“Iconic movie festival and web3 conference brings the power of metaverse events to the fore.”
Set against the backdrop of the iconic Cannes Film Festival, and for those who couldn’t get to the sunny shores of the French Cote d’Azur, Decentraland, the NFT Movie Festival was an opportunity for film and NFT communities to come together to discuss the generational entertainment shift to Web3 gathering momentum in Hollywood.
Created by RLTY and the WAGAS group, the festival combined high level networking with an immersive metaverse experience. Over the course of 12 hours, 2,134 people from over 28 countries attended, further strengthening the demand for metaverse events and highlighting the power of the RLTY infrastructure for creating them.
Held in a fully customized 3D building in Decentraland, attendees could network, learn about NFTs, IP and Web3 and understand how they are changing the Hollywood production narrative. If that wasn’t enough, they could also buy NFTs, livestream the conferences and watch movies in the penthouse. You can understand why everyone at RLTY was so excited about this project.
Bringing together speakers from some of the world’s most innovative companies and a selection of celebrities and movie lovers at the intersection of tech and entertainment, attendees were treated to expert insight from Changpeng Zhao, Binance CEO, Tejas Chopra, senior engineer at Netflix, Sylvain Theveniaud, Benjamin Benita, and our very own Raphael Assouline, RLTY co-founder.
But it was the On-demand Movie experience on the rooftop that got most tongues wagging. Specially designed for the event, the VIP area and movie experience showed off the capabilities of the RLTY suite of building tools and demonstrated the next stage of metaverse event experience.
Users were able to pay via Paypal in Europe and Wechat in Asia to access the VIP room. Once inside, an avatar was on-hand to show guests through a carousel of all the movies on-demand. Then it was just a question of choosing which movie to watch and sitting back as it was projected across three giant screens:)
Why was the NFT movie festival such a success? Why are Hollywood and the wider film industry so interested in NFTs and Web3?
The answer is found in the shifting sands of technology and entertainment. An increasingly fractured market where viewers are swamped with choice, coupled with the continued increase in the quality of television, the seventh art is suffering from a crisis of confidence.
In a bid to bring excitement and community engagement, the movie industry is increasingly looking at ways NFTs can be used for funding, merchandising, marketing and even storylines and character arcs.
And this isn’t the future. Plush is the first animated film to be funded by NFTs. For an initial mint of €1250, holders will receive a share of 80% of the worldwide box office profits.
Other projects go beyond funding.
Co-created by Mathew Lillard (Scream, Scooby-Doo), The Midnight Movie Club claims to be the first decentralized movie studio where the community (NFT holders) will decide on which projects are funded and who will direct. Further incentives to join will include access to behind the scenes content and an educational portal for the next generation of writers and directors.
Flinch NFT is on a mission to revolutionise cinema by using NFT’s to give a community ownership of a movie franchise and the Hollywood experience.
As well as funding movies, NFT collections themselves are being turned into feature movies. Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production studio is teaming up with World of Women to create various IP including movies and TV series. Witherspoon has said NFT holders will have a say in the creation process.
From inception, funding and the first draft, to marketing, merchandise and global release dates, the Hollywood future could be one where all decisions are decided by holders of NFTs and executed via smart contract. Cinema will become more grass roots, the power will shift from the marbled streets of Beverly Hills to the fans. Which is perhaps how it should be?
