You can own a piece of the $2.6M XPRIZE-winning film

The excitement is palpable. Imagine you're one of 25,000 people who entered a film competition. Over 2,500 submitted 3-minute trailers. Yours made the first cut to 65 entrants.

Now you’re backstage at the Belasco Theatre in Los Angeles for the awards ceremony. You’re up against four other films meant, in the words of XPRIZE founder Peter Diamandis, to “offer compelling, hopeful visions of humanity’s technology-enabled future.”

On stage are the judges: Neil deGrasse Tyson; Neal Stephenson; Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry; Mira Lane, VP of Technology & Society at Google; and John Zissimos, CMO of Salesforce

They call you up to discuss your film. After your presentation, each expresses their appreciation for your work.

Then you find out you won.

That’s what happened to filmmaker Jeff “Synthesized” Thomas for his film, The Gifted, last Friday evening. The $2.6 million prize ($2.5 million for production, $100,000 for script writing) is one of the largest ever given for a film pitch.

Now the work of filmmaking begins. 

Learn about the offering supporting this film.

A hopeful future

Entrepreneur and engineer Peter Diamandis founded the XPRIZE Foundation in 1994 on a simple idea: offer a large cash prize for a hard technical goal and let competitors race to reach it.  This model was inspired by the 1919 Orteig Prize, which Charles Lindbergh won in 1927 by flying the Spirit of St. Louis nonstop from New York to Paris.

XPRIZE’s first contest, the $10 million Ansari XPRIZE, launched in 1996. They asked for a privately funded, three-person vehicle that could fly 100 kilometers into space twice within two weeks. Mojave Aerospace Ventures won.

The Future Vision XPRIZE was first announced in March. The competition was open to films that inspire hope about the future of technology.  Diamandis backed the prize along with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz, Network School founder Balaji Srinivasan, and Ark Invest CEO/cofounder Cathie Wood.*

And XPRIZE partnered with Republic Film to allow eligible investors to help fund this film's production. 

Republic Film x XPRIZE

Launched in 2024 under Marc Iserlis, Republic Film has previously hosted offerings connected with entertainment projects including Eli Roth’s The Horror Section, Robert Rodriguez’s Brass Knuckle Films, Ron Perlman’s Watrfall, and Pressman Film.**

Under the offering, eligible investors may invest beginning at $100, subject to the offering terms, applicable investment limits, and availability. Up to $1 million of the offering is allocated to public investors. Investors may be eligible to receive distributions tied to the film’s revenue under the contractual revenue waterfall described in the offering materials. There is no assurance that the film will generate revenue or that investors will receive distributions. 

Republic co-founder Kendrick Nguyen said of the collaboration, “everyday investors are deeply hungry for access to previously gatekept investment opportunities.”

Diamandis agrees, noting “I believe what we’re doing with Republic Film represents an important part of the future of entertainment: when audiences have a real stake in a story, it strengthens independent filmmaking and ultimately helps the film succeed.” 

The Gifted

This XPRIZE competition used Star Trek as its north star.*** As Rod Roddenberry writes in the LA Times, “There was a time when science fiction made a bet on humanity. A bet that humanity was worth rooting for. We need storytellers willing to make that bet again.”

The Gifted tells the story of an 11-year-old genius who attempts to rebuild his dead mother as an AI. After she begins guiding strangers to save lives, the government views her kindness as an existential threat. It pursues her and everyone who helps her. 

On the 60th anniversary of Star Trek, Roddenberry believes we need stories to carry us into the future. “We need stories that don’t just entertain us,” he writes, “but also become our compass.”

Roddenberry described The Gifted as offering a hopeful vision of the future. You can learn more about the offering and review its terms and risks on Republic. 

*These individuals supported the XPRIZE competition or prize purse. They are not investors in or endorsers of this securities offering.

**Prior offerings and projects are not indicative of the future performance or results of this offering.

*** References to Star Trek are for creative and illustrative context only and do not imply comparable commercial success, revenue, or investment returns.