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by Jason Guerrasio
January 16, 2013 10:32 AM
11 Comments
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An IW Investigation: The Dark Underbelly of the Film Festival Circuit, Part 1

When the Sundance Film Festival hands out its grand jury prizes Jan. 26 in Park City, it will be an evening full of elated filmmakers, both new and established, filled with satisfaction and an anticipation of what’s to come for their films as they are recognized at the country’s premiere festival. On the same night, 750 miles southwest in La Jolla, CA, a similar event, the California Film Awards, will be taking place in a swanky ballroom overlooking the Pacific Ocean. This one, however, will do almost nothing to help the winning filmmakers get their work seen by anyone.

It’s supposed to be a special time in a filmmaker’s life: submitting his movie to film festivals. It can be as strenuous (and expensive) as making the film, but the filmmaker will (theoretically) finally get the satisfaction of showing his hard work to an audience. Thanks to online festival-submission giant Withoutabox, this has become much easier, as with a few keystrokes a filmmaker can submit to an unlimited amount of film festivals throughout the world.

But buried in this vast catalogue are an increasing number with questionable intentions. Since 2008, a string of film/screenwriting competition events, or events that call themselves film festivals but do not screen films to the public, have popped up on Withoutabox that are misleading filmmakers into thinking that they are submitting to regional festivals set in beautiful locales when in fact they are sending their work to mere online competitions that may or may not have an event to celebrate the award winners.

These operations seem to have flown under the radar of most in the film community, since filmmakers that blindly pay submission fees to as many festivals as they can afford often then move on unless they’ve gotten an acceptance notice. At the same time, with the large number of winners these events have, the chances of grabbing an award are very good, so if a filmmaker does win one why on Earth would he complain? Even so, some have grown suspicious.

READ MORE: Ted Hope Says To Best Serve Audiences, Film Festivals Need A Reboot

Producer Kristi Denton Cohen submitted her film “The River Why” to festivals in 2010 and thought she had done her due diligence. She submitted to fests that have a bit of clout while also choosing some smaller ones that might have been a good fit for her film’s outdoor feel. The acceptance e-mails rolled in, including one that said “The River Why” had received the festival’s Best Narrative Feature and Best Actor awards. Since she couldn’t recall ever being invited to the fest’s screenings, Cohen took a closer look at the e-mail and realized it wasn’t a film festival but a film awards competition called the Alaska International Film Awards.

"The River Why"
For a $35 submission fee (or $50 if not submitted early), her film was given to a jury that hands out more than 20 awards. But the films were not shown to the public. The e-mail went on to say that she could purchase a fancy crystal trophy and to encourage her to post on her film’s website that it had won the awards. She decided not to pay for the trophy.

Peter McBride went through a similar experience when he submitted his documentary “Chasing Water” to the Mountain Film Festival last year. An e-mail he received said that his film had won the Best Environmental Documentary award, and it noted that he could attend a dinner in Mammoth Lakes, California, to receive it. The price? Eighty dollars a plate — plus the travel and lodging expenses he’d have to pay out of his own pocket to attend. He ultimately declined, but days later he received an e-mail stating that for $155 (plus shipping) the festival would send him his award. Like Cohen’s, his film would not be shown to the public.

“Out of all the festivals I applied to, this was the most suspicious,” says McBride, whose film played at more than 60 film festivals, 15 of which he attended. “When I spoke to someone from the festival, I said, ‘It’s a little weird that you are asking me to pay to receive the award,’ and they said, ‘We’re just a small operation.’ I just sucked it up this time and paid [for the award]. I passed it off to the people who funded the film.”

The Mountain Film Festival handed out more than 30 awards in 2012.

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11 Comments

  • martha may | January 27, 2013 11:34 AMReply

    The Universal Film & Festival Organization was founded to support and implement best business practices for film festivals throughout the world.

    UFFO,is a global voluntary organization and is not-for-profit. It was created to bring together the highest quality of Film Festivals and the film making community by encouraging film festivals to become sound in best business practice. To date we have been very successful in this endeavor.

    This is the real deal for "best business practices for film festivals"

    The UFFO best business practices is completely voluntary, it is free and easy to implement. In addition it is a blueprint for filmmakers in deciding which film festivals to do business with

    UFFO is also an open international organization and membership is open to all creative individuals, filmmakers, film schools and film festivals

  • G. Slaight | January 25, 2013 1:38 PMReply

    Seriously, how naive is this writer? As if ALL film festivals aren't in it for the money. I suppose Sundance is one big charity organization right? I mean, c'mon. As a screenwriter who participated in one of the festivals mentioned in the article (and had a good time I might add), I'm insulted by the snobbery, ignorance, and elitism displayed in this hack piece. I'll submit my work whoever I damn well please, thank you. And you nor anybody else has a right to tell me my achievements or accolades I receive along the way are somehow any less "prestigious" or important because they don't happen to be from the top 5 biggest festivals in the world.

  • Laurie Kirby | January 21, 2013 12:55 PMReply

    Thank you for this article. The mission of the IFFS is to promote best practices in the film festival industry. This certainly exposes the seamy side that serves no one's interest but the unscrupulous purveyors of this nonsense. The problem needs to be addressed on many levels. As in all areas of life, there are those that take advantage of an otherwise positive experience whenever possible. That sadly, is the human condition.

    I would suggest the following:

    1. Filmmakers need to do their due diligence when applying for festivals. Seek recommendations, referrals, testimonials, etc. from peers and other festivals.
    2. Withoutabox has a responsibility to its customers and needs to find a way to rate and vet these unscrupulous festivals. Their monopoly will not survive if those who prey on innocent filmmakers are allowed to use their services continue to exploit filmmakers through the site. It is not enough to say they are just a conduit.
    3. We, as an industry, need to have a forum to alert others when we know or learn about this. It is our duty to do the best we can to assist naive filmmakers and should contact authorities when we see dubious practices, be it Better Business Bureau, State Attorney Generals, Withoutabox or the media in general.
    4. There are no easy answers but we owe it to our filmmakers to try and alleviate these terrible practices that cast a negative impression on our otherwise honorable industry.
    Laurie Kirby, Esq., Executive Director

  • martha may | January 27, 2013 11:32 AM

    Laurie Kirby is now "promoting best business practices for film festivals" this is the UFFO remit, a non for profit organization the is "promoting best business practices for film festivals" or their magazine that exposed fraudulent festivals and blacklisting festivals Universal Film Magazine.

    SO what is the IFFS doing about fraud? nothing, now the IFFS are jumping on the bandwagon and taking the high ground. What about the festivals that Laurie Kirby was involved in that went out of business and went broke owing thousands to contractors. Have they now been paid?

    Perhaps Laurie should apply best business practices to the submits the IFFS put on. The IFFS summit is Paris last year was a complete fiasco as the IFFS kicked off members of the panel for complaining about the running of the summit and hotel bills. Th4e Paris fiasco recently let directly to the forming of the Film Festival Academy who are now in direct competition with the IFFS

  • Chase | January 17, 2013 11:27 PMReply

    How is this any different from the Webby Awards ? A lot of contests give certificates for free but charge for trophies. This is an investigative piece? I was expecting something earth shattering.

  • Chase | January 17, 2013 11:25 PMReply

    How is this any different from the Webby Awards ? A lot of contests give certificates for free but charge for trophies. This is an investigative piece? I was expecting something earth shattering.

  • Chase | January 17, 2013 11:25 PMReply

    How is this any different from the Webby Awards ? A lot of contests give certificates for free but charge for trophies. This is an investigative piece? I was expecting something earth shattering.

  • Janeatte Walker | January 17, 2013 10:57 PMReply

    What kind of hit piece is this? My husband won an award (well deserved I might add) for his short film at the California Film Awards in 2011 and we attended the event. It was a lovely event and we quite enjoyed ourselves. My husband worked for over 3 years making that film and the recognition he received was well deserved and certainly appreciated by us. That's my 2 cents at least.

  • Roger Cohn | January 17, 2013 10:47 PMReply

    In other news, film festivals are a business. Shocker! How are these any different than any awards event? You forgot to mention that true independent films have absolutely no shot at getting into Sundance. Sorry, not everyone's gonna win an Oscar. So what if there are lower tier awards events. And...? If we don't like it, we don't have to submit.

  • Steve Aufrecht | January 17, 2013 2:06 AMReply

    Thanks for this piece and the link. Film makers work too hard to waste their money on phantom festivals. And The head of the Anchorage International Film Festival is Tony, not Tom, Sheppard. I posted a three part post - after the threatening attorney letter -
    1. What's a Scam?
    2. What's a Film Festival?
    3. A comparison of the authenticity of the Anchorage International Film Festival and the Alaska International Film Festival.
    You can find find all three at
    http://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2010/07/whats-scam.html

  • kmf | January 16, 2013 3:05 PMReply

    thanks for doing this...about time....

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