Shane Boris, Academy Award Winner, to Produce Crypto Film Funded by Arbitrum Foundation

Crypto in the Film Industry

The foundation supporting Ethereum scaling solution Arbitrum is financing a feature film about crypto by Oscar winner Shane Norris. The film, dubbed “New Here” will be produced by crypto-friendly emerging media company Dpop studios. It will examine digital art from the perspective of a new user spiraling into the crypto rabbit hole. Boris recently won last year’s Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for his work on Navalny. The film follows the events leading to the allegedly state-sanctioned poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Boris enthused about his new project on an X Space with the Arbitrum Foundation on Wednesday.

The American film producer said he relishes the opportunity “to look at what NFTs and NFT artists are doing more deeply, and see the possibilities of what this new mode of creation is capable of.” Boris added that the film will profile certain artists and influencers working in the space. He hinted at a style that will experiment “with all different types of creative modalities and storytelling structure, and ideas of how to allow a film or piece of art to find, reach and create new audiences.” Boris even hopes to redefine the boundaries of film itself: “If we’re going to tell new stories, we have to have new ways of telling them. We’re embracing an ethic of finding the medium that matches the story we want to tell.”

Crypto: Revolutionizing Film Financing

Part of blockchain’s promise is that it offers new distribution methods to creative artists. Musicians and visual artists have been road-testing the tech for a couple years now. There are now numerous NFTs representing sales of music, short films, and digital art. But another Web 3 strength that may prove a boon to artists is financing. Recently, blockchain tech has helped crowdfund several big projects. NFT sales crowdfunded Calladita (The Quiet Maid), the debut film by Spanish filmmaker Miguel Faus. Decentralized Pictures Foundation, a Web3 film financing NGO founded by Ford Coppola’s son Roman, was one of its biggest backers, contributing $100,000.

Crypto-funded films could soon be sweeping the Oscars, too. Last year’s Academy Award for Best Short went to Irish Goodbye. While it wasn’t financed by crypto, its fundraise was facilitated by First Flights, a crowdfunding organization that just completed a successful NFT raise for a new short. The company has now switched to an NFT funding model.