World First: Beach Cities NFT Film & Art Festival
Independent movie fans love film festivals the same way comic book fans love Comic-Con. These festivals are where you go to find out what’s hot and who’s been working on a film – and most of the time, they’re precursors to the popular award season. Want to know who has a legitimate shot at an Oscar this year? A film festival is probably where you want to be.
Over the years, film festivals have grown significantly. The Cannes Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and more generate millions in revenue and are usually the talk of the town when they’re held. And now, like many other parts of the movie industry, these festivals have started to embrace non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
In 2023, the city of Newport Beach, California will play host to the Beach Cities NFT Film & Art Festival – the very first NFT film and art festival in the world. It could mark a new age for the movie industry, underscoring just how Web 3 is changing the art world.
Introducing: The Beach Cities NFT Film & Art Festival
There are many more benefits of NFT film and art than we mentioned above, and as time goes on, filmmakers and artists will definitely find even more ways to capitalize on this new technology.
However, the Beach Cities NFT Film and Art Festival is expected to bring all of these benefits under one roof, and to a single location. The occasion is expected to be the world’s first festival on NFT film and art, and it will be held in the spring of 2023 in Newport Beach – a coastal town in California located less than an hour away from Hollywood itself.
The Beach Cities NFT Film & Art Festival is the brainchild of Kim Jeong-jung, a South Korean movie director and screenwriter. He is partnering with Kevin Muldoon, the Mayor of Newport Beach, to create what he sees as the world’s first festival on NFT film and art.
Bringing NFTs & The Metaverse To Everyone!
According to the festival website, it will bring leading filmmakers and artists in Hollywood as well as aspiring industry players together to network and discuss ways to use NFTs to improve their fields.
The event has been billed as a metaverse festival, with metaverse-based movie screenings and art exhibitions. However, as Kim believes, the primary objective will be to educate both industry players and members of the public on how these innovative technologies can help to transition the movie and art spaces into the digital world.
So far, the festival is yet to announce a lineup of movies and art that will be displayed. However, the entire event is expected to cover the following parts…
NFT Art Fair
The NFT art fair will feature works from 40 artists, all of whom will be chosen through an in-house selection process. These artists will get the chance to showcase their NFT artwork and auction their pieces to members of the audience.
In general, there will be five Los Angeles-based exhibition artists, each of whom will show five different pieces. There will also be 35 international artists who will be invited to showcase their work through the exhibition.
The exhibitions will be divided into two parts:
- Real-Life Exhibition: This will take place at the Newport Beach Civic Centre at a date to be announced later. It will be free to all attendees.
- Metaverse Exhibition: Two weeks before the real-life exhibition, the Beach Cities NFT Film & Art Festival will also conduct an art exhibition in the metaverse. In total, 60 pieces will be sold at this exhibition, and all attendees will be able to vote on the best work to get an award.
NFT Film Festival
Filmmakers and movie fans, this one’s for you!
With its NFT film festival, the Beach Cities NFT Film & Art Festival will invite leading Hollywood directors to share their ideas and showcase some of the NFT movies they’ve got in the pipeline. 10 upcoming filmmakers will also be chosen to debut their work, with screenings being divided into two sessions:
Yacht Movie Screenings
Cruise on a yacht, sip on some wine, and watch a movie as you listen to the waves. What could be better than that?
This festival is going all out, providing a yacht premier screening for all selected movies. Actors and directors will be able to present their work to attendees, with each yacht being assigned a mentor to host the screening.
All in all, two yachts will set sail for five days across the entire festival. Each yacht will host one movie, followed by a networking dinner and a cocktail hour.
Metaverse Movie Screenings
Tired of boring old cinema screens? Take a trip to the metaverse and enjoy your favorite titles!
With the metaverse movie screenings, attendees will be able to watch their selected NFT movies in the virtual realm. These screenings will also feature exclusive Q&A sessions where audiences will be able to interact with filmmakers, and the latter will be able to provide commentary on their work.
Attendees will also be able to get film posters designed by Spencer Crossland – a Los Angeles-based tape and resin artist. These posters will serve as entrance tickets to the metaverse screenings, and they will also come with voting rights, allowing their holders to vote on their favorite movies of the screenings. Each winner in every category will be given an award, just like at Cannes and the TIFF.
Kim believes that blockchain technology can be the driving force that helps to transform the entire movie and art landscape. With the Beach Cities NFT Film & Art Festival, we could also see a new age of product exhibitions that give traditional film and art exhibitions a run for their money.
Featured image by Gustavo Zambelli on Unsplash
