Why indie filmmakers are demanding screening fees – and turning down festivals if they aren’t paid

It’s always exhilarating in the beginning. Your blood-sweat-tears project is selected to be screened at a film festival in another city or a foreign country. The invitation includes airfare and accommodation. This is an opportunity for exposure and perhaps a shot at prize money.

It goes on well for a while. You gain access to and better understand a bewildering ecosystem of programmers, producers, sales agents and distributors. The pages of your passport fill up with visas from places you would never have been able to visit on your own dime.

But in some time, you begin to tire of the flying, the jet lag, the schmoozing. Instead of an air ticket and a hotel stay (“hospitality”, it’s called), you want the festival to pay you a screening fee. It won’t recoup your budget, but it could go some way in recovering production costs.

Nearly every Indian independent cinema practitioner has faced this situation. “Initially, especially with a first film, there is a rush to accept any and every invitation,” said Ridham Janve, director of The Gold-Laden Sheep and the Sacred Mountain and Hunter’s Moon. “Then you realise that you have to pay the visa fees yourself. Sometimes, you have to go to another city to apply for a visa. I...

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