Award categories

The awards your festivals can offer on top of their ordinary categories — Best Original Music, Best Editing, Audience Choice. Awards live in your organization's library, so an award is written once and every festival and every season can use it.

An award category is three things: a name, a description, and the set of submission categories allowed to enter it. It has no scorecards, no submission type of its own and no price.

This is the Awards tab of Categories and scorecards, and it is a working screen for organization owners: you can create, edit, duplicate, archive and restore awards, import them from FilmScorecard's default list, choose which of them every new festival starts with, and every change saves. Other members of your organization see the same list read-only.

What happens to an award inside a season — whether the season runs it at all, who entered it, and who won — is elsewhere: see A season's categories and awards, Awards and Award pools.

Finding the screen

Awards is the middle tab of Categories and scorecards — Categories, Awards, Scorecards — and that screen sits in the left navigation of every organization screen. The tab shows how many active awards you have.

The tab has its own address, so you can link to it or bookmark it, and reloading keeps you where you were:

/org/<organization>/categories?tab=awards

Each tab keeps its own search, filters, sort and selection — but only while you stay on it. Switching tabs starts the other tab fresh, so tick your rows and finish the job before you switch.

Every award also has a full page of its own, reached by clicking its name or choosing Edit award:

/org/<organization>/awards/<award>

Who can change awards

• Organization owners get everything this guide describes.
• Other members of your organization see the awards read-only: no New award category or Import from default list button, no checkboxes, no row menus. Opening an award's own page shows the whole record — name, description and its eligible categories — with nothing editable and no Save.
• Someone whose access is limited to a single festival or a single season now sees the awards too, read-only, in exactly the same way. That changed when the season award screens shipped: a coordinator working on one season has to be able to read the name and the eligible categories of the awards that season is deciding. They still cannot create, rename, re-scope, archive or restore anything, or change what a new festival starts with.

If a change is attempted without owner access it is refused with "You do not have permission to change this library." — nothing saves.

Reading the Awards tab

Each row is one award:

• Its name, which links to the award's own page, with a small monospace line underneath: its permanent short id and how many categories may enter it — AWD-2004, 9 eligible categories. The id is given when the award is created and never changes, so it is safe to quote in an email.
  • A small indigo DEFAULT tag sits on that same line when this award is in the set every new festival starts with. See What a new festival starts with.
• Applies to: a pill naming the kinds of submission this award can reach — "Film", "Screenplay", "Film and Screenplay". You never type it; see "Applies to" is worked out for you.
• Eligible: the same count as a plain figure, "9 categories". In the Archived view this column becomes Archived and shows the date the award was archived instead, as "02 Mar 2026".
• The three-dot menu at the end of the row (owners only): Edit award, Duplicate award, and Archive award.

The footer under the table says what you are looking at: "Showing all 9 active award categories, sorted by award." Narrow the list and it says so and why — "Showing 4 of 9 award categories, filtered by type." or "…filtered by search."

The Awards tab shows every award at once. There is no "Load more" — an award library is tens of rows, not the hundreds the Categories tab has to page through.

"Applies to" is worked out for you

The Applies to pill is never typed and never stored. FilmScorecard reads the submission categories you marked eligible, takes the distinct types among them, and prints them in a fixed order — Film, then Screenplay:

So the way to change what an award applies to is to change its eligible categories. Add a screenplay category and the pill grows a "Screenplay" the moment you save.

An award with a dash matches no Applies to filter selection at all — there is no type to match on. Sort by Applies to and those awards come first.

What a new festival starts with

An award in the default set is attached to every festival you create from now on, and to that festival's first season, the moment the festival is made.

Three places show and change it, and they are the same three the Categories tab uses:

The award's own page does not carry the checkbox. It edits the name, the description and the eligible categories, and nothing else — so the selection bar is the way to change an existing award's membership: tick its row and press one of the two buttons.

An award imported from the default list arrives in the set — see Importing awards from the default list.

It applies at festival creation only. Nothing on this screen ever changes a season or a festival that already exists, and an archived award never seeds a festival however it is tagged. The whole rule, with what it deliberately does not touch, is in What a new festival starts with.

Searching, filtering and sorting

The toolbar above the table:

• The search box matches an award's name or its AWD- id, in either form: 2004 and AWD-20 both find AWD-2004. Its placeholder counts the list you are in — "Search 9 award categories", or "Search 3 archived awards".
• Applies to filters by submission type — Film, Screenplay — tick one or both. A row matches if it fits either of them, and each option shows how many awards it would show.
• Status switches the whole table between the Active and Archived views, with counts on both — "Active 9", "Archived 3". The control stays tinted for as long as you are in the Archived view, so the archived list always announces itself.

There is no filter for the default set. The DEFAULT tags on the rows are how you read it.

A Clear filters link appears as soon as the Applies to filter is set. Switching the Status view keeps your search, your filter and your sort — it only clears the row selection.

Every column heading is a sort button. Click once to sort by it, click again to reverse. Awards with the same value fall into name order. The footer names the current sort — "sorted by award", "sorted by submission type", "sorted by eligible categories", and in the Archived view "sorted by archive date".

If nothing matches, the table never goes blank. A search that finds nothing says No award categories match "orchestral" with "Clear the search to see all nine again." and a Clear search button. A filter that finds nothing says "No award categories match this filter" with Clear filters.

A library with no awards in it at all reads "No awards yet." — with an Import from default list button beneath it for an owner — and an empty Archived view reads "No archived awards."

Creating an award category

1. Choose + New award category in the toolbar. (The button is on the Active view only — there is nothing to create into the archive.)
2. Enter a Name, up to 200 characters. The Create award category button stays greyed until you do.
3. Write a Description, up to 600 characters. It is "Shown to submitters when they add the consideration, and to judges when they recommend it." You can leave it blank.
4. Leave Start new festivals with this ticked, or untick it. It starts ticked, and its line reads "Applies when a festival is created. Seasons of festivals that already exist are not affected."
5. Tick the Eligible submission categories — the categories whose submissions may enter this award. The list works exactly as it does on the award's own page — see Eligible submission categories — with a running count that reads "None selected" or "3 of 14 selected".
6. Choose Create award category.

Two things worth knowing before you commit:

• Leaving the list empty is allowed. An award with no eligible categories is a real, saveable award — nothing can enter it yet, that is all. You can add the categories later on the award's own page.
• The dialog sets no price. Its footer says so: "The add-on price is set per season in festival settings."

If the name is already taken the Name field says "That name is already in use. Choose another." Archived awards keep their names, so a name can be taken by an award you cannot currently see.

Importing awards from the default list

Import from default list, beside + New award category on the Active view, opens FilmScorecard's ready-made list on its Awards tab: 28 awards, each with a description and its eligible categories already chosen. Tick the ones you want and choose Import.

• Each imported award brings its name and its description word for word, a fresh AWD- id and the DEFAULT tag.
• Its eligible categories are your own categories that match the default ones — ones you imported from the list, or ones with the same name. An award whose categories you do not hold yet arrives with none, and the row in the dialog says so first: "None of your categories yet".
• Categories you import later join it by themselves, but only awards that came from the default list are ever filled in this way. An award you wrote yourself — even one with the same name — is never touched, and one with the same name counts as already in your library, so the default one is not imported beside it.

Once imported it is an ordinary award: rename it, re-scope it, archive it. The whole of it — the list of awards, which categories each one takes, and the rules above — is in Importing from the default list.

The award's own page

Click an award's name, or choose Edit award from its row menu. The page opens with a breadcrumb back to Library and to Awards, the title "Edit Best Original Music", the award's AWD- id, an "Award consideration category" label, and "Last edited 14 Jul 2026".

It has three cards and a bar along the bottom.

Details

Name and Description, with their helpers: "Submitters and judges see this name exactly as written." and "Shown on the entry form beside the add-on, and to Creative Judges when they recommend this award." The description holds up to 600 characters here too.

Empty the name and the field turns red immediately, with "An award needs a name. Submitters see it on the entry form." in place of the helper. That is the only thing on the form that can block a save. One thing outside the form can: see Categories a live season is using cannot be removed.

There is no default-set control on this page. Whether new festivals start with this award is changed from the Awards tab's selection bar — see What a new festival starts with.

Eligible submission categories

One checklist, with the card's count above it — "6 of 14 categories". Its line states the rule: "Only submissions in these categories can enter the pool, by add-on, by judge recommendation, or by a director."

Every active category is in the list once, ticked or not. Click a row to tick it, and click it again to untick it. Each row shows the category's name and its type — Film or Screenplay.

• Search narrows the list by name ("Search 14 categories").
• The type buttons — Any type, Film, Screenplay — narrow it to one kind of work.
• Select all ticks every row you can currently see. Under a search or a type it says so — "Select all 6 matching" — and it ticks those six only; pressed again, it unticks them. The box beside it shows a dash when only some of the visible rows are ticked.
• Narrowing never unticks anything. A ticked category your search is hiding is still ticked, and is still saved.
• Clear empties the whole selection.
• A search with no matches shows No category matches "xyz". with a Clear search link; a type with no categories in it shows "No category matches this filter." with Clear filters. Neither is ever an empty list.
• A library with no active categories at all reads "Your library has no categories yet." — with nothing to clear. Import or create some categories first; see Importing from the default list.

Only active categories appear in the list. See When a submission category is archived.

Saving

Nothing you do on this page is saved until you choose Save changes. Ticking and unticking categories, typing a name, rewriting the description — all of it is a draft. Cancel, the breadcrumb, or the browser's back button discard it without asking.

The line beside the buttons says what a save will do: "Saving applies to the whole organization. Open seasons keep the eligibility they started with." After the save it switches to the past tense — "Saved for the whole organization…" — and the "Last edited" date at the top moves. You stay on the page. When the name is empty the line turns red and reads "Fix the fields marked above to save." instead, and the button is greyed.

If two people edit the same award, the last save wins, and unsaved typing can be replaced when the page refreshes with someone else's saved values. Reload to see the truth.

Archive this award category

The third card archives the award — see Archiving and restoring awards. It opens the same confirmation the list does, and a successful archive takes you back to the Awards tab.

Categories a live season is using cannot be removed

Adding an eligible category is always allowed. Taking one away is not, while an open season is already running that award with a submission of that category in its pool.

That is the promise the archive dialog makes — open seasons keep their pools and their results — held up at the one place it could otherwise be broken. Widening an award cannot invalidate anything, so only removals are checked.

If a removal is blocked, the whole save is refused and nothing at all is written — not the name, not the description, not the other categories you changed. A red message appears at the top of the page naming the first blocker:

The Spring 2024 season's pool for this award holds a submission in Documentary Short, so that category cannot be removed.

When more than one category is blocked, the message adds "One other category cannot be removed either." or "3 other categories cannot be removed either." It spells out one, because the fix is the same for all of them:

1. Tick the blocked category again and save the rest of your changes, or
2. Open that season's pool for this award and remove the entrants in that category — see Removing an entrant — then come back and save.

"Open season" here means a season whose status is active, which is the same sense the shared-use banner and the archive card use. A season that has closed blocks nothing, and neither does an eligible category no pool has actually used.

An award with no eligible categories

Zero is legal everywhere: in the create dialog, and on the award's own page. What you get is an amber line under the eligibility card:

With no eligible categories, nothing can enter this pool. Pick at least one before the next season opens.

It informs, it does not block. Save is never disabled by it. The row on the Awards tab shows a muted dash instead of a pill, and the award matches no Applies to filter until it has a category again.

And it does not stop the award reaching a new festival. An award in the default set is attached at creation whether or not anything can enter it — the amber line above is the warning, and the season's own settings screen is where it shows up again as None attached.

An award imported from the default list before its categories starts here, and fills in as you import them.

The consequence shows up on the season side: an award with no active eligible categories can take no new entrants at all, and its pool's Add dialog has nothing to offer. A season that has attached such an award is warned about it on the Awards tab of its settings, with an amber None attached mark — see A season's categories and awards.

When a submission category is archived

Archiving a category on the Categories tab does not delete its eligibility anywhere.

What you see change is only what is visible: the award's eligible count drops by one, the award's checklist stops offering that category, and the Applies to pill is recalculated from what is left — an award whose every eligible category has been archived falls back to the muted dash. A season's award pool stops counting it in its "Eligible: N submission categories" pill too, and stops offering its submissions in the Add dialog.

What does not change is the record. Restore the category and it comes back to the award exactly as it was saved, without you having to add it again. This holds even if you save the award while the category is archived: saving cannot remove an eligibility you cannot see — which is also why archiving a category can never trip the removal refusal above.

Selecting awards and bulk actions

Ticking any row's checkbox brings up a bar at the bottom of the screen reading "6 awards selected".

• Hover a row and its row number becomes the checkbox.
• The checkbox in the header row selects every award on the page when nothing is selected; once anything is selected it shows a dash, and pressing it clears the whole selection.
• Clear selection empties it.
• Changing the search, the Applies to filter or the Status view clears the selection, and so does switching tabs.

The bar's actions:

Archive and Restore open a confirmation first; the two default buttons do not, because nothing downstream moves and the other button undoes it.

Archiving and restoring awards

Archive from a row's three-dot menu, from the bulk bar, or from the card at the foot of the award's own page. Every archive is confirmed first, and the dialog states the consequences plainly:

Archived awards are not offered when a new season is set up. Seasons already open are left alone, and you can restore from the Archived list at any time.

with its two facts: "Seasons already open: keep the pool, the paid add-ons and every result exactly as they are today." and "New season setup: the award is not offered until you restore it."

Nothing is deleted. Archiving never touches the eligible category list and never detaches a festival — the award simply leaves the Active view and stops being offered when a new season is set up. A season already running it keeps its pool, its results and its winners, and that season's Awards screen goes on working exactly as before. An archived award is also left out of the attach picker on a season's settings, and out of the "of N in the library" count beside it.

And an archived award is never given to a new festival, whether or not it carries the DEFAULT tag. It keeps the tag, so restoring it puts it back into the set with nobody re-ticking a box.

It still counts as in your library for the default list. An archived award that came from the list, or shares a name with one on it, reads "Archived in your library" in the import dialog and cannot be imported again — restore it here instead.

Switch the Status filter to Archived to see them: quiet rows, the archive date where the eligible count was, a Restore button on each row, and a shorter row menu of Restore award and Duplicate award. There is no archiving from the archived list, and no New or import button.

Restore is confirmed too:

Restored awards are offered in new season setup again, with the eligible submission categories they were saved with.

with "Eligibility: the eligible category list comes back as saved. Check it before the next season opens." and "Festivals: no festival changes until its next season is set up."

A restore can never fail on the name. An archived award keeps its name reserved for as long as it is archived, so nothing can take it while it is away — which is also why creating a new award can be refused for a name you cannot see in the Active list.

If a colleague archived or restored the same rows moments before you, nothing goes wrong — rows already in the right state are left alone.

Duplicating an award

Duplicate award from either row menu opens a confirmation that names what travels with the copy:

The copy starts on no festival, and each season decides whether to run it. The eligible submission categories are copied as they are today.

The Name of the copy field is prefilled with "Name copy" — then "Name copy 2" and so on when that is taken. Change it if you like, then choose Duplicate award.

The copy gets a fresh AWD- id, the source's description, the source's whole eligible category list, and the source's default-set membership. It gets no festivals and no pools. The copy is always active, including when you duplicate from the Archived view — which makes Duplicate the way to get an editable award back out of the archive without restoring the original. Because the copy is active, duplicating from the Archived view looks like nothing happened: the new award is on the Active list.

A copy of an imported award is a hand-made award. Categories you import later fill in the original, never the copy.

An archived award's page

An archived award's own page still opens — it is your record, not a dead link. It shows everything read-only under an amber notice:

This award is archived and read-only. Restore it from the Awards tab to make changes.

There is no Save, no Archive card and no Cancel button on it. Restore and Duplicate live on the Awards tab, and the breadcrumb at the top is the way back.

The same read-only page is what a non-owner member sees for any award, archived or not.

Prices and season lists are not here

This screen is the library of awards. Three things people expect to find here are on another screen:

• The price of an award add-on is not set here. It is a per-season setting, on the Awards tab of a season's settings, exactly as the create dialog says — see A season's categories and awards. Nothing on this screen charges anyone anything, and neither does any award screen in a season: prices are stored configuration and nothing collects them yet. A new festival's first season inherits the award and no price — the add-on starts at zero and is set on the season.
• Which seasons run an award is set on the season, not here — with one exception: creating a festival attaches every award in the default set to that festival and to its first season. Every season after that decides for itself, on the Awards tab of its settings, and that is also what the "Used by 2 festivals" note in the row menu, the shared-use banner in the editor and the archive card's count of open seasons are counting. Detaching an award from one season does not reduce those numbers: they count the festivals that offer the award, which attaching set and detaching leaves alone.
• Pools and results are a season screen, not a library screen. They exist now: Awards in a season's left navigation lists that season's awards and their winners, and each award's pool lists its entrants. See Awards and Award pools. Nothing about a pool is edited from this tab — what this tab decides is which categories are allowed into one.

What your organization starts with

Nothing. A new organization's Awards tab starts empty, with "No awards yet." Award ids are numbered fresh for your organization, starting at AWD-2001.

So your first festival is created with no awards — unless you pick some from the default list on its Welcome page, which attaches them to that festival's first season as well. After that, import them from the default list, write your own, or both; with the DEFAULT tag on, every festival you create afterwards starts with them. See Importing from the default list.

If something is refused

Confirmation dialogs stay open when a change is refused, with the message inside them, so you never lose what you typed.

Set as default and Remove default say nothing at all when they are refused — there is no dialog to hold a message and no line on the bar. If the tags do not move, reload the page.

The import dialog's own messages are listed in Importing from the default list.

Who can see this screen

Only logged-in members of your organization: owners with the full management screen, everyone else — including people whose access is limited to one festival or one season — with the read-only one. Anyone else who opens the address sees an ordinary "page not found", exactly as if they had mistyped it, and that is also what an award id belonging to another organization returns. A logged-out visitor is sent to the log-in screen first.