It was the first time Winston Baker...
Produced the “Immersive Summit” - a dedicated conference focusing on AR, VR and mixed realities. It was the first time we officially partnered with Marché du Film during the Cannes Film Festival. And it was the first time we offered the “Confluence Summit” in Silicon Valley, connecting technology innovators and content creators.
It was also a year of firsts for the industry as a whole. As the year comes to an end, let’s take a look at some of the greatest breakthroughs of 2017.
2017 was the first time…
A debut feature from an African-American Writer/Director made $100 Million: Jordan Peele makes history with his film ‘Get Out’, earning $111 million in just three weeks of release.
A female directed live-action, theatrically released comic book superhero film: ‘Wonder Woman’, directed by Patty Jenkin’s was a huge success and an inspiration to women everywhere. She also became the highest paid female director in history.
A non-Hollywood title was listed on the All-Time Worldwide Top 100 Box Office: China’s ‘Wolf Warrior 2’ is not only the highest grossing film in Chinese history, but is also the first non-Hollywood title to crack the top 100 of all time. Will studios now be forced to re-think their China approach?
A major studio announced their own streaming service: Disney announced that they will be leaving Netflix to start their own streaming service. Will other studios follow their lead?
An African-American director won an Emmy for directing a Comedy Series: Donald Glover became the first black director to win an Emmy in the comedy series category for his work on Atlanta’s “B.A.N.” episode.
An African-American woman won an Emmy for Comedy Writing: Lena Waithe made Emmy history as the first African-American woman to win for comedy writing. She won for co-writing the “Thanksgiving” episode of Master of None.
A streaming service won an Emmy for Best Drama: With a win for The Handmaid’s Tale, Hulu became the first streaming service to win a best drama series Emmy — beating to the punch larger competitors Netflix and Amazon.
A Crypto-Artist was introduced: A blockchain entertainment studio Singular DTV partners with Gramatik, the internationally groundbreaking, genre-fusing, electronic dance musician, DJ and indie producer to become the world’s first “Crypto-Artist”.
A virtual reality experience won an Oscar: Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alejandro G. Inarritu (‘Birdman’, ‘The Revenant’) picked up yet another Oscar this year. The recognition came for his virtual reality installation, ‘Carne y Arena’ (Virtually Present, Physically Invisible) which explores the experience of Mexican refugees and is currently on exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
We look forward to discovering the next breakthroughs at our conferences in 2018.