Indie filmmakers, you need to know about scam film festivals. An entire industry has been built around making money off your dreams. There are thousands of festivals on Film Freeway and it's almost impossible to pick the good ones from the bad.

There are some amazing small film festivals driven by a genuine passion for independent film. And then there is the rest. They charge you money to attend, you have to stay in hotels where they are making a commission, and they encourage you to pay for "marketing packages".

They promise to get your film in front of a distributor. That is a lie. Most of them don't even get your film in front of an audience. They don't sell public tickets - they don't need to because they are already making a profit off YOU, the filmmaker.

Unless you pay for a marketing package, your film will be lost in a program of hundreds of others and may even play to an empty room.

You have to pay for the Awards Night - sometimes up to hundreds of dollars. They'll tell you it's optional but usually the only reason you've flown halfway around the world (at your own expense) is to get your picture taken on a red carpet.

Some of these festivals will take your submission fee and not even watch your film. Some of them don't exist at all. They may be "online" festivals where your film plays nowhere and you receive a laurel that is absolutely meaningless.

It's impossible to tell which festivals these are because they all have 5 star reviews - usually written by people they are in cahoots with. People are too scared to leave a 1-star review because they think they will be blacklisted.

If you DO write a 1-star review, it is quickly drowned out by 5-star ones. Film Freeway does nothing to control this and if you go by the reviews, you have no idea what the festival is until you've paid a lot of money to go there.

It's easy to blame the filmmakers for buying into this - but if you've poured years into making a film, of course you want it to be seen. But at these festivals, it will only get seen by a handful of other filmmakers, at best.

When choosing which festivals to submit to, here are some warning signs. (1) They are held in a hotel - this means they don't sell tickets to the public. (2) They have no website or a dodgy looking one. (3) They have hundreds of awards categories.

(4) They are called "monthly" or "online" festivals. (5) They have names that are VERY similar to a famous one.

Anyway, here's my experience at one such festival who charged around $350 for a seat at their Awards Dinner - and thus made almost $70,000 off struggling indie filmmakers in one night (AUD). Read it and weep: https://medium.com/swlh/indie-filmmakers-beware-of-scam-film-festivals-37e702954bdd?source=friends_link&sk=008e63b0b02719746574e86095264c97