NFT communities greenlight Web3 films: A decentralized future for fans and Hollywood

The traditional film industry is one of the most centralized and traditional of them all. Just a handful of movie studios and streaming conglomerates control the lion’s share of the global film market. 

But nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and a growing crypto-centric community of enthusiastic filmmakers might just disrupt the industry. 

Some independent projects offer a glimpse into Web3 filmmaking, while others provide a window into distribution. Decentralized streaming also demonstrates what community-based film development and exhibition might look like in the not-so-distant future. Thanks to the popularity of NFTs, the Film3 ecosystem is about to evolve beyond its embryonic stage. Although the trend is very fresh and a multitude of kinks need to be worked out, keep an eye on this emerging crypto sector as it continues to pick up steam. 

Start the tape

During panel discussions at the Cannes Film Festival in May, director Miguel Faus talked about how he’s using NFTs minted from his short film Calladita to finance a million-dollar feature of the same name. In 2019, Faus produced his short film with fiat using traditional crowdfunding. Today, he’s selling tiered NFT packages to subsidize the feature-length movie. “The intended budget is $950,000. So far, we’ve raised $650,000 all through NFT sales. The goal is for all the funding to come from NFTs,” Faus tells Magazine.

Filmmaker Mark O’Connor, also a panel participant at Cannes, introduced his first Web3 distribution model at the film festival: the Stalker Movie Pack, an NFT version of the 1990s-era DVD movie pack. 

In 2012, O’Connor produced and directed the psychological thriller Stalker. The feature film subsequently won the Underground Cinema film festival and, in 2014, was released on DVD in Ireland. Still, O’Connor wanted the film to be fully independent and opted not to release it internationally. Eight years and a thriving NFT ecosystem later, O’Connor fully controls the intellectual property and believes that this traditionally crowdfunded film “will be the future of how movies are distributed.” 

Do filmmakers really need decentralized filmmaking?

According to O’Connor, it’s all about controlling the intellectual property. Often, Web2 filmmakers find themselves in circumstances where they lose control of their IP. Losing control of the rights to a film also means losing access to its potential profits.

O’Connor believes that there is a “waterfall system” currently operating in the industry. “When you release a movie in the traditional way, the cinema will take 70% and then, out of what’s left the distributor takes 15%. Then you have to pay sales agent fees and different fees,” O’Connor says. At the end of the day, a filmmaker with a successful project can often wind up with no share of the profits.

Faus tells Magazine that filmmakers often create the IP and do all the heavy lifting, only to become contracted employees temporarily attached to their own projects. “Writer and directors like myself start with an idea, develop a whole project, write a script, do the whole thing, make the movie, direct it, but end up doing all of that as work of hire for a company, or a producer or a financier that is the actual owner of the film, and sometimes that system is not great.” 

Faus believes that Web3 filmmakers can utilize the power of their communities to finance movies in a decentralized way. When a like-minded community gets behind the project and opts to support it, it greenlights the film. There are no studio executives and no deep-pocketed gatekeepers, Faus adds:

“Filmmakers can decide together with their community how the power of owning the IP, and the ownership of the film, is going to be used both financially and strategically.”

Where to see a Web3 film?

Filmmakers who prefer full control of their IPs require a decentralized space to stream their projects, an independent technical solution that doesn’t milk…