Sometimes enough is enough. This post is for readers who are interested in the world of film festivals and how filmmakers are treated.
Some time ago I received an email from Davide Iacono, Programming Director for the 2027 Dumbo Film Festival in Dumbo, New York. They were interested in my film “Fuga” for viewing consideration. They provided a code for a 25% discount on the submission fee, if I would submit “Fuga” to them on FilmFreeway. I checked out their FilmFreeway page, their website, and their social media, it looked trustworthy, convincing and professional. The submission fee was a bit high, but not too bad for New York, so I submitted “Fuga”.
When I read the texts on Dumbo Film Festival’s FilmFreeway page and on their website, this part of their Rules and Terms could be important in my case:
“PRIOR SCREENINGS:
Dumbo Film Festival requests partial exclusivity in screening your film: your work must not have been broadcast on any TV network or be publicly available online before the event date. Nonetheless, private, industry, press screenings, as well as previous screenings at other film festivals are allowed.
The “New York Premiere” status is recommended, but not mandatory.”
On their website they clarify this further “We will reject any project that was broadcast on TV networks or available online before the DFF annual event date.” (https://www.dumbofilmfestival.com/faq)
Basically I find this outrageous, and no one should ever try to tell me what I can do with my film. But in this case, where “Fuga” was new, it could reduce the competition considerably, since all the films that were already publicly available online or had been broadcast on TV would be rejected.
On the notification date I received an email that “Fuga” was now pre-selected at Dumbo Film Festival – which just meant that my film was still in the competition and changed status to semi-finalist on FilmFreeway. The final result came 6 days later, where I received an email from Dumbo Film Festival, with a link to a webpage, where I could go and see if my film was selected for screening or not. It was not.
Story of a filmmaker’s life: you get ‘not selected’ messages all the time, but you only care about the selections.
But this one is just a bit different: when I saw the list of selected films in the experimental category (where “Fuga” competed) I recognized Tom Bessoir’s film “Equal” and remembered that it was screened by Delete TV in June 2026, where I had “Vision” included myself in the same broadcast. In my opinion “Equal” is not eligible. The other film selected in the experimental category is “SPEED or PERISH” directed by Seth Ickerman, a simple search shows that “SPEED or PERISH” is all over the place online, it’s available on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Eqf973nbAQ where it was posted around 7 months ago and has 445.212 views. The Dumbo Film Festival team doesn’t even have to check whether “SPEED or PERISH” is publicly available online or not, as it is also publicly available on FilmFreeway right in front of them https://filmfreeway.com/SPEEDorPERISH .
So what became of the reduced competition for “Fuga” and the trustworthy, professional Dumbo Film Festival’s Rules and Terms?
I have filed a complaint and requested a refund of the submission fee. And then I have withdrawn “Fuga” from Dumbo Film Festival and will never work with that festival again.
Unfortunately this example is not unusual at all. This year I have withdrawn my selected and finalist films from several other film festivals that turned out to be dishonest, scams, confused amateurs, or simply just extremely rude and disrespectful towards the filmmakers, and the list of film festivals I will not work with is growing.