# Contacting the festival > From FilmScorecard Help: https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/contacting-the-festival From the private submission page a festival sent you — and from your scorecard — you can write to the festival about your submission. Your message is emailed to the festival with your submission's details attached, and **the festival replies by email**, to the address it holds for your submission. There is nothing to sign up for and no inbox to check here: the answer comes to your email. **This form reaches the festival, not FilmScorecard.** Anything about your entry, its details, the judging or your scorecard is the festival's to answer. For payments, receipts or getting into a scorecard you have bought, see [Contacting us](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/contacting-us.md). ## Where to find it | Where | What opens | | --- | --- | | **The Contact the festival tile** on your submission page's overview — **Send a message** | The form, on **My entry** — or on **My scorecard** when you arrived from your results email. See [Your submission page](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-submission-page.md#contact-the-festival). | | **Write to the festival**, on the **Set by the festival** card of the Submission details page | The form, on **My entry**. See [What only the festival can change](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-submission-page.md#what-only-the-festival-can-change). | | **Contact the festival**, at the foot of your scorecard | The form, on **My scorecard**, with a note under it about what FilmScorecard handles instead. See [Your scorecard](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-scorecard.md). | **When the festival has given FilmScorecard no address for questions**, none of these is there. Reply to whoever wrote to you instead. **It works for as long as your submission page opens** — after edits have closed too. A submission that was withdrawn or disqualified has no form. ## Sending a message The form opens over the page, headed **MESSAGE THE FESTIVAL** and **Talk to *the festival***: "Goes to the festival with your submission's details attached. They reply by email." 1. **Choose what it is about**, under **WHAT IS IT ABOUT**: **My entry**, **My scorecard** or **Something else** — and **Awards** at a festival that offers award consideration. The hint in the message box changes with your choice, from "For example, a credit to correct or a question about your category" for My entry to "What would you like to ask the festival?" for Something else. 2. **Write your message.** A live `214/2000` count sits beside **MESSAGE**; the box stops taking text at 2,000 characters. 3. **Check what goes with it.** A block headed **SENT WITH YOUR MESSAGE** lists your submission's title, its `SUB-` number, its category or categories with the season — "Narrative Short, Fall 2026 season" — and **Replies go to**, your address. 4. **Press Send message.** It reads **Sending** while it goes. Until it is done, the form cannot be closed, so you are never left wondering whether it went. **Cancel**, the **×** in the corner and the Escape key close the form without sending anything. Your text is not kept once the form is closed. ## Message sent When it has gone, the form says so: > **Message sent** > > Riverside Shorts Festival will reply by email to c.okafor@example.test. **Done** closes the form. **Send another** empties the box and opens a fresh message. - **No reply time is promised.** How soon an answer comes is up to the festival. - **The reply comes to the address under Replies go to**, the one the festival holds for your submission. You cannot change it here; ask the festival — see [What only the festival can change](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-submission-page.md#what-only-the-festival-can-change). - **Nothing comes back to the page.** There is no conversation to open on your submission page; the festival's answer is an ordinary email. ## When a message does not send **Your message stays in the box whatever went wrong**, so you can try again without retyping it. | The message | What it means | | --- | --- | | Write your message before sending. | The box is empty. | | You've sent several messages today. Try again tomorrow. | You have sent five messages about this submission in the last 24 hours — or a lot of messages have come from your connection in the last hour. | | Your message did not send. This festival has no contact address right now. | The festival removed its address while you had the page open. Until it adds one, no message can go. | | Your session has ended. Reload the page to sign in again. | Your code or your sign-in has run out since the page opened, or your page can no longer be opened. Reload; if the code box appears, enter your code — see [Getting in](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-submission-page.md#getting-in). | | Your message did not send. Try again in a moment. | Something went wrong on the way. Press **Send message** again. | ## What the festival sees - **An email, at the address it gave FilmScorecard for questions**, saying you sent a message about your film, with your words, the topic, your submission's details and your name as its record has it. Replying to that email writes to you. - **One line on its record of your submission**, saying you sent a message and what it was about. The line carries the topic, not what you wrote. - **Its staff can open your page and see the form, but cannot send from it.** For them it reads "Preview only. Staff cannot send a message as the filmmaker." ## Related guides - [Your submission page](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-submission-page.md) — the page the form lives on, and everything else you can do there. - [Your scorecard](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-scorecard.md) — the other page it opens from. - [Contacting us](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/contacting-us.md) — writing to FilmScorecard itself, for anything that is not the festival's to answer.