
Made for Oligarchs and Millionaires: The Business of Luxury Yachts
Superyachts are less about the sea than about status, and this film follows the industry built to sell that status to the ultra-rich. It moves through French shipyards where hulls are custom-built to a single buyer's specifications, into the world of Russian oligarchs who use their vessels for parties that double as displays of power, and among brokers and captains who explain what it actually costs to own, crew, and maintain a boat that can run to hundreds of feet. Interviews with builders, designers, and industry insiders lay out the economics behind a market where a single vessel can take years to construct and where owners compete quietly over size, speed, and discretion. The film treats the yachts themselves as evidence, touring engine rooms, helipads, and interiors finished to order, while tracing how a boat becomes a floating argument about wealth. It closes on the question the whole business depends on: what happens to this market when the money behind it gets nervous.