Hackers target Romania’s Astra Film Festival, create fake account to collect registration fees

Astra Film Festival (AFF), a major event in Romania dedicated to documentary films, announced on Thursday, March 24, that it was targeted by hackers. They created a fake account of the festival on the FilmFreeway platform and managed to collect registration fees worth over USD 2,200 from over 100 film directors.

The festival's organizers said they managed to block the fake account and are now working to identify the hackers. They're also doing "everything they can" to help the victims recover their money and register their films correctly at AFF 2022. Registrations are open until April 1.

"The fake account created in the name of Astra Film Festival borrows the visual identity of the AFF 2021 edition, but presents erroneous information about the 2022 edition of the Sibiu festival: non-existent competition sections, erroneous period, double registration fee compared to the real one, false contact address," the organizers said in a press release.

In total, over 100 filmmakers from 26 countries paid registration fees worth a total of USD 2,244 to sign up their films in the fake account. Eighty of these productions are documentary films eligible for the Astra Film Festival.

According to the organizers, the attack on AFF Sibiu is not singular. Scams included the cloning of other festivals on the FilmFreeway platform, including from Romania, or the promotion of non-existent events.

"This is a dangerous thing for the film industry, harming its reputation," the AFF organizers said.

They have already started contacting filmmakers to offer them the possibility to officially register for this year's selection on the festival platform.

(Photo source: the organizers)