THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 64 OCTOBER 30, 2019
OAXACA: DOUGLAS FAVERO. DILLON: ZACH BELL. MEDAVOY: MINORU NITTA.filmmakers who are happy to
shell out $40, $60, $80 or more in
individual submission fees. But
the costs often don’t stop there.
Alongside travel and accommo-
dation expenses, many of these
events serve up an increasing
array of price tags that are rarely
mentioned in the application: to
promote your film, to take part in
workshops, go to awards dinners
and sometimes even just to see
films besides your own. While
this world of low-profile events
includes many entirely legit
affairs, it also features some that
run the gamut from merely disor-
ganized to potentially exploitative
— little-known fests marketing
themselves to inexperienced
filmmakers desperate to build
their names and careers.
Exposure to this potentially
damaging festival circuit usu-
ally begins with sites like
FilmFreeway, which allows film-
makers to submit their work and
pay the necessary fees involved.
Though filmmakers can receive
refunds after applying to a seem-
ingly fake festival on FilmFreeway,
they have little recourse when it
comes to “pseudo festivals” — a
name coined by film bloggers — or
real events attended primarily by
filmmakers but rarely by indus-
try gatekeepers or members of
the press.
“Our goal at FilmFreeway is
to provide simple, reliable and
trustworthy submissions to film
festivals and creative contests
for filmmakers and artists
everywhere,” says a company
spokesperson. “This is only
possible when filmmakers trust
all festivals and contests on
FilmFreeway to act in a profes-
sional, ethical and honest fashion.
Festivals that do not adhere to
this strict standard are removed
from FilmFreeway.”
Just what qualifies as a “pseudo
festival” depends on the film-
maker one speaks with: Some
argue that low-profile festivals
without significant industry
or media presence offer good
networking opportunities for
those seeking collaborators,
while others say they exist
primarily to make money off of
vulnerable wannabes.
Australian filmmaker Claire
J. Harris felt that the Nice
International Film Festival fell
in the latter category after she
attended in May 2018 with her
feature Zelos. Nice, part of a
15-year-old European chain called
Film Fest International that
holds events in Madrid, London,
Milan and, soon, Antwerp, touts
on its FilmFreeway page that the
festival’s dates overlap with the
Cannes Film Festival a few miles
away, “naturally filling our venue
with a wealth of talent.” The event
“is perfect for either an individual
seeking funding for an unpro-
duced screenplay or a finished
production seeking distribution,”
it adds.
But after she was accepted,
Harris began to notice what she
believed were red flags: Festival
emails advertised optional
expenses, including $152 per
night to book hotel rooms
through the festival (which was
actively encouraged in later corre-
spondence); $225 for banners that
were hung in the hotel’s lobby;
$250 or more for ads in the festi-
val’s magazine; and $245 — “my
dinners for a month,” she says —
for the awards ceremony.
When Harris arrived at the
festival, which she learned late
in her travel planning was in
a hotel near the Nice airport
(and more expensive than many
Airbnbs in the heart of the city),
what she saw didn’t quite match
her expectations. Attendance
was low (she and other filmmak-
ers allege their screening rooms
only hosted those they personally
invited), and she didn’t meet any
industry representatives or press.
The screenings themselves took
place in conference rooms (“liter-
ally just a projector in a room”),
playing back-to-back each day and
with no public audience.
Though Film Fest International
has repeat attendance and fans,several sources who spoke to
THR echoed Harris’ frustra-
tion. Oluwaseun Babalola, who
attended the Madrid edition with
a film while living in the Spanish
city, attempted to go to a panel
one day and a filmmaker meet-
and-greet another day: “None
of these panels or workshops or
anything was happening,” she
says. Her film played to a room of
just the people she invited, and
volunteers began packing up the
room’s chairs before it was over.
Film Fest International presi-
dent Carl Tooney tells THR that
the festival offers “everything
free except for the awards night”
and other expenses are optional.
Regarding the hotel venues,
Tooney — who owned a company
specializing in truck advertising
and operated a short-lived adver-
tising “festival” in Paris — says
that, early in his work in festivals,
his organization did rent cinemas
but “found very few people were
coming to them” and wanted to
make venues more convenient
for filmmakers. “Every film is
completely supported,” he says,
“... and some of the films are com-
pletely booked out.” (Filmmakers
have sent THR images of empty
screening rooms.)
The Oaxaca Film Fest in Mexico
also boasts about high-end indus-
try connections, and yet, after the
festival’s latest edition wrapped
Oct. 10, several filmmakers told
THR they jokingly nicknamed it
the “Oaxaca Fyre Fest” because
of the high price of admission
and organizational issues. The
10-year-old festival holds round-
tables and conferences and has
“industry alliances” with Turner
and Viacom, per its website, to
allow filmmakers to pitch ideas
while they attend. While none of
these companies would comment
for this story, THR has confirmedthat there currently is no rela-
tionship between them and the
fest. In fact, HBO’s and UTA’s
insignias, which had appeared on
the festival’s industry alliances
page, were removed after THR
began asking about their connec-
tion to the festival.
According to emails provided
by 2019 attendees, the Oaxaca fest
required filmmakers to attend in
person and send evidence, if they
had not booked tickets through
the festival, that they had booked
a flight before films were sched-
uled to screen. Filmmakers were
provided six tickets to their film
free of charge, but in order to par-
ticipate in panels, conferences,
table reads and pitch sessions
— all marketed to filmmakers
— they were asked to buy a pass
whose cost varied by attendance
history. Optional fees included:
$30 for each project pitch sub-
mitted for consideration to the
“Industry Partners program”
designed to “bring [projects] to
life” (the festival says it wants
to develop or distribute feature
pitches); $13 to enter a competi-
tion where a project chosen by
“industry executives” would win
a “sit-down” opportunity with
those executives, a free pass, hotel
stay and $4,000; $99 to commis-
sion Dove Sussman, the writer of
the Clive Owen-Morgan Freeman
movie Last Knights, to pen a
review of a filmmaker’s projectsProtests against the sitting governor of Oaxaca
resulted in the cancellation of an entire day’s worth of
screenings at one of the Oaxaca Film Fest’s venues.