The last couple of years has seen an influx of fake film festivals born on the platform Filmfreeway which sole purpose is to profit out of filmmakers' need for recognition and career by taking enormous fees for a festival that simply does not happen or does not happen in a way they can benefit from in any way. 

The scheme is very similar in each and every one of them: they start a festival that is often called "Random City Film Awards / Movie Awards / Gold Awards", then they try to pass the "Filmfreeway test" which consists in a proof of an event. Once they've done the first event - which is often just a screening room with 20 people -, Filmfreeway does not control them anymore so they are legit forever, until users say something or protest. So they never have events again. 

Some characteristics of these fake festival: 

• Dodgy website with a jury of people but no contact of the administration of the festival, of the support or of organizers or companies behind it 
• You have to pay for the statuette of the award
• On the filmfreeway list there are like 40 categories of submission which all require a separate fee. 
• Names are very similar to good festivals that take place in the same cities. 
  
  
• When you hover on the Transparency indicator on filmfreeway, they are often managed from a different country. 
• They select everyone who submits.

These festival, often managed by the same groups of people, have grown exponentially in numbers becoming a sort of standard for new filmmakers who approach the platform - the most popular platform for film submission -  and distorting the idea of what a festival is. 

By taking their fee in a fraudolent way, they also consume the distribution budget of films, giving less resources to legit festivals and real events that have the possibility of giving chances of career and networking to filmmakers all over the world.

Plus, they don't give the possibility to filmmakers to really understand where they are, giving them the illusion of being "award winner" in pointless events that have no public, no screenings, no legitimacy. By putting these awards on their imdb profile, these filmmakers basically condemn themselves. No producer is going to take them seriously.

Filmfreeway let these festival thrive, because they profit on how much you spend taking a percentage off the fee (usually 6%).

These festivals are polluting the industry, creating a new mafia that is profiting over people dreams, passion and ambition, and Filmfreeway is doing nothing to prevent it. 

Let's fight as filmmakers for a legit panorama where you can trust film festivals on promoting filmmakers, and not scamming them profiting off their will to improve.

Let's gather signatures and send them all to Filmfreeway.