Chris O’Falt reports on IndieWire that FilmFreeway “will not use its position to force festivals into exclusive arrangements,” the tactic that Withoutabox thought would ensure its survival.

Last week Withoutabox unexpectedly announced that it would be shutting down within a year.

O’Falt quotes Andrew Michael:

“While we love it when festivals choose to use FilmFreeway exclusively, we never require exclusivity and we never will. Festivals should have complete autonomy as to how they run their events and the services they choose to help them reach filmmakers. We don’t believe in the approach that WAB used to lock up festivals exclusively with secret contracts. We’ve always believed that if we provide festivals with a high quality product, personal customer care, and a world-class user experience they will continue to happily utilize FilmFreeway to facilitate and manage their submissions.”

O’Falt sketches a brief history of WAB and its issues.

He then reveals some welcome news from FF:

“Recently, the company started offering festivals the ability to sell tickets on FilmFreeway with no fees, and is getting ready to create a free-of-charge DCP creation tool for customers. This week, FilmFreeway plans to announce a price reduction.”

My take: I’ve used both services and withoutadoubt FilmFreeway is better than Withoutabox. I think the only benefit WAB provided was that your film would get a listing on IMDb. Soon, you’ll have to do that manually. 8-(