WFCN…
Where Film Festival Scammers Thrive
Navigating Film Festivals in a World of Online Scams (Part 4)
World Film Communities Network (WFCN,) like Film Freeway, Click, and others, hosts film festivals through their portal. Some of the festivals have been blocked elsewhere, such as Enjoy Film Festival and War of Film — mentioned in previous blog posts here, here, and here.
WFCN is based in Palo Alto, California with an office in Kolkata, India.
This was one of the first entries I found when I googled WFCN. I was dismayed yet intrigued. Why haven’t they been shut down?
When in doubt about a film festival, Google it.
Be vigilant about checking out new festivals of interest:
🚩 How long have been running
🚩 How often do they run
🚩 Dig into the reviews
I took a closer look at a few of them…
🚩 The San Francisco Independent Filmmakers Contest only had one review and has been running for one year, yet it popped up before the established, successful IndieFest.
🚩 The same for the Manchester Film & Creativity Festival.
When you google a festival, notice if/when you get a "Search instead for..." message.
🚩
The WFCN’s Toronto International Filmmakers’ Festival is run from a Toronto location in the States and easily confused in listings with the internationally renown TIFF festival in Canada’s Toronto.
Note WFCN’s use of a TIFF laurel below. 🚩
The above awards were won by one director living in Bognor, England. I found that suspicious. His "TIFF" laurel was among his other WFCN awards from Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Kolkata, Britain, and Sweden — all place-name competitions. 🚩
Now, onto WFCN’s festival in Switzerland…
🚩 60+ categories to lose your money on
🚩 Only running 1 year
🚩 Monthly or seasonal competitions versus well known annual ones
🚩 No venues listed
🚩 Only one review: 10 stars!
Only 20+ followers and 19 likes. How many of them might be in-house?
Most scam festivals have Facebook pages and Instagram profiles. They’re easy to set up, at no cost.
Let’s check out Paris…
Similar to the Switzerland one but with a 50% discount to enter 🚩
The office is listed 702 km away from Paris with an error in the address they listed 🚩
There are no photos of winners or film covers, just of Paris.🚩
There is an IMDb logo above Fiesta, but festivals need to be running for several years before they can be registered. 🚩
And get this, under their disclaimer… “The Film Festival (PCF) reserves the complete right to make changes in the program, dates and times and to possibly not screen the video, despite its being selected for screening.” How convenient!
No mention of cinema venues for the monthly festival "with Live Screenings." In fact, their office is 702 km from Paris.
Matrix, from the WFCN list above, was one of the festivals removed from Film Freeways competitions.
This was the location for the War of Films Festival that reached out to me after I “won” Best Screenwriter with Enjoy Film Fest.
I decided to verify it…
All it took was the Google translation app and the suggestion of fraud to get a response from the cinema manager…
…which I translated.
Do you have any doubts about a festival you’re considering submitting a film or screenplays to?
Please research them first. Google helps!
Don’t trust the completions’ Facebook and Instagram accounts though, which cost them nothing to set up.
FEEDBOXX…
I came across a link for Feedboxx while looking into film industry forums to query scam festivals and soon realized it was run by WFCN. “Information first,” it said, so typed scam film festivals in the search bar. Now why am I not surprised that it came up empty - it’s run by WFCN - I doubt they’d report on themselves.
“0” - as in zero - results found on scam competitions and how to spot and report them. So much for their opinion on topics that matter to filmmakers and screenwriters who place their trust and hope in festivals. If FEEDBOXX were truly the "go-to spot for all things related to film..." you'd think there would be a how-to article or two on spotting fake festivals.
"0" RESULTS FOUND? REALLY?
I want to thank all those out there who are reporting scams.
It’s how we take them down and support the filmmaking community. If in doubt…
Check out this Indie Film Hustle podcast, among others…
I found it when I first suspected I was scammed by Enjoy Films. It takes a village…
Thank you for checking out part four of this blog. My next series will be on AI coverage and the fun I had schooling them.
I’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment here or on my Wayward With a Pen Facebook page.
“Solvitur par Google” —Wayward (It is solved by Googling.)
