# Applying to an open call

> From FilmScorecard Help: https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/applying-to-an-open-call

The three-step form behind **Start application** on a call's page. It asks what
kind of judging you want and what you can cover, which of the call's categories
you want, and **whether you want to be paid for the round and what each category
should pay you** — and then sends the whole thing to the festival in one move,
together with your agreement to the **Judge Code of Conduct**.

It is also where you answer the festival if they reply with different figures —
see
[When the festival replies with different rates](#when-the-festival-replies-with-different-rates).

The board these calls come from, and everything about reading a call before you
decide, is on [Open calls](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/open-calls.md). This guide is only the applying.

**Nothing reaches the festival until you press Submit application**, and
**withdrawing afterwards deletes the application outright** — see
[Withdrawing an application](#withdrawing-an-application) before you use it.

## Getting to the form

**Start application**, in the right-hand column of a call's page. The button is
drawn only when the call is open and you have no application on it.

**Or Apply to judge**, on the Judging tab of a festival's own public page, when
the festival has switched one on — it opens the same form. See
[The public festival page](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/public-festival-page.md#applying-to-judge-from-the-page).

The address is the call's own address with `/apply` on the end, so the form can
be bookmarked and reopened. You need to be **signed in with a finished judge
profile**: signed out you go to the log-in screen, and with an unfinished
profile you are sent to finish it — see
[Setting up your judge profile](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/setting-up-your-judge-profile.md). **Either
way you are brought back here afterwards.** Arriving from a festival's public
page with no account at all, the log-in screen also lets you create one, past
the private beta — see
[Creating an account](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/creating-an-account.md#a-festivals-public-page-goes-around-it-too).

**This form never stops you for the Judge Code of Conduct.** Elsewhere in your
judging screens, a judge who has not agreed to its current version meets a
confirm page first — see
[The two role agreements](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/terms-and-privacy.md#the-judge-code-of-conduct-and-the-festival-host-agreement).
This address is one of the two places that let you straight in, because its own
**Submit application** carries the agreement box.

**That same address is your application once you have sent one**, and it is
worth bookmarking, because **nothing on the board or on the call's page links to
it**: **Start application** stops being drawn the moment you have applied. The
other ways back are the festival's own email when they reply with different
rates, which links straight to it, and — when the festival has a public page
switched on — its **View application** button, there while the call is open.

**A mistyped address, a call that does not exist, and a call a festival has
scheduled but not opened yet all give "page not found"**, and deliberately do
not tell you which. A closed call is not one of those — its pages keep working.

### The four things this address can show you

Exactly one of them, and the order is fixed:

| What you get | When |
| --- | --- |
| **Your application** | You already have one on this call — whatever the festival has done with it since. See [After you apply](#after-you-apply). |
| **The form** | The call is open, you have no application, and none of the three reasons below applies. |
| **"You can't apply to this call"**, one line, no button but **Back to the call** | You are already judging that season, you are on that festival's team, or the call has nothing you could be assigned. See [When you cannot apply](#when-you-cannot-apply). |
| **"You can't apply to this call"** with the closing line — "Applications closed Apr 28" | The call has closed and you never applied. |

**An application on file wins over everything else.** If you applied and were
then put onto that season some other way, you still see your application here,
and you can still withdraw it.

## Before you start

The call's page says what applying costs before you open the form: "Three
steps, about five minutes. Nothing is sent to the festival until you submit."
It is exactly true.

### Your answers live in this browser tab and nowhere else

- **Reloading the page keeps everything you have typed.** So does moving
  between the steps, and so does the browser's back button.
- **Closing the tab loses it.** There is no draft on the server, nothing is
  saved to your account, and a second tab on the same call starts fresh.
- **An abandoned application leaves no trace anywhere** — not on your account,
  not on the festival's screens, not in any list. Nothing exists until you
  submit.
- Drafts are kept per call, so a half-filled application to one call is not
  disturbed by starting another.
- **On a successful submit the draft is cleared**, because the application
  itself has replaced it.

### What is filled in for you

On a first visit — and only when the tab holds no answers of your own —
FilmScorecard seeds two answers from
[your judge profile](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/setting-up-your-judge-profile.md):

| Answer | What is copied |
| --- | --- |
| **Formats** | The formats your profile says you review, **kept only if this call has categories of that kind**. A profile naming both, on a call that has both, starts on **Both**. Nothing in common leaves the question unanswered rather than choosing for you. |
| **Languages** | Your profile's languages, ticked on the grid. |

**The kind of judging, your rates and your note are never prefilled.** The
categories start on **Apply for all**, the pricing on **Festival pricing**, and
the subtitles question on its first option. **Whether you want to be paid starts
on Paid** and is not read from your profile either — see
[Paid or volunteer](#paid-or-volunteer-the-choice-at-the-top-of-step-3).
**Nothing you do on this form ever changes your profile**, and once you have
touched the form your own answers always win — including a field you
deliberately emptied.

## The three steps

The stepper across the top names them: **About you**, **Categories**, **Rate &
submit**.

**There is no availability step any more.** The form does not ask how many films
a week you can take, or when you are away. An application filed before this
change keeps the pace and away dates it was sent with, and both you and the
festival still see them — see [After you apply](#after-you-apply).

### Step 1 — About you

> What can you cover?
>
> Tell the coordinator which formats and languages you can score, so nothing
> lands with you that you cannot judge.

Up to four questions, two of which appear only when there is a real choice to
make.

#### What do you want to judge?

**Only on a call hiring for both kinds of judging**, three options sit at the
top of the step:

| Option | The line under it |
| --- | --- |
| **Creative** | "Scores submissions on the creative scorecard." |
| **Technical** | "Scores submissions on the technical scorecard." |
| **Both** | "Scores submissions on both scorecards, creative and technical." |

- **Most calls do not ask this at all.** A call hiring for one kind of judging
  draws no control, and that kind is simply what you are applying for. You are
  never asked a question with one answer.
- **There is no default.** Nothing is pre-picked, because the kinds pay
  different money and reach different categories — and leaving it unanswered
  stops you moving on: "Pick the kind of judging you want to do."
- **Both is one application, not two.** It asks for a figure per category for
  each kind of judging, and the festival can take you on for either kind or for
  both — see [The three states it can be in](#the-three-states-it-can-be-in).
- **It decides which categories step 2 offers.** A category is offered only if
  it can be judged the way you picked. **With Both, only the categories scored
  both ways are offered**, because the application asks for both on every one.

#### Formats

**Film**, **Screenplay** or **Both** — asked only when the call has categories of
both kinds that can be judged the way you picked. **A call with only film
categories, or only screenplay ones, asks nothing** and applies for that format.
An episode category counts as film.

**This answer is scope too**: naming films alone means an accepted application
puts you on films alone; naming both leaves you open to both. It also decides
which sections step 2 shows. With nothing chosen on a call that asks, you are
stopped with "Pick at least one format you can cover."

#### Languages you can score

**The platform's twelve languages as a grid of tick boxes, three across** — two
across on a phone — with **English** and **Spanish** first. There is no search
box; all twelve are always in view. **Pick at least one.**

These are yours, not the call's: a call describes its own slate in its own words
elsewhere, and nothing on this grid is filtered by it. **Nothing narrows your
queue by language** — it is a fact the coordinator reads.

#### Subtitles

Two options, one of them always chosen:

- "No subtitles needed for the languages I picked" (where it starts)
- "I need English subtitles for anything outside them"

**It is answered from the moment the step opens**, so it is the one question
here that can never be wrong. It is also the one answer the festival's screens
do not show — see [What the festival can read](#what-the-festival-can-read).

### Step 2 — Categories

> Which categories do you want?
>
> These are *the festival*'s *Fall 2026* season categories in this round. Pick
> the ones you want to be assigned from.

**The categories this call opens that can be judged the way you picked, in the
formats you picked** — under a **Film** heading and then a **Screenplay**
heading. A heading with nothing under it is not drawn, so a film-only
application shows one section.

**This list is not always the whole season.** A festival chooses which of its
categories a call is open to; one it left out is not here, is not on the call's
page either, and cannot be applied for. Where they opened the call to everything
this is the season's whole line-up.

Above the list, under **Categories**, two choices:

| Choice | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Apply for all *N***, where it starts | Every category in the list is in your application. *N* is how many the list holds, so it changes when you change your answers on step 1. The rows carry no tick boxes. |
| **Custom** | A tick box on every row. Tick the ones you want — **at least one**, or you are stopped with "Pick at least one category you want to judge." |

- **A tick that drops out of view is kept.** Change the kind of judging or the
  format on step 1 and a category you ticked may leave the list; change your
  mind back and it returns ticked. Only the categories in view when you submit
  are sent.
- **The list scrolls inside its box** once it is long, so the step stays one
  screen tall.
- **There is no search box, no Select all and no film count** — see
  [What the money means](#what-the-money-means).

Each row ends with **the price this festival posts for that category**, in a
column per kind of judging you chose — **Creative**, **Technical**, or both side
by side on a **Both** application:

| The cell says | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| `$16.00` | What that category pays, per scorecard you file. |
| **"Not priced"** | A paid season where nobody has set a figure for that category yet. **It is not `$0.00` and it is not free work** — you can still apply for it and name a number on step 3. |
| *no price column at all* | This is an unpaid panel. |

**These prices are what the festival posts**, and they keep showing here even if
you choose to volunteer on step 3. This step is about what the round is worth,
not about what you have decided to ask for.

Under the list, the line that matters most:

> The coordinator assigns inside what you pick. Taking fewer categories does not
> weaken your application.

**Read that literally: it is what happens.** Accepting your application puts you
on the season **scoped to exactly the categories in your application** — and to
the formats you named on step 1 — so a category you leave out is not work you
will be offered. Your picks decide both the money and the scope.

Two riders:

- **The coordinator can change it afterwards**, on their own roster, in either
  direction, and once you are on the season you are told by email when they
  do.
- **Picking narrowly is not a weaker application**, but it is a real answer
  about what you will be given. Keep everything you would genuinely take.

### Step 3 — Rate and submit

> Your rates, then submit

**This is the step that changed, and it changed for a reason.** You used to name
one flat per-film figure here, and the festival then paid you what the season
posted per category instead. Now the prices you see are the prices you are
paid: the festival posts one per category, you accept them or argue with them,
and **accepting your application pays the figure that was agreed.**

**And on a call that pays, you can now choose not to be paid at all.**

#### Paid or volunteer: the choice at the top of step 3

**On a call that pays its judges**, two segments sit above everything else on
this step, under the heading **Do you want to be paid for this round?**

| Segment | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Paid** | Where the step opens. The pricing choice and the per-category list are drawn, as below. |
| **Volunteer** | **The pricing choice and the list disappear.** You are applying to work this round unpaid. |

**Paid is where it starts, and that is deliberate**: leaving step 3 alone is
still a complete application at the festival's own posted prices, so nobody
volunteers by omission. Choosing Volunteer is something you do on purpose.

Picking **Volunteer** puts this line under the two segments:

> You are applying as a volunteer. This call does pay its judges, and no
> scorecard you file on it would carry a payout.

**Your typed figures are not thrown away.** Switch back to Paid and every number
you had entered is still there.

**On a call that does not pay, there is no choice and no control.** The section
is absent — not greyed out — and so is all pricing. The step's intro reads:

> This panel is unpaid, so there is nothing to name here. Applying means
> volunteering your time.

**You cannot ask to be paid on an unpaid call.** If the festival changes its
mind and starts paying, that is a new call or a direct invitation, not something
this form can ask for.

**Choosing Volunteer changes nothing except your own application.** Other judges
on that season are unaffected, the festival's posted prices do not move, and
nothing about the call changes for anybody else.

**One thing it cannot be undone by**: once the application is in, there is no
control anywhere that turns a volunteer application into a paid one. Not on your
side, and not on the festival's — **they cannot counter a volunteer
application**, because there is no figure to counter. If you meant to be paid,
withdraw while the call is open and apply again. See
[Withdrawing an application](#withdrawing-an-application).

#### The line at the top of the step

One of three, and it depends on the call rather than on your answers:

| It says | When |
| --- | --- |
| "Each category shows what the festival posts for it. Keep the festival's pricing, or set your own. The festival pays you directly." | The ordinary case — a call that pays and has prices posted. |
| "This festival has not priced its categories yet, so name what you want for each one. The festival pays you directly." | A paid season with nothing priced on this call. |
| "This panel is unpaid, so there is nothing to name here. Applying means volunteering your time." | An unpaid panel — **and then there is no choice and no pricing.** |

**"The festival pays you directly" is meant literally.** No money moves through
FilmScorecard, as the
[Judge Code of Conduct](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/terms-and-privacy.md#the-judge-code-of-conduct-and-the-festival-host-agreement)
you agree to on this step also says.

#### Festival pricing or Custom

**Drawn only while you are applying as Paid**, under the heading **Pay, per
scorecard**:

| Choice | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Festival pricing**, where it starts | A list of your categories with the festival's posted price against each — **no boxes**. Submitting it accepts every posted price. |
| **Custom** | The same list, with **a box for every price, already filled in with the posted figure**. Change the ones you want to ask a different figure for. |

The list has one row per category in your application — its rows come from
step 2, so **change your picks there, not here** — and a column for each kind of
judging you are applying for: **Creative**, **Technical**, or both side by side
on a **Both** application, which asks for two figures per category. A category
with nothing posted reads **Not priced yet** under Festival pricing, and its box
under Custom starts empty with `0.00` as its hint.

**Leaving Festival pricing alone is a complete application.** That is the
intended common path, not a shortcut: a form submitted on Festival pricing is a
full application at the festival's own prices. **You can send it without
touching step 3 at all.**

Choose **Custom** only to ask for something different. Then:

- **Type a plain number** — the `$` is printed beside the box, so `225` and
  `225.50` are both right.
- **Two decimal places at most.** `12.345` is refused rather than quietly
  rounded to `$12.35`, and negatives, thousands separators and anything that is
  not a number are refused too.
- **The ceiling is $10,000.00** on any one figure.
- Anything the box cannot read says so, under its row: "Enter an amount like
  12.50, or leave it blank to accept the posted price."
- **A box you empty goes back to the posted price**, and so does a box you never
  touched: only a figure you changed is sent as your own ask.
- **A category with nothing posted is not a trap.** Under Festival pricing it
  carries no figure, so if you want to be paid for it, choose **Custom** and name
  a number there — that is the most useful thing you can do on such a call.

**Switching back to Festival pricing keeps what you typed**, so switching to
Custom again brings it back — but **nothing typed is sent while Festival pricing
is chosen**.

The list scrolls inside its box once it is long. Under it, one line: "Amounts
are per scorecard." **If you have no categories in your application there is no
list**, only the words "None picked". Go back to step 2.

#### The note, and what you are about to send

**Note to the festival, optional.** Up to **600 characters**, with a live "138
of 600 characters" counter under it. Over the limit: "Your note is over 600
characters." Spaces at the ends are not counted.

**The coordinator reads that note first.** On their side it sits at the top of
your record, above every figure, with the date you sent it.

Then **What the festival will see** — a read-only block listing the kind of
judging you chose (**Judge type**, only on a call that asked it — "Creative +
Technical" for Both), your formats, languages and subtitles answer, your
categories, **your rate as one line**, and your note, **each with an Edit link
that jumps to the step that owns it**. Blanks show as "None picked" or "None" on
purpose: this block exists to show you what is still unanswered before you
commit.

**The "Your rate" row is a span, not a total.** It reads `$16.00 per scorecard`
when every figure in your application comes to the same, and `$8.00 to $16.00
per scorecard` when they differ — the cheapest and the dearest, across both
kinds of judging on a Both application, with no arithmetic between them.

| The Your rate row reads | When |
| --- | --- |
| `$16.00 per scorecard` or `$8.00 to $16.00 per scorecard` | Applying as Paid. |
| **"Volunteer, no payout"** | **You picked Volunteer**, or the call is an unpaid one. The same words either way. |
| "Not priced yet" | A paid call where nothing in your application is priced, and you have named nothing. |
| "None picked" | No categories in your application on step 2. |

Its footer:

> Your name, languages and judging history on FilmScorecard are attached from your
> profile.

#### The agreement box

The last thing before the button is one tick box:

> I agree to the **Judge Code of Conduct**

**Judge Code of Conduct** is a link, and it opens in a new tab so you do not lose
the form. The box is not part of your saved answers: reloading the page unticks
it.

**Submit application with it unticked sends nothing**, and one sentence appears
under the box: "You need to agree to the Judge Code of Conduct to continue."
Problems anywhere else on the form are pointed out first; the box is checked
once everything else is answered.

**Ticking it is what records your agreement.** It is stored with your account —
once per version of the document, not once per festival — and FilmScorecard
will not take the application without it. What the document asks of you, and
when you are asked again, is in
[The Terms, the Privacy Policy and the two role agreements](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/terms-and-privacy.md#the-judge-code-of-conduct-and-the-festival-host-agreement).

And then **Submit application**.

## Moving between the steps

- **Continue** checks the step you are on and moves you forward. **Back** goes
  one step.
- **Nothing is checked while you type.** You are never told a field is wrong
  before you have finished with it.
- **The stepper's buttons work for steps you have reached.** A step further
  ahead than your answers have earned declines the click rather than
  disappearing, and a step you have gone past shows a check instead of its
  number.
- **The step is in the address** (`?step=3`), so the browser's back and forward
  buttons walk the steps and a half-finished application has a link of its own.
  Remember that the link carries the *step*, not the answers — those never leave
  the tab.
- **The stepper is three buttons on every call**, whether or not it asked you
  what kind of judging you want or which format. Those questions are part of
  step 1, not steps of their own.
- **A link to a step further on than your answers reach lands on the first
  unfinished step**, and an address with an unreadable step value — including
  `?step=4` from a bookmark made before the form had three steps — lands on
  step 1. Neither is an error.

### When something is wrong

A red block appears at the top of the card, headed **"One thing to fix before
you continue"** or **"3 things to fix before you continue"**, with one line per
problem. **Each line is a link to the step that owns it**, and names that step
when it is not the one you are looking at — "Categories: Pick at least one
category you want to judge."

Pressing **Submit application** with anything unanswered anywhere marks all three
steps and lists every problem in that block, so a missing language on step 1 is
visible from step 3.

| The message | Where it comes from |
| --- | --- |
| "Pick the kind of judging you want to do." | Step 1, on a call offering both, with nothing chosen. |
| "Pick at least one format you can cover." | Step 1, on a call that asks, with nothing chosen. |
| "Pick at least one language you can score." | Step 1. |
| "Pick at least one category you want to judge." | Step 2: **Custom** with nothing ticked — or nothing in the list at all for the kind of judging and format you chose. |
| "Enter an amount like 12.50, or leave it blank to accept the posted price." | Step 3, one box under **Custom**: unreadable, negative, more than two decimals, or over $10,000.00. **An empty box is never this message**, and **Festival pricing and a volunteer application are never held to it at all** — the boxes are not on screen. |
| "Your note is over 600 characters." | Step 3. |

**"You need to agree to the Judge Code of Conduct to continue."** is not in that
block. It appears under the agreement box itself — see
[The agreement box](#the-agreement-box).

## The right-hand column

**Pay, per scorecard** at the top, and then the figure it heads — a span across
the categories this call covers:

| The figure | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| `$16.00` | Every category on the call pays the same. |
| `$8.00 to $16.00` | The cheapest and the dearest category, not a total. |
| **"Not priced yet"** | Paid work, no figures set yet. |
| **"Volunteer"** | An unpaid panel — **or a paying call you have chosen to volunteer on.** |

**That last case is the rail following your own answer.** Pick Volunteer on step
3 and the figure here becomes **Volunteer** immediately, because this column
states what *your* application would carry rather than what the call posts.
Switch back to Paid and the span returns.

**The column scrolls inside itself** when it is taller than the window — an
application for all of a long season's categories lists every one of them — so
its last rows are never hidden below the fold.

Under it, the facts of the call: **Festival**, **Round**, **Films in the
round**, **Judges needed**, **Window**, **Applications close**. **Anything the
festival did not post is left out entirely** rather than shown as a dash.

**"Films in the round" is the only film figure on this screen**, and it is a
figure about the whole round rather than about your picks. **"Judges needed" is
the size of the panel being hired** — there is no figure anywhere for how many
people have applied or how many places are spoken for.

### What you would be paid

A block that appears as soon as your application has categories, and changes as
you work: **one row per category, with the figure that category would pay you**
— the posted price, or your own number where you have typed one under
**Custom**. On a **Both** application each row carries two figures, labelled
**Creative** and **Technical**.

- **A figure reads "Not priced yet"** when the festival has posted nothing for
  it and you have named nothing either.
- **There is no total, and there never will be.** A running total would have to
  be built from how many films each category holds, and those counts are
  deliberately not on this screen — see
  [What the money means](#what-the-money-means).
- The line under it says what the figures are: "Per scorecard you file, for each
  category you picked. The coordinator assigns inside them."
- **On a volunteer call the block is absent** — **and so it is the moment you
  pick Volunteer on a paying call.** There are no figures to list once you have
  declined them, and leaving them on screen would contradict step 3 beside it.

Then **About the festival** — the festival's description, at most two lines of
it, then its About text, how many seasons it has run on FilmScorecard, its
location and its website, each left out when the festival has not filled it in
— and **Before you submit**:

> The festival reviews applications after May 12 and you will hear either way.
> You can withdraw any time before they decide.

### What the money means

- **Every figure on this screen is per scorecard you file.** One category, one
  film, one card, one payment of that category's rate.
- **The prices are the festival's own, per category**, taken from the season
  behind the call. What you see is what an accepted application is worth — if
  you are applying to be paid.
- **The budget span covers the categories this call opens**, not every category
  the season runs — so two calls at the same festival can quote two different
  ranges.
- **There is no per-category film count anywhere on this screen** — not on the
  category rows and not as a projected total. The festival tells you the size of
  the round and no more.
- **"Not priced yet" and "Volunteer" are different states.** The first is a
  paying festival that has not set a figure; the second is work that carries no
  pay — either because the panel is unpaid, or because you chose to volunteer on
  one that is not. Neither is ever printed as `$0.00`.

## What Submit does

One press, one send.

- **Everything is checked again on the server**, against the call as the
  database has it rather than as your browser remembers it. A category the
  festival deleted while you were filling the form in, **a category they took
  off the call**, or a price that moved is caught there.
- **Whether you asked to be paid is checked there too.** A paid application to a
  call that has stopped paying is refused with a sentence of its own — see
  [If applying is refused](#if-applying-is-refused). **A volunteer application is
  never refused for this reason**, because volunteering is allowed on any call.
- **The price recorded against each category is read at that moment**, not taken
  from what your browser was showing. So a coordinator who edited a price while
  you were typing cannot make it look as though you argued with a number you
  never saw.
- **A volunteer application records nothing asked for.** Every category you
  picked carries the festival's posted price as the quote and **zero as your
  ask**, which is the honest record of "they offered this, I asked for nothing".
- **A Both application is one application**, holding both kinds of judging and
  a figure for each on every category.
- **Your application, your category picks, the prices for them and your
  agreement to the Judge Code of Conduct are written together or not at all.**
  There is no half-filed application.
- **Your name, email address and `JDG-` number are attached by FilmScorecard** from
  your account. Nothing you type on this form decides who the application is
  from.
- **The call stops counting** toward the quiet number beside **Open calls**, its
  card gains an **Applied** pill, and this screen becomes your application.
- **No email goes out** — not to you, and not to the festival. Your application
  simply appears on their list of requests.

## After you apply

The same address now shows your application: an **Applied** pill, the heading
**"Your application is with *the festival*"**, and a monospace line —
**"CALL-202 · applied Aug 16 · $9.50 per scorecard · across 2 categories"**.
When your figures differ that clause is a span — "$8.00 to $16.00 per
scorecard" — taken across both kinds of judging on a Both application.

**A volunteer application has no money clause on that line at all** — it reads
"CALL-202 · applied Aug 16 · across 2 categories". Nothing invents a `$0.00`.
**Neither does an application filed before per-category prices**, which has no
figures to quote.

**The pill turns amber and reads "Counter received" while the festival is
waiting on you** — that is, while a reply of theirs is standing and you have not
answered it. The heading and the paragraph under it do not change; the card
lower down is what tells you what to do. See
[When the festival replies with different rates](#when-the-festival-replies-with-different-rates).

Under it:

> Applications close Sep 3 and the coordinator reviews them after that. You will
> hear either way. Nothing about other applicants is shown to you, and your rate
> is not shown to them.

A call with no closing date reads "The coordinator reviews applications as they
come in." instead of the first sentence.

Then a read-only summary of exactly what you sent, and two buttons: **Back to
open calls**, and the amber **Withdraw application**. The summary carries
**Judge type** ("Creative + Technical") only on a Both application, and
**Pace** and **Away** only on an application filed before the form stopped
asking for them — a new one has neither, and nothing is shown in their place.

**A filed application is not changed by anything the festival does to the call
afterwards.** If they narrow which categories the call is open to, your
application still names the categories you picked, the coordinator still decides
it, and accepting still puts you on those categories. **The same is true of the
season's own pay setting**: a festival that switches its season to volunteer
after you applied does not rewrite your application — and while a paid
application of yours is still open, it cannot make that switch at all.

### The money on a submitted application

**One row per category**, named, with the figure beside it:

| The row reads | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| `$16.00 per scorecard` | What you asked for that category — the festival's posted price when you left the box alone, your own figure when you typed one. |
| `$16.00 asked · $12.00 countered` | **The festival has replied with a different figure for that category.** The second number is what they are offering; it becomes what you are paid **only if you accept it**. |
| `Creative $16.00 · Technical $8.00` | **A Both application**: one figure for each kind of judging, each followed by "asked · countered" in the same way when the festival replied. |

- **A counter reaches you in three places**: this screen, the amber **Counter
  received** pill on your board and on the call's page, and an email with a link
  straight back here.
- **You answer it on this screen** — see
  [When the festival replies with different rates](#when-the-festival-replies-with-different-rates).
- **A volunteer application shows no money rows at all**, whether the call pays
  or not. There is nothing to state and nothing that can be countered.
- **An application filed before per-category prices existed shows no money row
  either.** The single per-film figure it was sent with has been retired, and
  nothing was converted or invented in its place — **and there is nothing on one
  for you to answer**, because a counter on an old application like that has no
  per-category figures.

### When the festival replies with different rates

A card appears between the summary of what you sent and the buttons at the foot
of the screen, headed **"*The festival* has replied with different rates"** with
**"Countered Sep 5"** under it, and **Their note** when the coordinator wrote
one.

The table under it is the whole conversation, one row per category:

| Column | What it holds |
| --- | --- |
| **Category** | The category's name. It stays pinned to the left when the table scrolls sideways. |
| **Posted** | What the festival was asking for that category when you applied. It never moves. |
| **Asked** | What you asked for. **A row where that differs from Posted is tinted amber**, with the gap under it — `+$4.00`, `−$1.50`. |
| **Countered** | What the festival is now offering, or an em-dash on a category they left alone. |

**On a Both application there are two tables**, headed **Creative** and
**Technical**, because the festival counters both figures on every category.

**Under the table, the festival's payment terms** — "Paid 30 days after
invoice", or "Paid on the 1st of the month" — when the festival has set them.
With no terms set, nothing takes the line's place.

Then two buttons.

#### Accept these rates

Opens a confirmation:

> **Accept these rates?**
>
> You agree to be paid these figures if the festival adds you to the season.
> Nothing is charged and nothing is final until they accept your application.

then the agreement box — "I agree to the **Judge Code of Conduct**" — with
**Accept these rates** and **Not yet**. **Accepting with the box unticked does
nothing** but put "You need to agree to the Judge Code of Conduct to continue."
under it; closing the dialog unticks it again.

- **It records your agreement and nothing more.** It does not put you on the
  panel — the festival still has to accept your application, and they can still
  decline it or reply again instead.
- **It is what makes their figures the ones you are paid.** Until you accept
  them, an acceptance of your application pays **what you asked for**, not what
  they countered.
- Afterwards the card reads **"You accepted these rates on Sep 5. The festival
  decides next."**, the amber pill goes back to **Applied**, and the only button
  left is **Send a revised ask instead**.

#### Send a revised ask

Opens a dialog headed **Send a revised ask**: one box per category, **prefilled
with the festival's figure** where they made one and with your own ask where
they left the category alone. Under each name, the three numbers in play —
`asked $16.00 · posted $12.00 · countered $14.00`, with the last part dropped
where there is no counter — and **the rows the festival moved are tinted amber**.
**On a Both application the boxes come in two groups**, headed **Creative** and
**Technical**, one box per category in each.

- **Every box must hold a readable amount.** Blank is not allowed here, unlike
  the festival's own form: your ask has to be a number. One message covers every
  unreadable box — "Enter amounts like 12.50 for every category." — and the
  boxes that caused it are marked.
- **Two decimal places at most, and $10,000.00 is the ceiling**, exactly as on
  the application form.
- **Note to the festival, optional.** Keep it under 600 characters; the box has
  no counter, and a longer one is refused with "That could not be sent. Try
  again." and nothing more specific, so shorten it rather than send it twice.
- The consequence is stated in the dialog:

  > Your figures replace what you asked for and the festival's counter is
  > withdrawn. They can accept, counter again, or decline.

- **Commit reads Send revised ask** — **unless you have changed nothing**, in
  which case it reads **Accept these rates** and takes you to the **Accept these
  rates?** confirmation above, agreement box and all. A revision identical to
  their counter is an acceptance typed the long way.

Afterwards the card reads **"You sent a revised ask on Sep 5. Waiting for the
festival."**, your note appears under **Your note**, **the Countered column is
all em-dashes** — their counter is gone — and the only button left is **Revise
your ask**.

#### What you can and cannot do next

- **You can accept and then still send a revised ask.** Their counter stands
  until a revision clears it, so changing your mind is allowed right up until
  the festival acts.
- **You cannot revise and then accept.** Your revision withdrew their counter,
  so there is nothing left to accept — only another revision, which you can make
  as often as you like while they think about it.
- **If they reply again, your answer is cleared and you are asked afresh.** A new
  counter wipes what you had accepted or sent, emails you again, and puts the
  amber **Counter received** pill back. That is deliberate: agreeing to one set
  of figures is not agreeing to the next.
- **If they withdraw their counter entirely** — clearing every box on their side
  — the card disappears and your screen goes back to plain **Applied**. There is
  nothing standing for you to take.
- **You can still withdraw the application**, and the confirmation on this screen
  says what that costs while their counter is live.
- **A closed call changes none of this.** You can answer a counter after
  applications have closed.
- **If their counter moved while your screen was open**, your answer is refused
  with one line — "This counter can't be answered any more. The page has been
  refreshed." — and the screen re-reads itself so you can see the new figures.
  **You are never held to figures you were not shown.**
- **Your earlier figures are not shown back to you.** A revision replaces your
  ask in place, so note what you had asked before you change it.
- **Answering emails the festival and not you.** There is no confirmation in
  your own inbox, and no record of the exchange anywhere but this card.

### The three states it can be in

| State | What you see |
| --- | --- |
| **Applied** | The above, with **Withdraw application**. This covers everything the festival does privately — marking you to come back to, or a reply you have already answered — because **none of that changes your status**, only the numbers on your category rows. **A standing counter you have not answered shows an amber Counter received pill instead**, and the reply card with it. |
| **Accepted** | A green **Accepted** pill, "You are judging for *the festival*", and "The festival accepted your application at the rates shown above. The season appears in your queue when scoring opens." **No withdraw.** |
| **Not selected** | A quiet pill, "*The festival* filled this round elsewhere", and "Nothing about this decision reflects on future rounds, and the festival's other calls are still open to you." **No withdraw**, and **no reason** — the festival picks a reason when they decline and it reaches you in their email. |

**"At the rates shown above" means the category rows on the same screen**, and
they are the exact account: the festival's countered figure on any category
**you accepted**, and what you asked for on every other one. **On a volunteer
application the sentence is the same and the answer is simpler**: you proposed
nothing and you are paid nothing. Your place on that season is a volunteer one,
and it stays one — the festival cannot upgrade it by accepting.

**On a Both application the festival can take you on for one kind of judging
only.** Its accept carries a **Hire for** choice with both kinds ticked, and it
may untick one; you are then paid for, and given, only the kind it kept. **This
screen does not say which** — it reads Accepted either way. Ask the festival if
it matters before you start.

**And what you are given is what you asked for.** Accepting scopes you to the
categories on this application and the formats it names, so your queue at that
festival offers those and nothing else. **The exception is an application whose
every category has since been detached from the season** — then there is nothing
left to scope you to and the festival's roster puts you on all of them.
**Nothing on this screen tells you which happened**, or reports a change the
coordinator makes afterwards.

**An application filed before this form existed shows only the pill and the
date.** The single rate it once carried is gone, and the rows it was never
asked for are left out rather than reading "Not set".

### What the festival can read

**Nearly all of it, now.** On the coordinator's side your application is a row
on their season's Judge requests tab — your name, your email address, your
`JDG-` number, the kind of judging you applied for ("Creative + Technical" for
Both), whether you accepted their prices, and the date — and opening it shows
the rest:

- **Your note, first**, above every figure, with the date it arrived.
- The call, **the kind of judging you applied for**, your **categories**, your
  **formats** and your **languages** — and, on an application filed before the
  form stopped asking, your films a week and away dates.
- **A table of the money**: one row per category with what they were asking when
  you applied, what you asked for, and their counter where they made one — **two
  tables, Creative and Technical, on a Both application**. **A category where
  you asked for something different is marked**, which is exactly what they scan
  for. **A volunteer application shows no table** — it reads
  "This judge holds a volunteer seat on this season. No scorecard they file
  carries a payout, so there is no rate to break down." — and **it is never
  marked as differing from their posted prices**, because asking for nothing is
  not an argument about a number.
- **Your answer to their counter**, once you have given one — "Accepted your
  counter Sep 5" or "Revised their ask Sep 5" — **and the note you sent with a
  revision**, in full. They are also emailed the moment you answer.
- **Your public judge profile** underneath — where you are based, your credits,
  the seasons on your record and your bio — when you have listed yourself in the
  judges directory.

**One answer is still shown nowhere: the subtitles question.** It is stored with
your application and no festival screen prints it. If needing subtitles matters
to whether you can take a film, **say it in your note as well.**

**Nothing else about you reaches them from this form.** Your phone number, your
accessibility needs and your note to coordinators live on your account and are
not on this screen or theirs.

## Withdrawing an application

Offered in two places, with the same dialog behind both: on this screen, and in
the **Applied** block on the call's own page.

> **Withdraw application?**
>
> The festival won't see your application. You can apply again while the call is
> open.

with **Withdraw application** (amber) and **Keep application**. On a call that
has already closed the middle line reads instead: "The festival won't see your
application. Applications have closed, so you won't be able to apply again."

**On this screen, while the festival's counter is still standing, one more
sentence is added:** "The festival's counter goes with it." It appears only
where there is a live counter to lose — not after you have sent a revised ask,
because your own revision already withdrew it — **and only on this screen's
Withdraw**. The one on the call's page does not carry it, so **use the button on
your application when a counter is in play**, or read the list below instead.

**Read that first line literally.**

- **Withdrawing deletes the application.** There is no "Withdrawn" state and no
  record left behind: the festival simply stops seeing it, exactly as if it had
  never been filed.
- **Everything attached goes with it** — your category picks, the prices agreed
  against them, your note, and the whole history of what the
  festival had done with it. **A withdrawal after the festival countered takes
  their figures with it**, and there is nothing left to accept — **including a
  counter you had already accepted.**
- **Nobody is told.** No email, no notice, no note on the festival's screens.
- **It cannot be undone.**

**It is the only way to change your mind about volunteering.** Nothing edits an
application in place, so an applicant who meant to be paid — or who meant to
volunteer — withdraws and applies again.

**It is only offered while your application is still open** — that is, while it
reads **Applied** or **Counter received**. Once it says Accepted or Not selected
the button is not drawn: a place on a panel is left through
[your account's Festivals tab](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-account.md), and a decline has already
closed the matter.

### After withdrawing

- **The call is open** — you land back on the empty form and **can apply again
  from scratch**. It is a genuinely new application with today's date, **quoted
  at whatever the festival is asking now** — so a price the coordinator changed
  in the meantime is the price you are offered on the second try, **and a
  category they have since taken off the call is no longer there to pick.**
  **Step 3 starts on Paid again**, whatever you chose last time.
- **The call has closed** — you get the "You can't apply to this call" card with
  its closing line, and **the call leaves your open-calls board**, because your
  application was the only reason a closed call was listed for you.
- The quiet number beside **Open calls** counts that call again.

### If the festival decides while your dialog is open

Nothing is deleted, and you are told:

> This application can no longer be withdrawn. Reload the page to see where it
> stands.

The screen behind the dialog re-reads itself at the same moment, so closing the
dialog shows you the decision.

## When you cannot apply

Three reasons, each one line on a quiet card headed **"You can't apply to this
call"** with a **Back to the call** button and nothing else to press.

| The line | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| "You're already judging this season, so this call isn't open to you." | You are on that season's panel already. The call is hiring for a panel you are on. |
| "You're part of this festival's team, so you can't apply to judge it." | You hold a live place in the organization that runs the festival — **any role at all**. Somebody that organization has suspended is not counted. |
| "This call has no categories listed yet." | **Nothing this call opens can be judged the way it hires**, so there is nothing to apply to be assigned from. Usually that means no categories at all; it also covers a call whose opened categories carry no scorecard for the kind of judging on offer. Either way it is the festival's to fix, not yours. |

**There is no button and no appeal**, because none of the three is something you
can do anything about from here.

One conflict FilmScorecard deliberately does **not** check: **submitting a film to a
season does not stop you applying to judge it.** The coordinator sees your name
and email address on the application and decides.

## If applying is refused

Nothing here is optimistic. Your answers stay on the screen and nothing is
written unless the whole application was.

| The message | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| "Applications for this call closed May 12, so this application can't be submitted." | The deadline passed while you were filling the form in. **Everything you typed is kept**, so you lose nothing but the call. |
| "This call no longer pays its judges. Reload the call and apply again." | The festival switched this season to volunteer while your form was open, and you were applying to be paid. **Nothing was written.** Reload and apply again — as a volunteer, which is then the only option the form offers. |
| "You have already applied to this call." | An application already exists — usually a double press. **Only one is ever created.** The screen re-reads and shows it to you. |
| "You're already judging this season…" / "You're part of this festival's team…" / "This call has no categories listed yet." | One of the three above became true while the form was open. |
| "This call is no longer available." | The call cannot be read any more. |
| "Sign in as a judge to apply to this call." | Your session ended while the form was open. Log in and try again — the tab still holds your answers. |
| "You need to agree to the Judge Code of Conduct to continue." | Under the agreement box, on **Submit application** or on **Accept these rates**, when the box is not ticked. Nothing was sent. |
| "Your application could not be submitted. Try again." | Anything else, including a payload the form itself should have caught. **A category the festival detached, or took off this call, while your form was open lands here** — reload the page, pick again from the list you are then shown, and resubmit. Nothing was written. |
| "This application can no longer be withdrawn. Reload the page to see where it stands." | The withdraw dialog, on an application the festival has since decided. |
| "This counter can't be answered any more. The page has been refreshed." | Accepting or revising, when the counter you were looking at is not the one that is there: the festival has replied again, cleared it, or decided the application. **Nothing was written**, and the screen behind the message is already showing what is true now. |
| "Sign in as a judge to answer this counter." | Your session ended while the reply card was open. |
| "That could not be sent. Try again." | A revised ask the form should have caught — most often a note over 600 characters. |

## What other judges see

The line at the foot of the sidebar on these screens is the whole rule:

> Your rate and your application are visible to the festival you applied to,
> never to other judges.

- **You are never shown anything about another applicant** — not a count, not a
  rate, not a name, not a ranking. Those figures are not filtered out of this
  screen; they are never sent to your browser at all.
- **No other judge is shown yours**, including the prices you asked for,
  including whether you asked for anything, and including how you answered a
  counter.
- **Nothing on this screen counts applicants or filled places.** "Judges needed"
  is the size of the panel the festival is hiring.

None of that is a setting, and no festival can switch it on.

## On a narrow window or a phone

- The sidebar becomes a bar across the top with a **Menu** button, and the
  standing line above moves inside it.
- **The right-hand column moves underneath the form** when the two no longer
  fit, and follows you down the page while they do.
- The stepper's three buttons wrap onto a second line when they no longer fit.
- The language grid drops to two across.
- The **Paid** and **Volunteer** segments wrap onto a second line rather than
  shrinking.
- **Continue** and **Submit application** go full width, with **Back** beneath
  them, and every control stays a comfortable size.
- **The reply card's buttons stack**, and its table **scrolls sideways with the
  Category column pinned to the left** rather than restacking each category into
  a block — the figures only mean anything read against each other.
- **Nothing else on this screen scrolls sideways.**

## What this screen does not have

Named plainly so you do not go looking:

- **No editing a submitted application.** Withdraw and apply again is the only
  way to change one — the paid-or-volunteer choice included — and only while the
  call is open. **Revising your ask is not an exception**: it exists only as an
  answer to a counter, and it changes the figures and nothing else.
- **No way to answer a counter on an application filed before per-category
  prices.** Those carry no per-category rows — and no figure at all any more —
  so there is nothing to accept or replace. The festival's email is the whole of
  it.
- **No history of the figures you revised away.** The card shows what you now
  ask; the previous numbers are not shown back to you anywhere.
- **No way to be paid after applying as a volunteer.** The festival cannot
  counter one and cannot upgrade it at the moment of accepting. What they *can*
  do is send you an ordinary paid invitation instead — see
  [Your judging invitation](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-judging-invitation.md).
- **No asking to be paid on an unpaid call.** The call's own setting is a
  ceiling, and there is no control that reaches above it.
- **No saving a draft anywhere but this tab.** No autosave, no "saved" line, no
  picking it up on another device.
- **No confirmation email**, to you or to the festival — including when you
  answer a counter. The festival is emailed; you are not.
- **No list of your applications, and no link to this screen from anywhere in
  the judge portal.** The record of one is the call's own address with `/apply`
  on the end — bookmark it, use the link in the festival's email, or, while the
  call is open, the **View application** button on the festival's public page
  if it has one.
- **No withdrawing after a decision.** See
  [Withdrawing an application](#withdrawing-an-application).
- **No different categories for each kind of judging.** A Both application asks
  for the same categories under both, and only the categories scored both ways
  are offered. To judge a category that only one kind of judging covers, apply
  as that kind.
- **No availability.** The form does not ask your pace or the dates you are
  away. Say so in your note if either matters.
- **No film counts per category**, and no projected earnings figure built from
  them.
- **No sign of the categories a festival left out of this call.** You see what
  it opens, and there is no way to ask for anything else.
- **No sign of whether other judges on that season are paid.** Volunteering does
  not tell you what anybody else agreed, and nothing on your side ever will.
- **No payment through FilmScorecard.** The prices you agree are the record of
  what is owed, and the festival pays you directly — see
  [Earnings](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/earnings.md). There is no payout account to connect.

## Related guides

- [Open calls](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/open-calls.md) — the board and a call's page: which calls
  appear, what the money means, and everything you read before pressing Start
  application.
- [The public festival page](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/public-festival-page.md#applying-to-judge-from-the-page)
  — the other way to this form: a festival's own page, its **Apply to judge**
  button, and creating an account from it.
- [Setting up your judge profile](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/setting-up-your-judge-profile.md) — the
  formats and languages this form starts from.
- [Your account](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-account.md) — whether you judge for pay, the festivals
  you judge for, and the record of every invitation and application.
- [Your judging home](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-judging-home.md) — where an accepted application
  turns into actual work.
- [Earnings](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/earnings.md) — where a paid round's work is counted with its
  money, and a volunteer round's without.
- [Your judging invitation](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-judging-invitation.md) — the other way onto a
  panel: a festival invites you by email, and decides for itself whether that
  invitation pays.