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THE FREE RIDER PROBLEM AND FILM FESTIVAL ENTRY FEES

by Thomas M. Sipos, managing editor [December 31, 2025]

[HollywoodInvestigator.com] Filmmakers lament that film festivals gouge them with high entry fees. It's true that fees are often excessive. Many festivals seem to exist solely to profit from filmmakers' desperation for an IMDB listing. They scream "IMDB Eligible Award!" on their websites and in their SEO gimmickry.

But apart from subsidizing the festival, entry fees also filter out inappropriate or poorly made films. They thus solve the Free Rider Problem as it pertains to film festivals. (The exception are the vanity festivals that award every entry in exchange for inordinately high fees; this article does not pertain to them.)

Search Assist AI defines the Free Rider Problem as "an economic issue where individuals benefit from resources, goods, or services without paying for them, leading to underfunding and potential degradation of those resources." I confronted this problem firsthand when my own festival became free and easy to enter in 2014.

Ten years previously, I had founded the Tabloid Witch Awards as a No Entry Fee horror film contest. But while there was no fee, entrants still had to submit hard copies of films (VHS or DVD) to a P.O. Box. Thus effort and expense were required, if only the cost of a blank tape and postage. And so filmmakers only submitted works they thought had a shot at winning. (Although one intrepid fellow submitted his entire oeuvre of 23 DVDs, shorts and features of various genres, going back a decade.)

Granted, some of these filmmakers had unrealistic ideas of their films' merit, but as I would learn, they were not scrapping the bottom of their barrels. That changed in 2014.

That was the year FilmFreeway introduced their online film submission platform. Withoutabox had invented the online submission process in 2000, but FilmFreeway perfected it. Many filmmakers hated Withoutabox. FilmFreeway apparently listened. (I quote filmmakers' complaints about Withoutabox in my book, Horror Film Festivals and Awards.)

The technology had also advanced since 2000. By 2014, online streaming was a thing. FilmFreeway enabled filmmakers to upload their films, search for festivals, and submit their works, all online. No more mailing hard copies.

I enrolled the Tabloid Witch Awards with FilmFreeway from its inception, February 2014. I had never used Withoutabox. When I joined FilmFreeway, I maintained my No Entry Fee policy.

And the floodgates opened. A tsunami of submissions. Multiple submissions an hour, every hour. I was buried under submissions. I had to end it. I imposed a $10 entry fee. Not a high fee, but enough to stem the tide.

And here is where the Free Rider Problem arises. Had the entries been mostly decent horror films, all well and good. The more, the merrier. But the majority of submissions were either inappropriate or of home video quality. People were submitting political documentaries, romances, religious/inspirational films, everything. Somebody submitted four PDF scripts for an unproduced TV series. (The Tabloid Witch has no script category.) Another submitted several poorly made VHS home movies that had already been streaming on YouTube for many years. But hey, no entry fee. Let's give it a shot!

I saw the problem. FilmFreeway allows filmmakers to search festivals by criteria. Many filmmakers were searching for "all festivals with no entry fee." Then they'd "click to enter" every festival that came up. Instant submission! No cost, no fuss! But without considering the festival's requirements or whether their films had any merit. Hey, no entry fee! What have I got to lose?

It was part laziness, part desperation. Too lazy to read the requirements for the festivals in the search results. Desperation, because these filmmakers thought, Yeah, I know my film isn't a fit for many of these festivals, but you never know. Maybe someone on the other end will love my film and make an exception, or knows someone who's looking for my type of film.

And so after ten years (2004-14), the Tabloid Witch ceased being a No Entry Fee event. No more free riders. Which means I no longer receive as many films, but those I do receive are mostly appropriate and well made. Filmmakers will submit anything for free, but submit thoughtfully when spending their own money.

If you've ever wondered why filmmakers can't have nice things, now you know. Because Billy was bad, the whole class had to be punished.

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