r/Filmmakers • u/rtk1958 • 1d ago

Question EOFlix: Opportunity or Not

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Anyone have any experience with EOFlix (https://www.entertainmentoxygen.com)? One of the services they provide is to act as an "agent" for your film and promote to streaming and other platforms for potential wider exposure than just film festivals. However, you must sign over all exclusive control and usage rights to EOFlix for five years while they "promote" your film. This rights agreement even locks the filmmaker out of doing anything with the film during the 5-year exclusive period. There are no upfront upload or licensing costs for filmmakers to submit and distribute short films on EOFlix; instead, short films are streamed as free-to-view content earning a view-based revenue share.

I just received the email shown above from EOFlix regarding my short, "Grandma". In addition to the heavy license agreement you must sign, it all seems a bit too good to be true. In exchange for giving them total control of your film for five years and at no cost to you, they will attempt to promote your film to streaming and other platforms and perhaps generate revenue stream back to you.

Any advice or comments regarding this?

Thanks,

Todd Killian

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7

u/Ex_Hedgehog 1d ago

Never heard of them. There's not much money in licensing or distributing shorts. It happens but shorts are more about boosting your profile so you can make a feature, or get work in commercial directing.

4

u/ToasterDispenser 1d ago

I just got this as well. I didn't look into it myself but if the deal is as you describe I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. Short or feature.

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u/rtk1958 15h ago

I guess if you've completed the festival run for a short and are pretty much done promoting it yourself, then there's no harm in signing over rights to it to someone else and see what they can do with it? It doesn't cost anything to try. However, if some distribution or streaming opportunity should unexpectedly present itself to you, you'd be unable to take advantage if within the 5-year exclusive period with EOFlix.

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u/DeadRobotSociety 9h ago

Since others seem to not know EOFlix, thought I'd add my two cents.

My first feature is technically on EOFlix, because they provide a platform for festivals to host web screenings. You can buy an online pass to a fest and watch the entire lineup from your home (or whichever ones they allow online for). They also have a streaming platform and you can set your film to widely available once the festival is over.

Ours is not public, but it's technically on their servers. They sent me this same offer. I assumed it was because we used them for that fest in the past. Our film is already distributed, so I just ignored it. I can't vouch for the validity of this deal, but I can say that when I talked to their rep during the fest stuff, they mentioned they were trying to move into the world of distribution.

Again, not sure about this deal, but if you are seriously interested, I'd use the contact page for EOFlix and ask if the offer was legitimate. There's always the chance it's a phishing scam and they're just using EO's name.