Let's face it, IMDB sucks if you're trying to get correct credits up on its pages. My first film, PSYCHOPATH, met all of their criteria by being invited into a festival, but IMDB wouldn't give it a page. They didn't reject it, exactly, they just kept saying that there wasn't enough information so they dropped it to the bottom of their list and their busy schedules wouldn't allow them to get to it, ever. "Not enough information" translates to "too small potatoes" since I gave them all the information I had. They hate films with 3 crew members and 3 cast, regardless of whether it qualifies by their own rules.
Unless you pay them.
So there you have it, folks. Despite what they advertise, you can get your film on IMDB if you pay them. I finally figured this out and went onto Withoutabox (IMDB and Withoutabox are sister/twin companies). I did a filter search for the cheapest festival I could find ($10), and I submitted Pscyhopath to the festival via Withoutabox. You can't just pay, you have to actually submit a copy of the film to the festival. Once the festival receives your submission, they update your status. Then, you get an invitation to put up a page on IMDB. Voila! As of today, Psychopath is finally on IMDB.
My second film, TOOTH FAIRY, got a page because I used Withoutabox for its festival submissions. But IMDB merged my film with another film that had the same title. After weeks of confusion and battles with the other Tooth Fairy team (it's a Tooth Fairy fight! :-), I finally brought in the big guns. I asked a bunch of people in Hollywood what I should do. Man, the responses I got could fill a blog all by itself. There are actors and filmmakers out there who've been battling IMDB for years to get their credits corrected. Some of them have done multiple studio films and can't get their credits listed. Anyway, it turns out that there actually is a way to contact IMDB (it seems they used to have a phone number listed a long time ago but not any more). Here is the link that lets you send an email to a human at IMDB: http://pro.imdb.com/helpdesk/contact. You would think that finding a help link would be trivial, but believe me, it's not.
Whether or not they listen to you is another story. Me? I was lucky. I sent them an email explaining the merge problem and listed the cast and crew of each of the movies. IMDB said they would take care of it. Then they asked the other Tooth Fairy guys to resubmit their information. So far, I don't think their page is up. I hope they get their page because 1) I'm sure they deserve it, and 2) I don't want them to get frustrated and raid my page again.
Right now, both PSYCHOPATH and TOOTH FAIRY have IMDB pages, but the credits are incomplete. So the battle goes on. I won't give up the fight until everyone on my team gets their credits.
Good luck with your own IMDB battles!
Susan Ee
Susan Ee's IMDB page
www.feraldream.com