The Hollywood Reporter - 30.10.2019

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 65 OCTOBER 30, 2019

that could be posted to IMDb if
the filmmaker liked it. (IMDb did
not respond to multiple requests
for comment about this pitch.)
While they attended the festi-
val, filmmakers also encountered
organizational glitches. Protests
against the sitting governor of
Oaxaca by indigenous peoples
in front of one venue caused the
fest to cancel an entire day of
programming, and three film-
makers present report that several
titles originally scheduled for
that venue didn’t end up playing
at all. Director Stephen Billick
did not show his film because
time had run out at another
venue. “I traveled to Oaxaca only
to have my film not screen,” he
wrote in an email to THR. Later,
another protest interrupted
the closing ceremony, this one
over one of the festival’s spon-
sors, a mining company called
Minera Cuzcatlán, which has been
accused by activists of polluting
local water sources and violence.
The festival since has canceled the
company’s sponsorship.
In a statement, the Oaxaca
fest maintains that all films
canceled due to venue or techni-
cal glitches did eventually play
during the event, though several
filmmakers claim this was not
the case.
These festivals are hardly alone
in advertising optional fees to
filmmakers. The Beverly Hills
Film Festival, which accepted
more than 150 screenwriting
finalists this year and more than
160 in 2018, requires finalists to
buy a ticket — $275 or $350 for
“preferred seating” to ostensibly
get closer to industry figures
in attendance (producer Mike
Medavoy was an honoree at the
2019 edition) — and be present
at a ceremony where the award
they are vying for is handed
out. In 2019, the Chandler Film

Festival in Chandler, Arizona,

gave accepted filmmakers a free

ticket to their own screening but

charged them $119 for a full festi-

val pass and $50 for a single-day

pass to attend filmmaker-focused

events like workshops, discussion

panels and networking events. (In

a statement, Chandler says that it

is changing its practices in 2020.)

Larger, more established fests

generally don’t charge extra for

passes. At Sundance, for instance,

a filmmaker is offered tickets for

10 screenings other than his or

her own, while in Toronto, film-

makers receive 10 tickets to public

screenings and can get into all

press and industry screenings.

Thanks to the digital revolu-

tion, filmmakers now tend to blitz

events with submissions. Katie

McCullough, head of Festival

Formula, a U.K.-based consul-

tancy that helps filmmakers

navigate the festival circuit, says

they often do so without proper

due diligence. In this new age,

McCullough says, filmmakers

“need to be more savvy.”

But industry figures argue

that some responsibility must

also lie with the submission

platforms themselves, especially

FilmFreeway — which makes a

not-inconsiderable 8.5 percent

commission on each admission

fee. “They need to understand

that this is an area where people

can be exploited,” says Cath Le

Couteur, founder of subscription-

based online indie filmmaking

community Shooting People.

FilmFreeway points to what it

calls a “thorough vetting sys-

tem” to make sure all its listed

events are indeed “legitimate,”

one of which requires every new

festival to show proof it has

secured a venue. A FilmFreeway

spokesperson says the company

keeps a “detailed record of every

filmmaker complaint,” acting

whenever one flares up.

Not all small festivals that

require filmmakers to pay for

their travel, accommodations

and pass are suspect. “There are

festivals that ask you to pay for

your pass — Austin Film Festival

is one of them — but then it’s

not to go to empty screening

rooms. They’re giving you

something for your pass,” says

Sandrine Cassidy, senior director

of talent development, festivals

and distribution at USC, who

works on festival placement for

student films.

But Cassidy stresses that more

needs to be done — by both online

platforms and the fests them-

selves — to ensure inexperienced

filmmakers aren’t exploited by an

opaque system.

“A filmmaker should think

that they deserve to be screened;

they should know they don’t owe

anything to festivals,” she says.

“It’s a codependency thing, and it

should be a fair relationship.”

A conference room in the Novotel Madrid served as the screening

venue for Film Fest International.

From left: Mike

Medavoy,

Kelly LeBrock

and Peter

Medak at

the 2019

Beverly Hills

Film Festival;

Film Fest

International

touted

the perks of

its event.

HOW TO LAUNCH A

(FRUGAL) FILM FEST

For some events, all that’s needed is a

projector and a conference room

$ 3 K

Base cost on venue

and equipment

$ 30

Standard price to charge

per submission using the

FilmFreeway platform

8.5%

Amount FilmFreeway takes

from each submission fee

109

Number of submissions

needed to break even

T

hanks in no small

part to the emer-

gence of online

submissions platforms,

thousands of minor film

festivals have sprung

up around the globe in

recent years, with several

websites allowing festival

organizers to easily attract

filmmakers to their events.

FilmFreeway, which domi-

nates this space, boasts

more than 8,000 festivals

of all shapes and sizes on

its service. And for any

budding Thierry Frémaux

operating on a tight budget,

the smallest events can

be launched, according to

experts, on a shoestring and

still turn a profit. According

to Katie McCullough,

founder of consultancy

Festival Formula, some can

be set up for as “little as a

few grand.”

Venue and equipment

costs are the biggest out-

lays, but McCullough says

for a conference room in a

hotel with a projector (many

festivals offer exactly this

setup), a figure of $3,000

would easily cover this.

THR’s own inquiries at

a London hotel that has

hosted several small film

festivals indicate a couple

of rooms actually could be

rented for just this amount.

The next step in the

process is the all-important

submission fee. Festivals

on FilmFreeway charge

varying rates, but for a new

event, $30 is a standard

place to start (and this

price can rise if the event

sets several deadlines).

With FilmFreeway taking

8.5 percent of each submis-

sion fee, an upstart festival

operating from a hotel need

only attract 109 submis-

sions to break even.

Of course, such a rudi-

mentary fest setup likely

would disappoint attendees

and struggle to survive.

More established under-

the-radar events — ones

with bigger venues, panel

discussions and all the

trappings of a fully fledged,

legitimate festival — cost

significantly more to run

and attract far greater

numbers of submissions.

Philadelphia’s Blackstar

Film Festival, for example,

gets about 1,500 submis-

sions, while the Woodstock

Film Festival has around

2,000. But even festivals

such as these — which

also have sponsorships,

grants and thousands of

fee-paying attendees —

still find it difficult to get

by. Woodstock head Meira

Blaustein admits that, even

after 19 editions, finances

are such that it’s still a

“struggle to make sure

everyone is happy.”

Adds McCullough,

“Nobody runs a film festival

to make money.” — A.R.