A film came back to you
If you left a film because the screener would not play, a coordinator can fix it and hand it back to you. When they do, that film is the next one your judging home offers you, with a note saying what they changed.
This is the only way a film you put down ever returns. Everything else about leaving a film is on Skipping a film and Leaving a film you started.
A scorecard sent back to you is a different thing. If a festival returns a scorecard you filed, asking for changes, it is listed under Returned at the top of your judging home with Make changes — not offered as your next film. See Scorecards sent back to you.
Which films can come back
Only the ones you left because something was wrong with the film:
| How you left it | Can it come back? |
|---|---|
| Skip this film with Screener will not play | Yes |
| Skip this film with Other | Yes |
| Skip: technical issue, from inside the scoring screen | Yes |
| Decline: conflict or other with Other | Yes |
| Conflict of interest, in any dialog | No, never |
| Not in my area of expertise | No, never |
| Unable to finish before the deadline | No, never |
| Declare a conflict on the two-card screen | No, never |
| A season that collects no reason when you skip | No — there is nothing for a coordinator to read, so nothing to fix |
The three declines are you saying you should not be the judge on that film. Nothing can put such a film back in front of you, and no coordinator has a button that would.
And nothing is guaranteed to come back. A coordinator may read what you wrote and close it without handing the film over — because the screener cannot be fixed, because another judge covered the film in the meantime, or because they would rather it went elsewhere. You are not told when that happens. Silence after you leave a film is the ordinary outcome.
How you find out
By email, within the hour. The subject names the film and the festival:
"Solstice" is back in your queue for Pine City Film Festival
and the body says the festival looked at what you sent, points you at your judging dashboard, and carries the coordinator's own words under "A note from the festival:". Replies go to the festival's support address.
You get this email even if you have turned message email off on your account. It is not correspondence — it is work you have been given, and the same rule covers your invitation and your rate.
If you happen to leave the film again before the email goes out, it is quietly not sent. A "your film is back" note about a film you have just put down again would be worse than silence.
And by a notice in your inbox. One line — "Solstice" was returned to your queue — with the coordinator's note as its second line, an amber Action needed chip, and the title linking straight to the film's scoring page. Two things about it:
- You can switch the notice off. Switch off the In-app switch on "A scorecard was returned to you" on your account's Notifications tab and the notice is simply never created. The email comes regardless. (Despite its name, that row is about films handed back to you; a filed scorecard sent back for changes puts no notice in your inbox at all.)
- Following its link does not mark it read — archive it or mark it read from the inbox when you are done.
What it looks like on your judging home
The film is the Next submission, and three things mark it:
-
An amber Returned pill beside the title, in the same row as In progress and Past due.
-
An amber block under the title:
This film is back with you ·
Sent back Aug 15A coordinator looked at what you reported and sent it back.
The coordinator's own note — what they fixed — exactly as they wrote it.
-
Start scoring on the buttons below it, as on any other film.
The note is the thing to read before you press anything. It is the answer to what you sent, and it usually names the specific change — a new link, a password added to the record, a re-upload.
Where it lands in your queue
At the front. A returned film is the next one you are offered, ahead of everything else in that season — including a film that would otherwise have been ranked first.
Two things it does not do:
- It does not interrupt a film you are holding. If you pressed Start scoring on something else, that film stays your Next submission until you file it or hand it back. The returned one is what you meet afterwards.
- It does not jump other returned films. If two came back to you, the one the festival dealt with first is offered first.
It does not wait for a technical review. Where the festival's creative judging waits for technical approval, a film handed back to you is offered anyway — see Films waiting for their technical review.
What it does to your numbers
A returned film stops counting as skipped and goes back to being work:
- Your skipped total goes down by one.
- Your "left in your queue" figure goes up by one.
- The position line — "6 of 28, 22 left in your queue" — moves back a step, because the first number counts everything you have dealt with and you have not dealt with this one after all.
Nothing else moves. It never touches "scored".
Scoring it, or leaving it again
It is an ordinary film in your queue now. Press Start scoring and it behaves exactly like any other: it takes your cards for 48 hours, it is the only film you hold, and filing finishes it. See Scoring a film.
What you had typed on it before you left comes back with it. A card you had not filed reopens with your answers still on it when Start scoring gives it to you again — unless this time it lands on a different scorecard, which clears your answers to the old one's questions. That is the same rule as picking up a lapsed hold; see Picking a lapsed film up again. A card you had already filed when you left was withdrawn as you left, whichever way you left, and it stays withdrawn: the film comes back as fresh work.
If it still will not play, say so again. Skip it, or use Skip: technical issue from inside the scoring screen, exactly as you did the first time. That is recorded as a fresh report — the coordinator sees your new words alongside the first ones and what they replied.
And you can leave it for a different reason. A returned film can be declined for a conflict like any other; that ends it for good.
What you are never told
- Who sent it back. The note says what changed, never which member of staff wrote it. That is the same rule that keeps every other coordinator action anonymous on your side of the screen.
- What happened to it while it was gone, who else has it, or whether anybody else reported the same problem. You still see nothing of any other judge — see How the judging queue works.
- Whether your first report is still open. There is no list of what you have raised and no status to check. The film arriving is the answer, and no news means no news.
Related guides
- Skipping a film — the Skip this film button and the five reasons.
- Leaving a film you started — Skip: technical issue and the two decline flows on the scoring screen.
- Your judging home — the screen this all happens on.
- Your inbox — where the notice lands, and the box that controls it.
- One film at a time — why a returned film waits behind the one in your hand.