Kickstarter’s Oscar victory spells tough road for Asia’s crowdfunding scene

If there’s an Oscars-related story more fascinating than Anne Hathaway’s unsurprising win for Best Supporting Actress in Les Misérables, it has to be this: a Kickstarter-funded short film has won an Oscar.

Inocente — which tells the tale of a 15-year-old girl in pursuit of her dream of being an artist — won the golden statue for Best Documentary (Short Subject). It had raised USD 52,527 from June to July last year. That’s the sixth Kickstarter-funded movie to be nominated for an Oscar — with three of them receiving the nod this year.

The win is further indication of how far crowdfunding has come in the United States, but it also points to the challenges that beset Asia’s attempt to replicate the same level of success.

Also read: Overview of crowdfunding pioneers in Asia

Asia needs its own Hollywood

While the awards ceremony is a celebration of top talent in the American film industry, what is not revealed is that there is a large pyramid of producers, actors, screenwriters, and directors who are aspiring to reach the pinnacle.

The size of the US film industry is staggering — it contributes USD 175B to the economy and employs about 2.1 million workers. What this means is that there is a sizable amount of breakout talent waiting to be discovered, solving the supply side equation for a crowdfunding platform.

In contrast, the film and entertainment sectors in Asia is much smaller. Even if we combine the Korean and Bollywood film industries, they would still not have the clout and global appeal that the American counterparts have.

Geographical, language, and cultural differences might further limit the reach of Asian films, given the smaller size of their domestic markets.

The disparity between the entertainment industries of East and West is no accident. In certain Asian countries, pursuing the non-conventional path of a career in the arts industry is still discouraged by parents, who would very much prefer to see their children take up a stable job.

The education system, particularly in East Asian countries like Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan, also discourages kids from exploring their non-academic interests due to the intense pressure to ace examinations.

Even the entertainment industries itself are sometimes reflective of its cultural environment. KPop and Taiwanese pop, for instance, are produced with a industrial-like quality, resulting in manufactured sounds that don’t inspire much imagination. Scratch below the surface, and you would find that their respective indie music scenes are struggling.

As such, the pyramid of aspiring film and musical talent diminishes as economic and cultural strictures siphon away potential entertainers into careers in civil service, finance, and banking.