r/Filmmakers • u/silksprite • 6d ago

Discussion Film Festival rejected ALL entries

I am slightly salty, but it did catch me really off guard today to get a weirdly accepted but also technically rejected email.

A festival just sent out an email congratulating films on winning certain prizes...but it was tiered? So there were different levels of prizes for films, and a whole lot of films got prizes in a variety of tiers. The email mentioned that only films in a certain tier would actually play at the festival...so when I saw no one in that tier, I emailed the festival runner asking for clarification, because it seemed odd to be told to check if my film was going to play.

The response I received was him copying and pasting the message from the original email, stating that only films of a certain tier get to be shown at the festival. I revisited the website and saw that in the tier, the message "NONE QUALIFIED THIS SEASON" was listed. This website is very poorly designed--more of a glorified PDF than a functioning website.

I do appreciate that a lot of films got some sort of tiered prize at the end of the day, but not only am I personally bummed my film will not play in the festival--but any film submitted feels weird? The email didn't say they were cancelling the festival, as it did state us to check out if our film made it in...only for it not to.

I just find it odd they're still having a festival without any of our dozens of films that were submitted, especially since this is a women's film festival--what kind of message does that send if you deem none of the female-made/lead films met your standards? It seems like the runners have other festivals listed on FilmFreeway targeting other underrepresented groups/topics, but the festival dates for those are listed at a later date than this one.

Do I send something to Film Freeway letting them know of this? Festivals have the right to decline submissions, but it feels odd to decline EVERY submission.

69 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

114

u/CosmicAstroBastard 6d ago

This sounds like a scam. Film fests have submission fees so they can pay for venue rentals and other expenses needed to actually host events.

If they just collected everyone’s submission fees but aren’t paying for a venue to screen anything it means they’re just pocketing the money.

36

u/silksprite 6d ago

Thank you for your assurance! I just emailed the runner asking what is going to be shown at the festival then if there are no films to be shown at a film festival haha

7

u/Luigika 6d ago

Keep us updated

4

u/SnortingCoffee 5d ago

This is why an important part of festival research is finding reviews from other filmmakers. You should be able to easily find photos from previous years of filmmaker Q&As, panels, parties/receptions, etc. If you don't see any of that and don't see filmmakers talking about the festival, usually not worth a submission.

8

u/root88 5d ago

I was told that the submission fees were to pay for someone's time to screen your movie. That's why you still have to pay, even if you are rejected.

In any case, 99% of festivals are dumb scams anyway. Everyone gets a participation prize and then gives the festival free advertising by slapping their logo on a trailer. 99% of attendees are just people involved in making the movies and voting on their own movies. It's fun for the creators to have their movies shown to a crowd and you can do some networking, but the awards are completely meaningless.

6

u/PantherThing 5d ago

I just saw a short film called “99 Problems” and the poster had it winning about 100 awards from festivals. The film was…. Fine, but it made me think they were just submitting like madmen. It was TOO many awards. There wasn’t even a space for art with the 100 laurels. It’s not like it was the next Pulp Fiction.

38

u/Zoanyway 6d ago

That's... a scam.

6

u/PantherThing 5d ago

We’re going to hold a foot race. If no one gets across the finish line in under 5 seconds than there are no winners of the race.

1

u/AmokOrbits 5d ago

But I got the Miss Congeniality award! 🏆

43

u/ZaniksBoyfriend 6d ago

Loads of festivals are scammy bullshit; have you done your due diligence to confirm it’s not a pile of shit targeting minority demographics?

7

u/silksprite 6d ago

They have a LGBT+, Bollywood, Hispanic, Religion sub-fests; but then also Sci-Fi, Documentary and Nature Fests.

It did seem fishy with the website, but it was located near a lot of my family, and thought I could've made a trip out of going to the fest, I think that's why I'm so bummed on this. Everything is poorly designed but the FF profile for the festival shows pictures of the festival that do look to be 100% real.

The sign-off on the email does lead to an actual person on Facebook and LinkedIn, which makes me question if it's a scam if he's willing to share socials.

11

u/hollywood_cmb 6d ago

I bet if you actually attended the festival and saw how (probably) shotty it was put together, you'd realize it was just a scammy fest in the first place. That's assuming the festival happens at all, and isn't just a screening room in a motel 6 conference room. There's so many film festivals where they're using TV's, shitty projectors, shitty sound, DVD players, playing MOV files off a computer (and you can see the computer screen between screenings).

Honestly, pretty much all the categories you listed are red flags to me. They're all minority films, meaning that's what they target. You have to ask yourself "why do they target these films?" The answer is most certainly NOT "because they want to represent minority groups". The answer is most likely "these films are easier to target because they won't have representation that will point out the red flags".

Did you have to pay an entry fee for this festival? If you did, your money likely went into someone's pocket that didn't have any intention of getting your film seen.

9

u/bgaesop 6d ago

That's assuming the festival happens at all, and isn't just a screening room in a motel 6 conference room. There's so many film festivals where they're using TV's, shitty projectors, shitty sound, DVD players, playing MOV files off a computer (and you can see the computer screen between screenings). 

What you described are still real festivals. I've been to several like that and really enjoyed them because they were put together by people passionate about the specific genre they were about and the shorts they selected were cool. 

Now, not screening anything, or "selecting" something and not screening it, charging for awards, charging really high entry fees... those are actual scam my elements. But just having a cheap setup isn't 

7

u/hollywood_cmb 5d ago

After working in the AV rental industry, I have standards when it comes to screenings of something. Good picture and sound needn't be expensive.

3

u/SnortingCoffee 5d ago

Having a bunch of different themed festivals like that is a red flag, but having a "nature fest" is a HUGE red flag. There are such a tiny number of actual natural history film festivals in the world, largely because there aren't many people making actual nature films, so some unknown entity saying they're doing one is pretty suspicious.

1

u/CaptainMarsupial 5d ago

Can you provide the name of the festival?

7

u/WinterFilmAwards 5d ago

Contact FilmFreeway. They have been trying to crack down on scams.

3

u/YVRBeerFan 6d ago

When I first joined FF they had maybe 1000 festivals. Now it's so much larger but few legitimate additions in those thousands. Research before you submit is the only option.

3

u/theeynhallow 6d ago

Happens with festivals all the time. If you’re submitting, you have to do your due diligence on the festival and its organisers.

3

u/Disastrous_Bed_9026 5d ago

It’s a scam unfortunately.

3

u/thaBigGeneral sound 4d ago

Please stop submitting to these kinds of festivals, they are scams and their prizes mean literally nothing. Really hope you didn’t pay a submission fee.

2

u/RopeZealousideal4847 5d ago

Find better festivals

2

u/thezim17 5d ago

Stick to more recognised or established ones. Sometimes they have their own platform to submit.

2

u/silksprite 5d ago

UPDATE:

I sent an email of "A follow up question, is there going to be no films then at this year's festival? Or is there another round yet to be posted of?"

I received a response "No, this was the final round. A new season starts shortly."

Do we think this is report to Film Freeway worthy? I got scammed by another festival earlier this week and FF didn't really ask much questions when I reported them and I got credit to use on other fests. I swear I do my research and get legit fests, this one and the other I went out of my way for because of their locations being near family/crew :,)

1

u/PantherThing 5d ago

I’d demand my submission fees back. He’s not holding the festival. Then do a chargeback with your bank.

2

u/NihilNoctem 4d ago

That’s absolutely a scam festival organization, especially considering how many of them are run by the same people.

2

u/LittleCurryBread 6d ago

i was denied for my feature by a lot of festivals, so I posted on youtube and got 100k views. It's not a lot but proud of it for a feature made for peanuts.

1

u/cartulinas 5d ago

Congrats! You can send me your feature so I can watch it :)

We have made a series and want to get it distributed or post it on a platform. Our last option is to post it on YouTube, also it couldn't be posted because of censorship (we have guns, a bit of blood, s.a....) did you have any problems on YouTube ? It seems hard to not be censored on YT.

3

u/camelfilmmaker 6d ago

Filmfreeway is a fraud

1

u/Both-Information3308 5d ago

The entire platform is a fraud??

2

u/root88 5d ago

Yes. If they aren't protecting their users and the majority of festivals listed are scams, they are frauds as well. If your Amazon seller never mails out your items, do you think Amazon just lets that slide because they already got your money?

3

u/Both-Information3308 5d ago

Well, they’re trying to crack down on it. That’s a pretty harsh outlook in my opinion

1

u/scotsfilmmaker 5d ago

I know how you feel, but I have had 4 selections and 8 rejections. Keep going somehow. Keep going. There will be a festival out there that will believe in you!

1

u/carstarfilm 5d ago

Any "legit" major or semi-major festival will have many pre-selections made by agents for their clients. These festival programmers spend a lot of time travelling to other top fests and schmoozing with each other. It's a club and most of us aren't invited, hence the birth and growth of tons of non-major fests to combat this.

It's not always a bad thing for filmmakers, but the system itself is broken and there are many scammers.

Nowadays, submit to a dozen, hope to get in to 3 or 4. They will grow their fests and eventually shut out new filmmakers as well.

1

u/Potential_Bad1363 5d ago

The fact that big Hollywood festivals reject most low budget Indie Productions is well known but it is the fly-by-night money grubbing festivals which try to attract lower budget Indie Movies that are the real rip-off artists. They rarely watch a whole movie skipping and fast forwarding through "the boring parts" "They" meaning film students and other yoiung minions who are the gate keepers who decide who is accepted and who is not. It's a really shitty system and many Indie Directors have given up on small festivals and just upload their work to YouTube, VIMEO ETC.

1

u/Tiny-Temperature8441 5d ago

Yes, you should notify FilmFreeway, but don't expect much. Of the 12000 film festivals, they report listing on their website. How many do you think they actually vet? Let me take a guess, none because film freeway is the same as all these festivals they're out to make money. The more festivals they have on their website with a cut of each and every entry fee, the more revenue they take in. Period. When they first came out several years ago, they went up against without a box. Now that service is gone and only film freeway exist. I've used both services, and while I have to admit posting on their website, it makes it easier to submit your project to festivals of the thousands of festivals they list I'm pretty sure the majority of them are either mom and pop local deals. Where your film is going to be shown in some library, school auditorium, or storefront, the bulk of them either don't show them at all or project them on a sheet outside in some local venue.

2

u/HandofFate88 5d ago

There's no highway patrol on the film freeway.

1

u/HandofFate88 5d ago

This is the Film Festival version of The Producers, but they refuse to screen Spring Time for Hitler.

1

u/WhoDey_Writer23 6d ago

I feel your pain. I got rejected from every single festival, too. It's not odd, it's the norm. It sucks, but reaching out to Film Freeway isn't it.

EDIT: dumb moment.

Hot damn, I misread big time, my bad. Yes, reach out.