Frequently Asked Questions

Fandependent is a seasonal festival that showcases a new short film each day. There are roughly 60 films in each festival. Your work will be presented on our site for a 3-week run (21 days) during which, fans of your film are able to support it. At the end of the festival, we give awards to the top three supported films.

We give out three awards: The Fan Award (for the film with the most fans), The Audience Award (for the film with the most views), and the Jury Award (our favorite). A cash prize and a trophy are given for each award. Regardless, our primary goal is to get your film seen, thus making winners out of all of us.

No, you own all the rights to your film. You can have your film presented on Youtube, Vimeo, your website, or wherever you want. We're just providing a new (and cool) viewing venue to help get your film seen.

No, again you retain all the rights to your film but if you agree to present it on our site we reserve the right to show it for a full 3-week run. After that, it's up to you whether or not you'd like to remain in our Collection, which is an archive of all our Official Selections.

Beginning in 2017, we will begin showcasing shorts only. We are seeking awesome films of any genre, which can be narrative, documentary or experimental. With that said, we are not looking for music videos, commercials, timelapse videos or wedding videography.

For Fandependent Films, a film must be 30 minutes or less to be considered, with 5-10 minute films being a sweet spot.

Of course. We love animations, as long as they are under 30 minutes.

Yup, as long as they are short.

Hell yeah. We don't discriminate against age!

We showcase roughly 60 films per festival.

4, one for each season of the year.

At this time we allow filmmakers to submit more than one film per festival BUT we are only able to showcase one of those films per festival. We do not screen multiple films by a single filmmaker in the same festival.

No. We do not accept films that were previously rejected.

No. We don't make any demands of that sort. You can premier your film anywhere you like.

This is a big emphatic no. We don't own any rights to your film. The only rights we have are the rights to screen your film for the entirety of your run.

We do not accept works in progress.

Heck no, your film can be available all over the place. We just want to provide you a different option and a different way to get exposure for your film.

Filmmakers must have all rights to the material in their films. If we are contacted due to copyright infringement, we do hold the right to take your films down and refund all money to those fans who donated to your film.

We require you film to be available in the US. However, if you have a country your film cannot screen in, let us know. We have the ability to block your film from that specific country so that it doesn't violate any kind of distribution deal.

Only the Director or the Producer of the film are able to submit.

You'll be assigned a premier date and your film will launch at 7pm CST on this date. It will be the only film that premiers that day so you'll have all the spotlight to yourself. We can also accommodate requests for specific premier dates so please ask!

Each film gets a 3 week run on our festival. At the end of the festival you have the option to take your film off our site, or you can keep your film in our Fandependent Collection for as long as you'd like.

We give out three awards: The Fan Award (for the film with the most fans), The Audience Award (for the film with the most views), and the Jury Award (our favorite). A cash prize and a trophy are given for each award. Regardless, our primary goal is to get your film seen, thus making winners out of all of us.

Absolutely. If your film has the most fans and views, you'll win both The Fan Award and The Audience Award!

All filmmakers will get paid via PayPal roughly a week after the completion of a film festival.

If you submit to our site you allow us the right to screen your film for the entire 3 week run. You can not take your film down in the middle of your run. But after the festival ends, you can choose to remove your film or keep it in our Fandependent Collection for as long as you want.

The Fandependent Collection is the home for all of the films from our previous festivals. Filmmakers can choose to keep, or remove their films from The Collection at any time following their 3-week run.

Uploading is as easy as dragging and dropping your movie file into your film profile's upload section.

We give filmmakers 5GB for their short films.

We would like to display your film at a minimum in 1080p HD but we also accept films in 4K resolution. With that said, we'd love you to upload the highest resolution version of your film as long is it us under the maximum file size.

We use Vimeo for our video storage and playback. With that being said, we rely upon them to set our video standards. Thanks Vimeo! Here is a link to Vimeo's wonderful Video Compression Guidelines. We love you Vimeo!

Our website is engineered to put your film in spotlight and help your film stand out. Our website only showcases 21 films at any given time. This low number allows your film to stand out and get noticed on a site where each filmmaker is attracting their collective audiences. We also make sure every film gets promoted prominently during their film's run at least twice, both on the site and on our our social media pages.

Yes, you can embed your film in as many places as you like. The more views you get, the better your chances of winning The Audience Award for the most viewed film of the festival.

No. All films on our site are only available to be embeded or streamed online.

Each fan's name will appear on your film's page but leaving praise on your film's page is optional.

If your film is accepted, every filmmaker will have a dashboard which will inform you on your premier date and how many days remain until your film goes live on our site. We want to give you an advanced notice of when your film will premier so you can plan any promotional strategy you'd like.

Probably brown.

Click on the Watch Film and that's it. Pretty easy, huh?

If you have Apple TV you can go to the Vimeo App and watch everything on our "Fandependent Films" Channel.

Yep.

We play independent feature films of all genres.

Nope. We only showcase feature films.

All our movies are available to be streamed in HD. You don't need to download anything.

The last thing you need is another account to another website. We feel that watching a film should be easy. Fans don't need to create a log in or a password in order to watch movies on our site. Everyone is free to watch and support films without a user account.

Yes you can. All films should screen on mobile devices and Ipads.

Fandependent Films is an online quarterly film festival. Each festival, we add a new feature film every day. Each film gets a 3 week run and the top 3 films with the most fans end up going into our Fandependent Films Collection. All other films are deleted off our site permanently but we at Fandependent will take all of our winning films and try to secure partnerships that help promote our winning films or help fund the filmmaker's next film.

A whopping 3 bucks.

Once you are on the film's page, click on the Become a Fan button and then you can enter your credit card info or PayPal your support payment.

You can become a fan of more than one film but you are unable to become a fan of the same film twice.

If you like a film and would like to support the film and the filmmaker, becoming a fan is a great way to do both. For the film it helps it in the competition for the most fans. The top 3 films with the most fans will move on to our Fandependent Collection where we continue to promote the film and try secure partnerships that help promote their film or help the filmmaker make their next film. Becoming a fan also helps the filmmaker because a portion of the money you give goes directly into the filmmakers pocket and the rest goes to our site so we can continue running this site ad free.

Every fan gets their name put on the film's page to help your name live on in infamy. Fans are also allowed to give praise for a film just like movie critics do. On top of all that you will be helping our site continue to exist add free, and you'll be able to sleep like a baby knowing you've helped support an artist for their hard work.

Each festival showcases roughly 50-70 films.

We add one new movie every day and give each film a three week run.

Yes. We accept PayPal.

Yes. We accept credit cards.

You still write checks?!

Heck yeah.

Black. Boxer Briefs.