“Calladita,” a film by independent filmmaker and director Miguel Faus, is the first European film to be paid for by NFTs. The film was chosen for many festivals around the world, and HBO in the United States just bought it.
Calladita tells the story of Ana, a Colombian woman who just moved to Spain and got a job as a live-in maid in a wealthy family’s summer home on the Costa Brava.
Faus, who is the brains behind this project, talks about Calladita and what it’s been like to build it. He says that in the case of “Calladita,” having more than 400 backers who believed in the project and bought NFTs to support it helped him a lot. He felt a very special sense of validation that this movie exists not just because Faus dreamed of it, but also because 400 degens shared his dream and made it possible.
Miguel Faus says that Calladita is the first movie in Europe that was paid for entirely with NFT money, which is something he is very proud of. But he really wants it to be the first of many: But my main feeling is that I want it to be the first of many: hopefully we can spark a revolution that helps many other filmmakers from around the world to get their passion projects funded thanks to NFTs, so that we can have a more diverse, passionate and creator-led cinema. I hope many filmmakers will discover web3 and will greenlight themselves through the power of jpegs.
Calladita is based on a short film he made in 2019. That short did well at film festivals and was eventually licensed by HBO to be streamed in the United States.
Miguel Faus explains: In regards to the NFT collection and funding, the main difficulties were related to how innovative the project was, which meant we couldn’t learn from other projects before us, copy their wins and avoid their misses, etc… Also the fact that the space, even though it’s small, is very saturated, so cutting through the noise and reaching people to tell them about the project was definitely a struggle.
Faus thinks that most collectors became fans and wanted to help artists once they understood the project and saw a bit of the short film. As for the movie itself, it’s been made so easily that he can’t really think of any problems.
During filming, the weather was their biggest worry. “Calladita” is a very summery movie, so they needed clear skies and sunny days, which can be hard to find in Spain in September, but they were very lucky and the movie looks great.
When Faus was asked, “What’s next for you? He answered: “First I’m focusing on finishing Calladita and making the best film possible during post-production, which will take us a few months. Then, my main goal will become making our dear holders proud and happy to have supported the project, which will mostly mean making sure that “Calladita” finds its right audience. What is clear is that I’m in web3 and film3 for the very long run, so I’m not going anywhere.”
What is clear is that he’ll be in web3 and film3 for a long time, so Faus is not going anywhere, as he said. ” If distribution of Calladita goes well, and since 50% of all profits will go into the CalladitaDAO, hopefully in the future we can think of making a new film, and hopefully our community is happy and wants to vote to support that. I don’t have a very clear picture for my second film yet, but I would love it to be a Western,” Faus said.
Faus doesn’t have a clear idea of what his second movie will be about yet, but he wants it to be a Western.
