02/12/2023
Since Covid the amount of festival scams has increased exponentially. These online festivals (some not all) have turned a once honored tradition into a money making engine where they charge crazy fees and just let you print out an award or not show your films at all. I have managed to avoid this by using some very simple red flag methods. 1. If a festival is charging 140 dollars as a first year festival and is online I automatically question it. High fees for virtual festivals that are only sending you pdf certificates raise a huge red flag. Overhead on these festivals do not warrant the fee. 2. Just because they say the are an IMDB qualified festival does not make it true. Do your due diligence and check on IMDB for the festival. 3. If they say they have seen your work and love it and want it in their festival…..red flag. As much as our egos will love this, our wallets will not. This is the equivalent of getting a message that starts with “hello dear” anyway keep an eye out for these warning signs and happy filmmaking.
