Jonathan Keltz, Miguel Faus, Stephen Murray
New film and television platform Bingeable announces the release of “Calladita”, the debut feature film from Miguel Faus, on July 23rd in North America. The Spanish-language satirical drama was produced by Calladita Films, Potenza Producciones, and Decentralized Pictures (Coppola family).
"Calladita" was written and directed by Miguel Faus which stars Paula Grimaldo, and features Ariadna Gil ("Pan’s Labyrinth"), Luis Bermejo, Pol Hermoso, Violeta Rodriguez, and Nany Tovar.
Decentralized Pictures Co-Founder, Roman Coppola, said, “We are excited for North American audiences to discover Miguel Faus's unique film, 'Calladita', one of the first feature films supported by Decentralized Pictures and a departure from the traditional way movies are financed, produced, marketed and sold. We hope that it will be the blueprint of an alternative path for independent filmmakers around the world."
NEW FINANCE MODEL
"Calladita" was financed by a crowdfunding campaign through the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It was then selected as a finalist for the Andrews/Bernard Financing Award on the DCP platform, a post-production award backed by Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh selected "Calladita" as the winner and presented the award to Faus himself at Film3 On The Mountain, which took place during the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Jim Cummings ("The Beta Test") served as executive producer on the film. Faus explained his film tackles "issues related to class differences and injustices from a satirical portrait of the Catalan upper middle class. The bitterness of immigration injustice and the sweetness of class revenge is universal and I hope the film’s rebellious energy resonates with the North American audience.”
The financing of "Calladita" came from the sale of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), created by Faus himself, which raised more than 750,000€. "Calladita" is the first film to be released, exclusively first on Bingeable in North America, that was financed in this way.
Faus talks about the film as a dream come true: "I made a short film that had done really well and I wanted to turn it into my first feature, but I found nothing but closed doors when I pitched it to all the traditional institutions. I continued to chase my dream and after all the closed doors I found an open window in the world of NFTs. A few months later I was able to shoot my first feature because of 600 cinephile backers from all around the world, who believed in this crazy dream and wanted to support ‘Ana’s’ story.”
The film’s pioneering financing strategy has generated a lot of interest in both the film world and the Web 3.0 sector, and Faus has been invited to explain it at conferences all over the world.