The fund will focus on selecting the top genre short films in horror, thriller, sci-fi, and action
Press Release
Cannes (May, 22 2023). Bitpix TV, the streaming platform associated with the esteemed HollyShorts Film Festival, has partnered with the decentralized content ecosystem, myco, to establish a feature film development fund. This fund, launched in Cannes during a special reception at the Villa Des Ministres and is open to filmmakers worldwide. Attendees included Solomun Golding, Producer of this year’s Cannes Film Festival official short film selection Killing Boris Johnson, and Richard Lawson’s Black Terror feature film cast and team.
In its inaugural season, the fund will focus on selecting the top genre short films in horror, thriller, sci-fi, and action. These selected films will be showcased on the myco watch and earn streaming platform. myco will track the views and votes, and the three short films with the highest number of votes will receive comprehensive support packages for their feature film development.
These packages will include funding, consulting, mentorship, and production support from Goldfinch, an independent finance and production company. The finalists and winners will be announced at the 19th edition of the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival, taking place from August 10-19, 2023, at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
This collaboration strengthens myco’s mission to provide high-quality, award-winning content from emerging filmmakers. As they expand their catalog to include short and feature films, TV series, user-generated content, live sports, and podcasts, myco continues to establish valuable partnerships within the industry.
Both HollyShorts and myco already have existing partnerships with Goldfinch. This initiative marks the second fund in which HollyShorts will collaborate with Goldfinch, as they are currently in the midst of the First Flights Short Film Fund. Last year’s winner of the First Flights Short Film Fund, “An Irish Goodbye” by Tom Berkeley and Roos White, went on to win the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
Additionally, myco and Goldfinch announced their partnership in the summer of 2022. Since then, they have made several follow-up announcements, including the funding of the Number 44 slate of genre productions, a documentary on the FTX crash in collaboration with Decrypt Media, and a fund for South Asian filmmakers with The Bridge 8 at the end of last year.
Phil McKenzie, Co-Founder of myco and COO of Goldfinch, expressed their vision, saying, “At myco, we seek partnerships that not only provide us with content but also establish relationships with the next wave of creative talent, particularly those exploring alternative distribution models to find and engage their audience. Our watch & earn model offers improved economics for both creators and viewers, and with our rapidly growing global user base, we are excited to present an enticing alternative to established platforms.”
Theo Dumont and Daniel Sol stated: “The launch of this fund marks another important milestone for HollyShorts. When we created this festival 19 years ago, we had one key mission—to create real tangible opportunities for filmmakers, we’ve been able to do that each year and today, thanks to our friends at myco and Goldfinch we are taking that goal to another level, creating a financing vehicle for the best short films to turn into features. The initiative is in the power of audiences as they decide who makes the cut. We are excited to see which projects will earn the top rankings at the end of this first season!”
HollyShorts and its production arm 88th Street Productions now have 5 revolving film finance facilities in total worldwide. The festival has an ongoing fund with The Seattle Film Summit (SFS) and is currently in production on 2 short films from that partnership. The Festival and 88th St have co-produced 7 shorts with SFS. HollyShorts and 88th Street continue to run their short film fund with Hawk Films in the UK with that fund’s third season currently running. 88th Street also has a 3 picture per year feature film financing agreement with Epic Dread.
Bitpix TV serves as the streaming arm of HollyShorts and its sister festival, the Hollywood Comedy Shorts Film Festival, which recently completed its 7th edition. The platform offers consumers and filmmakers an online festival viewing experience while showcasing outstanding short films from around the world throughout the year. In the past year, HollyShorts had four alumni films nominated for Oscars, with one winner (“An Irish Goodbye”).
HollyShorts boasts an impressive list of alumni filmmakers who have won Oscars, including Ben Proudfoot, Aneil Karia, Travon Free, Guy Nattiv, Rayka Zehtabchi, Marshall Curry, among others. The festival’s alumni and award recipients include renowned names such as David Lynch, Matthew Libatique, Jessica Biel, Anna Chazelle, Zachary Quinto, Travon Free, David Dastmalchian, Janina Gavankar, Jennifer Morrison, Stephanie Laing, and many more. Bitpix TV is led by Theo Dumont, Daniel Sol, and Steven Adams.
About myco
myco is a web3 video streaming, funding, production, and distribution platform where viewers earn from watching content, and creators earn from creating content. It is a fully decentralised video ecosystem that offers live monetisation, crowdfunding, gating NFTs, and fractional ownership of content. The platform has AVOD enabled and will soon launch SVOD and FAST capabilities. Additionally, myco pioneers an elevated content experience through the creation of the Cineverse.
The platform has almost 2 million registered users from across the globe, 500 leading content creator channels, and more than 100,000 user-generated videos, as well as a collection of original film productions (MyOriginals) and premium exclusive content. The myco platform is run through its native cryptocurrency (MContent), which is available on the BNB Smart Chain (BSC – BEP20), and is trading on multiple exchanges.
About Goldfinch
A family owned and operated group of companies, we back talent and ideas. Based in London and international in scope, we are a commercially minded team that gets things done. Goldfinch is a leading independent entertainment financier with a track record that covers direct investments through ‘Goldfinch Finance’ of over $200m, generating $500m gross value of production. We’ve been involved in the financing of 300+ productions since inception in 2014, with many going on to win awards and critical acclaim. We draw on our finance, creative, legal and business expertise to provide Executive and Co-Production services though ‘Goldfinch Entertainment’.
We operate an auteur-driven genre production label called ‘The Number 44’ as well as our ‘Selectors’ incubator that finds, develops, and co-produces fact-based stories across audio, non-scripted, and scripted Film & TV productions in partnership with some of the leading journalists in the industry. Lastly we nurture emerging talent and fund Oscar and BAFTA winning short films through ‘First Flights’. These all complement our group philosophy of supporting and empowering creators and the creative community from a strong commercial base.
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