The fleet of private jets that swoop into Cannes every May, from LA, Shanghai, Tokyo and beyond, bring the great and the good from the world of movies.
They come to the Cannes Film Festival to see this year’s latest crop of films and to be seen on the red carpet and at the glitzy parties that take over the southern French’s beach town’s famed Promenade de la Croisette.
Just as important, however, is the corresponding Marché du Film – which translated means, literally, the market of film – and is one of the largest film business events in the world.
And at this year’s Marché, the buzzword is most certainly Blockchain.
For the first time, the business forum has a ‘Blockchain Corner’ that is showcasing film financing and distribution models that use the new technology and is also running a series of blockchain discussions and conferences.
Screen Daily reported that SingularDTV is attending this year’s forum to tout its blockchain-based apps that aim to help filmmakers raise production money and then develop and distribute their content.
Also in Cannes is start-up Big Couch, based in both London and New York, that is selling its FilmChain collection service, that promises to use blockchain to allow filmmakers to trace a film’s transactions and also break down, analyze and allocate payments.
Perhaps the most ambitious is Slate Entertainment Group’s blockchain-based Video of Demand streaming platform, cutely named Binge, that its owners intend to use to take on the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime.
As if to show it’s market intent, Slate also used the Marché du Film forum to purchase the documentary Beyond Bitcoin for what was reportedly a “seven figure sum.”
The documentary, about the future of digital currencies and made by British director Jake Witzenfeld, follows the stories of crypto financier Ryan Radloff, blockchain academic Perianne Boring and early Bitcoin adopter Roger Ver over the course of a year and attempts to examine what potential blockchain technology will have beyond its use with currencies. The documentary is scheduled to air in 2019.
The Cannes Film Festival opened on May 8 and runs until to May 19.
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