OTHER: International Film Festival Manhattan NYC - legit or ripoff?

[ronin99]

Just discovered that the withoutabox forums are no more, it was a good place to get the low down on festivals.

As you know there are a ton of festivals, and there are some that are legit and some that are rip offs. Other then the top tier festivals (Sundance, Toronto) or ones that are genre specific, my basic rule of thumb is if the name is [name of city] film festival it is most likely legitimate (Manhattan Film Festival, Dallas International Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, etc...). However, with newer, smaller festivals, you never know.

A friend of mine has been accepted to the "International Film Festival Manhattan", looks to be a fairly new festival, their website and youtube page is amateurish (http://iffmnyc.webs.com/, http://www.youtube.com/user/IFFMnewyork). Furthermore, they request that you create a promo introducing your film with their laurel leaf, is this standard protocol nowadays? I didn't have do to anything like this when I had a film in a legit festival awhile ago, it just seems weird.

Anyone have any thoughts on this or experience with the "International Film Festival Manhattan"?

 

[Tolin]

Looks like your standard amature "lack-of-better-things-to-do" film festival for the amature filmmakers. The website itself is on a free domain created with a free website service - They haven't even bothered spending $5 on a proper domain.

These "gatherings" as one might prefer calling them isn't a rip-off as long as you don't spend money submitting your film - The legit ones, while really small scale and intimate, can be pleasant, but if they want to charge you, that's when you might want to turn and walk the other way.

 

[john threat]

you have to laugh at that name. usually if you have to ask if it is legit, it usually isnt.