Community Guidelines
What belongs on FlickFuel, what never does, and how the Festival is kept fair for everyone entering it.
The short version. FlickFuel is a film festival, not a feed. Bring a story, make it yours, be straight about the tools you used, and treat other Makers the way you would want your own first film treated. Break these and your film comes down; break them badly and your account goes with it.
1. What FlickFuel is for
FlickFuel exists for one thing: original films with a story, made with AI tools, shown to an audience that actually watches them. Three minutes is the floor because a story needs room. Anything shorter is a trailer, not a film.
We are deliberately not a short-clip feed. There is no infinite scroll, no algorithmic firehose, no duets and no remixing. If what you want is a thirty-second clip chasing a trend, this is the wrong festival, and that is fine.
2. Originality — the rule the festival stands on
- The film must be yours. You conceived it, directed it and assembled it. Using an AI tool is the medium, not the authorship.
- Declare your tools. Every entry lists the AI tools used. This is shown on the film card. It is a feature, not a confession — audiences here are interested.
- No re-uploads. Do not submit someone else’s film, a film you found, a film generated from someone else’s prompt and passed off as yours, or a film already entered by another Maker.
- Clear your audio. Commercial music you do not have rights to will be caught by audio fingerprinting and rejected. Use original, licensed or genuinely royalty-free tracks.
- No recognisable copyright material — existing characters, logos, brands, footage or artwork you do not have the right to use.
We run perceptual hashing across keyframes and audio fingerprinting on every upload. Duplicates and known copyrighted audio are rejected automatically, with the reason given.
3. What must never appear in a film
These get the film removed immediately and, in the first case, reported to the authorities.
- Any sexual content involving a minor, real or synthetic, in any form. There is no context in which this is permitted. It is reported to the relevant authorities including the Australian eSafety Commissioner and, where applicable, NCMEC.
- Sexual content generally. FlickFuel is not an adult platform. Nudity may appear where it is genuinely integral to a story and never explicit or sexualised; if in doubt, it does not belong here.
- Real-world violence presented as real — genuine footage of death, injury or atrocity, and synthetic material made to pass as such. Fictional violence in a story is fine; gratuitous gore for its own sake is not.
- Terrorist or violent extremist material, or anything promoting, glorifying or recruiting for it.
- Instructional harm — how to make a weapon, synthesise a drug, or carry out an attack.
- Content promoting suicide, self-harm or disordered eating. Films may deal with these subjects seriously and with care; they may never instruct, encourage or glamorise.
- Hate. Material attacking or dehumanising people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, disease, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or immigration status.
- Non-consensual intimate imagery, and sexualised synthetic likenesses of real people.
- Deceptive synthetic media depicting a real, identifiable person saying or doing something they did not, where it could be taken as real. Satire and obvious fiction are fine; a convincing fake of a real person is not.
4. Real people
If a real, identifiable person appears in your film, you need their permission, unless they are a public figure in genuine commentary, satire or parody that no reasonable viewer would mistake for real. Never use a person’s likeness or voice to endorse something, to harass them, or in a sexual context.
5. Q&A and Notes
Q&A is the talkback after the screening. Notes are the craft feedback Makers actually use. Both are held to the same standard.
- Talk about the work, not the person who made it.
- “The second act drags because the reveal comes too early” is a Note. “This is rubbish” is not.
- No harassment, pile-ons, threats, slurs, doxxing or sexual comments about anyone.
- No spam, no scams, no promotion of other platforms, no links to pirated material.
- Disagree as much as you like. Do it about the film.
6. Playing the Festival straight
The whole point of the monthly reset is that a newcomer starts level with everyone else. Protecting that is not optional.
- One account per person. No alts, no farms, no borrowed devices.
- No vote rings, no reciprocal-Fuel arrangements, no paid engagement, no bots, no automation.
- Do not ask for Fuel in exchange for anything, on or off the platform.
- You cannot buy a win. Only earned Fuel counts toward ranking, and a jury decides the winners. Anyone selling you a shortcut is selling you nothing.
We watch for unusual Fuel velocity and account clustering. Suspected manipulation goes to review, and a film under review is not awarded or paid until it clears.
7. Moderation, and what happens when something goes wrong
Every film is screened before it becomes publicly visible, usually within ten minutes. Text goes through automated screening before it publishes. A person reviews anything the automated systems are unsure about.
| What happened | What we do |
|---|---|
| Minor or first breach | Content removed, warning issued, reason given |
| Copyright — first, second, third | Strike 1: film removed. Strike 2: removal plus a Festival suspension. Strike 3: account closed |
| Festival manipulation | Film disqualified from the Festival, awards withheld or reversed, account restricted |
| Severe breach — section 3 | Immediate removal, account terminated, reported where we are obliged to report |
8. Reporting, and appealing
Every film, comment and profile has a report button. Tell us what is wrong and we will look. Reports are confidential; we do not tell the person who reported them.
If we act against your content or your account we tell you what we did and why. You may appeal by writing to admin@flickfuel.online with the film or comment identifier. We aim to answer within 14 days. If you believe your film was removed on copyright grounds in error, the counter-notice process is on the Copyright & Takedowns page.
9. These Guidelines are part of the Terms
Breaching them breaches the Terms of Service. They apply to everything on FlickFuel — films, trailers, posters, titles, loglines, synopses, display names, avatars, Q&A, Notes and messages to us. We may update them; material changes get 14 days’ notice in the app.