Hendrik Hey, Award-Winning European TV Channel Founder, Introduces Alpha Film Festival in the MILC Metaverse

Hendrik Hey, one of Europe’s best-known TV producers and creator of the new MILC metaverse where creators can sell and share their work, believes the metaverse will essentially change the way we view and distribute film.

Hendrik Hey is one of Europe’s big names in production and is the awarding-winning producer and founder of Welt der Wunder, Europe’s version of a PBS documentary series. Hey believes so thoroughly in the film distribution possibilities of the metaverse that he’s introducing the virtual world’s first film festival, Alpha Film Festival, in partnership with The Film Verdict, from March 3-7, 2023.

By joining the small group of pioneers bringing film into web3, dubbed film3, MILC hopes to solidify its place in the conversation. And Hey has a few topics he’d love to introduce, such as becoming a recognized festival within the global festival circuit, introducing award-winning shorts in the metaverse, and expanding into more festivals and feature films.

Hey believes MILC is better suited than other metaverses to host a film festival because it has a distinct direction — its platform was built for creatives and consumers and has the back catalog and capital of Welt der Wunder to give it some gravitas in the non-virtual world.

“There are many metaverses, but few have a true identity. MILC is a multimedia content platform and marketplace with few, if any, competitors and a built-in audience of creatives hungry for new ways to share their content,” said Hey. “The entertainment and creative industries are always open to new ways of doing things. We believe they will embrace this because it allows audiences to interact with film companies in a way they couldn’t before.”

About Hendrik Hey

Hey founded Welt der Wunder more than 25 years ago and has since built a content catalog of breakthrough documentary programming worth tens of millions of dollars.

His European reputation is built on surprising ways of making the mundane interesting through his award-winning style, and he’s already been called the Ken Burns of the metaverse.

“The metaverse is going to fundamentally change how we distribute and view film,” Hey said. “The film festival will be trial and error, and it won’t be perfect, but it will build on the public’s interest in arts in the virtual world and create an example of what metaverse festivals can be.”

Alpha Film Festival 

Tailored to general audiences and industry members excited to gain metaverse experience, the five-day festival is meant to be a community experience, not a money-making venture, according to Hey. To that end, tickets will be low-priced (around $5) and free, depending on attendees’ access level. 

“It’s for everybody,” said Hey. “We have a collection of top-end short filmmakers from around the world creating content around themes relating to the future. Fans will be able to vote on their favorites. It will feel inclusive and non-traditional.”

What he hopes that people take away from it is education, a look behind the scenes of filmmaking, and a glimpse of how tech can reshape the film industry.

So far, six short films have been confirmed, and Artistic Director Ben Nicholson is curating the rest of the lineup. Among the names guests can expect to see is NFT-funded filmmaker Miguel Faus, who recently won an award and a $300,000 grant launched by Decentralized Pictures and Steven Soderbergh for his film Calladita at Sundance Film Festival.

Audiences and filmmakers will also have chances to connect at virtual events where they can network, share ideas, or offer feedback on what they’ve seen.

Rounding out the virtual festival will be live panel discussions aimed at both consumers and film professionals.

Among those already slated to lead discussions is Sasha Stiles, widely recognized as a pioneer of generative literature and language art. Also included on the panel is AI multi-disciplinary artist, Sundog and will speak about the possibilities that emerge when blockchain, film3, and AI are utilized in the film creation process. 

The possibilities for watching, creating, and distributing film in the metaverse are as vast as they are exciting. We’ll be keeping an eye on Hey’s progress to stay on top of film3 developments and the success of the March 3-7, 2023, Alpha Film Festival.