Before you make a film, before you even THINK of submitting a film, you better know what leaches are out there awaiting for you naive dreamers learn to read, learn to think, if you don't you will be just more than sorry.
If you do not know about Sundance Institute and film festival and the recent lawsuit regarding
the court trial of 2012 Abbinante vs. Sundance H12S00037.
Because of the court trial; it is now on record that the 12,000 film submissions that are submitted each year, and the millions of dollars earned by Sundance do NOT in fact get watched. They can't watch them all, and they don't.
The judge said "if you can not prove Sundance is not watching at least 30 seconds of each and every film submitted, then you can not prove fraud."
You may also want to know that over 7000 film festivals require you to submit your film on-line to 'without a box', which is owned by IMDB, which is owned by Amazon.
In short when you click submit, ( and no one reads the fine print) you are giving away your rights, all of your rights to your film. We are now receiving letters from filmmakers that have lost their screen plays, scripts, stolen from script festivals, and even their films being sold on-line and Amazon without their permission.
It is a "racket" and you need to inform yourselves.
To join and become aware and receive up-dates GO TO www.sundancefilmfstival2013.com
Here are comments and letters pouring in.
This is a horrendous instance of corporate geed and corruption. You have identified the problem and pointed the way towards a more sustainable path for artists. It is a very important project that will hopefully reach a huge audience and then the boycotts will begin. It’s so crazy but after I watched the trailer, it all seemed so obvious. The epiphany.
Hello; I submitted my student short film to sun dance in 2005.. they said it was good but not good enough and they stole the whole story and changed it enough so i lost rights to the film.
I was always curious to know who in the world actually views all those submissions & always wondered if they get to all of them. It’s reality in this industry & I’m glad that the idea was actually put into a creative vision. Reviewing your website gave me more insight as to what really goes on, Thank you.
I’ve listened to a lot of people complain that they keep submitting films and find out that it was never even shown at film festivals and I personally wondered if there would be a way to expose those bastards for cheating hard working people out of their money with false hopes and broken promises. Thank you.
I previously held a position for several years as one of the programers for one of the largest film festivals in the U.S. and although I am ashamed to say, you are correct in your intuition and assumptions, most all are corrupted, I am not sure what drew me to this, or why I would be telling you this, except for the fact that it feels a bit liberating to tell the truth, and looking back I often wonder about some of the really good films that should have made it in, but never got the chance, I would be willing to share some stories with you.
I have viewed the site and am cognizant of the film’s subject—questioning the validity of Sundance as a truly free and independent film festival. Understandably this is a controversial topic which meeker filmmakers would shy away from due to fear of repercussions. However I find it refreshing that there are people who want to challenge the status quo and potentially extrapolate a disconcerting truth. Given my time working in the film industry, and my familiarity with frustrating festival circuits, I want to understand where exactly does the money go with an established festival such as Sundance. More so I wish that this kind of project would not only be seen but also be the catalyst for a positive change.
I have worked with LA film festival’s and know a little about the corruption involved and how certain videos are being pushed through because of contact instead of content, I know that this scam exists and I know what is actually really happening like all of us now know.
These “Big Name” festivals are collection huge sums of money and are screwing the small independent filmmakers they are supposed to be protecting and promoting. The whole point of these festivals were to promote the people that work hard and love the art, to keep the Hollywood cartel out unless they wanted to buy and promote the strongest of the independents. Now you cant go anywhere in sundance without finding some “indie” film that has well know actors or directors. It is a disgrace!!
I’ve been around the Sundance Film Fest for 15+ years and I’m full aware of the corporate greed that surrounds the fest, looks like you guys are onto something , when people have no comment or nothing to say, you know what that means!
I was always a skeptic. I had my own beliefs that they used the film festival to steal young artists ideas and then produce them because they were the big guys with the money and would always win against anyone gutsy enough to file a suit against them.
I have to say on a more personal note, that I think the documentary that you are doing is fantastic. Being a filmmaker myself I have too often gotten burned by the ridiculousness of festivals. The last feature I released was back in October and of the15 festivals that I submitted to I got into none of them. All with no feedback or reason why, just no. So I basically paid about $1000 for people to send me a form letter. The amusing thing is I decided to stop sending to festivals and send directly to distributors instead and I got 6 different distribution offers for my movie. So if festivals are suppose to be for distribution, and I have multiple distributors willing to sign my movie up, why are no festivals willing to even screen it? Then I watch the same high budget movies get accepted and screened at these “indie” festivals. It’s terrible. The next feature I make I’m skipping the festival circuit all together and saving myself some hard earned money.
It’s a scam, and I’m so happy someone is doing a movie like this, regardless of whether I get on board with this production, I just wanted to give you my encouragement because I’m tired of being fleeced by these so called film festivals.
Keep up the fight!
Regards,
Brad Rego
Obviously this project is important to all independent filmmakers because as we all know, distribution is the problem. We learn our craft, invest thousands into equipment and fund our own projects with the noble dream that one day our film will be accepted. I never liked the idea of fees to submit a film and it always struck me as rather unjust to fleece the starving artist but I had never done the math or given it as much thought as you have. This is a horrendous instance of corporate geed and corruption. I am showing this to every camera person I know. I am shocked and I am livid!
What started out as a great idea got tainted irrevocably [kind of like the UN]. Preying upon peoples dreams is one of the basest acts that the plutocracy commits. Getting a quality documentary screened should not be a lottery. This culture of celebrity and reality star worship is the antithesis of art and moral edification.
You have identified the problem and pointed the way towards a more sustainable path for artists. It is a very important project that will hopefully reach a huge audience and then the boycotts will begin. It’s so crazy but after I watched the trailer, it all seemed so obvious. The epiphany.
If you do not know about Sundance Institute and film festival and the recent lawsuit regarding
the court trial of 2012 Abbinante vs. Sundance H12S00037.
Because of the court trial; it is now on record that the 12,000 film submissions that are submitted each year, and the millions of dollars earned by Sundance do NOT in fact get watched. They can't watch them all, and they don't.
The judge said "if you can not prove Sundance is not watching at least 30 seconds of each and every film submitted, then you can not prove fraud."
You may also want to know that over 7000 film festivals require you to submit your film on-line to 'without a box', which is owned by IMDB, which is owned by Amazon.
In short when you click submit, ( and no one reads the fine print) you are giving away your rights, all of your rights to your film. We are now receiving letters from filmmakers that have lost their screen plays, scripts, stolen from script festivals, and even their films being sold on-line and Amazon without their permission.
It is a "racket" and you need to inform yourselves.
To join and become aware and receive up-dates GO TO www.sundancefilmfstival2013.com
Here are comments and letters pouring in.
This is a horrendous instance of corporate geed and corruption. You have identified the problem and pointed the way towards a more sustainable path for artists. It is a very important project that will hopefully reach a huge audience and then the boycotts will begin. It’s so crazy but after I watched the trailer, it all seemed so obvious. The epiphany.
Hello; I submitted my student short film to sun dance in 2005.. they said it was good but not good enough and they stole the whole story and changed it enough so i lost rights to the film.
I was always curious to know who in the world actually views all those submissions & always wondered if they get to all of them. It’s reality in this industry & I’m glad that the idea was actually put into a creative vision. Reviewing your website gave me more insight as to what really goes on, Thank you.
I’ve listened to a lot of people complain that they keep submitting films and find out that it was never even shown at film festivals and I personally wondered if there would be a way to expose those bastards for cheating hard working people out of their money with false hopes and broken promises. Thank you.
I previously held a position for several years as one of the programers for one of the largest film festivals in the U.S. and although I am ashamed to say, you are correct in your intuition and assumptions, most all are corrupted, I am not sure what drew me to this, or why I would be telling you this, except for the fact that it feels a bit liberating to tell the truth, and looking back I often wonder about some of the really good films that should have made it in, but never got the chance, I would be willing to share some stories with you.
I have viewed the site and am cognizant of the film’s subject—questioning the validity of Sundance as a truly free and independent film festival. Understandably this is a controversial topic which meeker filmmakers would shy away from due to fear of repercussions. However I find it refreshing that there are people who want to challenge the status quo and potentially extrapolate a disconcerting truth. Given my time working in the film industry, and my familiarity with frustrating festival circuits, I want to understand where exactly does the money go with an established festival such as Sundance. More so I wish that this kind of project would not only be seen but also be the catalyst for a positive change.
I have worked with LA film festival’s and know a little about the corruption involved and how certain videos are being pushed through because of contact instead of content, I know that this scam exists and I know what is actually really happening like all of us now know.
These “Big Name” festivals are collection huge sums of money and are screwing the small independent filmmakers they are supposed to be protecting and promoting. The whole point of these festivals were to promote the people that work hard and love the art, to keep the Hollywood cartel out unless they wanted to buy and promote the strongest of the independents. Now you cant go anywhere in sundance without finding some “indie” film that has well know actors or directors. It is a disgrace!!
I’ve been around the Sundance Film Fest for 15+ years and I’m full aware of the corporate greed that surrounds the fest, looks like you guys are onto something , when people have no comment or nothing to say, you know what that means!
I was always a skeptic. I had my own beliefs that they used the film festival to steal young artists ideas and then produce them because they were the big guys with the money and would always win against anyone gutsy enough to file a suit against them.
I have to say on a more personal note, that I think the documentary that you are doing is fantastic. Being a filmmaker myself I have too often gotten burned by the ridiculousness of festivals. The last feature I released was back in October and of the15 festivals that I submitted to I got into none of them. All with no feedback or reason why, just no. So I basically paid about $1000 for people to send me a form letter. The amusing thing is I decided to stop sending to festivals and send directly to distributors instead and I got 6 different distribution offers for my movie. So if festivals are suppose to be for distribution, and I have multiple distributors willing to sign my movie up, why are no festivals willing to even screen it? Then I watch the same high budget movies get accepted and screened at these “indie” festivals. It’s terrible. The next feature I make I’m skipping the festival circuit all together and saving myself some hard earned money.
It’s a scam, and I’m so happy someone is doing a movie like this, regardless of whether I get on board with this production, I just wanted to give you my encouragement because I’m tired of being fleeced by these so called film festivals.
Keep up the fight!
Regards,
Brad Rego
Obviously this project is important to all independent filmmakers because as we all know, distribution is the problem. We learn our craft, invest thousands into equipment and fund our own projects with the noble dream that one day our film will be accepted. I never liked the idea of fees to submit a film and it always struck me as rather unjust to fleece the starving artist but I had never done the math or given it as much thought as you have. This is a horrendous instance of corporate geed and corruption. I am showing this to every camera person I know. I am shocked and I am livid!
What started out as a great idea got tainted irrevocably [kind of like the UN]. Preying upon peoples dreams is one of the basest acts that the plutocracy commits. Getting a quality documentary screened should not be a lottery. This culture of celebrity and reality star worship is the antithesis of art and moral edification.
You have identified the problem and pointed the way towards a more sustainable path for artists. It is a very important project that will hopefully reach a huge audience and then the boycotts will begin. It’s so crazy but after I watched the trailer, it all seemed so obvious. The epiphany.
