We are incredibly grateful to everyone who took the time to review projects, share thoughtful feedback and help elevate emerging filmmakers. The response throughout the award has been remarkable, and we look forward to announcing the finalists soon.

During the review period, community members evaluated projects based on criteria including unique voice, visual quality, and originality. These reviews established the projects advancing as finalists. These 25 finalists represent the top 1% from the total submission pool. From here, the DCP Board and Sofia Coppola will review the finalists and select the award recipient.

The selected filmmaker will receive an award package designed to help bring their short film to life, including:

• $20,000 to produce a short film

• Mentorship support

• Marketing and P&A support

• Distribution of the completed film on DCP+

Stay tuned for updates on the finalists reveal!

DCP also recently sponsored a dinner with The Bay List at Cafe Zoetrope bringing together a talented group of writers and members of the local creative community. The same way that The Black List has helped to democratize visibility for writers around the world, The Bay List seeks to bring equity and access to Bay Area storytellers.

DCP's co-founder and acclaimed filmmaker Roman Coppola was also in attendance. The Bay List's Rafael Casal celebrated his attendance by stating "having Roman in the room with these writers was a true gift—one of those nights that stays with people long after it ends."

The Bay List and DCP are thankful to everyone who helped make the gathering possible. Let’s continue working together to uplift the Bay Area’s creative community and keep holding doors open for whoever comes next.

Learn more about The Bay List here https://www.thebaylist.org/

For more great DCP indie film content follow us on socials:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/decentralized_pictures/

X: https://x.com/DCP_Foundation

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@decentralizedpictures

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For independent filmmakers like Yaroslava, this kind of community driven recognition offers something rare: real validation from people who understand the craft, alongside funding that can be the difference between a passion project stalling out and actually reaching the screen.

We're thrilled to share an inside look at "Oh, Gran!" ("Ну, ба!"), a bold new film set in 1990s Ukraine that blends dark crime, absurd comedy, and raw family drama in a way you won't see coming. The story follows a hardened young gangster tasked with smuggling contraband human organs across the border, only for her fiercely loving grandmother to turn the whole mission upside down (quite literally cooking the evidence into cutlets).

Beneath the chaos is something much more tender: a story about grief, unconditional love, and the fear of leaving things unsaid before it's too late. We sat down with writer and director Yaroslava Velychko to talk about where this story came from, what she hopes audiences take away from it, and what recent recognition from Decentralized Pictures has meant for the project. Here's what she shared.

What first inspired this story?

The idea came to Yaroslava spontaneously six years ago, during her third year studying directing, when an assignment called for a comedy. She never developed it further at the time because the full scale invasion of Ukraine began, and comedy no longer felt appropriate. Later, after losing both of her grandmothers to illness while living far from home in the Czech Republic, she found herself unable to film anything at all. When she was finally ready to create again, the only story she wanted to tell was about her relationship with her grandmothers. Given how much tragedy already surrounds daily life, she didn't want to tell this story through pure drama. Dark comedy, the genre she'd originally imagined it in, felt like the right way to communicate something difficult in a lighter, more human way.

Sasha and her grandmother share a unique and unforgettable relationship. What does she hope audiences take away from their journey together?

Yaroslava hopes viewers walk away thinking about their own grandparents and parents, and recognizing that these are often the people most ready to offer unconditional love, even when it's hard to accept because of generational gaps or old resentments. For her, the film is about finding a way to connect with the people you didn't choose but were given at birth, the ones who, paradoxically, are the ones you can rely on most.

The story explores grief, love, and the fear of leaving important things unsaid. Why was this theme especially meaningful for you to explore?

This theme comes directly from Yaroslava's own life. She never told her grandmothers she loved them while she had the chance, having believed at the time that love was shown through actions alone and didn't need to be said aloud. Now she understands how essential it is for people to actually hear those words, and that's the urgency she wanted to capture in the film.

How has receiving this recognition from Decentralized Pictures impacted the project?

Given how personal and, in her words, controversial the story's premise is, Yaroslava was uncertain how audiences would respond. The recognition from Decentralized Pictures gave her confidence that the story resonates, both with audiences and with industry professionals. She read every comment left on the review page and found each one valuable. Beyond the exposure, even modest funding makes a real difference for an independent passion project like this one. She's hopeful this recognition helps the film find its way to larger festivals and, ultimately, to an audience.

Finally, what advice would you give to fellow filmmakers currently developing their own projects?

Yaroslava's advice is simple: find your people, and once you do, hold on to them tightly. She also encourages fellow filmmakers to nurture the courage to bring their wildest ideas to life and never doubt their vision, echoing the words of Ukrainian writer Ivan Bahrianyi: "The brave always have luck on their side."

"Oh, Gran!" is a film about the messy, absurd, and deeply human ways we hold onto the people we love, and what happens when we wait too long to say what matters. Yaroslava Velychko's personal journey, from a shelved comedy assignment to a story shaped by real loss, gives this project a rare emotional honesty beneath its dark humor. We're excited to keep following "Oh, Gran!" as it makes its way toward festivals and audiences, and we can't wait to share more updates soon.

Link to "Oh, Gran!" project at Decentralized Pictures: https://app.decentralized.pictures/project/6a11e333fde507ae320ebf62

For more great indie film content follow us on socials:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/decentralized_pictures/

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TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@decentralizedpictures

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To ensure the community has sufficient time to discover and thoughtfully evaluate the unprecedented volume of proposals received, the community review period has been extended through July 31, 2026.

This extension accommodates experienced technical delays in reviewing resulting in important infrastructure updates designed to support the increased activity on the platform and create a smoother experience for reviewers. With so many projects to explore (over 2000), the additional time will give each submission a greater opportunity to be discovered, reviewed, and considered by the community.

During the review period, community members will evaluate projects based on criteria including unique voice, visual quality, and originality. These reviews will help determine which projects advance as finalists. From there, the DCP Board and Sofia Coppola will review the finalists and select the award recipient.

The selected filmmaker will receive an award package designed to help bring their short film to life, including:

• $20,000 to produce a short film

• Mentorship support

• Marketing and P&A support

• Distribution of the completed film on DCP+

Updated Timeline

Community review ends: July 31, 2026 11:59pm UTC

Recipient announcement: Approximately 14 days after the community review period ends. Dates remain subject to change.

Thank you again to all the creators who submitted to the Sofia Coppola Short Film Award and to the community members taking the time to discover, evaluate, and support their work. We look forward to seeing the review process unfold and celebrating the projects that advance.

Anyone with a DCP account can review submitted projects. Create a free account at Decentralized.Pictures and begin reviewing today.

Review Sofia Coppola Short Film Award submissions here:

https://app.decentralized.pictures/awards/69f23a0d135d93fd8103add6

And don't forget to follow us on our socials!

We are grateful to every filmmaker who submitted a project, shared their talent, and helped make this award such a tremendous success. The enthusiasm and creative energy surrounding this opportunity continues to be inspiring, and we’re excited to move into the next phase of the process.

With submissions now closed, the award will continue to accept community reviews. Reviewers will evaluate submitted projects based on unique voice, visual quality, originality and help determine which projects advance as finalists. From there, the DCP Board and Sofia Coppola will select from the finalists to determine the award recipient.

The selected recipient will receive an award package designed to help bring their short film to life, including:

$20,000 to produce a short film

Mentorship support

Marketing and P&A support

Distribution of the completed film on DCP+

Community review ends: 14 days after submissions close

Recipient announced: Approximately 14 days after community review ends (dates subject to change)

Thank you again to all the creators who submitted to the Sofia Coppola Short Film Award. We look forward to seeing the community review process unfold and celebrating the projects that move forward.

ANYONE WITH AN ACCOUNT AT DCP CAN BE A PROJECT REVIEWER. SIGN UP FOR FREE AT DECENTRALIZED.PICTURES

Review Sofia Coppola Short Film Award submitted projects today at:
https://app.decentralized.pictures/awards/69f23a0d135d93fd8103add6

For more information on the Review Process see DCP's terms of service (Evaluations and Reviews):

Terms Of Service - Decentralized Pictures

These Terms of Service ("Terms") apply to your access to and use of the https://decentralized.pictures/ website and all sub domains, proprietary global filmmaking platform built on the public Base Mainnet (the "Platform"), mobile application and other online products and services (collectively, the "Services") provided by The Decentralized Pictures Foundation, Inc.

https://www.decentralized.pictures

This extension is intended to give in-process projects additional time to finalize their submissions and complete edits to existing projects. Please note: no edits will be allowed during the final 24 hours of the submission period, so creators are encouraged to complete any remaining updates as soon as possible.

Thank you to all the creators who have helped make this award such a tremendous success. We are grateful for your enthusiasm, participation, and the creative work being shared through this opportunity.

What the award includes:

The selected recipient receives a package built to move a film forward:

• $20,000 to produce a short

• Mentorship support

• Marketing and P&A support

• Distribution of the completed film on DCP+

Key dates

• Submissions open: April 30, 2026

• Submissions close: July 2, 2026

• Community review ends: 14 days after submissions close

• Recipient announced: ~14 days after community review ends

• Film completion: TBD

Click on this link to submit your project now
https://app.decentralized.pictures/awards/69f23a0d135d93fd8103add6

If you're new here, visit our website to learn more about us!
https://www.decentralized.pictures/

And don't forget to follow us on our socials!

Decentralized Pictures has intentionally created DCP+ as a creator-first distribution platform designed to help filmmakers earn more while maintaining control of their work.

At its fundamental core, DCP+ gives filmmakers a new way to distribute their films without sacrificing IP ownership. Creators retain full IP rights under a transparent cost-plus structure. As a nonprofit platform, DCP+ targets returning 90% of revenue back to creators, while offering greater transparency, flexible pricing, release windows, and geoblocking control.

But DCP+ is more than just a place to stream films. It is built to help films find audiences.

DCP+ Distribution Award in now Live!

To celebrate the launch of DCP+, Decentralized Pictures is inviting filmmakers to submit a scene or mix of scenes from a completed film for the opportunity to receive complimentary DCP+ distribution and additional benefits.

The top 5 voted projects will receive:

Complimentary DCP+ distribution
DCP promotional support, including social media coverage, podcast interviews, and newsletter features
DCP+ swag
Optional P&A support to assist with project marketing for recipients who opt for exclusive distribution through DCP+

Submission Guidelines

Filmmakers must submit a scene or mix of scenes between 2–5 minutes from a completed film.

Eligible submissions may be any genre or duration within the MPAA rating system. All subject matter must adhere to DCP’s Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. Films must either be in English or include English subtitles.

Evaluation Criteria

Projects will be evaluated based on:

Originality
Production Quality

While not required, DCP also recommends that submitters include a short statement sharing who they are as a filmmaker (helps the reviewers connect with the creator) and what excites them about distributing on DCP+.

Key Dates

Submission Start: May 29, 2026
Submission End: July 29, 2026
Review Ends & Recipients Announced: 14 days after the submission period closes

A minimum of 40 submissions is required.

Submission Fee: $10 USD

DCP+ is here to give independent filmmakers a more transparent, flexible, and creator-focused path to distribution. We are excited to see the projects this community brings forward.

Create a free account and submit to the award : https://app.decentralized.pictures/awards/6a19a8338e8b2555b9018066

If you're new here, visit our website to learn more about us: https://www.decentralized.pictures/

And don't forget to follow us on our socials!

During our time at the festival, we introduced filmmakers and industry partners to DCP+ (now in beta), our new streaming and distribution platform designed to help creators retain more control, capture more revenue, and grow their audiences beyond the traditional gatekeeping systems.

Filmmakers were especially excited by the platform’s core promise: a creator-first distribution platform built around equitable revenue sharing, audience growth, transparent cost-plus structure, IP protection, and flexible VOD streaming options. In conversation after conversation, we heard the same challenges from independent filmmakers: distribution is difficult to access, revenue calculation is often unclear, marketing support is limited, and creators too frequently feel disconnected from the long-term value of their work.

DCP+ was created to help address those challenges.

Through its revenue-sharing structure, DCP+ is designed to ensure that more value flows back to the creators who actually make the work. DCP is targeting to return 90% of revenue back to the rights holders. Its built-in growth engine gives filmmakers tools to help activate audiences and expand reach, while IP protections help creators maintain ownership and control over their projects. With VOD support including TVOD, SVOD, and soon AVOD filmmakers have options to bring their films to viewers while participating more meaningfully in the success of their work.

At Cannes, the excitement around DCP+ was about more than technology. It was about possibility and hope for a better future for their films.

For many of the filmmakers we met, DCP+ represented a platform that understands the realities of independent filmmaking today. It offers a more transparent, creator-aligned approach to distribution and audience building—one that supports filmmakers not only at the point of release, but throughout the life of their work.

“DCP+ feels like a platform built for filmmakers by filmmakers, which is not the norm in this industry.”

- Christina Morelli y Ulla Prida, Producer

“DCP+ is providing filmmakers with the tools and the space to create art for the audiences they truly want to reach.”

- Gabrielle Di Bernardo, Producer

As a nonprofit dedicated to empowering the next generation of independent filmmakers, Decentralized Pictures has always believed that great stories can come from anywhere. DCP+ is a major step toward giving those stories a more sustainable path to audiences around the world.

We are grateful to everyone who connected with us in Cannes, shared feedback, asked tough questions, and celebrated this next chapter with us. The enthusiasm around DCP+ reaffirmed what we already believe: filmmakers are ready for tools that protect their work, reward their effort, and help them grow.

This is only the beginning.

We look forward to continuing to build DCP+ and plan to launch the full production product in the coming weeks.

As Sofia said, "we love hearing from unique voices, and with the help and insight of the DCP community, we're confident that we will recognize a standout filmmaker."

What the award includes:

The selected recipient receives a package built to move a film forward:

• $20,000 to produce a short

• Mentorship support

• Marketing and P&A support

• Distribution of the completed film on DCP+

What we're looking for

A confident visual sensibility, an instinct for storytelling that feels personal and unique to the filmmaker's identity.

The submission itself is straightforward: a short video sample representing your voice — a scene, a visual excerpt, or proof of concept — and a one-page project description for the film you want to make.

A pitch video is optional but encouraged! Who you are as a filmmaker, what inspired this project, who influences you and your craft.

Submission fee: $25 (includes moderation and peer review fees)

How the selection works

Your submission enters our community-driven platform, where peer reviewers evaluate each project on originality, visual quality, and unique voice. The community shortlists the finalists, then Sofia Coppola and the DCP Board select the recipient.

Key dates

• Submissions open: April 30, 2026

• Submissions close: June 30, 2026 (extended if minimum submission count is not reached)

• Community review ends: 14 days after submissions close

• Recipient announced: ~14 days after community review ends

• Film completion: TBD

Ready to submit?

Click on this link to submit your project now
https://app.decentralized.pictures/awards/69f23a0d135d93fd8103add6

If you're new here, visit our website to learn more about us!
https://www.decentralized.pictures/

And don't forget to follow us on our socials!

Imagine a time when Bitcoin was just $250 and San Francisco was still somewhat sane. That’s the backdrop of The Crypto Castle, a new comedy web series that dives into early crypto culture with laughs, awkward roommate moments, and maybe one person asking the important question: “Is this weird subculture actually real life?”

The Crypto Castle follows Viv, a twenty‑something outsider who accidentally moves into a house full of crypto‑obsessed roommates in San Francisco around 2015, the exact moment Bitcoin was just starting to turn heads. Think Silicon Valley meets New Girl, but with more whiteboards, more Soylent, and definitely more crypto bros.

From loud dreamers to self‑declared future tech moguls debating the universe in the living room, Viv’s journey is equal parts hilarious and surprisingly thoughtful. It’s a story about people more than tech, about the friendships, dreams, and absurdities that come with trying to figure out the future while sharing fridge space.

“I lived in the Crypto Castle for four years and watched these boys get rich. I kept a journal. I should’ve been investing. So ten years later, I turned it into a comedy series… to cope.”

-Viv Ford

At the heart of the series is Viv Ford, comedian, storyteller, and the person who actually lived through something very much like this. Her real‑life experience in a crypto‑centric house inspired both her solo comedy show New Kids on the Blockchain and now this scripted comedy series.

Viv blends observational humor with a genuine curiosity about the people drawn to technological optimism and somehow makes a group of quirky, chaotic roommates feel like characters we’ve all known at some point.

“The most shocking thing isn’t that I lived with 14 crypto bros. It’s that I stayed for four years. But imagine this: you move into a house in 2015 San Francisco because you’re desperate for housing. Everyone sounds insane. Then a month later, their ‘Bitcoin’ doubles. Two months later, it triples. And suddenly you’re not thinking, I need to leave. You’re thinking… what if they’re right? And what if I leave too early? So… you stay.”

— Viv Ford

Getting The Crypto Castle off the ground wasn’t just about creative spark. It also got a boost from Decentralized Pictures. Together with the creator, they helped bring the first season of this quirky comedy to life, supporting its development and helping it get in front of audiences.

“This show exists because Decentralized Pictures took a chance on a very chaotic, very real story about early crypto subculture. Let’s go back to when it was cool. Wait, was it ever… cool?”

— Viv Ford

The entire first season of The Crypto Castle is available now on YouTube as a convenient way to catch up on the series. Episodes follow Viv and her crypto‑obsessed roommates as they navigate Bitcoin, AI experiments, and the chaos of early tech culture. For the full experience and access to future seasons, the show will soon be streaming on DCP+, the platform from Decentralized Pictures dedicated to supporting creator‑driven content and giving audiences a more connected way to follow the series.

Throughout the week, the Decentralized Pictures team connected with dozens of filmmakers—from first-time directors to seasoned indie veterans—and one theme came up again and again: distribution remains the bottleneck. Filmmakers spoke candidly about the frustration of finishing a project only to face a fragmented landscape of streamers, aggregators, and gatekeepers. Many shared concerns about unclear revenue models, limited visibility and exposure, and the challenge of standing out in an oversaturated market.

But alongside those challenges, there was real momentum.

At the Hollywood in the Heartland reception, conversations shifted from frustration to possibility. Filmmakers were eager to learn more about how Decentralized Pictures is approaching both financing and distribution differently. Our financing awards continue to resonate as a transparent, merit-driven pathway to funding—especially for creators outside traditional industry circles.

Equally exciting was the interest in DCP+, our upcoming streaming platform designed with filmmakers in mind. Creators leaned in on the idea of a curated ecosystem where discovery, community, and fair monetization are prioritized—not treated as secondary priorities.

If SXSW made one thing clear, it’s this: the next wave of innovation in film isn’t just about how movies are made—it’s about how they reach audiences. And filmmakers are ready for something better.

We’re proud to be building it alongside them and know some (hopefully many of these creators) will choose DCP+ for their distribution needs.

What also became evident on the ground was how differently that challenge plays out depending on where you are in the festival.

The contrast between venues was striking. At larger theaters like the Paramount, where headlining films premiered, many filmmakers already had international release plans in place. Distribution, at least on the surface, didn’t seem like an immediate concern. These projects had momentum, visibility, and in many cases, built-in pathways to reach audiences.

But in theaters like Rollins or Violet Crown, where truly independent voices were showcased, the conversation shifted. Here, distribution wasn’t an afterthought. It was the central question.

Through our conversations, filmmakers articulated this tension clearly. As GG Hawkins, director of I Really Love My Husband, shared: “One of the biggest challenges about distribution is that you have to be continuously marketing your film and getting it to the right audience. It’s very hard to do that if you don’t have a movie star in your movie.”

For many, especially those working in short-form storytelling, the challenge feels even more pronounced. “More attention to short films,” noted Renée Marie, director of Souvenir, “because especially with those, finding distribution is hard.”

Others pointed to the increasingly structured nature of the path forward. “With the distribution situation, there are concrete paths you need to follow nowadays,” said Marine Auclair, director of Gamberra, highlighting how navigating the system often requires as much strategy as creativity.

And for filmmakers like Otilia Portillo, director of Daughters of the Forest, the issue goes even deeper: “The film will be in a couple of festivals throughout the year, but it’s still an incredible challenge to distribute. I think at some point we have to reshape and rethink our model of distribution because the current model makes it very distant from actually accessing audiences.”

Beyond the theaters, SXSW revealed another layer of this shift. Filmmaking today doesn’t end with the film itself. It extends into the world built around it.

Across Austin, stories lived beyond the screen through posters, trailers, business cards, immersive activations, and even branded experiences. At panels, parties, and informal gatherings, filmmakers weren’t just presenting their work. They were building universes around it, constantly introducing and reintroducing their films to new audiences.

In that sense, cinema today feels less like a standalone product and more like a living ecosystem - one where storytelling, marketing, community, and distribution are deeply intertwined.

If SXSW 2026 made anything clear, it’s that making a great film is no longer the finish line. It’s the starting point. And the filmmakers shaping this new landscape aren’t just asking for better tools. They are actively redefining what the path forward can look like.

What first pulled Isioma into Àdá’s journey wasn't a plot or an image. It was a return.

§"Àdá’s journey began with me," Isioma shared. "I've always been a dreamer, quite literally. Since childhood, dreams felt less like sleep and more like visits... vivid, textured, sometimes poetic, sometimes unsettling."

Then the dreams stopped. For years, there was silence. When they returned, they did so with intention.

"They came with a weight, as if they weren't just memories of the night, but messages. Some echoed real life. Some predicted it... They felt alive. Present. Intentional."

For Isioma, the film wasn't just something she created, but something that insisted on being translated.

"It felt less like creating a film and more like translating something I had been living, sensing, and running from."

Two Timelines, One Becoming

The film moves between two geographies (England and Nigeria), but in conversation with Isioma, it becomes clear these aren't just settings. They're emotional and spiritual coordinates.

"It felt instinctive to build the film across dual timelines, because that's how I live," she explained. "I'm British-Nigerian, and my identity has always existed in motion, between two homes, two histories, two spiritual languages."

England carries the weight of structure and ritual. Nigeria holds spiritual clarity and ancestral return. Raised in England, Isioma grew up in Catholic schools and structures that shaped her moral language, but not necessarily her spiritual one.

Everything shifted when she visited Nigeria as an adult.

"That trip felt less like a visit and more like a calling. I began to understand that my dreams weren't random, they were ancestral... They existed in my bloodline long before I existed."

A Cinematic Language Built from Sound, Silence, and Spirit

At its core, In the Night I Dream is a sensory experience— a film that speaks through breath, pulse, and the echoes of ancestral presence.

That was intentional. The film has a lot happening, Isioma told us, and when there's a lot happening, there's at least one thing we need less of. For her, that was dialogue. She cut it out almost entirely.

Music carries the emotional spine of the story— the call, the memory, the haunting. This choice is deeply rooted in culture as well as personal identity. Music has always been a powerful expressive force within Nigerian and Black British communities, and Isioma honors that tradition with intention.

Sound becomes lineage. Rhythm becomes inheritance. The score becomes the bridge between waking life and the spiritual real.

Fashion as Cultural Language

One of the film's most striking, layered elements is its use of fashion— not as aesthetic decoration, but as a narrative device.

In the waking world, Àdá’s wardrobe is rooted in British culture: a blend of contemporary UK street style, diaspora expression, and the subtle codes of navigating European spaces while carrying an inherited inner world.

But in the dreamworld, the palette changes. Here, the wardrobe draws from rich Nigerian fashion: ceremonial fabrics, traditional patterns, bold color stories, and silhouettes that feel ancestral. The clothes in the dream life don't just dress Àdá— they recognize her, speaking to the lineage she is now returning to.

The wardrobe becomes a bridge between her worlds, a cultural compass that embodies an important theme in the film: you belong to more than one place, more than one language, more than one history.

Isioma's narrative choices, from music as dialogue and fashion as a symbol of return, highlight something essential about her: she's a multi-layered artist pulling from different mediums that shape her own story mirrored in Àdá's journey.

Horror in the Quiet Places

The film's horror-adjacent tone comes not from shock, but from uncertainty.

"What truly unsettles me is when reality feels unrealiable," Isioma said. "To me, horror isn't loud, it's subtle. It's the thing that lingers."

Her childhood memory— hearing her name called when no one had spoken— became the heartbeat of the film's atmosphere.

"That feeling, the questioning of what's real, what's imagined, and what might be spiritual... that's what guided me in the film's visual world."

So the horror becomes a flicker of a figure, a whisper that sounds almost familiar, a shadow that feels sentient, a silence that feels intentional.

"The atmosphere isn't designed to scare the audience, it's designed to make them feel what Àdá feels: pulled, questioned, called."

Onchain as Narrative Reclamation

"Narrative reclamation is at the heart of this film," Isioma explained. "For so long, stories about African spirituality have been told inaccurately... shaped through fear rather than truth."

Onchain spaces allow artists to bypass old gatekeepers, the ones who may not understand the nuance of diaspora experiences, and bring stories directly to the communities that hold them.

"Our communities are scattered all over the world, but onchain platforms allow us to gather in a way that is borderless and intentional."

Ownership is protected, authorship is honored, and value flows back to the creator. This is what drew Isioma to us here at DCP (and we couldn't be happier).

"I don't want to convert anyone through this film. I simply want us, as diasporans, to have access to our truths and to see beyond fear."

Full podcast interview to be published here.

Directed by Niek Theelen, this follow-up to the original documentary steps back into Alberta’s adaptive sports world, this time going bigger. We meet athletes in wheelchair rugby, basketball, sledge hockey, adaptive golf, taekwondo, and more. Some are competing at high levels. Others are just discovering the sport for the first time. But they’re all driven by the same thing: the feeling you get when you’re part of a team, chasing something that matters.

This isn’t just about overcoming obstacles. It’s about competition, friendship, long practices, and the pure rush of the game. Love of the Game 2 celebrates a community that keeps showing up, not because it’s easy, but because it’s worth it.

Q: What made you feel there was more story to tell after the first film?

From the beginning, I always felt like there was more juice left to squeeze. During lockdown, I couldn’t film group practices properly. I had to rely on interviews, found footage, and limited access spaces like the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.

When I finally assembled everything, I realized I had built a 75-minute film. But there were entire sports, like wheelchair rugby, more sledge hockey, even deeper skiing coverage, that I couldn’t fully explore. Love of the Game 2 is my opportunity to go back and do it the way I envisioned.

Q: How personal is this project for you?

Very. When I first moved to Canada, my introduction to sports was grassroots hockey. I was 14 years old playing with men in their 30s and 40s because there wasn’t a junior team. Eventually, that program disappeared due to funding and ice-time limitations.

That loss stuck with me. Seeing adaptive sports programs face similar funding challenges feels painfully familiar. This isn’t just a documentary, it’s an attempt to prevent those stories from quietly fading away.

Q: Beyond storytelling, what kind of real-world impact are you hoping for?

Of course, monetization matters. But the bigger goal is leverage. If this film helps an organization secure a grant for new equipment or expanded programming, that’s meaningful change.

High-quality documentation gives these groups something tangible to show funding bodies. It says: This is what we do. This is the difference it makes. If film can help keep even one program alive, that’s worth it.

Q: You’ve referenced the documentary Murderball. How does it influence your next project?

Murderball really captured the intensity of wheelchair rugby, the blood, sweat, and rivalry. It wasn’t sentimental. It was raw and competitive.

That’s something I want to explore more deeply in the next chapter. Adaptive sports are inspiring, yes, but they’re also adrenaline-fueled and fierce. I think there’s space to combine those emotional layers into something that feels urgent and cinematic.

Q: Where do you see this concept going next?

Right now, I’m keeping it local because these are the communities I know. But the concept is scalable. Adaptive sports exist everywhere, and so do underfunded grassroots programs.

I also love ending things with a bit of humor. I’ve been doing stand-up comedy since 2014, and that instinct always finds its way into my films. Even when you’re dealing with heavy themes - mental health, personal loss, identity - I think audiences deserve to leave with a smile.

There’s still a lot more juice to squeeze from this idea. And this next chapter might just be the most ambitious one yet.

Learn more about Niek and Love of the Game https://www.niekscomedy.com/home

Antoine Cathalau asks something...riskier: what if we imagined what could go right, and how to live in it?

Solars isn't just a film concept. It's a transmedia universe unfolding across writing, digital art, AI-assisted imagery, and eventually (if Antoine has his way) the cinema screen.

At its core, Solars explores a society dedicated to enlightenment and harmony, not as perfection, but as practice; with nature, with others, and within yourself.

Antoine calls it protopia.

Antoine believes imagination isn't neutral: it shapes engineers, coders, policymakers, creators...if we only imagine collapse, we rehearse collapse (herein lies the law of attraction).

The universe spans millennia. Characters resonate across time. A network society, inspired in part by decentralized governance and blockchain culture, connects individuals beyond geography.

Still, despite the digital scaffolding, Antoine is clear about one thing:

Solars is meant for cinema.

The theatre screen is its emotional home. The surrounding NFTs, digital objects, and onchain experiments are extensions, fragments of a larger mythology being built in public.

We spoke with Antoine about protopia, AI, decentralization, and why he thinks the future is something we practice, and not something that just happens to us.

Read on kids...it's worth it!

1. For those discovering Solars for the first time, how would you describe the project?

Solars is a transmedia sci-fi universe. It’s designed to live across cinema, writing, and digital formats. At its core, it explores a society dedicated to enlightenment and harmony, harmony with nature, with others, and with oneself.

I describe it as a protopia: not a fixed utopia, but a future that’s always in motion, always being built. It’s imperfect, dynamic, and constantly evolving toward something better.

2. The idea of “protopia” feels deeply personal. How does it connect to your own life and creative practice?

I think protopia applies to everyone. We constantly imagine better outcomes; for our lives, for our projects. Athletes do this through visualization, and I think creators do it too, often unconsciously.

Science fiction has traditionally focused on dystopia, what will go wrong. But sci-fi shapes imagination. It influences engineers, builders, and thinkers. I wanted to explore how imagining better futures could strengthen resilience instead of fear.

3. The visuals of Solars feel distinct, futuristic, yet calm. How did you develop that aesthetic?

I began working with AI tools about three years ago. They allowed me to represent things I simply couldn’t before, especially in a sci-fi context.

A big challenge was moving beyond the default tropes, violent or dark imagery, and instead creating serene, positive characters. I’m still refining a visual language that sits somewhere between painting and photography. It’s important to me that the audience understands this world isn’t “real”, it’s imagined, constructed, and intentional.

4. How does blockchain fit into Solars worldbuilding?

Blockchain enables participation and decentralization. It allows me to collaborate from the countryside, outside traditional industry centers like Paris, which would’ve been a real limitation before.

Beyond technology, there’s a culture here: remote collaboration, shared ownership, new forms of governance. That mindset aligns deeply with Solars philosophy.

5. What kind of experience do you ultimately want Solars to become?

My goal is cinema. I think in terms of the theater screen. Solars is meant to become a feature film and offer a new kind of theatrical experience.

There will be surrounding elements; NFTs, digital objects, extended worlds, but the main narrative lives in cinema. That’s where I imagine its emotional core.

6. What does success look like for you, twenty years from now?

I think of Infinite Games. The goal of an infinite game isn’t to win, it’s to keep playing.

If in twenty years I’m still creating, still evolving, and this universe has touched people across cultures and generations, then I’ll consider that success.

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Kyle and Angela didn't just fantasize about it... They did it.

After fifteen years living fully off-grid in the remote lakelands of Canada, building their own home and surviving winters that plunge to -53°C, the pair made another radical choice: trading ice and snow for the dense jungles of Panama.

Into the WilderVRS is a long-form adventure and education series that documents decades-long commitment to living close to the land and now it's shared through onchain storytelling. Read on to hear it straight from the source, Kyle himself.

1. Every adventure starts with a reason to leave. What first inspired you and Angela to live completely off-grid—and how did that decision evolve into Into the WilderVRS, a story worth sharing with the world?

Angela and I were not happy with city life.  We extended our canoeing trips longer and longer, paddling for months at a time.  Eventually we just decided to stay in the woods, where off-grid was our only option.  Into The WilderVRS evolved from the decades of home movies shot while on lengthy canoe trips, and really took form once Angela and I added to our story by putting down roots on a remote lake.    

2. Fifteen years in the frozen north, and now Panama’s tropical heat— that’s a radical shift. How has living in such extreme environments shaped not only your lifestyle, but the way you approach storytelling and visual language?

The key to surviving and storytelling in such environments is adaptation. I approach each journey with the intent of letting the story reveal itself to me in my travels. The wide open horizons of the Canadian lakelands and the cramped claustrophobic jungles of Panama are as different as fire and ice, so I strive for a thread of consistency with narration and the humorous disposition I try to bring to any situation. 

3. The series blends documentary realism with onchain storytelling. Why was it important for you to share this journey through decentralized platforms like DCP and Base, and what possibilities do you see for adventure filmmakers in the Web3 space?

I am no fan of popular video platforms. I don't want to be forced to enable random ads, or have my work policed by algorithms. I've always enjoyed being able to engage with my audience and reward them in ways only web3 makes possible, like airdrops, prize raffles, and NFT event ticketing.  With a shift towards AI, I see great opportunities ahead for adventure filmmakers.  Anyone organically documenting raw nature is going to stand out from a crowd of synthetically enhanced offerings.

4. Sustainability is at the heart of your story—both environmentally and creatively. How do you balance the challenges of self-reliance in the wild with the equally demanding process of filming, editing, and distributing your own content?

When Angela and I first began building our house in the forest, filmmaking (and everything else) took a backseat to construction and basic survival.   In the early years we didn’t even have running water or refrigeration, and satellite internet wasn’t available yet.  It took nearly 10 years to get to a place where we could devote meaningful time to our creative pursuits again.  Now that most of the hard work has been frontloaded, we're extremely comfortable, and daily chores are minimal. 

5. After so many years far from city life, what do you hope audiences, especially digital ones, take away from Into the WilderVRS? Do you see your story as a return to nature, or a redefinition of connection in a hyper-connected world?

Connection is such a loaded word.  Recently it's come to mean a device's network connection, or a contact list in an app, and little else.  The deep and ancient connection between us and the landscape is what I try to highlight on Into The WilderVRS.  Hopefully, viewers regain a sense of wonder, and are reassured that real meaningful connections are available to them when they put their devices down and get outdoors.  

That is the logline Charlotte Siller submitted with A Curious Idol to the DCP Award for Base Creators.

Kinda blunt... a little angry... very accurate.

Before we get into the details, here's a few things that stood out to me during my conversation with Charlotte.

1. Independent filmmaking is tough (I know, we've been here before), but, at the heart of it are the stories... and where better to find them, than in life itself?

2. In Charlotte's words, "human stories are not tied to a time." If it's still relevant 10 years later to you, it's most likely still relevant as a whole.

3. You don't need to do it fast. Take a bit of that pressure off!

4. Take a page out of Lulu's many brilliantly annotated books, and don't dilute yourself to fit someone else's standard. Guess what? Decentralization helps you do that ;)

Let's get to it, shall we?

PS: if you feel a rebel inside you stir, welcome.

Louise Brooks is mostly remembered as a silent-era icon. The irony is that she was anything but.

She was outspoken, incisive, and deeply unwilling to compromise. "My way or the high way"," as Charlotte puts it, while remaining "kind... warm, and wonderful" to the people she cared about. What history preserved instead was a fragment: the haircut, the image, the mythology. Somewhere along the patriarchy, the mind was forgotten.

A Curious Idol is on a mission to correct that imbalance.

Charlotte, researcher and filmmaker, isn't interested in retelling a familiar legend. She spent over a decade immersed in Lulu's archives, journals, letters, and marginalia, to honor Brooks' philosophy: the search for truth.

What first pushed the project beyond research and into filmmaking was the gap Charlotte kept encountering between Louise's own words and how she's portrayed today. In her journals, Brooks appears as a woman who read and annotated Proust repeatedly, published essays advocating for women in Hollywood when few dared to, and held herself to an almost ruthless standard of self-accountability.

Online, she's often flattened into a symbol, frequently filtered through the male gaze.

That contradiction made Charlotte angry. It also made the project necessary (10 years ago, today, and in the future.)

Because Charlotte never met Louise, she knew she couldn’t claim authorship over her truth. Instead, she built the film around Louise’s own voice and the testimonies of those who knew her best.

The result is a documentary with a research edge: interview-backed, archival, and intentionally resistant to myth-making.

During our conversation, Charlotte spoke about discovering Lulu in Hollywood while studying film history, and how shocked she was by the clarity and depth of Brooks’ writing. That moment led her deeper: into biographies, archives, and eventually into Rochester, New York, where Brooks spent her later years. What followed was years of digging through letters, journals, and fragments of a life Louise herself was actively trying to understand and preserve.

There’s a reverence in the way Charlotte talks about archives. Almost as if they're living things. Sitting with those materials, she says, was the most fulfilling experience she’s ever had. Not because it was nostalgic, but because it was honest.

Louise didn’t write to flatter herself. She wrote to see clearly, and above all, to learn.

That commitment to truth shaped everything about A Curious Idol, including how Charlotte thinks about ownership and legacy today.

Louise Brooks spent decades fighting attempts to possess her image. Thirty years after her death, those same struggles play out online: images recirculated, words stripped of context, meaning diluted through repetition. Charlotte half-joked that if NFTs and zero-knowledge proofs had existed in the 1980s, Brooks would’ve used them. But the point underneath the humor is serious: artists deserve agency over their work, even after they’re gone.

That’s where Web3 enters the picture.

Charlotte has worked in blockchain for most of her career, and she’s clear-eyed about its limits. But she also sees its strengths: transparency, provenance, and the ability to anchor a source of truth. Onchain distribution won’t solve every problem in documentary filmmaking, but it can protect context, preserve authorship, and help prevent the kind of narrative drift Louise’s legacy has endured.

What lingers most for Charlotte, after all these years inside Louise Brooks’ world, is her refusal to soften herself for acceptance. Brooks didn’t dilute her intelligence to appear palatable.

She stood up for other women, called out hypocrisy, and approached life with a sharp sense of humor.

That unyielding autonomy is the throughline between them.

A Curious Idol isn’t just a documentary about Louise Brooks. It’s a reclamation of voice, authorship, and really, of self.

Here's to more of us learning to not dilute ourselves, kids.

Matt: Before we get into the award—take us back. How did BizarreBeasts actually begin?

Dylan: It really started in 2018. Kate and I were both unemployed, and instead of chasing the next job, we decided to build something meaningful. We started painting and illustrating—no roadmap, just creating. Over time, it grew into sketchbooks full of characters, canvases, story ideas… this whole bizarre universe.

Matt: At what point did you realize this could be more?

Dylan: In 2021. Kate looked at everything I’d made and said, “You should really pursue this.” With her background in fashion, merchandising, and music, it clicked. We launched BizarreBeasts straight out of my sketchbook—art, games, media—and now moving into animation.

Matt: How did you discover Decentralized Pictures?

Dylan: I found DCP through the Base Creators Award. At first, I thought it was just a funding opportunity. But once I dug in, I realized it was about validation, mentorship, and building onchain with intention. That felt like exactly what we were doing.

Matt: Let’s talk about "The Moment". What was going through your head before, during, and after the award announcement?

Dylan: Honestly? I thought we lost even though we knew the top 3 finalists went to a committee for final decision. The leaderboard said we were in second place. But during those two weeks, the community support already felt like a win. Then we got the call—and everything changed. It wasn’t just about the money. It was about realizing this project had real momentum.

Kate: Ten minutes later, we were crying, hugging, calling family. And it was really good for my mom, because she's just been dealing with a lot of health issues over the last couple years. And this really, in a way just kind of overtook all that. Our kids were there. His parents were there. Everyone was yelling “Boom!” It was pure joy.

Matt: So… what’s next?

Dylan: We’re getting to work. Over the next few months, we’re producing 5–10 animated shorts for DCP+, each introducing characters, stories, and original music.

Beyond that, we’re building a full transmedia world—games, learning content for kids, merchandise, and onchain creative experiences.

Matt: Incredible! Final thoughts for other creators reading this?

Dylan: Building onchain gave our work community, culture, and continuity. It turned creating into something shared. That’s everything for a creator.

And that’s why we’re here.

Strategic Vision

Through awards, technical development, and social engagement Decentralized Pictures in 2025:

• Continued empowering independent storytelling with financial and mentorship backing.

• Scaled and modernized its platform by migrating to Base to better serve its global creator community.

• Amplified voices and projects through media showcases and social outreach.

Awards

Arts3 Foundation & CV Summit Web3 Startup Award #2: This award is intended to accelerate startups and web3 based technology/products that aim to advance & promote the Art & Entertainment Industry. The recipient receiving $100,000 to advance their project was Bizarre Beasts by Dylan Yarter.

Andrews/Bernard #3: Directed by the Drextons, Sour Party was awarded $100,000 in completion funds from acclaimed filmmaker Steven Soderbergh.

Horror Filmmaking Initiative: Two recipients (each receiving $25,000 to produce their short):

• Dana Never Had a Brother — directed by Destinee McCaster, LA transplant Olive visits her girlfriend Dana’s idyllic suburban hometown for the first time, only to find herself treading inescapable dread as she uncovers increasingly concerning parts of Dana's childhood.

  

• Festered — directed by Marc G. Ros, a young woman cleans her recently inherited estranged father’s apartment, determined to put it up for sale, but a malicious presence emerges, forcing her to confront a festering wound from her past.

  

Additional Recognition ($15,000):

• Breeder — directed by Sapphire Sandalo, a horror film about the Tikbalang rooted in Filipino folklore with psychological depth.

  

RIBBON Full Short Awards:

• An initiative to support Ukrainian filmmaking from RIBBON and Decentralized Pictures.  Recipients of the award and $20,000 were Oasis of Good Things by Anastasia Falileieva, Dirt by Lada Kopytova, On a Steep Cliff by Taras Spivak, and The White Cliffs of Vinnytsia by Karolina Uskakovych.

FujiFilm Aspiring Filmmakers Award - Phase 2:

• A Baitless Hook in a Fishless Pond by Camilo Buitrago and Steve Deery — this project won the Phase 2 award and $5,000 to produce their film using the Fujifilm gear received in Phase 1.

  

Community Micro Short Award: 3-5 minute micro-short film or music video created over the last 3 years which perhaps didn't get shared or publicly viewed. Recipients of the award:

• Cuatro Gatos En Una Caja by Steve Deery

• Lullaby of Ukraine by Alexander Sparinsky

• High by Snoop Dogg x Nifty Films by Jason Charnick

DCP Award for Base Creators: Award created for Base Creators to publish their work onchain. Recognized projects were Bizarre Beasts, A Curious Idol, Into the WilderVRS, Darien, Knots of Trust, The Fragmentation, Solars, The Buendia Family, In the Night I Dream, and Blueberry Muffin Baby.

Filmmaker Assistance Grants: multiple awards receiving $1500 to use on anything to advance their art.

Truly a banner year for awards at DCP!

Base Migration

In 2025, Decentralized Pictures completed a major migration of its platform infrastructure to Coinbase-backed Base, a scalable Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain. This upgrade enables:

• Lower transaction costs

• Faster performance

• Simplified account onboarding (including social login)

• Preservation of user reputation and token balances

• Upgrade from the old FILM token to the new TALNT token on Base. This was a pivotal technical milestone toward broader accessibility and scalability for DCP.

Events

ETH Denver: With Base team, co-hosted screening of Cold Wallet with cast and crew from the film.

Festival de Cannes: Decentralized Pictures was actively involved in Cannes Next, the innovation-focused arm of the Marché du Film. DCP+ was highlighted showcasing the team's vision of leveraging decentralized ledger technologies and community-centric financing models for broader participation and fairness in film financing and distribution.

Base New Day One: DCP, on stage with Base, shared how Decentralized Pictures is empowering filmmakers through community-powered funding, and how RevU is leveling up reputation systems onchain. One step closer to a more transparent and fair future for the creative world.

Looking to 2026

All we can say is, get ready. We will deploy DCP+ in 2026 and the streaming world for independent creators is about to be forever changed - for the better.

Still, there’s no better place to take nostalgia-tinted walks down memory lane than when you’re procrastinating. Ironically, in my attempt to procrastinate via daydreaming, I ended up here. 

It’s December, which means my brain is contractually obligated to drift into sentimental territory (it happens often anyway). Something about the colder days, earlier nights, and the general “everyone is slightly exhausted but pretending it’s festive” vibe makes nostalgia inevitable.

And because I’m apparently incapable of daydreaming without turning it into work (a tragedy, I know), I ended up thinking about this time of year and how it’s always framed as a kind of reset. Not in a dramatic "rebirth of the cosmos" way, but maybe in an “okay, we made it through another year, let’s try again” way.

That’s the version of “rebirth” I like, just a little less pressure, a little more value for the time and effort we’ve been putting into our lives the past year. 

And because I end up turning my daydreaming into work, it made me think that’s how this moment at DCP feels. The industry has been in a long season of “figuring itself out,” and finally (finally) there’s this sense of movement again.

DCP+ is at the heart of that. Not the dramatic saviour of cinema (we'll leave that to the think pieces), but a real, practical next step for filmmakers who have been waiting for something to break the cycle. A platform that actually gives creators momentum instead of draining it. It’s literally, in every meaning, what’s next. 

And being part of building that? It’s made me feel that small, hopeful reset too. The kind where you look at the year ahead and think “I have a plan”. There are things worth making. There are people worth building with, and for. 

So, from my over-lit office, squinting into the fluorescent void, I’m entering 2026 with warmth (in spite of the lighting design) grateful, excited, and genuinely honoured to be part of this shift.

Here’s to the return of the light, the long-awaited momentum, and a year that already feels brighter. 🥂✨

Happy Holidays everyone, 

With love, 

Fatima 

But Tie Me (k)Not isn't about sexuality. It's about something far harder to talk about: the courage it takes to surrender control, to trust another human being, and to confront parts of ourselves we were taught to keep tightly bound— metaphorically, that is.

So what happens when you literally bind yourself?

For filmmaker Umut Vedat, the rope becomes a language, a way to revisit generational wounds, even the ones he didn't realize existed. Tie Me (k)Not is a rewriting of a story of fear into one of consent, breath, masculinity, and quiet transformation.

And instead of keeping that journey behind closed doors of traditional film development, Umut chose to begin in public: onchain.

Knots of Trust is the genesis NFT collection expanding the universe of the feature film Tie Me (k)Not: a series of visual and sonic fragments minted on Zora (and others), each transforming moments of intimacy into artifact— and collectors become custodians of these moments.

"The genesis collection for 'Knots of Trust' emerged from practical limitation and a creative desire... putting the first fragments onchain allowed me to partially reverse the process. Instead of developing only the film behind closed doors, the story could open itself in real time to a community that collects, supports, and shapes fragments of the journey."

Rope, Breath, Memory: Turning Sensation into Cinema

Translating Shibari into visual language could so easily have become sensationalized. That's not what Umut is doing.

"Rope (Shibari) is visual, but the truth of rope is somatic. It lives in breath, micro-movements, hesitation, and surrender."

The film doesn't simply reveal bodies, but what the body remembers. Instead of depicting the physicality of being tied, Umut works with impressions: analog distortions, suspended loops of light, the emotional residue of touch rather than the spectacle of it.

The rope? It becomes a psychological threshold.

"I focus on the internal feeling... The goal was not to fetishize the act but to reveal its emotional intelligence."

To understand the emotional weight of these images, you have to open yourself up to the deeper themes driving this project: trust, control, and (to Umut's initial surprise), the rigid mold of masculinity.

During our conversation, Umut shared something unexpected: masculinity was not something he thought he'd tackle in this project. But, the deeper he went, the more he realized things about himself. His need for control, resistance to vulnerability...the quiet fear embedded in the masculine script so many are handed from birth.

Being tied— essentially naked, exposed, surrendered— forces every preconceived notion of manhood to crack open. It challenges the idea that strength is rigid, silent, and self-contained. Instead, it asks: what if strength is the ability to let go?

Shibari becomes a mirror. You're essentially materializing your fears, physically giving up control and surrendering to the point where you have no choice but to trust someone else.

What happens then? That is the story that makes up Tie Me (k)Not, and Knots of Trust launches it all.

Born From a First Wound

"I was born through a traumatic delivery that nearly cost my life and my mother's...my first experience of the world was literally being pulled out by force."

That left a lifelong imprint that shaped fear, control, and masculinity for Umut. Shibari became a way to revisit that imprint intentionally, safely, and with consent. It offered a reversal, Umut said, a form of surrender that's safe rather than imposed.

Knots of Trust carries that duality: danger and softness, tension and release... and at the heart of it: trust, and choice.

Why Onchain?

Well, we've mentioned this once or twice, but the industry today essentially says "wait".

Wait for approval, wait for funding, wait for institutions to understand what you're trying to say.

Umut's project doesn't have that kind of relationship with time, nor does it fit a specific commercial mold.

"Subjects like Shibari, consent culture, kink, and intergenerational trauma are often seen as "commercial risks". Traditional funders ask for dilution: soften it, explain it, sanitize it. Onchain, no one asks for permission to be honest."

With Web3, Umut was drawn to three things: freedom, immediacy, and shared ownership.

"A filmmaker can release the first 24 frames of the film today and find support today... Collectors don't just watch the film; they literally co-own its earliest pieces. They become emotional stakeholders. They join the narrative before the world does— not just by financing it, but by having a piece of its DNA in their wallets."

That relationship between the filmmaker, the film, and the viewer becomes a living ecosystem, not a hierarchy. It's taking crowd-funding to the next level.

A Community That Holds the Artist, Not Just the Work

"I want early patrons to feel like they aren't just supporting a film— they're helping shape one."

Holders will gain access to unseen fragments, discussions around themes like vulnerability and masculinity, and collaborative onchain experiments that expand the cinematic universe. Not to control the story, Umut is clear on that, but to create resonance.

"The goal is to build a space where the emotional universe of the project expands beyond the cinema screen."

For a story built on surrender, there's something poetic about being held (or bound) creatively, spiritually, communally, by those who believed in it first.

With this project, Umut is living in a new kind of cinematic architecture: transparent, participatory, vulnerable, and defiantly honest.

Stay tuned for our TALNT Cast episode with Umut as we dive deeper into the themes of Knots of Trust!

What started as one artist's hand-drawn outsider creatures slowly turned into a full onchain universe: a community, a token, mini-games, comics, music, and now BizarreBeasts is the first place recipient of the DCP Award for Base Creators! A new chapter is on the horizon: short animated films bringing BIZARRE worlds to life.

BizarreBeasts is one of the strongest examples of what creator-owned, onchain storytelling can look like: weird, human, handcrafted, and powered by community.

We had a chat with Dylan, the creator behind it all, to talk art, worldbuilding, and why decentralization feels like the right home for this universe.

1. Every universe starts somewhere. What first sparked BizarreBeasts?

BizarreBeasts started as an exploration into merging my love for outsider art (Basquiat, Jean Dubuffet) with the passion for cartooning and illustration that shaped me growing up, like Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson) and Rocko's Modern Life (Joe Murray).

I've never had formal art training, but I've been drawing and creating my whole life: learning to illustrate cartoons and comics as a boy, launching a screen printing shop in my 20s, then transitioning to painting, ink, sculpting, and mixed media in 2018 when my wife and I founded our art studio.

The first BizarreBeasts illustration came to life in August 2021. Over the following years, I created 50+ canvas paintings and 300+ ink and digital illustrations.  All by hand, all original characters, all darkly humorous outsider art with characters that felt both BIZARRE and uncomfortably human. This was years before any involvement in Web3. Just paint, ink, and paper.

The digital expansion began in 2023, when I started bringing my artwork onchain, and in 2024, I taught myself to code using AI tools. Those original paintings and illustrations became the foundation: every game character, every NFT, every animation frame traces back to my original sketchbooks. Since then, I've launched 50+ NFT collections, built 9 original games with over 152,000 plays, and grown a community of 1,800+ collectors and 6,800+ token holders. But the art came first. Everything else was built from that.

2. Your world spans games, comics, animations, and music. How do you keep the raw, hand-drawn energy consistent?

The BizarreBeasts ecosystem does have a lot happening: games, music, NFTs, tokens, comics, animations, meme tools, sticker collections, and a full miniapp.(www.bizarrebeasts.io).

But the handmade energy stays alive because every asset, across every medium, starts as a hand-illustrated image. The game characters? Hand-drawn frame by frame. The meme stickers? 100+ individual illustrations. The character animations? Built from original artwork.

The balance comes from treating "hand-drawn" not as an aesthetic choice but as a disciplined practice and brand choice. If I can't trace a piece of content back to my sketchbook, it doesn't belong in the BizarreBeasts universe.  It's the unique voice of BizarreBeasts that shapes everything else.

3. You’re now expanding into short animated films. What excites you most about bringing the Beasts to life onchain?

Giving these characters actual voices and movement and letting people experience their personalities and their world rather than inferring them from still images. Animation adds emotional weight and fuels imagination. A BizarreBeasts universe with moving, reacting, speaking characters, and original music is a world viewers and collectors can actually live in.

The onchain dimension changes the relationship entirely. When viewers experience BizarreBeasts media as co-owners through onchain collectibles, rather than passive audiences just viewing the media something impactful occurs. Through decentralized technology and community-powered distribution onchain, the BizarreBeasts characters and media become shared cultural property. This transforms "viewership" and “content consumption” into community and shared ownership.

4. BizarreBeasts runs heavily on community and tokens. How does Web3 change the artist-collector dynamic for you?

The traditional art world has a one-way relationship: artist creates, gallery sells, collector owns, audience observes from a distance. Traditional media works the same way: viewers consume content, platforms extract value, and audiences have zero ownership stake in the things they spend hours engaging with. You can watch a show for a decade, play a game for thousands of hours, and walk away with nothing but memories. The relationship only flows in one direction.

With BizarreBeasts, collectors aren't just buyers; they're community members who participate in daily rituals, create memes with project assets, compete in game and meme contests, and hold tokens that give them actual utility and voice in the ecosystem. The $BB token isn't just tradeable, it unlocks features, enters contests, and earns rewards based on engagement, not just holdings.

BizarreBeasts

Learn about the artist and innovator behind BizarreBeasts - a web3 creative universe built on community, coins, and culture.

https://bbapp.bizarrebeasts.io

Decentralized platforms make the relationship horizontal rather than hierarchical. My collectors aren't patrons keeping an artist afloat from above.  They're collaborators building something alongside me. When someone mints a BizarreBeasts NFT, collects a post on Zora, or supports my Paragraph blog, they're not just acquiring art and project media, they're joining a BIZARRE universe and helping shape what it becomes.

5. There's a darkly funny, deeply human vibe to all the Beasts. What keeps you exploring that strange edge?

Because it's where I actually live. The BizarreBeasts is a personal artistic evolution to explore art styles and humorous artistic themes.  The characters are reflections of how I see the funny and unique side of the world and others, including myself. We're all a little uniquely bizarre when you look closely enough. We all have that uncomfortable space between who we present to the world and who we actually are. The characters just make that gap visible in a way that lets us laugh at it instead of hiding from it.

What I hope the community takes away is permission to be BIZARRE, and truly themselves. Web3 already attracts people who don't quite fit the mainstream mold: builders, artists, collectors, and digital travelers who see value where others see noise. BizarreBeasts gives that energy a home and a visual language. When someone connects with a BIZARRE character, they're not just appreciating art they're recognizing something true and fun about themselves that doesn't usually get acknowledged. All with a community of BizarreBeasts doing the same thing!

Go be BIZARRE.