NFT Film Platform Cineverse Promises to Boost Indie Film

variety.com:

Ed Meza @edmezavarThe founder of the blockchain-based film sales platform Cinemarket is launching Cineverse, an ambitious start-up that will make it possible for filmmakers, distributors and producers to market films directly using blockchain and NFT tech.Established by Cinemarket CEO Adrian Lugol and partners Vincent Lopez and Daniel Siegler (pictured), Cineverse will allow users to buy, share, gift, sell and resell films over the platform.The idea for the project came to Lugol during Christmas of 2020, when he wanted to give his young nephew some DVDs of his favorite films.

The plan was thwarted when he learned the family no longer owned an old-fashioned DVD player.“I was like, wow, how am I going to give you these movies in a simple way?” Lugol recalls.

Online access to some of the films was also limited, and unless you are still using DVDs, it’s not possible to give someone a movie as a gift, he adds.

Later, while running Cinemarket, Lugol realized that film licenses could be exchanged between two people. Already working with NFTs, or non-fungible tokens – non-interchangeable units of data stored on a blockchain – he began to explore how this technology could be used to also support independent filmmakers.“It was funny that at the same time we were developing that, the NFT trend exploded.”The growing frustration among indie filmmakers with the state of the industry has become very evident in recent years, Lugol says, from the bad deals offered by the major streamers and the increasing legal complexities of doing business to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on film festivals.“As soon as we threw out this idea to two or three groups of producers and directors, they all loved it.