Fyre Fraud

The film was described in its press release as a "true-crime comedy bolstered by a cast of whistleblowers, victims, and insiders going beyond the spectacle to uncover the power of FOMO and an ecosystem of enablers, driven by profit and a lack of accountability in the digital age."{{cite magazine |last1=Nolfi |first1=Joey |title=Hulu premieres Fyre Festival documentary with Billy McFarland interview four days before Netflix's |url=https://ew.com/movies/2019/01/14/hulu-fyre-festival-documentary/ |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |accessdate=January 14, 2019 |date=January 14, 2019}}

On April 16, 2018, it was announced that Hulu was developing a docuseries about the infamous failed 2017 music festival Fyre Festival. It was set to be directed by Julia Willoughby Nason and Jenner Furst, and executive produced by Michael Gasparro, John Amato, Dana Miller, Angela Freedman, and Sharmi Gandhi. Production companies involved with the project were slated to include The Cinemart, Mic and Billboard.{{cite web |last=Pedersen |first=Erik |title=Hulu Sets Docuseries On Fyre Festival Debacle |url=https://deadline.com/2018/04/frye-festival-documentary-series-hulu-billboard-1202365859/ |website=Deadline Hollywood |accessdate=January 14, 2019 |date=April 16, 2018}}

Then, on January 14, 2019, Fyre Fraud, which was now a feature-length documentary, debuted on Hulu in a surprise "rush release" with no promotion, advertising, or press preceding the launch.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/magazine/streaming-race-netflix-hbo-hulu-amazon.html|title=The Great Race to Rule Streaming TV|last=Weiner|first=Jonah|date=July 10, 2019|work=The New York Times|access-date=July 12, 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|quote=When Hulu learned that Netflix was preparing to release a documentary about the Fyre Festival controversy — in which a supposed grifter sold exorbitantly priced tickets to a functionally nonexistent Bahamas music festival — they saw a chance to kneecap it. Hulu had its own Fyre documentary ready to go, which it rush-released in what Shimabukuro referred to as 'a surprise stunt.'}} The premiere allowed Hulu to get their project out to audiences four days before Netflix's documentary about the same subject, Fyre, was released.{{cite web |last=Hayes |first=Dade |title=Hulu Leapfrogs Netflix In Race For First Take On Fyre Festival |url=https://deadline.com/2019/01/hulu-leapfrogs-netflix-in-race-for-first-take-on-fyre-festival-1202534973/ |website=Deadline Hollywood |accessdate=January 14, 2019 |date=January 14, 2019}}

In February 2019, Entertainment One acquired the international rights to Fyre Fraud.{{Cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2019/02/hulus-fyre-fraud-eone-1202559935/|title=Hulu's 'Fyre Fraud' Doc Set To Go Global After eOne Secures International Rights|first1=Peter|last1=White|date=February 19, 2019}}

The film was met with a positive response from critics upon its release. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 79% of 29 critics' reviews of the film are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "In the battle over Fyre Festival content, Fyre Fraud comes out swinging with a questionable interview of conman Billy McFarland and a thoughtful exploration of nefarious social strategy."{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fyre_fraud|title=Fyre Fraud|website=Rotten Tomatoes|publisher=Fandango|access-date=September 26, 2024}} On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.{{cite web |title=Fyre Fraud |url=https://www.metacritic.com/tv/fyre-fraud |website=Metacritic |publisher=CBS Interactive |accessdate=January 24, 2019}}

In a positive review, Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com gave the film a rating of 3½ out of 4 stars, writing: "Fyre Fraud does not just dunk on McFarland, Ja Rule, and anyone who might be complicit—they’re clowns already, their plainly not-smart choices and astounding arrogance making for super-size schadenfreude. More persuasively, it's a damnation of the mentality that helped make it possible, calling out a culture that progressively puts more value into how you make yourself look online."{{cite web |last=Allen |first=Nick |title=Fyre Fraud Movie Review & Film Summary (2019) |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/fyre-fraud-2019 |website=RogerEbert.com |accessdate=January 20, 2019 |date=January 16, 2019}} In a similarly favorable analysis, Decider{{'}}s Joel Keller commended the film and recommended that viewers stream it, declaring: "Fyre Fraud is a fascinating examination of social media influencers, millennials who get hooked on their feelings of FOMO, and a modern-day con artist who will likely learn nothing from this or his prison sentence."{{cite web |last=Keller |first=Joel |title=Stream It Or Skip It: 'Fyre Fraud', Hulu's Surprise documentary On The Disastrous Music Festival |url=https://decider.com/2019/01/15/stream-it-or-skip-it-fyre-fraud-hulus-surprise-documentary-on-the-disastrous-music-festival/ |website=Decider |accessdate=January 20, 2019 |date=January 15, 2019}}

In a more mixed assessment, Brian Tallerico of Collider gave the film a "B−" grade and said: "With a bit more polish and a bit more confidence, Fyre Fraud would be a powerful documentary that used Fyre Festival as a springboard for a more incisive examination of fraud in the age of social media, using the festival as a metaphor for expectations versus reality, which (as my wife astutely pointed out), is a mirror for how social media tends to function. Instead, Fyre Fraud is content to exist as a dark comedy of sorts, poking fun at the players involved without really absorbing the seriousness or gravity of their actions."{{cite web |last=Goldberg |first=Matt |title='Fyre Fraud' Review: A Glib Look at the Issues Surrounding Fyre Festival |url=https://collider.com/fyre-fraud-review-hulu/#poster |website=Collider |accessdate=January 20, 2019 |date=January 18, 2019}}

At the 71st Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Fyre Fraud was nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program.[https://ew.com/emmys/2019/07/16/netflix-fyre-festival-documentary-emmy-nomination/ Netflix's Fyre Festival doc beats out Hulu's version for best documentary Emmy nomination]

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb title}}
• {{Hulu movie}}

{{Hulu documentaries}}

Category:Hulu original films

Category:American documentary films

Category:Documentary films about the Internet

Category:Documentary films about music festivals

Category:Films about social media

Category:2019 documentary films

Category:2019 films

Category:2010s English-language films

Category:2010s American films

Category:English-language documentary films