For more than 70 years, the film industry has been convening in Cannes, France, for the Film Festival. Most of us know that there are awards, stars and lots of paparazzi. Less known, might be, that Cannes is also the place where producers meet with film projects and where major projects are pitched and closed.

Which makes Cannes the perfect place to launch our newest venture: hubii film.

We have said all along that hubii seed, our content marketplace, will cover the full product life cycle from funding to distribution to monetising. True to that promise, hubii film is our first concrete product for the content industry: a blockchain based finance marketplace for content creators, especially film producers.

We were able to bring two industry experts on board to drive this project with us:

Tony Henderson is the Commercial Lead for hubii film. He will work with local agents on selecting the projects that get to fundraise via the hubii seed platform. Tony has spent his entire career at the crossroad of media, technology and sales, working for brands like the BBC and Microsoft.

Ian Davies, Director of Development for hubii film. As a film producer, financier as well as sales and distribution consultant, Ian is involved in numerous films a year. He is also co-Director of an equity fund and production company Boudica which specialises in female-centric feature films. In short, Ian brings vast experience and connections in the film industry to the hubii team!

Through first hand experience, Ian and Tony know what needs to be improved when it comes to film financing and are helping us build a blockchain based solution that will benefit smaller, independent projects.

Our industry insiders also know where and when to meet the right people. That is why hubii will host an event for producers in Cannes this weekend and why the team will mingle with festival attendees to get the word out to the film industry. Barbara and Jacobo will join Ian and Tony for the invitation only event on Friday. Updates, including pictures will be shared on Twitter throughout the weekend.

We asked Tony and Ian to explain hubii film a bit more:

How can hubii film help producers?

hubii film helps producers in two key ways — firstly we bring significant new sources of funding to the film industry through cryptocurrency markets and as a result take means that producers can maximise control over how they distribute and sell the film.

Is this not just crowdfunding?

While we expect the finance for a hubii film project to come from a variety of sources, hubii film has a unique advantage from its experience in the crypto marketplace and so we will work closely with each investors to try and ensure that they are matched to the right film projects.

What is the difference to other projects?

hubii film is bringing a complete marketplace — it is not just a coin raise but an entire and complete process, giving production teams a one stop shop for financing and also the marketing tools to help them maximise the awareness of their film and the value of their coin.

What do you expect to get out of Cannes event?

The Cannes event is all about introducing the concept of hubii film to the leading producers and filmmakers. We are already building a pipeline of ground breaking projects and Cannes will really help drive awareness within the industry.

We will share a full summary of the event, initial projects and next steps early next week.