How a Respected Film Festival Became a Scam (Allegedly) — The Oaxaca Film Fest Story

This is the story of a major film festival that began from humble origins with good intentions. A film festival that ran successfully for a decade, earning the respect and acclaim of independent filmmakers and screenwriters around the world. A film festival that was rocked by natural disaster, protested by the local population… and quietly turned into an alleged scheme to suck money out of creatives by preying upon their dreams, ambitions, and kind hearts. This is the story of the Oaxaca Film Festival.

As an independent filmmaker myself, I have a modicum of experience with film festivals. I have largely had positive experiences, but I can tell you from firsthand experience that film festival scams are real and they are prominent. It is an issue that doesn’t really get talked about. When submitting to a film festival, you need to do a fair bit of research to weed out the “fake” festivals and get to the real ones. These “fake” film fests pop up on the main submission platform of Film Freeway and formerly on WithoutABox before it was shut down. The easiest ways to detect a scam festival are to check the number of years the festival has been in operation (scam festivals don’t usually go beyond their “1st…