Submitting a film is easy. Here's how it works:
- Fill out and sign our Submission Form.
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Mail us your film or Flash animation on DVD (Region 1 only), CD, VHS, or BETA SP tape (NTSC only). Make sure to include your signed Submission Form. Our mailing address is:
AtomFilms Submissions
225 Bush Street, 12th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104
- OR fax your signed Submission Form, including your film URL, to
415-503-2401.
- We will review your submission promptly to determine if it meets our needs.
- We will respond to you by email within 30 business days. If your film is accepted, you will be offered a distribution contract at that time. Please note that due to the volume of submissions we receive, we are unable to return submitted materials.
When signing a distribution contract, you will be required to attest that you hold the proper clearances and legal rights to distribute the material used in your film or animation. Please see our Film Clearance Guidelines if you would like more information.
Thank you for considering AtomFilms. We look forward to seeing your work!
AtomFilms pays creators of original online videos (millions of dollars and counting!)
Getting your work seen by a huge audience is great — but getting paid for it is even better. That's where AtomFilms comes in. We selectively license original short movies from amateur and indie creators, and pay them royalties from our advertising and distribution revenues. If your film is original, entertaining, and legally distributable, you can make real money with AtomFilms. (Upload now!)
Here's how it all works:
Advertising Royalties
You probably noticed that there are advertisements for major car companies, movie studios, video game publishers, and tech companies running across the AtomFilms site. We earn good money from those ads and we share a percentage of the gross revenue with content creators. That money is paid out according to the relative popularity of each movie on AtomFilms — so the more plays your movie generates, the more money you make.
Distribution Royalties
We also distribute some of our movies to other media companies. For example, there is an AtomFilms channel on Verizon's Vcast mobile entertainment service, and an AtomFilms section on Bell South's web portal. These partners pay us for the content, and from that revenue we pay royalties to the creators whose movies are shown.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much money will I make?
That is tough to answer — payments vary depending on how much money we make each quarter, how many plays your movie generates, how many plays everyone else's movies generate, and whether we are able to distribute your film to other partners.
You may not retire on your AtomFilms royalties, but you will have a fair shot at making real money. This is a hit-driven business, and most of the money goes to the creators of the most popular work. That means that a lot of people only earn enough to buy a few drinks. But many earn hundreds of dollars, some earn thousands of dollars, and our most successful creators have made tens of thousands — even hundreds of thousands of dollars — through AtomFilms.
How often will I get paid?
We pay royalties once every quarter (3 months).
Will I lose control of my work?
No. Our contracts are fair and filmmaker-friendly. We allow creators to retain the copyright for their work, the ability to submit to film festivals, and more. We evaluate each film on a case-by-case basis, and license only the distribution rights that we think we can use — these always include Internet rights, and sometimes include mobile, DVD, and television.
How can I learn more?
If you have general questions, feel free to email us. But many of the specifics of our contracts are confidential between us and our filmmakers. If you submit a film for review and we offer you a contract, we will provide all of the details at that time. If you don't like the contract, you are under no obligation and you are free to take your film elsewhere.
