The first Australian showing of a film by a disgraced former doctor whose "fraudulent" research underpinned the anti-vaccination movement has drawn a firestorm of outrage to a small film festival in country Victoria.

Since announcing an upcoming screening of "Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe", the organisers of the Castlemaine Local and International Film Festival say they have been hacked and subjected to relentless harassment.

But unlike Robert De Niro, who cut the film from the Tribeca Film Festival in New York under pressure from scientists and other filmmakers, the Castlemaine festival is standing by Vaxxed, which is still due to show at the town's Theatre Royal next month.

It has been advertised as an airing of allegations by former employee William Thompson that US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention covered up information about autism research, which suggested a causal link with the three-shot vaccine.