Client story FilmFreeway Powers World’s Largest Film Festivals With Insight & Stripe

Connecting filmmakers to the world’s biggest festivals

FilmFreeway acts as the digital backbone for filmmakers and festivals across the global film industry, processing submissions from filmmakers and distributing payouts to film festivals every month.

The challenge: Scale global payouts behind the scenes

With thousands of festivals receiving payments, the company’s legacy payout system had been a major operational bottleneck.

The previous system created multiple challenges:

• Limited financial visibility and reporting
• Operational friction when managing payouts at scale
• Higher transaction costs
• Poor partner support and limited data transparency

FilmFreeway needed a more modern financial infrastructure that could scale, provide better reporting, and improve reliability for festival payouts worldwide.

FilmFreeway was seeking a partner to implement Stripe Connect, replacing their current manual payout process that relies on intermediaries like PayPal, Dwolla, and Wise. The vision: Streamlined transfers, fewer errors, and better fee transparency.

The solution: Migrate the entire payout ecosystem to Stripe Connect

The goal was straightforward but technically demanding; replace a global PayPal payout system with a modern Stripe-based infrastructure, capable of managing payments to thousands of festivals.

To execute, FilmFreeway partnered with Insight to design and implement a new payout architecture built on Stripe Connect. The project required deep expertise in Stripe solutions as well as the ability to move quickly without disrupting FilmFreeway’s operations.

FilmFreeway’s transformation was powered by Insight’s strategic partnership with Stripe. With Stripe Connect and Insight’s platform engineering expertise, FilmFreeway pivoted to their new global payouts system faster than planned — over an entire month ahead of schedule.

The new system enables FilmFreeway to:

• Automate monthly payouts to film festivals.
• Provide stronger financial reporting and visibility.
• Manage payment flows more efficiently.
• Reduce operational complexity and fees.

The Stripe dashboard also introduced a major improvement in financial transparency.

“We now have much better reporting and data with Stripe than we ever had before,” says Matt Toigo, General Manager at FilmFreeway. “It’s simply a more robust solution across both capabilities and visibility.”

Delivering results faster than expected

One of the most notable outcomes of the project was the speed of execution.

The implementation was originally planned for a 3.5-month timeline — instead, the project was completed in just two months, accelerating FilmFreeway’s speed to market and allowing the team to move forward with new initiatives sooner than expected.

One of those initiatives was a move to Stripe’s Optimized Checkout Suite (OCS), a set of pre-built, AI-driven payment tools designed to increase conversion rates and reduce engineering effort.

Toigo attributes the rapid delivery to something he says most companies miss when working with consulting teams: deeply integrating the team into day-to-day operations. Originally brought in to implement Stripe Connect, the consulting team is now helping FilmFreeway build new revenue-generating products on top of the platform.

Thought leadership on the global film stage

Today, FilmFreeway’s platform sits at the center of the global independent film ecosystem, enabling end users to connect more efficiently than ever.

They’ve modernized their financial infrastructure, strengthening their ability to support that ecosystem at scale. Now, filmmakers, festivals, and audiences worldwide benefit from a smoother and more efficient experience.

From processing tens of thousands of submissions for the world’s most prestigious festivals, to powering the backbone of the film festival economy, FilmFreeway continues to shape how independent film reaches the world.