DEFIINE Brings Crypto To Cannes With Financing Solutions For Independent Films And Hosted An Eminent Reception On The Croisette

The Event Marked The 12th Anniversary Of The First Bitcoin-Pizza Transaction.

(Cannes, France) – May 24th, 2022.  DEFIINE, a new company created by industry veterans in the Film and Crypto space, Charlie Shrem, Tom Malloy, and Shyam S. Sengupta, was publicly introduced during the Marché du Film in Cannes.

DEFIINE is a digital finance solution for films, leveraging assets and IP against crypto liquidity pools. To mark the beginning of this venture, DEFIINE hosted an eminent reception at Vegaluna on the Croisette. This highly curated event was by invitation only and was sponsored by Glass House Distribution and MintLayer

More than 150 distinguished guests attended the event including Michael Terpin (serial entrepreneur and investor in the blockchain world), Jean-Barthélémy Bokassa (author), Mohamed Hefzy and Daniel Ziskind of Film Clinic, moguls of Arab cinema, amongst others. Were also present team members Rob Deege (head of worldwide sales) and David Josh Lawrence (head of acquisitions) at Glass House Distribution as well as the sponsors Andreas Kohl (CBDO of MintLayer) and Courtney Warner (actor, producer).

Charlie Shrem is one of the Bitcoin pioneers, being one of the original founding members of the Bitcoin Foundation. Tom Malloy is an independent film guru, the CEO of Trick Candle Productions, and the president of sales/distribution company Glass House Distribution, and Shyam S. Sengupta is a partner at award-winning CinemaWerks Entertainment and a producer of BAFTA and Emmy nominated films, television, and interactive.

“We felt there was a lack of access to funding for independent film, whether it be in the early stages of development, the latter stages of post-production, or during the sales cycle,” says independent film guru Tom Malloy.  

“Leveraging assets through a crypto-based protocol aims to solve that problem,” adds crypto mogul Charlie Shrem.

“We noticed that integrating crypto and film seemed to be on everyone’s mind, yet the crypto companies didn’t seem to have connections to viable film assets, and the film companies didn’t have access to the gatekeepers of crypto. DEFIINE bridges that gap,” explains tech minded producer Shyam S. Sengupta.

Thanks to DEFIINE, producers can now exploit a portion of their film to be leveraged against a group of digital assets. Investors can then stake funds on these assets to earn significant APYs and profit from investing in movies. As a result, filmmakers can now have access to liquidity on their projects, easily and quickly.

As the future of NFTs and Film is in constant evolution, the team behind DEFIINE is collaborating with other companies that have made notable progress in that development.  By creating a system where assets can be leveraged by a stable coin token (tokens that are stable at $1 USD), it will allow investors to stake that token and gain an APY much higher than any bank, with reduced risk. Therefore, the “tokenomics” of the protocol are very easy for investors to understand. 

This is a unique and new form of leveraging assets that has not been done before in the film business.

“Our event at Cannes brings major crypto players who are in town for a crypto conference in Monaco taking place over the second week of Cannes, as well as film industry veterans and leaders. The two worlds will merge at our event during the festival and film market,” adds actor and producer Courtney Warner, Charlie’s wife, who’s been involved in crypto since 2013 (and is also one of the sponsors of the soirée.)

Aside from having successfully completed their first two productions using this model (Ask Me To Dance, where Shrem was EP, Malloy was producer/director/star, and Warner was a supporting lead, and Trauma Therapy: Psychosis, a thriller by the same team), DEFIINE is also in development on almost a dozen other film projects, including the upcoming crime drama Interstate 35, co-repped by Verve and UTA.

During the Marché du Film, DEFIINE is looking for new film projects in advanced stages of development, as well as crypto investors who want to be involved in the film world.

To know more about DEFIINE, please visit their website www.defiine.com.