New York International Independent Film and Video Festival

Hello all. A friend's film recently got accepted to the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. He was really excited until they started pushing their "Festival Package" on him. Apparently, for a fee, the Festival will promote his film to all the participants with flyers, postcards, etc. I understand they might be providing a useful service but he was kind of turned off by their hard sell.

Anyone have any experience with this festival? Anyone been accepted there? If you have any information, please post it here or PM me.

Much appreciated. Thank you!
 
As a representative of this forum, I won't use the word scam, but do a google search and you will find lots of reasons to stay away. Whatever you do, do not give them money no matter what they say. Some have given up to 4 grand to them.
 
from:
http://bbs.hollywoodreporter.com/sh...0&Old=allposts&Main=834&Search=true#Post10521



The director, Stuart Alson, and the NY International Independent Film & Video Festival has been reported to:
The NY Dept. of Consumer Affairs
The Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Service
The Office of the NY State Attorney General
Better Business Bureau (NYC)
Alson & the New York International Film & Video Festival promoters have ignored and denied the refund of filmmakers who have demanded a return of their registration fees (ranging between $300 to $500) despite the intervention of those agencies listed above.

The office of the Attorney General, Consumer Fraud Division should be contacted to report any consumer frauds against you, or anyone you know, who are victims of these promoters. The Consumer Fraud Division can be reached at (212) 416-6399.
 
NYIIFV so close to as scam as to be indistinguishable

Wow, you guys are great. No sooner had I posted than I got the first response suggesting that I Google the festival and see what had been written (admittedly, where I should have started). What I found was eye-opening.

Every negative post I read elsewhere was followed by a laudatory response talking about how good the festival is and the fact that Sundance and the other festivals are the real "scam." What's amusing is that, while all the negative posts were written by filmmakers who had been burned by this "festival," all the laudatory posts were identical, down to the bad grammar. Someone had simply re-posted the same response to different forums. Insert logical conclusion here.

Anyway, I called my friend and told him what I had found. He was embarassed and angry but was happy to discover he had "only" spent the initial $300 to get accepted. He is not going to send them another dime. When I read him a Village Voice article from 1997 detailing how they work their scam, he said "That's exactly what they did, they needed an answer right then and there about what kind of a package I wanted. And they made it sound like I was the loser for not wanting to promote my film."

It's possible that the legal threshold of a scam is not met by what these (rich) cowards are doing. But that's not because the festival is not a scam, but because the law hasn't caught up to them.

DO NOT GIVE THESE IDIOTS ANY OF YOUR MONEY! Please spread the word, any legitimate festival will work hard to promote the films it accepts. The "festival" in question charges YOU their promotion costs by taking ads on their website and program. What?!

Man, I could go on. But I am too disgusted and none of this will get my buddy's money back. I just hope no one who sees this falls for it.
 
I have to wonder how much it cost to lease a theatre for an event though. Are they really making much profit on these events with the cost of advertising and all?

Anyways, Maybe it is a scam. I've only attended one in my life but of course I got the tickets for free from the Radio Station I called in too. Mike and Ike was mostly animations though.
 
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