At the closing gala of Bitcoin FilmFest 2026, one title was called out twice. Bitcoin Castle (orig. Bitcoin Schloss), the German dark comedy directed by Bruno Schiebel, won the Golden Rabbit for Best Movie in the jury's verdict — and moments later also the Audience Choice award, decided by a vote on the IndeeHub platform. Two statuettes, one evening.
🏰 What "Bitcoin Castle" is about
It's a dark comedy with thriller elements. In a remote French château, the relationship between a couple, Astrid and Henning, begins to fall apart as Henning — a Bitcoin prepper sitting on 42 BTC and a stockpile of food — counts down to a crisis he's sure is coming. The film laughs at Bitcoin fears and obsessions, but does so tenderly, from the inside. The Kinoteka auditorium rang with laughter — it was Bitcoin Castle that drew the strongest audience reaction of the whole festival.
🚐 The director who came by campervan
Bruno Schiebel drove to Warsaw in his own campervan, with a golden retriever on board. As he admitted, Bitcoin Castle had been rejected at other festivals, and Bitcoin FilmFest was his first-ever Bitcoin event — and the first festival at which he screened his film. He left with two statuettes and, he says, a renewed appetite to create.
It's a story that captures the point of the festival: to recognize a creator turned away elsewhere, and send them home with new energy.
🐇 What the Golden Rabbits are
The Golden Rabbits are Bitcoin FilmFest's awards — the only film prizes in the world given directly to Bitcoin cinema. The rabbit motif nods to the White Rabbit: an invitation to go deeper, to follow a question that won't let you rest. The statuette takes the form of abstract rabbit ears in white and gold. In 2026, awards were given in three categories: Best Movie and Audience Choice (both for Bitcoin Castle) and Best Short — for the animated MaxisClub, whose creator Redy had previously designed the festival's T-shirts and posters.
Past winners use the festival laurels on their posters and trailers. For the young movement of Bitcoin cinema, such an award is gradually becoming a real mark of quality.
🎬 Comedy as a gateway to Bitcoin
The success of a comedy about a prepper is no accident. The best films about Bitcoin rarely explain the technology head-on — more often they show people: their fears, ambitions, absurdities and hopes. Bitcoin Castle connected with the audience precisely because it offered a good, funny story instead of a lecture. And laughter, as the Kinoteka room showed, can be the shortest path to someone starting to ask themselves better questions.
The next chance to see Bitcoin cinema on the big screen and meet its creators: the fifth edition of Bitcoin FilmFest, June 24–27, 2027 in Warsaw. Film submissions and early-bird tickets are already open.
