FAQs
Who owns Certified Forgotten?
Ownership of Certified Forgotten is split equally between Matthew Monagle, a freelance film critic based out of Philadelphia, and Matt Donato, a freelance film critic based out of Los Angeles. You can learn more about each owner on Bluesky.
Why should I support Certified Forgotten?
Because we write about movies that are often ignored by bigger publications. Since we launched Certified Forgotten in 2020, our website has provided a home for niche horror coverage - in particular, independent and international cinema - that often gets overlooked by mainstream film publications. With so little curation available in the era of streaming, we believe that it’s important to give people a platform to champion the horror movies they love.
Do you pay your writers?
Yes. Certified Forgotten does not accept unpaid submissions.
Do you publish film reviews?
Yes, but only reviews written by our owners. Film reviews are one of the few places where we try to compete for web traffic with bigger sites, so publishing film reviews by our owners is an important way to keep our website growing. In addition to mainstream horror releases, we also try to cover festival and direct-to-streaming titles that may struggle to get reviews elsewhere.
Where do my subscription fees go?
The short version: 100% of your subscription fees go to pay our writers.
The long version: Our expenses can be broken out into two categories: the costs of operating our web platforms and the cost of paying our contributors. While we operate as lean as possible, below are the fixed expenses it takes to keep our website and podcast up and running. Each of these expenses are paid out-of-pocket by our owners.
- $10 (plus taxes) a month for our Google Workspace
- $115 (plus taxes) a month for website hosting
- $216 (plus taxes) a year for our podcast web platform
- $108 (plus taxes) a year for podcast hosting
In addition to our fixed expenses, we also try to publish 1-4 contributor articles a month, which we pay at a rate of $75 per piece. In instances where we choose to accept more pitches than our budget allows, our owners will contribute out-of-pocket to make up the difference.
Does Certified Forgotten have a podcast?
Yes! Each week, Matthew Monagle and Matt Donato release a new episode of the Certified Forgotten podcast. These episodes fall into one of two buckets:
- Our hour episodes feature a special guest and focus on a horror film with ten or fewer reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s an arbitrary number, but one that helps us deliver on our promise of underseen cinema.
- Our half-hour episodes feature Matthew Monagle and Matt Donato talking about a new release.
You can find new episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.
Does Certified Forgotten have a newsletter?
The Rewind, our weekly newsletter, goes out on Fridays. You can sign up here.
I have a question about my membership. Who do I contact?
You can contact our team at admin@certifiedforgotten.com.