25/07/2026
SCAM FESTIVAL ALERT
BERLIN INTERNATIONAL UNDERGROUND FILM
tldr: Do not give these people any money, it is a scam praying on the hopes and dreams of film makers trying to break into a very tough industry. They offer nothing. This is snake oil.
Berlin International Underground Film Festival is a new low in the already broken and parasitic film festival landscape. We all know there are a plethora of festivals which charge top prices and offer little to nothing, now we have one that wants you to pay after the "honour" of being selected.
A promotional pack, ranging from US$45-125, promises a range of "visibility" options, from being on an online platform, to various marketing "highlights" on their website and digital program (another website). You can pay to receive written feedback from God know's who, and most appallingly the fundamentally worthless awards a film is eligible for are gated by the pricing tiers. For reference, the top tier is about the price of submitting to Sundance.
This is the festival's first, and hopefully last year and there is absolutely nothing to indicate that it is associated with any distributors, or that films will be see by anyone apart from the founder Amir Morsali - a man with one feature credit as a Production Manager.morsali.7 - mentioning disabled
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amir-morsali-736237349/ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm17889914/
The Dodgy Sequence of Events:
On June 1st I received an email from بیوْف ([email protected]) with some generic platitudes and updates such as: "We know we've been silent for too long — and we owe you a direct, honest update." and most tellingly "BIUFF went through a serious operational interruption. Communication broke down, and some submissions were mistakenly marked as "Not Selected" before being properly reviewed. That was our error, not a creative decision. All submitted films are back under consideration."
Clearly AI (note the "—"), with the second quote to be translated as "now we have taken over from whoever was in charge, we've decided that all the applicants are now targets for our scam!"
Speaking of translation, hilariously بیوْف in Persian means unfaithful, disloyal, or faithless. I get the feeling that someone got screwed over by their business partner, likely the aforementioned and only person associate with the festival, Amir Morsali, and this is a parting shot on the way out that wasn't noticed before the email was sent, if so, well done.
On June 2nd I received an email from Film Freeway stating that: "Berlin International Underground Film Festival (BIUFF) has been removed from our platform. We have withdrawn your submission and credited your FilmFreeway account for your full entry fee to this event." So good on them, I can't get any more details as to the reasoning, likely to do with the above. (It was a $15 entry btw, so why not?)
On July 24th I received the "Congratulations!!!!" email pointing me to this page: [email protected]" rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://www.biuff.com/first-edition-2?email=[email protected] (with my email in the query to populate the "dedicated page for your film"). I'm attaching some screenshots if you don't want to subject yourself to the admittedly relatively high quality AI generated marketing slop complete with ticking clock intended to infuse a sense of urgency to be ripped off by these grifters.
We all pour our hearts, souls and wallets into making our films, and that there is an ecosystem of vultures out there to prey on us, especially the less experienced who may not know any better, is just sickening. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME.
I implore any film maker not to let FOMO or your ambition lead you to throw your money down this pit. Nothing will come of it apart from emboldening these lowlifes.
And to you Berlin international Underground Film Festival, to quote Donnie Darko, you can take your congratulations, your packages and your festival and forcibly insert them into your a**s.
