKenzie, co-founder of streaming platform MyCo and co-organizer of the MetaCannes Film Festival, while acknowledging "we live in a Web2 world." For Phil McKenzie, the key to promotion lies in "bringing these two worlds together and building bridges—that’s why interacting with producers, distributors, and film agents at Cannes is so important."
The Film3 movement has gained backing from some heavyweights in the industry. While Wes Anderson’s "Asteroid City" premiered at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, co-writer Roman Coppola joined Decrypt to discuss Decentralized Pictures, the Web3 film fund he co-founded. Over the past year since its launch, DCP has distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, backed by filmmakers including directors Steven Soderbergh and Kevin Smith.
For Coppola, Film3 is following in the footsteps of the French New Wave, Italian Neorealism, and postwar Japanese cinema that nurtured Akira Kurosawa’s career. "All of these emerged from communities; the French New Wave was a gathering of writers and filmmakers helping each other," he told us. "To me, the beauty of filmmaking lies in that sense of community; my dream is for DCP to spawn a subculture of cinema," he added, noting that community members are already helping one another on the platform’s Discord, critiquing each other’s work. "It’s about human connection," he said. "I hope this will bring about films that otherwise wouldn’t have been made."
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