Last Sunday, at the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, a 3-day event combining independent cinema, art, culture, education and, above all, fun, which is already talked about all over Europe, ended.
On April 18-21, the second annual edition of the film festival called Bitcoin FilmFest 2024 (also known as BFF24) took place in the capital of Poland. Due to an important date in the Bitcoin cycle, i.e. Halving, this event was held in conjunction with an extraordinary party on this occasion.
Although the sister event of this year's BFF was called the European Halving Party, among the several hundred people celebrating there were Bitcoiners, artists and cinema enthusiasts not only from Europe, but from almost all over the world. Moreover, the laser show on the facade of the Palace of Culture and Science, which started just after midnight, after block number 840,000, caused a sensation in many foreign media.
Bitcoin FilmFest is a project that we have already written about several times, both before its debut festival last year and before this year's event combining Halving and the power of independent cinema. Since some of our editorial staff finally had the pleasure of experiencing this moment live, we would like to share with you a short report from these two combined events.
From Soviet domination to decentralization and financial independence
The main part of the BFF program and the European Halving Party took place in the palace Kinoteka, where most of the attractions of these two events took place, such as:
- Film screenings and meetings with creators, Golden Rabbits 2024 awards ceremony for the best films awarded in four categories.
- Dynamic sessions conducted by selected participants in the form of the so-called Community Stage,
- Sunday part for younger guests with cartoon projections and an open stage co-hosted by children and teenagers.
- Interesting games related to the halving part, trying to introduce new traditions to subsequent hollows related to Bitcoin's cyclicality.
- And finally, an energetic cocktail party on the occasion of the world premiere of the film DIRTY COIN, which, because the Bitcoin halving took place on the night following the pre-premiere meeting, turned into a great celebration in the palace interiors and the previously mentioned laser show outside the Palace of Culture and Science.
Since “Halving Party” there was a lot going on…
Saturday, which was already a new era of the Bitcoin cycle, being the day above block number 840000, in the evening gave participants another opportunity to have fun and celebrate. Once again, we return here to the legendary walls of the Palau of Culture and Science, specifically to the Kulturalna bar-cafe, where on April 20, a large open party took place as part of the program of the entire event, also organized for part of the halving.
In addition to the above, a significant part of the Palace of Culture and Science area, including the Samo Centrum bar, as one of the Bitcoin FilmFest partners, attracted both event participants and local passers-by with their decorations.
All this meant that the icon of Warsaw architecture, which came to Warsaw almost 70 years ago as an imposed gift from Stalin, finally became a home for personal and financial freedom.
Independent film art
During this year's BFF, the films screened included five premieres, including a local production titled Carl Menger. Notes On The Margin. from Tomasz Agencki, and many fresh titles from 2023 – from full-length to shorter productions as well as animated and cartoon parts.
Details, in Polish, regarding the selected part of the cinema program can be found directly on the website of Kinoteka, one of the Bitcoin FIlmFest partners.
As befits a film festival, the guests also included directors, screenwriters and, generally speaking, creators working in the field of independent cinema. Each of them actively participated in the entire event, from discussion panels or film workshops, ending with ordinary human relationships, either in the form of a casual conversation and a shared drink, or through joint photos on the festival film wall.
(In the photos: co-founder of Bitcoin FilmFest, Tomasz Kołodziejczukmember of the BFF crew Şelale Malkoçoğlu and an award-winning director and film director Naeem Mahmoodthe filmmaker GODS OF THEIR OWN RELIGIONwhich screening took place at this year's BFF; Alan Mediavilla director and producer DIRTY COINa film that premiered at BFF24, the title that won the first Golden Rabbits 2024 award in the 'Best Film' category, together with a film director from the Czech Republic, Kristina Weiserová, who took part in the entire event as a guest; Parker Worthington producer of the film MY TRUST IN YOU IS BROKEN, which premiered during BFF24, winner of the first Golden Rabbit award in the audience choice category, r0ckstardev main collaborator BTCPayServer.)
Education, culture and many Polish accents
The rich program of BFF24 and the European Halving Party included not only parts centered around the Palace of Culture and Science, but also many points in other nearby locations, which certainly introduced all guests to Warsaw and its attractions. From a retro-bus tour around the city, through a Polish lunch in the charming Prodiż Warszawski restaurant, a cruise on the Vistula River, or for those looking for more adrenaline, a shooting range and laser paintball. From the educational and cultural part, it is also worth adding:
- mornings at the Amondo cinema for children and adults, which, by the way, is the smallest cinema in Poland and has been run by filmmakers and lovers of good films for eight years,
- atmospheric afterparty in a café that Amondo also runs in its building,
- an esoteric party at BarBazaar, which is the most Bitcoin-friendly bar in Poland, with live music, original visualizations and cosmic decorations of the entire place,
- workshops on psychedelics and meditation, which also took place in BarBazaar on April 19, also weaving the so-called Bicycle Day theme into the Bitcoin FilmFest and Halving celebrations.
People, knowledge, passion and great fun
In the official communication conducted by the Bitcoin FilmFest project, either on the halving website (because it contained the entire program of both events) or on the main social channel of the project, which is X (formerly Twitter), a common message was that BFF and the European Halving Party are not “just another conference, but a community-driven cultural experience.” As participants of this year's event, seeing and benefiting from it from the inside, we can confirm this very statement – Bitcoin FilmFest and the party celebrating the fourth Bitcoin halving were not a conference! They were not even just an event, but a 100% experience, built by and for people.
With lots of unique memories, we are waiting for the next steps of the Bitcoin FilmFest project, which, as an event organizer, but also a platform combining Bitcoin culture and independent cinema, will probably surprise us with many more things in the near future.
