The first-ever documentary film from Emmy, Annie and Clio-winning animation collective Stoopid Buddy Stoodios premieres May 29 during Consensus 2024, the world’s biggest crypto event, and then will be available for free on X beginning June 1.
SHARK, PICKLE, CONE A Nouns Documentary, produced in association with Decentral Media, is at once a chronicle of Stoopid Buddy’s own creative journey to conceive, design and build a massive float for the Rose Parade and an introduction to the growing digital arts initiative called Nouns, which funded the project. It also explores the promise—and potential pitfalls—that blockchain technologies hold for mobilizing communities and creating new paths of financing, monetization and distribution for independent artists, filmmakers, technologists and NGOs.
Infused with irreverent humor and casual approach that are hallmarks of Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, SHARK, PICKLE, CONE was shot in 2022 and 2023, following along as a team from Stoopid Buddy begins working with Nouns on creating a float for the 134th Rose Parade in a plan to bring Nouns to a worldwide television audience.
Even as the film spotlights the global community that has made Nouns one of the most enduring projects to emerge from the NFT and blockchain bubble of 2021, SHARK, PICKLE, CONE also captures the drama and uncertainty that shook the digital finance world in November 2022 when cryptocurrency exchange FTX suddenly and dramatically collapsed.
In advance of its global debut at Consensus in Austin, Texas, SHARK, PICKLE, CONE has also been minted as an NFT itself, in collaboration with Zora. It’s the first full-length documentary to be minted to the blockchain. Through bonfire.xyz, SHARK, PICKLE, CONE will offer token-gated access to hours of original interviews and bonus materials archived from the making of the film.
“Nouns is a grand experiment, the Rose Parade was a grand experiment, and now creating this documentary continues that innovation—both through its subject and through the process by which it was made, which eschews all traditional methods of financing and distributing a film,” says producer and director Neil Berkeley (Beauty is Embarrassing, Gilbert, Harmontown). “NFTs and the vision of Nouns demonstrate that there are exciting and different ways to bring a film to the screen. Old modes aren’t working. This is a new mode.”
SHARK, PICKLE, CONE A Nouns Documentary features interviews with the founders of Nouns and its most active members. The film looks at many of the real-world projects that have been brought to life with funds raised from daily auctions of digital Nouns avatars while examining the challenges and conflicts that arise within the DAO, or “decentralized autonomous organization,” which by design lacks traditional, centralized leadership hubs to guide its development.
“There are a lot of people who have no idea what an NFT is or how a DAO works, but it’s very clear that these still-unfamiliar concepts are having enormous influence around the world,” says producer Eric Towner, also a co-founder of Stoopid Buddy Stoodios. “Our goal was to create a film that illuminates these ideas, while still being a fun and engrossing look at the real struggles that exist on any creative project.”
SHARK, PICKLE, CONE is also produced by David Heiman, with Seth Green, John Harvatine IV, Matthew Senreich and Chris Waters joining Towner as executive producers. It will premiere at 7 p.m. Central Time May 29 as part of Consensus in Austin; on June 1, the film will be made available for free on X at @NounsDoc.
This fall, the most ambitious animation film festival in the world will bring 50 all-new animated shorts from creators all around the globe to the big screen at Nouns Fest, which will be presented live on October 10, 2024, at the United Theater on Broadway in Downtown L.A.
Nouns Fest promises to be a not-to-be-missed experience for animation fans, and tickets to this live event go on sale today at https://nounsfest.tv.
The announcement of the Nouns Fest event in October launches the next phase of a worldwide search for top animation talent that began in January. That’s when digital arts collective Nouns announced a $1 million grant pool to fund short animated films ranging from 30 seconds to five minutes in length.
Nouns Fest received more than 400 pitches from animators of all styles, experience levels and locales, and funded 50 production grants ranging from $7,500 to $20,000. Creators will retain all underlying rights to short films produced for Nouns Fest.
The festival will feature 38 “Short Shorts” of up to 30 seconds and 12 “Tall Shorts” of up to five minutes, which will be screened at the Nouns Fest event on October 10. Nouns Fest will also premiere three brand-new animated shorts produced by Emmy®, Annie and Clio Award-winning Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, which helped conceive Nouns Fest and secure the involvement of Nouns.
A full list of finalists can be found here.
Coming off the success of the first Nouns Fest event in 2023, this year’s showcase is more than ten times bigger in size and scope than last year’s event, highlights of which can be seen in a new video that offers a preview of what’s in store during Nouns Fest.
“We’ve been blown away by the astounding creativity and breadth of ideas that were submitted. The overwhelming response confirms our believe that we’re filling a huge void in the market by funding short-form animation. We can’t wait to share the work from this amazing group of animators,” says Nouns Fest co-founder and Playground Productions executive Chris Waters.
“From the start, our goal has been to empower animators to show us what they would do if they had absolutely full creative control and no restraints,” adds Nouns Fest co-founder Eric Towner, also a co-founder of Stoopid Buddy Stoodios. “As the animation industry undergoes huge changes, we want to focus on the most important part of animation: pure creativity.”
Nouns Fest is co-founded by Walter Newman, former head of development for Adult Swim; Nouns veteran Joel Cares; music executive Joshua Fisher; and award-winning animator and director Goldy.
Nouns Fest is the single largest source of funding for independent animated shorts, with grant money provided by Nouns. Founded in 2021, Nouns is a global, community-run organization that uses the proceeds from the sale of digital collectibles to fund open-source technology, art and public-works projects. For more information and an explanation of Nouns and the Nouns DAO, visit https://www.nounish.com.