[KineJapan] Fake film festivals

Mon Aug 26 05:52:34 EDT 2024

I was just thinking of these fake conferences. Once I got a CFP for one in
Tokyo, about culture, including Japanese cinema. I checked "keynote
speakers" - could not recognize a single name, and I think I know by name
the people who usually speak in these kind of events.
Eija

ma 26. elok. 2024 klo 8.49 Thomas Ball via KineJapan (
kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu) kirjoitti:

> It's worth noting the proliferation of, not just fake film festivals, but
> also fake conferences, fake CFPs, fake universities, fake anything that can
> be faked and monetized to unethically procure IP, identity, you name it.
> Thomas B
>
> On Monday, August 26, 2024 at 12:41:40 PM GMT+7, Eija Niskanen via
> KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:
>
>
> We at Helsinki Cine Aasia film festival get often emails from Freeway and
> other similar, who promise to provide us with films. We have absolutely no
> need for that, as we select our program ourselves by going to Busan film
> festival, Tokyo Film Festival, Filmex and Berlinale or such. We also have
> good contacts to for ex.- Japanese distributors and they can be contacted
> and asked for screener links.
> I have no idea why any proper festival would need this in-betweener.
> Eija
>
> ma 26. elok. 2024 klo 2.22 Markus Nornes via KineJapan (
> kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu) kirjoitti:
>
> While this is all fascinating, I think there is a more fundamental issue
> at hand. The festival circuit is huge now. Every little community has a
> film festival. They are all on the Freeway and they all charge people for
> entries. Even the little tiny ones. However, if you’re a famous filmmaker
> or a friend of the programmers, you can tapped directly and they often wave
> the fees. It is ridiculously expensive for independent filmmakers to break
> into festivals. Filmmakers need to craft their careers to ease into it. And
> filmmakers who know English go much further than anyone else because of it.
> Some years ago the Ann Arbor Film Festival fired its programmer, partly
> because he was letting all this friends into the festival free but charging
> everyone else for submission (and not everyone was being properly
> viewed—typical, I suspect). To their credit, the Ann Arbor Film Festival
> has a code of ethics and operates in a righteously transparent way. Check
> this out <https://www.aafilmfest.org/statement-of-integrity>. ) I think
> these fake festivals are insignificant compared to the real festivals that
> don’t actually give their (paid) submissions a fair shake.
>
> A personal example: our film *The Big House *showed around the world at
> many festivals and got distribution across Japan. If I submitted the film
> to the same festivals, I doubt they’d pick it up. But Soda’s name was
> attached and he could directly contact the festivals he’s already
> participated in…..
>
> Markus
>
>
>
> On Aug 25, 2024, at 5:29 PM, Aaron Gerow via KineJapan <
> kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:
>
> Thanks, Jasper. Searching online, it seems people are making a distinction
> between fake film festivals and pseudo film festivals. The latter is like
> the ones you mention, which do things like give everyone an award but make
> you pay for it, barely do any screenings, etc. But they do exist and they
> do something, though nothing like a full fledged film festival. The former,
> however, only take entry fees and then disappear. A total scam. These seem
> to be increasing in number since COVID. There are now a number of guides
> online on how to spot fake and pseudo film festivals.
>
> Aaron Gerow
>
> 8/25/24 午後12:07、Jasper Sharp <jasper_sharp at hotmail.com>のメール:
>
> Sadly an all too common phenomenon, especially since the advent some time
> ago now of online submission websites like Film Freeway where filmmakers
> pay a submission fee to various events of dubious legitimacy and find not
> only do their films not reach an audience, they don't reach critics or
> juries either. All you get in return for your money is a jpeg of some
> festival Laurels to add to your poster and promotional blurb.
> This has been going on for years, especially in North America, but also
> numerous small towns in the UK. I remember reading one such report in the
> Guardian about the Swansea Bay Film Festival as far back as 2011:
> https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jun/27/swansea-bay-film-festival-disaster
>
> The object lesson here is if you can't get a film into an established film
> festival that has a reputation and a sizeable online presence, you probably
> shouldn't bother submitting.
>
>
> *The Creeping Garden <http://www.creepinggarden.com/>* - A Real-Life
> Science-Fiction Story about Slime Moulds and the People Who Work With them,
> directed by Tim Grabham and Jasper Sharp.
> Available now on Dual-Format Blu-ray/DVD from Arrow Films
> <https://arrowfilms.com/product-detail/the-creeping-garden-dual-format/FCD1435>
> .
> The book, *The Creeping Garden: Irrational Encounters with Plasmodial
> Slime Moulds *is out now from Alchimia Publishing
> <http://www.alchimiapublishing.com/creeping-garden/>.
> "A surprising investigation of perception, thought and life itself",
> Nicolas Rapold, *The New York Times
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/movies/review-the-creeping-garden-on-the-wonders-of-the-slime-mold.html>*
> .
> "An out-of-left-field nerdy delight", John DeFore, *Hollywood Reporter
> <https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/creeping-garden-fantasia-review-724416>*
> .
> "Strange, eccentric, diverting", Peter Bradshaw, *The Guardian
> <https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/09/creeping-garden-review-slime-mould-film>*
> .
>
>
>
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> --
> Eija Niskanen
> Programming director
> Helsinki Cine Aasia, March 14.-17.2024
> www.helsinkicineaasia.fi
> +358-50-355 3189
>
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-- 
Eija Niskanen
Programming director
Helsinki Cine Aasia, March 14.-17.2024
www.helsinkicineaasia.fi
+358-50-355 3189
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