Connecting FilmFreeway

Connect your festival's FilmFreeway account once, and its submissions come into FilmScorecard by themselves: every six hours, and whenever you press Sync now. There is no export to download and no CSV to import.

FilmScorecard only reads from FilmFreeway. It never changes anything there. And it takes almost nothing away here: a sync brings films in and keeps them up to date, but it never removes a category or a film, and the one status it changes is a withdrawal — a film its filmmaker withdrew on FilmFreeway, which no judge has started scoring and nobody has unlocked, is withdrawn here too (see Films withdrawn on FilmFreeway). Anything else FilmFreeway's changes call for is listed under Needs attention, and the decision is left to you.

Everything happens on one tab of Settings, FilmFreeway, right after Categories. Its sentence: "Bring this festival's FilmFreeway submissions in automatically, instead of importing them yourself. Optional." Importing a CSV still works exactly as before, connected or not — see Importing submissions.

Before you start

• FilmFreeway sync is on for every organization unless FilmScorecard has turned it off for yours. While it is off, nothing connects or syncs — see When FilmFreeway sync is turned off for your organization. If you cannot see the tab, write to us — see Contacting us.
• You need to be an admin of the festival on FilmFreeway, because the key is made from FilmFreeway's own festival dashboard.
• You need to be able to open Settings — an organization owner, org admin or festival admin. See Who can use it.
• The season the films go into must not be completed or archived. Any other season of the festival can take them.

Finding the tab

1. Open Settings in the season block of the left navigation.
2. Choose the FilmFreeway tab, after Categories — or go straight to …/settings?tab=filmfreeway.

It used to be a card on the Festival tab. It has moved to a tab of its own. The Festival tab's FilmFreeway submission link row has not moved: it is a different thing — the link your public page sends filmmakers to — and it still saves with the Festival tab. See Festival settings.

The tab label carries an amber count when something needs a person: one for each category waiting to be matched, one for each open Needs attention item on a film, and one more while syncing is paused. With nothing waiting there is no count. You can see it from whichever tab is open. The Settings row in the left navigation carries the same amber number, so it shows on every season screen of the festival — and while it does, that row opens Settings straight onto this tab.

The tab belongs to the festival, not to one season. Every season's Settings shows the same tab, and one festival has one FilmFreeway connection. The films go into one season at a time, which you choose when you set it up.

The tab has no save bar. Each of its buttons, and each category choice, does its job the moment you make it; the Save changes bar never appears here, and Discard on another tab never undoes anything on it.

Times on the tab are in your own time zone — the one your computer is set to — not the season's, which is what the rest of Settings uses.

Who can use it

Organization owners, org admins and festival admins — anybody who can open Settings, which takes Edit festival settings and team on the season. Every one of them can connect, sync, match categories, deal with a pause, replace the key, remove it and undo the sync. Nobody else sees the tab, because nobody else sees Settings.

Coordinators and other staff still meet what the sync does: its films on Submissions, the Changed on FilmFreeway filter there, the notices on a film's own panel and the email — see Needs attention.

In a support session, FilmScorecard's support team can Remove key and Undo sync, and both are recorded in the session's log like any other change. Connect FilmFreeway and Replace key are greyed, with "Not available in a support session." beside them: a festival's key is never handed over by anyone but the festival. See Support sessions.

Connecting, step by step

Connect FilmFreeway is on the tab while nothing is connected, beside "Connect with an API key" and its sentence: "You make the key in FilmFreeway and paste it here. It takes a few minutes, and you need to be an admin of the festival on FilmFreeway." Under it: "FilmScorecard only reads from FilmFreeway. It never changes anything there."

The season's setup steps offer it too. On a new season's dashboard, and on Welcome, the step for bringing submissions in offers Connect FilmFreeway beside Import CSV; it opens this tab with the dialog already on Step 1. See Finishing setup.

Either way, it opens a dialog, Connect FilmFreeway, in three steps. The line under the title says which one you are on — "Step 1 of 3" — and a bar of three segments fills as you go.

Nothing is saved until the last button, Start syncing. Connect checks the key and shows what FilmFreeway sends; closing the dialog at any step — Cancel, the ×, Escape — leaves no key, no connection and no sync behind.

Step 1, make a key in FilmFreeway

"Keep this window open. Do these steps in FilmFreeway, then come back."

1. Open your Dashboard in FilmFreeway and, on your festival, choose Manage.
2. In the menu on the left, choose API Keys.
3. Add this note so you know what the key is for, then choose Create API Key. The note — FilmScorecard — is in a box under the step, with Copy beside it.
4. Copy the key straight away. FilmFreeway shows it only once. If you miss it, delete it and make another.
5. Don't skip this: Click the key in the list to open it, tick PII and press Save Scopes. PII is what brings in your filmmakers' contact details. This step is the one in an amber box.
6. Come back here, choose I've copied my key and paste it.

Steps 1, 2 and 5 each carry a picture of the FilmFreeway screen you are looking for.

PII is the submitters' contact details: their email address, name, phone and the rest. A key without it is refused, so do not skip step 5.

API documentation ↗ and API Terms of Service ↗, under the steps, open FilmFreeway's own pages in a new tab. Choose I've copied my key, under step 6, to go on, or Cancel, at the foot of the dialog, to close it with nothing saved.

Step 2, paste your key

"Paste your key" — "The key FilmFreeway showed you after you chose Create API Key." Paste it into the field; what you paste is hidden as you would expect of a password.

Under the field:

• "FilmScorecard stores the key securely and only uses it to read this festival's submissions. After you connect, it shows only the last 4 characters."
• "If a key is ever lost or exposed, delete it in FilmFreeway straight away and contact FilmFreeway Support."

Choose Connect. It reads Checking key… while FilmScorecard asks FilmFreeway whether the key works. Connect only checks the key — it saves nothing. If the key is refused, the reason appears in amber under the field:

Back returns to Step 1. Once you start syncing, the key you pasted is never shown again — not on the tab, not in the dialog, not to anyone; the tab shows only its last four characters.

Step 3, start syncing

Once the key is accepted, the dialog moves on by itself to Start syncing, built from that one check — there is no wait while FilmScorecard reads your festival:

• Key works., in green.
• FilmFreeway's name for its current season — "FilmFreeway season: Spring 2026" — and how many submissions it holds: "312 submissions". With none yet, "FilmFreeway has no submissions in its season yet." You can still start; films come in as they arrive.
• Bring them into and a season picker — the festival's seasons that are neither completed nor archived. It starts on the season whose Settings you are in, when that one can take films; otherwise on the newest that can. A festival with no season that can take films reads "Choose a season of this festival that is not completed or archived." in amber where the picker would be, and Start syncing stays greyed.
• "FilmFreeway data is handled under the FilmFreeway section of our Terms." — the Terms link opens in a new tab, so your pasted key stays where it is. Starting to sync agrees to that section on the festival's behalf, and records who did and when. See The Terms and the Privacy Policy.

The categories are not on this step. They are matched on the tab once films start arriving — see Categories.

Choose Start syncing. This is the moment the key is saved: FilmScorecard sends the key again, checks it again, and only then stores it, links the season you chose and starts the first sync. The dialog closes and the tab turns to Syncing, with the sync's progress under the festival's name — see The progress line. It takes a few minutes for a big festival, and you can leave the page while it runs.

If the second check fails — the key was deleted in FilmFreeway between the two steps, say — its sentence appears in amber at the top of Step 3 and nothing is saved. Back returns to Step 2 with the key still in the field; changing it means pressing Connect again.

If a colleague started first, your Start syncing is refused with "FilmFreeway is already connected for this festival." and nothing of yours is saved.

Closing the dialog leaves nothing behind

Cancel, the × or Escape, at any step, saves nothing: no key, no connection, no sync. The tab stays on Not connected and the next Connect FilmFreeway starts again from Step 1 with an empty field.

The tab reads Not finished after an Undo. Undoing the sync while the key is still saved leaves the key in place and unlinks the season — see Undoing the sync. The pill then reads Not finished, and the tab offers Finish setting up beside Manage ▾. It opens the dialog straight on Step 3, reading "Checking key…" while FilmScorecard checks the saved key with FilmFreeway — you do not paste it again — then shows the same Step 3 with Cancel and Start syncing. Nothing syncs until you press Start syncing; Cancel leaves it Not finished.

The tab, state by state

The tab's panel always has the same title, FilmFreeway, with a pill beside it:

A tab with no pill at all is a stopped one: FilmFreeway sync is turned off for your organization — see When FilmFreeway sync is turned off for your organization.

Once connected, the tab reads top to bottom: the amber pause notice, when syncing is paused; the result line; the identity row; the progress line, while a sync runs; the three figures; Categories; Needs attention; and Shared by FilmFreeway.

The identity row shows the FF tile, your festival's own name, and a line such as "FilmFreeway season: Spring 2026. Connected Oct 9, 2026 by Nadia Brandt." — FilmFreeway's name for its current season, and who started syncing and when — with Sync now and Manage ▾ at its end.

The tab keeps itself up to date while a sync runs. Every 5 seconds, while a sync is waiting or running and the FilmFreeway tab is the one open in a window you can see, it re-reads itself — so the progress, the figures and the categories move without a reload — and it reads once more when the sync finishes, then stops. On another tab of Settings, or in a browser tab in the background, it waits; coming back to it while a sync is still running reads at once.

The progress line

While a sync runs, a line with a spinner under the identity row says how far it has got:

The films come first, all of them, before any poster or script is fetched, so every film's record is on Submissions well before the sync finishes. The numbers count FilmFreeway's submissions — "500" is how many FilmFreeway holds, and each one counts as handled whether it was written, updated, unchanged, left waiting for a category or not brought in. There is no line while a sync is still waiting to start, and none for posters and scripts when there is nothing to fetch.

The three figures

While a sync runs the first figure is Syncing now, with the time it started — or "Starting" before it has. While syncing is paused, Next sync reads Paused, with "Until the key is replaced", "Until PII is turned back on" or "Until a season is chosen".

The result line

At the top of the tab, one line says what the last finished sync did — scheduled or Sync now alike. It stays until the next sync finishes; there is no pop-up.

• "4 waiting for a category" counts FilmFreeway submissions left out because none of their categories has been matched yet. It is a link: it scrolls down to Categories.
• "2 need attention" counts the Needs attention items that sync raised. It opens Submissions filtered to FilmFreeway's flagged films.

There is no result line before the first sync finishes, while the tab is Not finished, or after a sync that paused — the amber pause notice says what happened instead.

Sync now

Sync now starts a sync straight away rather than waiting for the next scheduled one. It is unavailable — greyed out — in three cases:

• while a sync is waiting or running, when it reads Syncing;
• for 10 minutes after a sync finishes, with "Sync now available at 9:20 AM" under the figures. A tab left open that presses it anyway gets the same sentence, and nothing is queued;
• while syncing is paused.

Scheduled syncs come round every six hours whatever you press. Sync now is for when you want what is on FilmFreeway at this moment — after a deadline, say. Matching a category starts a sync of its own without the 10-minute wait — see Categories.

Shared by FilmFreeway

The last row lists what the key lets FilmScorecard read, as pills: Submission details, Submitter contact details (PII), and Judging data if the key has it. Beside them, either "Change these on the key in FilmFreeway." or, when Judging data is on, "From Judging data, FilmScorecard uses only whether a film was accepted." — see New films.

Manage

Manage ▾ is on the identity row whenever a key is saved — Not finished, Connected, Syncing and Sync paused alike. It opens a small menu headed FilmFreeway API key, with the key's last four characters — "Ending a41f" — and three choices:

• Replace key — see Replacing the key. In a support session it is greyed, with "Not available in a support session." under it.
• Remove key, in amber — "Stops syncing. Submissions already here stay." See Removing the key.
• Undo sync, under a divider — see Undoing the sync. When Undo is not possible it is greyed, and the line under it says why: "Available when this sync finishes.", "Undo was available until Oct 9, 2026.", "A judge has scored 3 of these submissions.", "A filmmaker has unlocked the scorecard for 2 of these submissions." or "Nothing to undo."

What a sync does

Every sync reads every submission in FilmFreeway's current season, then:

1. brings new films into the season;
2. updates films already here from what changed on FilmFreeway;
3. withdraws films their filmmakers withdrew on FilmFreeway, when nobody has started scoring them or unlocked them;
4. lists under Needs attention what it will not decide for you;
5. once every film is written, downloads posters and screenplay PDFs into empty slots;
6. emails your team once, if it found anything new to look at — or, on the first sync, to say what it brought in.

New films

A new film is written exactly as a FilmFreeway CSV export would write it, with the same fields — the submitter's details, the work, its credits, technical specs, background and the entry's own record, the staff-only fields included. See What a FilmFreeway export brings in. A few details:

• The submitter's email is the one on the FilmFreeway project, or the one on the submission when the project has none.
• The screener link is the film's own link on FilmFreeway. A film uploaded to FilmFreeway itself has no link of its own, so it gets its FilmFreeway page — https://filmfreeway.com/submissions/… — and only judges you have given FilmFreeway access are offered it. See FilmFreeway access.
• The submission date is the day it was submitted on FilmFreeway, in the season's time zone.
• New films arrive Ready for judging. There is no On hold choice, as there is in a CSV import's confirm dialog — hold them afterwards on Submissions if you need to. See Holding a submission out of judging.
• The selection is set once, when the film arrives. With Judging data on the key, a film FilmFreeway has marked selected or accepted arrives Selected, one marked not selected, rejected or declined arrives Not Selected, and anything else In Consideration. Without Judging data, every film arrives In Consideration. No later sync changes it.
• Nothing else of FilmFreeway's judging is kept — no ratings, recommendations, notes, flags or judges' names. Judging here starts fresh, blind, with your own judges.
• A film with no title is skipped, and a film that looks like a new version of one already here comes in as a separate film — both exactly as in a CSV import.
• A film is never brought in twice. One already in the season from a CSV import, under the same Submission ID, is matched and kept up to date from then on.

A film comes in once one of its categories is matched to one of the season's categories — see Categories. Its other matched categories come with it; a category matched later is added on a later sync. A film whose categories are all set to Don't bring in never comes in.

Films already here: the most recent change wins

On every sync, each film the connection brought in is compared with FilmFreeway, field by field, and a field moves only when that is the most recent change:

• Changed on FilmFreeway, not here — FilmFreeway's value is applied.
• Changed here, not on FilmFreeway — yours stays.
• Changed on both sides — whichever change is newer wins.
• Blanked on FilmFreeway — never applied. An empty field on FilmFreeway never wipes a filled one here.

"Changed here" means changed by your team, or by the filmmaker on their own submission page.

The fields it compares are the ones a new film is written with, plus the screener link and the running time. Four things never change after a film arrives:

• the submitter's email, once the filmmaker has saved the submission to their own FilmScorecard account — see Saving a submission to your account. Until then it follows FilmFreeway like any other field;
• the selection — In Consideration, Selected or Not Selected;
• the screener password — FilmFreeway does not share one, so the sync never sets or clears it;
• the poster and the screenplay PDF, once filled.

Every change a sync makes is on the film's Audit tab, with FilmFreeway as who made it and the old value beside the new one — so a value of yours that FilmFreeway's newer change replaced can be typed back by hand. See The Audit tab.

Films withdrawn on FilmFreeway

On FilmFreeway only the filmmaker can withdraw a submission, so a sync withdraws that film here too — the same change Withdraw makes on Submissions — when all of this is true:

• the film is still in your submissions here, not already withdrawn or disqualified;
• no judge has started a creative scorecard on it;
• nobody has unlocked its scorecard.

A film that arrives already withdrawn on FilmFreeway comes in, and is withdrawn on the same sync. Its Audit tab names FilmFreeway: "FilmFreeway withdrew the submission", with the time — see The Audit tab. What withdrawing does to a submission is in Withdrawing a submission.

A film a judge has started scoring, or whose scorecard has been unlocked, is not withdrawn. It stays in judging, and the sync raises "Withdrawn on FilmFreeway" under Needs attention for you to decide, as before.

The sync withdraws a film once, and never again. Like any withdrawal, it cannot be reversed on your screens.

Disqualified on FilmFreeway changes nothing here. Disqualifying is the festival's own act on FilmFreeway, so it stays a Needs attention item. Not Selected on FilmFreeway changes nothing either — the selection is set once, when a film arrives (see New films).

Posters and screenplays

A sync downloads two things from FilmFreeway, and only into an empty slot. It does so after every film has been written, a few films at a time — the "Fetching posters and scripts" part of the progress line:

• The poster, when the film has none here — PNG, JPEG or WebP, up to 10 MB.
• The screenplay PDF, for a screenplay whose latest version has no PDF here, and whose link is empty or any link on filmfreeway.com — up to 25 MB. It becomes the PDF judges open. A link your team or the filmmaker set to any other site is never touched, so that screenplay is never fetched from FilmFreeway.

A poster or PDF you have put on the film yourself is never replaced. One too large, that is not a real PDF or image, or that fails to download, is tried again on later syncs — three tries in all — and then left alone. Stills and trailer stills are not downloaded.

What a sync never does

• It never changes a film's status, except to withdraw a film its filmmaker withdrew, under the rules in Films withdrawn on FilmFreeway. A film disqualified on FilmFreeway, or withdrawn there after a judge started scoring it or its scorecard was unlocked, stays in judging here until you withdraw it.
• It never removes a category. A film moved out of a category on FilmFreeway stays in it here until you edit its categories.
• It never removes a film. A film that disappears from FilmFreeway stays.
• It never writes anything to FilmFreeway.
• It never emails a filmmaker itself. Synced films are ordinary films afterwards: the season's own emails to submitters — the link to their submission page, scorecard releases — treat them exactly as they treat imported ones. So on a season set to email each filmmaker as their film arrives, each film a sync brings in is sent that link within minutes of the sync writing it. An Undo afterwards cannot take the email back; the link in it stops working.

Each of the first three is listed under Needs attention instead.

Categories

Each FilmFreeway category is matched to one of this season's categories, or set to Don't bring in. The match is remembered — for that season — so it is asked once, and a category FilmFreeway later renames is not asked again.

A FilmFreeway category whose name is the same as one of the season's matches itself, ignoring capitals and extra spaces. Unlike a CSV import, punctuation counts: "Short Film" and "Short-Film" are different names here.

Anything else waits for you, and its films wait with it. You do not match anything before you start: the first sync brings in what matches by name, and the rest waits in the Categories block on the tab.

The Categories block

Under the figures, Categories lists every FilmFreeway category the sync has seen for the season the films go into, each with FilmFreeway's name for it and how many FilmFreeway submissions it holds.

• Waiting categories come first, and are always open: the name, the count, Needs matching in amber, and a picker reading Choose a category.
• Matched and skipped categories sit behind All categories (12) — the number counts every category in the block. Open it to see each one's current choice in its own picker, and change it there.

Each choice saves on its own, the moment you make it. There is no Save button. A row you answer from the waiting list stays where it is for the rest of your visit, so you can read what it says next. Then:

• With no sync running, a sync starts at once — without Sync now's 10-minute wait — and the category's films come in on it. While syncing is paused the choice is saved, and used once syncing carries on.
• With a sync already running, the row reads "Saved. Its films come in when this sync finishes." The next sync starts by itself the moment the running one finishes.

A refused choice goes back to what it was, with the reason in amber under the row — see Messages.

The picker

The picker is the one a CSV import uses on its category step — see Step 3 — with two differences: FilmScorecard's default list is not offered, and skipping is worded Don't bring in. So the choices are:

1. A category on this season — the films join it.
2. A category from your organization's library — it is attached to this season, at its library judge pay, and the films join it.
3. Create "name" as a new category — under FilmFreeway's name for the category, or under a name you type: search for a name no category has — "Animated Shorts", say — and the choice reads Create "Animated Shorts" as a new category. It asks Film or Screenplay, then, on the next sync, creates it in your library and on this season, with your shared technical and press kit scorecards and no creative scorecard until you attach one; the films come in on that same sync. Create is not offered under a name a category in the list already has — choose that one.
4. Don't bring in — films only in this category never come in.

Changing a match moves no film already here

A new choice decides only where future films go. Films the category has already brought in keep the categories they came in with. A row whose category has brought films says where they are — "14 films already here stay in Documentary Short.", or "14 films already here keep their categories." when they are spread across several — and that line is a link: it opens Submissions filtered to exactly those films, with the chip From FilmFreeway: category (14) on the toolbar, where Edit categories moves any of them by hand. See Editing a submission's categories.

• Matched to Don't bring in: the films already here stay where they are; no new ones come in.
• Don't bring in to a match: that category's films come in on the sync the choice starts.

A new season keeps your matches

Matches carry over when the films start going into another season — by Continue syncing after a pause, or by Start syncing into a different season after an Undo. Each FilmFreeway category's latest choice comes with it:

• a match to Documentary Short becomes a match to the new season's category of the same name, ignoring capitals and extra spaces;
• Don't bring in stays Don't bring in;
• with no category of that name on the new season, it waits for you there.

Matches are this festival's own: another festival of your organization never inherits them.

Needs attention

When a sync finds something it will not decide for you, it says so — and changes nothing. An amber box headed Needs attention appears under Categories, one line per kind, with a count:

A category waiting to be matched is not listed here — it waits in the Categories block, and counts on the tab label.

Every line opens Submissions, on the season the films go into, filtered to the films FilmFreeway has flagged. The same filter is a chip on the Submissions toolbar — Changed on FilmFreeway (3) — shown while the season has at least one flagged film. While it is on, an amber line under the toolbar says these films changed on FilmFreeway after they were imported, and to open each one and update it here if you need to; the notice then clears at the next sync, or anyone who can open Settings can Dismiss it. See Searching and filtering.

On a flagged film's own panel, each item is an amber notice at the top:

• "Withdrawn on FilmFreeway. It stays in judging here until you withdraw it." — only on a film the sync did not withdraw itself.
• "Disqualified on FilmFreeway. It stays in judging here until you withdraw it."
• "Moved out of category on FilmFreeway. It stays in that category here until you edit its categories."
• "No longer on FilmFreeway. Nothing has changed here."

The panel's usual buttons do the rest — see FilmFreeway notices, Withdrawing a submission and Editing a submission's categories.

An item clears itself, at the next sync, once its cause has gone: you withdraw the film here, FilmFreeway reinstates it, you take the category off here, FilmFreeway puts it back, or the film reappears on FilmFreeway.

Dismiss, on a film's notice, clears one item you have decided to leave as it is. It is not raised again unless FilmFreeway changes that same thing again. Dismiss is offered to the people who can open Settings; everyone else sees the notice without it. While FilmFreeway sync is turned off for your organization, Dismiss is refused with "FilmFreeway sync is turned off for your organization."

One more quiet line, never an item. Beside a screener link that is not FilmFreeway's own page and has no password, on a synced film, the panel says "FilmFreeway doesn't share screener passwords. Add one if this link needs it." It is never listed and never emailed.

The email

The first sync sends one email to say what it brought in — the first sync after Start syncing, including after an Undo. It goes as soon as every film is written, without waiting for posters and scripts, when the sync brought in at least one film or left a category waiting: "FilmFreeway's first sync for your festival and season", with "FilmFreeway brought 148 submissions into your festival and season.", "3 categories need matching." when any wait, any Needs attention line it found, and Open the FilmFreeway tab. A first sync that brought nothing and left nothing waiting sends nothing.

After that, a sync that finds anything new to look at sends one email, never one per film: "FilmFreeway needs your attention for your festival and season", with each line it found, "Nothing has changed on these films here.", and Open the FilmFreeway tab. A sync that only brings in or updates films sends nothing. No sync ever sends more than one email.

A sync that pauses sends one too — "FilmFreeway syncing has paused for your festival and season" — once per pause, not again on every check while it stays paused.

It goes to your organization's staff who can open the season, and each of them can turn it off for themselves with FilmFreeway needs attention on the Notifications tab of their account settings — see Notifications. The email line by line is in The FilmFreeway email.

When syncing pauses

A pause stops every sync from writing anything until somebody deals with it. It never removes the key, and nothing already here changes. The pill reads Sync paused, and an amber notice at the top of the tab says why, with the way out beside it:

The season pauses. "Most films stopped coming back" means fewer than half of the films the connection has brought in were on FilmFreeway's list — which is what a new FilmFreeway season looks like when it keeps the old one's name. Its picker starts on the season the films already go into, in case FilmFreeway has simply reopened the same season; for the other two it starts on Choose a season, and you must pick. "Closed" means completed or archived here.

Continue syncing sends FilmFreeway's films into the season you chose from now on, clears the pause and starts a sync. Choosing a different season brings your category matches with it, by name — see A new season keeps your matches.

A moved deadline on FilmFreeway never pauses anything.

Undoing the sync

Undo sync takes out every film FilmFreeway brought into the season, from every sync at once, and hands the connection back to the start. It is the way to undo a sync into the wrong season, or to switch the festival to another FilmFreeway festival.

Where it is: in the Manage ▾ menu, under the divider. On a tab with no key — after Remove key, or while FilmFreeway sync is turned off — it is a button of its own, amber, beside a line such as "148 submissions came in from FilmFreeway before the key was removed." Each sync that brought new films still has its FilmFreeway sync row on the season's Imports history, but no row there offers Undo — see FilmFreeway syncs are undone from Settings.

1. Choose Manage ▾, then Undo sync.
2. The dialog reads "Undo the FilmFreeway sync?" — "Remove the 148 submissions FilmFreeway brought into Spring 2026?" — and, when some of the films were already here from a CSV import, "The 12 that were already here from a CSV import stay, but stop syncing."
3. Choose Undo sync, in amber, or Cancel.

It is checked before anything is removed, and refused whole — nothing at all is removed — in four cases. The greyed Undo sync says which, on the line under it; should one arise while the dialog is open, the dialog says so instead:

"Nothing to undo." means no film is linked to the connection any more.

What it removes: every film the season's FilmFreeway syncs brought in, exactly as rolling back an import removes a batch's films — with their technical and press kit scorecards, their category attachments, the posters and screenplay PDFs the sync downloaded, and any category a sync created that nothing else has come to use (your library keeps it). See What a rollback removes, exactly.

What it keeps:

• Films that were already here from a CSV import when the sync found them stay, and stop syncing. So do films the connection had linked in any other season.
• The season's category matches, for the next time you start syncing into it.

Afterwards: every Needs attention item is cleared, every FilmFreeway sync row on Imports reads Rolled back, and the connection forgets the season and the FilmFreeway festival it was tied to. Then:

• With the key still saved, the pill reads Not finished and nothing syncs until you press Finish setting up, choose a season and press Start syncing — see Closing the dialog leaves nothing behind. That next sync counts as a first sync again: its progress reads "Bringing in", and it sends the first-sync email.
• With the key already removed, the tab reads Not connected, and a key for any FilmFreeway festival can be connected.

To take one synced film out of judging without undoing the rest, withdraw it — see Withdrawing a submission.

Replacing the key

1. Make a new key in FilmFreeway, with PII on — the same steps as Step 1.
2. Choose Manage ▾, then Replace key — or Replace key in the amber notice when the old key has stopped working.
3. The dialog, Replace the FilmFreeway key, has two steps: make a key, then paste it. Choose Save new key; it reads Checking key… while it checks.

The new key goes through the same checks as a first one, and it must be for the same FilmFreeway festival — a key for another one is refused with "This key is for a different FilmFreeway festival than the one connected here." Unlike connecting, Save new key saves the key as soon as it passes: the dialog closes, a pause for the key or for PII is cleared, and a sync starts. Delete the old key in FilmFreeway if it still exists.

Replace key is not available in a support session — it is greyed, with "Not available in a support session." under it.

Removing the key

Remove key stops syncing and deletes the key from FilmScorecard. It used to be called Disconnect.

1. Choose Manage ▾, then Remove key, in amber.
2. The dialog reads "Remove the FilmFreeway key?" — "FilmScorecard stops syncing with FilmFreeway. The 148 submissions already here stay. The key keeps working in FilmFreeway until you delete it there."
3. Choose Remove key, in amber, or Cancel.

The key is deleted from FilmScorecard, and every sync stops — one waiting to start is cancelled, and one running stops where it is. The tab goes back to Not connected.

Everything already here stays: every film, every category match, and every Needs attention item. Delete the key in FilmFreeway as well, because removing it here does not touch it there.

While films the sync brought in are still here, the Not connected panel says so — "148 submissions came in from FilmFreeway before the key was removed." — with Undo sync beside it, under the same rules as ever (see Undoing the sync); a sync that was running when you removed the key must stop first. And the festival stays tied to its FilmFreeway festival:

• Connecting again with a key for the same FilmFreeway festival works like the first time. You start syncing into a season again, your category matches come back with it, and films already here are matched, not brought in twice.
• A key for another FilmFreeway festival is refused with "This key is for a different FilmFreeway festival than the one connected here. To switch festivals, undo the sync first." Once the sync can no longer be undone, the first sentence stands alone, and switching is for us to do — write to us.

With no film linked any more, the festival is free: a key for any FilmFreeway festival can be connected.

Remove key works in a support session, and while FilmFreeway sync is turned off for your organization.

When FilmFreeway sync is turned off for your organization

FilmFreeway sync is on for every organization unless FilmScorecard turns it off. While it is off, nothing syncs and nothing connects: no scheduled sync runs, a sync already waiting or running stops without reading FilmFreeway, and Connect, Replace key, Sync now, Check again, Continue syncing, category choices and Dismiss are all refused with "FilmFreeway sync is turned off for your organization."

What the tab shows depends on what is left to clean up:

• A saved key, or films the sync brought in — the tab stays, with no pill and no amber count, and reads "FilmFreeway sync is turned off for your organization." Under it, only Remove key — while a key is saved — and Undo sync — while films are linked; greyed, with its reason under it, when Undo is refused. See Removing the key and Undoing the sync.
• Nothing at all — there is no FilmFreeway tab, and its address opens the Festival tab instead. Once the last key is removed and nothing is left to undo, the tab goes the same way.

Nothing is lost: the connection, its matches, its films and its Needs attention items are all kept, and when it is turned back on, syncing carries on where it stopped.

If the tab disappears while you are on it

The FilmFreeway tab never reloads the page: after each button, and every 5 seconds while a sync runs, it re-reads only itself. When that read finds there is no longer a tab for you — you were signed out, or the last key was removed and nothing is left to undo while FilmFreeway sync is off — the tab goes from the row and Settings shows the Festival tab. A read that simply fails changes nothing on screen; the tab tries again a few seconds later.

Messages

Every sentence the tab and its dialogs can answer with, beyond the key checks in Step 2 and Undo's refusals in Undoing the sync. Each appears in amber at the top of the tab's panel, under the category row you changed, or inside the dialog you were using.

What it does not do

• It reads one FilmFreeway season — the current one. Older seasons on FilmFreeway are not brought in; import their CSV exports instead.
• One FilmFreeway festival per festival, into one season at a time. To switch to another FilmFreeway festival, undo the sync first; once it can no longer be undone, switching is for us to do — see Removing the key.
• No screener passwords, because FilmFreeway does not share them. Add them on each film's panel if its link needs one.
• No stills, trailer stills or your festival's own questions — the same as a CSV import.
• It is not instant. A film submitted on FilmFreeway arrives on the next sync, not the moment it is submitted.
• Undo is all or nothing, and only for 30 days. It takes out every film the syncs brought into the season, and is refused whole once a judge has started scoring or a filmmaker has unlocked any of them — see Undoing the sync. There is no way to stop a sync while it runs, short of removing the key.
• Changing a category's match moves no film already here. Move those with Edit categories — see Changing a match moves no film already here.
• Removing the key does not delete anything the sync brought in. Films and their submitters' details stay until you remove them.

Related guides

• Festival settings — the screen this tab is on, and the Festival tab's FilmFreeway submission link row, which is a different thing: the link your public page sends filmmakers to.
• Finishing setup — the season's setup steps, which offer Connect FilmFreeway beside Import CSV.
• Importing submissions — the CSV way in, which works beside the sync, what a FilmFreeway export brings in, and the category picker the Categories block shares.
• Imports — where each sync's batch is listed, and why none of them is rolled back there.
• Submissions — the Changed on FilmFreeway filter, the From FilmFreeway chip, withdrawing a film and editing its categories.
• Opening a submission — a synced film's notices, and its Audit tab, where FilmFreeway's changes and withdrawals are named.
• Emails your festival sends — every email, including the first-sync email and FilmFreeway needs attention.
• Support sessions — what our support team can and cannot do on this tab.
• Your account settings — turning that email off for yourself.