List of scam festivals for 2009 from our experience
IndieFest Chicago
Queens Film Festival
Montana Independent Film Festival
La Femme Film Festival
WildSound Feedback
Temecula Valley Film Festival
ReelHeart International Film Festival
More reviews are coming up. Please feel free to add bad experiences that you had.
Which Film Festival? 
I yanked my award-winning short “The Swear Police” (2009 LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival) from the Action on Film Film Festival or AOF after it was “officially” selected for the 2009 AOF fest.
Charging filmmakers $150 per ticket FOR ANYONE to attend the awards show is a scam, period, end of story.
You guys have it wrong. A ‘9’? Think for a minute.
To attend the awards show for just myself and my wife would cost $300, for my 4-minute short. How ’bout I just take that money and make more shorts?
The best place to network is the most expensive – the awards show.
What’s the only thing that’s not free? The awards show.
It’s a bait & switch.
If the AOF truly supported filmmakers, they would hold the awards show in a venue where dinner is not included, where more people can attend for free and where filmmakers can be made to feel like they matter as more than just part of the overhead for a poorly organized festival.
It’s not a ‘9’, it’s a scam.
The AOF CHOOSES to charge filmmakers because they cannot imagine a way to include more people.
That is their CHOICE, they are not cornered into this system.
In THIS economy? Airfare, hotel, food, time away from being able to earn a living and then on top of that, the AOF CHOOSES to fist filmmakers because of their own lack of imagination, business acumen and ability to attract sponsorship. That is wrong, that is criminal, that is not even close to supportive.
MovieMaker got it wrong! AOF is NOT WORTH THE ENTRY FEE!
They did NOT know that the AOF charged filmmakers to attend the awards show when they made that determination.
I know that for a FACT because I contacted them about this awards show ticket price and they told me they were not informed about it. They also told me they will not print a retraction or even an editorial note telling filmmakers about the awards show ticket price.
MovieMaker Magazine knows who buys ad space – film festivals, not filmmakers, film festivals, so they chose.
MovieMaker Magazine FAIL.
http://www.moviemaker.com/festivals/article/25_film_festivals_worth_the_entry_fee_2009_20090414/