The independent picture, financed outside the studio system has being winning Oscars for years. Most recently, those pictures include Slumdog Millionare and last year’s The Artist.
At this year’s Oscars, could there be room for a crowd-sourced funded victory? Could “maker culture” finally run down the traditional red carpet and capture Oscar gold from traditional media? At this point, we have to ask “why not?”
According to crowd funding platform Kickstarter, three shorts nominated for Oscars received monetary boosts through Kickstarter. Inocente and Kings Point earned nominations in Best Documentary (Short Subject). Buzkashi Boys got a nod in Short Film (Live Action).
Those nominated pictures, according to Kickstarter, raised more than $90,000 from 558 backers. Those projects’ creators are just a few of the filmmakers who have raked in $102.7 million in Kickstarter pledges since 2009.
“These are the fourth, fifth and sixth Kickstarter projects to be nominated for Oscars,” said Kickstarter in a statement. No Kickstarter project has won an Oscar, but the Kickstarter folks have their “fingers crossed” that one will win this year. Winners of the 85th Academy Awards will be revealed on Sunday, Feb. 24.
The nearly $103 million figure above comes from 891,979 people, who helped fund one of 8,567 independent films, features, documentaries, shorts, web series or other video projects.
Kickstarter rounded up these highlights about completed projects in a blog post that also included the following fascinating details:
- At least 86 Kickstarter-funded films have been released theatrically, screening in more than 1,500 North American theaters, according to Rentrak. Another 14 films have theatrical premieres slated for 2013.
- According to Rotten Tomatoes, three of the 20 best-reviewed films of 2012 are Kickstarted-funded (The Waiting Room, Brooklyn Castle and Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry). Another Kickstarter-funded film, Pariah, was among the best-reviewed of 2011.
- Two films have been nominated for Oscars in the past two years: Sun Come Up and Incident in New Baghdad. A third, Barber of Birmingham, launched a project after being Oscar-nominated.
- Kickstarter-funded films comprised 10% of Sundance’s slate in 2012 and 2013. In total, 49
- Kickstarter-funded films comprised 10% of the 2012 slates at the SXSW Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival. In total, 57 Kickstarter-funded films have premiered at SXSW and 21 at Tribeca.
- At least 16 Kickstarter-funded films have been picked up for national broadcast through HBO, PBS, Showtime, and other networks.
