Sundance Film Festival embraces blockchain and crypto film initiatives

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

This year, Slamdance Film Festival, an Oscar-accredited film festival for independent 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, CEO of Untold.io, told Cointelegraph that filmmakers, as in the case of Fuzzy Head, can use blockchain technology to democratize their funding process and open investment opportunities to both accredited and non-accredited investors.

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

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

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

This isn’t the first time a film festival has seen crypto and blockchain components in films premiering. In 2019, the Filmio blockchain platform attended the old Sundance Film Festival to scout projects for its blockchain-based entertainment platform.

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

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

Aksu said the use of blockchain-based tools by older directors and major festivals gives visibility to these tools for independent filmmakers who will greatly benefit from them.

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

Last year, film director Anthony Hopkins sold off 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 later became embroiled in a major lawsuit with the film production company due to copyright infringement.