At FilmFreeway, the safety and integrity of our community is our top priority. We understand filmmakers want to connect with legitimate, high-quality festivals, and we're committed to making sure that experience is secure and rewarding.
We are constantly working behind the scenes to protect you from fraudulent events while ensuring FilmFreeway remains the best platform for our creative community. We hold all festivals to the highest standards of honesty and transparency, so you can submit with confidence.
Our Vetting Process
Before publishing a festival, we require that it meet our Publishing Requirements. As part of these requirements, festivals holding an in-person event must provide proof of securing a physical venue for their event and verify their account with an official government-issued ID.
We also implement a strict Deactivation Policy for festivals that act in bad faith or fail to meet their commitments to filmmakers.
Fraud Prevention Measures
We have implemented multiple tactics to help identify suspicious activity on our system, helping us identify and remove suspicious festivals from FilmFreeway. We conduct routine quality assurance checks to ensure festivals are representing themselves legitimately, review reports of suspicious activity, and take immediate action to investigate and address any reported festivals.
FilmFreeway has built a public festival review system so that filmmakers can post reviews about their experiences with festivals and submitters can read these reviews prior to submission. Public reviews has been one of our more popular additions and provides an additional layer of transparency and community self-policing.
Our new First-Year Festival Payout Policy ensures a secure experience for both festivals and filmmakers by verifying event completion before festival funds are released. This policy is designed to uphold trust and reliability within the FilmFreeway community.
Enhanced Security Measures
In addition to our existing measures, we're actively implementing further security enhancements to protect and rebuild trust with our users, including the following:
Enhanced Identity Verification: We’ve enhanced our festival organizer identity verification process by partnering with Onfido, a leader in ID verification technology. This advanced biometric solution adds an extra layer of protection by confirming that the person verifying their identity is physically present, legitimate, and matches the photo on their government-issued ID—further safeguarding our community from identity spoofing and fraud.
User Education: Offering resources to help recognize and avoid potential scams, in line with the best practices recommended by the Film Festival Alliance.
Advanced Fraud Detection: Implementing sophisticated algorithms to prevent fraudulent events before they occur.
And there’s more on the roadmap.
We're Here to Help
We're proud to offer the best customer support in the industry. Filmmakers and festivals can reach out to us at support@filmfreeway.com with any inquiries, and our team will be happy to assist. If you suspect a festival to be suspicious, please let us know so we can investigate promptly and take appropriate action.
We hear you and we’re listening closely to your concerns. Together, we’re building a stronger, safer community where filmmakers can confidently submit their work, knowing that the festivals they engage with are reputable and dedicated to providing real opportunities.
Thank you for your trust in FilmFreeway. We're here for you every step of the way.