How the judging queue works

Nobody hands a judge a list of films. The queue is worked out fresh every time the screen loads, from the season's submissions, the scope the festival gave that judge, which films the festival has asked to have judged first — and which it has held back — and what everybody has done so far.

This page explains the rules for judges, and answers the question coordinators ask most: why can my judge not see film X?

The ten rules, for judges

A film is in front of you when all ten of these are true. Miss one and it is not offered to you.

1. It belongs to the season you judge at that festival, and it is still a live submission. A film the festival withdraws or disqualifies drops out of your queue immediately. How the film got into the season makes no difference — one typed in by a coordinator and one brought in from a FilmFreeway export are both live submissions.
2. It fits the scope the festival gave you — the submission type (films, screenplays or both) and the categories you were assigned. That scope is set by the festival, not by you.
3. You have not already dealt with it, and you are not holding it right now. A film you skipped or declined does not come back — unless a coordinator sends it back to you, which they can only do when you left it because the film was broken. See A film came back to you. A film you filed a card on has been dealt with — unless what you filed was its technical review and you judge creative too, which is covered in Waiting for the technical review. And a film you started leaves the queue for as long as you hold it — though it is still what your judging home shows you. See A film you started.
4. There is still a card on it for you to take. A film is judged separately in every category it competes in, and every season sets how many creative scorecards each category needs. So a film in two categories needs that many in each. You are offered the film while at least one of its categories that you judge is still short, and when you take it you are given the category with the fewest. The technical card is only ever held by one judge. Once there is nothing left on that film for you, it leaves your queue.
5. That season's judging has opened. Two things have to be true: the festival has opened judging on the season, and the opening date it set has passed. Until both are, the films sit as "upcoming". A season with no dates set at all has not opened, and neither has one whose date has passed but which the festival has not opened yet — your judging home says "Judging hasn't opened yet" for that one.
6. You did not submit it yourself. See Your own submissions.
7. You have not paused new assignments. See If you paused new assignments.
8. You can open its screener. A film whose only screener link is a FilmFreeway one is offered to you only if that festival has turned FilmFreeway access on for you on that season. That is the festival's switch, not the FilmFreeway box on your own account. See The FilmFreeway rule.
9. The festival has not held it back from judging. A festival can put any submission On hold, and a film on hold is offered to no judge — it is not in your queue, your open count or your upcoming count. Nothing on your screens says a film is on hold, or that there is one; it simply is not there, and it arrives like any other film once the festival sets it Ready.
10. For a creative scorecard, the film's technical review has been approved. Unless the festival has switched this off for the season, a film's creative scorecard in a category waits until the technical review that category uses has been filed and the festival has approved it. Until then the film counts as upcoming. See Waiting for the technical review.

The rules are checked when the screen loads, so a queue can change under you between one visit and the next without anybody doing anything to your account.

And one rule sits above all ten: while you are holding a film, no film is drawn from the queue at all. See One film at a time.

Why your total shrinks

The line on your festival card — "4 of 28 scored" — is your own workload: what you have dealt with, plus what is still open to you. It is not the size of the festival.

Rule 4 is why it moves. A film leaves your queue as soon as there is no card on it left for you:

• The creative card, once every category of that film you can judge has as many scorecards as the season asks for — counting the ones being worked on right now as well as the ones already filed.
• The technical card, once any judge is holding or has filed it. There is only ever one.

Watching 28 become 26 while you are working is the system doing its job, not a mistake and not work taken away from you. It means those films are covered. A film in two categories tends to stay longer than a film in one, because it needs a full set of scorecards in each.

Rule 9 moves it too. A film the festival puts on hold leaves your total along with everybody else's, and comes back into it when the festival sets it Ready.

It moves the other way too: a festival that adds submissions to a season mid-judging adds them to everybody's queue, a film somebody took but never filed comes back when their hold lapses, a festival that adds a category to a film opens a fresh set of places on it, and a film you reported as broken comes back if a coordinator fixes it and hands it to you. That last one also takes a step off your "skipped" total, because it is a round trip rather than something you dealt with.

And it moves when the festival changes the categories you judge (rule 2). An added category brings its films into your queue; a removed one takes its films out. You are told either way, by email and a line in your inbox.

And it moves as technical reviews are approved (rule 10). A film waiting on its technical review is counted as upcoming, not in your total, and joins the total once the festival approves the review.

Waiting for the technical review

Where a category uses a technical review, each film in it is checked once by a technical reviewer, and on most seasons its creative scorecard waits for that check: you are offered a film for creative judging only once its technical review has been filed and the festival has approved it. The festival decides this for each season, and it is on unless they switch it off.

• A waiting film counts as upcoming, not as open, in your numbers.
• When nothing else is ready, your judging home reads "Nothing to score right now" and says how many films are waiting — "3 films are waiting for their technical review and will appear here once approved." It never says which films, or anything about who is reviewing them. Nothing is emailed to you; the screen checks again when you come back to its tab.
• Each category waits on its own. A film in two categories can reach you in one of them before the other.
• A category with no technical review never waits.
• A creative scorecard already in your hands is yours to finish. If the festival switches the wait on while you are holding one, you can still file it, and a scorecard the festival sends back to you can be filed again.
• If you judge both technical and creative, you can be given a film's technical review on its own, file it, and be offered its creative scorecard once the festival has approved your review — the same wait as anybody else.
• A film a coordinator hands back to you after you left it because it was broken is not held: it reaches you whether or not its technical review has been approved. See A film came back to you.

The FilmFreeway rule

Some submissions can only be watched on FilmFreeway — the only screener link on their record is a FilmFreeway one — and FilmFreeway decides, festival by festival, who may open them. So whether such a submission is offered to you is the festival's decision, made per season. Every place you hold carries a FilmFreeway access switch that the festival sets when it invites you and its coordinators can change afterwards on their roster.

With that switch off, a film whose only screener link is a FilmFreeway one is not offered to you on that season. It is not put at the bottom of the pile and it is not saved for later: it is out of your queue, out of your open count, and not what you are shown next.

• Nothing tells you a film was held back. Your total is simply smaller, in exactly the way it is smaller when a festival scopes you to two categories.
• You cannot see the switch. Nothing on your screens shows where it stands for any festival; what you see is its effect. If a festival's FilmFreeway films are not reaching you and you think they should, ask its coordinator to turn FilmFreeway access on for you.
• Off is where every place starts. A festival that wants FilmFreeway-only films to reach you turns the switch on — on the invitation, or later.
• Turning it on brings them in on your next visit, with no notice to you.
• A film you are already holding is untouched. If the festival turns the switch off mid-sitting, that film stays on your judging home and stays scorable — you can file it, skip it or hand it back. You just cannot pick it up again once you let it go, until the switch is on.
• A film with no screener link at all is not a FilmFreeway film. You are still offered it, and reporting the missing link is the right thing to do.
• A coordinator can still hand you one, after you reported a problem with it — they are told the film's only screener is on FilmFreeway, that you have no FilmFreeway access on the season, and that turning access on for you makes it appear. It waits in your queue until they do.

This changed. The I have a FilmFreeway account tick box on your account used to be this rule: unticked, FilmFreeway-only films were withheld from you; ticked, they came back. It no longer decides anything about your queue. Festivals see your answer when they invite you and beside their switch afterwards, and it informs their decision without making it — see FilmFreeway account. Keep it accurate all the same.

A film you started

Pressing Start scoring takes the film's cards and holds them for 48 hours. While you hold them the film is out of the queue — everybody's, including your own — but your judging home keeps showing it to you, as the Next submission, with an In progress pill and a Continue scoring button. Nothing new is offered beside it.

What happens next depends on you:

If the festival puts the film on hold while you are holding it, it stays yours. You can go on scoring it and file it exactly as before, and nobody else is offered it meanwhile. What changes is what happens if you let it go: a lapsed hold or a hand-back no longer returns it to anybody's queue — yours included — until the festival sets it Ready again. Nothing on your screen says any of this has happened.

If the festival takes the film's category out of what you judge while you are holding it, it stays yours too. You can finish it and file it — creative card or technical — and it pays your agreed rate. Once you let it go, it is offered to you again only through a category you still judge.

Nothing warns you before a hold lapses, and nothing on screen counts it down. See Scoring a film and One film at a time.

A scorecard the festival sends back to you is not a film you are holding. It is filed work reopened for changes, listed at the top of your judging home with Make changes — it takes no place in the queue, has no 48-hour clock, and never stops you starting a new film. See Scorecards sent back to you.

If you paused new assignments

Pausing empties your queue at every festival at once — no new film is offered to you until you resume. It is your own switch, on the Availability tab of your account, and it is separate from a festival pausing your access to one season.

Three things stay true while you are paused:

• Anything you had already started stays yours, keeps its deadline and stays scorable — and stays on your judging home with Continue scoring on it. A pause takes away new work, not work in hand.
• Films that have not opened yet are unaffected. A season whose judging has not started is still going to start.
• Coordinators at every festival you are active on are emailed once, and your card in the judges directory reads "Paused, not taking new work".

A film a coordinator sends back to you while you are paused waits for you rather than being refused — it is the first thing you meet when you resume.

The screen you land on says "Nothing to score right now" without mentioning the pause. The amber banner on your account is where it is named, and Resume now on that banner puts everything back — as does the automatic resume date, if you set one.

Which film comes next

Your judging home shows one film. The film you are holding always comes first — see One film at a time. When your hands are empty, the next film is chosen from your queue by these six questions, in order. Each one only decides between films that the questions above it left level.

1. Did a coordinator send it back to you? A film sent back comes before everything else. If two came back, the one the festival dealt with first comes first.
2. Has the festival asked to have it judged first? Festivals can mark particular films to be finished early. Nothing on the film tells you it is one of them.
3. Has somebody already started it? A film other people are part-way through comes before one nobody has touched yet.
4. Does it even out the lengths you have been given? Your films so far are measured against the average length of the films in your scope that season — minutes for films, pages for screenplays. If yours have run longer than that average, longer-than-average films are put behind the rest; if they have run shorter, shorter-than-average films are. A film with no recorded length is never put behind for this, and nothing is before you have taken your first film of the season.
5. How close is it to finished? The film that needs the fewest more scorecards, from anybody, comes first.
6. Your own fixed order. When everything above is level, every judge has an order of their own, so two judges on the same season meet otherwise-equal films in different orders.

It is not alphabetical, not by deadline, and not the order the festival received them. What it adds up to is that a season's judges finish films rather than each starting a different one, and that the lengths of each judge's films even out over the season.

The film at the front can change between visits without you doing anything — another judge starting or finishing a film, or the festival marking one, is enough. Once you press Start scoring the film is yours, and nothing moves it.

And you cannot get ahead of it. Starting a film blocks every other film in that season until you finish it or hand it back, so a judge cannot open ten films and leave nine of them sitting. See One film at a time.

A festival's FilmFreeway access switch decides whether FilmFreeway-only films are offered to you at all, and has nothing to say about the order of the rest; your own FilmFreeway answer, which once pushed some films to the bottom of the pile, now moves nothing — see The FilmFreeway rule.

There is no way to look ahead, search the queue, or choose a different film. Score the one in front of you, or skip it.

If the film is gone when you press Start scoring

Because judges are steered towards the same nearly finished films, the film on your screen can fill up between your judging home loading and your press. When that happens nothing is taken, and you land back on your judging home with an amber line above the next film:

That film is no longer available. Here's your next one.

If there is no other film for you, it reads "That film is no longer available." on its own, above the empty state.

• It is the same line whatever the reason — another judge took the last place, the festival withdrew the film or put it on hold, your scope changed — and it never says which.
• It shows once. Dismiss hides it, and it does not come back when you reload.
• It does not appear if you are already holding a different film — pressing Start scoring in an old tab, say. Your judging home simply shows the film you hold.
• Next film in your queue, on the scoring screen, behaves the same way if the film it reaches for has gone.

What you never see

No judge sees another judge — not their name, not their scores, not an average, not even how many judges a film already has. Nor are you told why a film was put in front of you. The only traces of other judges' work are that films quietly leave your queue, the "That film is no longer available." line when a film fills up before you press Start, how many films are waiting for their technical review — a count, never which films or whose review — and one line on the scoring screen: a card can tell you it went back to the queue after your hold lapsed, and it never says who took it.

Festival staff are anonymous to you as well. When a film comes back to you with a note about what was fixed, the note is signed by nobody — see A film came back to you.

That is not a festival setting. It cannot be switched on by anybody, for anybody.

Your own submissions

A film you submitted yourself never appears in your own queue once it is saved to your FilmScorecard account, at any festival, even if the festival forgot you are also an entrant. It is excluded from your counts too, and no coordinator can send you one.

It is saved to your account by itself the next time you log in with an emailed code, or open Your projects, when the address the festival has on the submission is the address you log in with — once your account has a project. Until then, nothing is saved by itself: open Your projects (the address /projects) and press Open on the welcome screen there, which makes your first project from it. See Your first project.

A submission entered under another address is saved with its access code, from the festival's email: press Save to your account on its submission page or scorecard while signed in, or Add an entry on one of your projects. (Keep it, on the scorecard, logs in on the address the festival has, so it saves the submission to that address's account, not yours.) See Saving a submission to your account.

Until then there is nothing to match on, and the film can reach you. If a film in front of you is yours, skip it with Conflict of interest and tell the festival.

If you are holding the film when it is saved, your hold is let go as if you had released it: the film leaves your judging home and goes back to the other judges. A card you had already filed on it stays filed.

Two seasons at one festival

If a festival has you judging more than one season of the same festival, only the most recent season's year is reachable from your judging home. There is no way to switch back to the older one. Ask the festival if you need to work in it.

For coordinators: why can my judge not see film X?

Run down this list in order. It is written to catch the common causes first, and everything on it is decided by the rules above rather than by anything assigned by hand. If the question is instead why is my judge being given this film before that one, the answer is Which film comes next — and the lever you hold over it is Priority.

Check the hold before anything else. A film you or a colleague put On hold — on its own, in bulk, or by choosing On hold when it was imported — reaches no judge at all. It is the newest cause on this list, so it is the last one, but it is the quickest to rule out: the Submissions screen's Judging column says Ready or On hold on every row. See 12. The film is On hold.

Then check the technical review, if the judge is missing a creative scorecard. Every season waits for it unless you switched that off: no judge is offered a film's creative scorecard until its technical review has been filed and approved in the Review Queue. See 13. Its technical review has not been approved.

One entry has left this list. Submissions brought in by the FilmFreeway import used to reach no judge's queue at all — they were recorded in a state the queue rule did not accept. They reach judges now, on exactly the same terms as any other submission: once the season's judging has opened, an imported film is offered to whoever is in scope for it. If you had judges sitting on "Nothing to score right now" with a full submissions list behind them, that was why, and it is fixed.

1. The judge is already holding a film

A judge holds one film at a time. From the moment they press Start scoring until they file every card on that film or hand it back, they are offered nothing else on that season — so "I can only see one film and it is not the one you asked about" is normal, not a fault. That includes a film you have just sent back to them, and a film you have marked Priority: it is next, not now.

They are not stuck: filing finishes it, and Skip, Decline or Declare a conflict on the scoring screen hands it back. A hold that is simply abandoned clears itself after 48 hours and the judge is offered something new. You cannot release a judge's hold for them, and no screen shows you what any judge is currently holding.

2. The judge is not Active on the season

Only a judge whose roster status is Active has a queue. Invited (not yet accepted), Paused, Declined and Removed judges have none — and the screen they see does not say why. They get "No festival has assigned you films yet", the same card as somebody no festival has ever invited.

So a judge who says "it says no festival has assigned me films" is usually paused, or has never accepted the invitation. Check their row on the season's Judges screen.

3. The judge has paused their own account

A judge can pause new assignments for themselves, across every festival they judge for, from their own account screen. While they are paused they are offered nothing new anywhere — including on your season.

Their row on your roster still reads Active, because their status on your season has not changed. Two places show it: the email you were sent when they paused, and their card in the judges directory, which reads "Paused, not taking new work". Only the judge can lift it. See When a judge pauses or asks to leave.

A third place, if there is anything to send back to them: the Issue tab says "This judge has paused their account. The film waits in their queue and appears when they return." — and lets you send it anyway.

4. The submission is withdrawn or disqualified

Both drop out of every queue immediately. Selection status — In Consideration, Selected, Not Selected — makes no difference at all; a Not Selected film is still judged. Neither does how the submission got here: an imported film and a hand-entered one are the same thing to the queue.

5. The film is outside the judge's scope

Two axes, both set by you under What a judge may be assigned on the Judges screen:

• Submission type — a judge scoped to films only is never offered a screenplay.
• Categories — a judge scoped to specific categories is only offered films attached to those categories. A film attached to none of them is invisible to them, however good a fit it looks.

The judge's own profile does not filter anything. The formats, genres, languages and weekly capacity they entered when they set up their profile are preferences for you to read — and so, now, is their FilmFreeway answer; see the next item. They change nothing about what reaches them. The scope you set is what does.

Check the scope of an accepted applicant before you assume it is wide. A judge who arrived through one of your open calls is scoped to the categories they asked for on their application, and to the kind of work they said they could cover — see What accepting does.

Taking a category out of a judge's scope stops new films from it, not the one in their hand. A film they are holding in it stays theirs to finish, and pays their agreed rate. Widening an accepted paid judge's scope asks you for their rate in each added category — see Judging scope.

6. The screener is on FilmFreeway and the judge's FilmFreeway access is off

A submission whose only screener link is a FilmFreeway one is offered only to the judges you have turned FilmFreeway access on for, on this season. With it off, the film is absent from that judge's queue and from their open count, and nothing on their screen says so.

• The switch is on the Judges screen — the FilmFreeway column on the judge's row, and the FilmFreeway card on the Access tab of their panel. It moves the moment you press it.
• Off is where every judge starts. An invitation writes it from the switch in the invite dialog, which is off unless you turned it on, and a judge accepted from an open-call application arrives with it off. Sort the FilmFreeway column to gather the judges it is off for.
• This changed. It used to be the judge's own answer — the I have a FilmFreeway account box on their account — that decided this, and you had no control over it. Their answer is now shown to you beside the switch, as "Judge says: has a FilmFreeway account" or "Judge says: no FilmFreeway account", and decides nothing; the switch is yours. Read the line before you flip it: a judge who says they have no account cannot open the screener whatever the switch says.
• Turn it on and the film appears in the judge's queue on their next visit. Nothing is sent to them.
• Sending such a film back to that judge is still allowed. The Issue tab names the obstacle — "This film's only screener is on FilmFreeway and this judge has no FilmFreeway access on this season. The film waits in their queue and appears if you turn access on for them, or you can share the file another way." — and leaves the button live. The film waits for them.
• A film with no screener link at all is not affected. It reaches every judge in scope, and reporting the missing link is what the Issue tab is for.
• Fixing the link fixes the film for everybody. Putting the screener somewhere else — the same field the Issue panel edits — puts the film back in every in-scope judge's queue, whatever their switch says.

7. Every place on it is taken

Each season sets Judges per category on Settings → Judging: how many creative scorecards each category a submission competes in needs. A submission is judged separately in every category it is attached to, so a film in two categories needs that many in each — at 3, six creative scorecards in all. A judge takes only one creative card on a film, so that is six different judges, unless your own team fills some of the places. The technical card is held by exactly one judge whatever the number says.

A judge is offered a film while one of its categories that they may score is still short, and pressing Start scoring gives them whichever of those has the fewest. Once nothing is left for them, the film leaves their queue. So a judge scoped to one category stops seeing a film as soon as that category is full, even while the film's other category is still looking for judges — the judges scoped to that other category, or to every category, go on being offered it.

Things worth knowing:

• A place is claimed the moment a judge presses Start scoring, before they have scored anything. It is a 48-hour hold, and it is the only film that judge can hold on your season until it is resolved.
• Your own team's scorecards fill places too. A creative scorecard you or a colleague file from Fill out a scorecard counts toward its category's number exactly as a judge's does, so filling a gap yourself means one judge fewer is sent to it. It never takes a film away from a judge who is already scoring it: if a judge is holding a place on that category when you file, they keep it, and the category ends one over.
• A hold that lapses gives the place back. A judge who opens a film and files nothing releases it after 48 hours, and the film returns to every queue, including theirs, with their draft kept. If that judge comes back and files while the place is still free, the scorecard counts as normal; if their category filled up while the hold was lapsed — by other judges, or by a scorecard from your own team — their card can no longer be filed, and they are told it "went back to the queue". A card on one of the film's other categories is unaffected by the first one filling.
• Picking a lapsed film up again can move a judge to a different scorecard: another of the film's categories with its own creative scorecard, when that one has the fewest scorecards as they press Start scoring; the film's other technical checklist; or the new one, if the category's scorecard was changed in the library meanwhile. Their answers to the old scorecard's questions are then cleared, and nothing tells them. Their feedback boxes, award recommendations and answers to the filmmaker's own questions stay. See What an attach does to judging already under way.
• A skip never counts toward it. A film three judges skipped still needs its full complement of scores.
• Attaching another category to a film opens a fresh set of places. The film comes back into the queues of the judges who can score the new category.
• Removing a category takes its places away. A creative scorecard a judge had filed or started under a category the film has left no longer fills any place on the film — see Editing a submission's categories.
• There is no coverage read-out for your judges' work in progress. No screen lists who holds a given film or whose hold is about to lapse. The nearest thing is the chooser behind Fill out a scorecard, whose Creative row counts the scorecards filed on each category and names the judges already on it. The other place the arithmetic surfaces is the Issue tab, which will refuse a send-back with "No scorecard slot is free on this film." Whether your roster could cover the season at all is a different question, and the season's dashboard does answer it — see The two warnings.

8. Judging has not opened

Judges are offered films only once two things are both true: somebody has pressed Open judging on the season's dashboard, and the opening date on Settings → Season has passed. Until then, everything sits as "upcoming" and no judge has anything to do — whichever of the two is missing.

• A season you have not opened offers nothing, whatever its dates say. Once its opening date has passed, its judges see "Judging hasn't opened yet" and "Your festival hasn't opened judging yet." — with no date — and every screen of the season carries an amber banner for you: "Judging isn't open yet. Judges can't see any films until you open judging from the dashboard." Press Open judging and the films reach them the next time they look.
• A season you have opened whose opening date is still ahead offers nothing until that date, and its judges see "Judging opens the day".
• A season with no judging dates set at all has not opened either, and its judges see an empty queue with no date.

Set both dates on Settings → Season, on the Dates card (see Festival settings), then open judging from the season's dashboard.

The closing date does not take work away. After it passes, films stay in judges' queues, wear an amber "past due" mark and stay scorable. Extending the window is simply pushing the closing date out.

9. The judge already dealt with it

Skipped, declined, or filed — any of those removes the film from that judge. A filed film and the three "not me" reasons — conflict of interest, outside their expertise, cannot finish in time — cannot be given back to that judge, by you or by anybody. The film stays available to every other judge on the season.

The two reasons about the film itself are different. A judge who reported Screener will not play, or picked Other, appears on the Issue tab with what they wrote — and Send back to name puts that film at the front of their queue once you have fixed it. If you cannot fix it, Dismiss closes the matter and the film stays out of their queue for good.

Merely opening a film is not permanent. A judge who started and filed nothing gets it back when their hold lapses, 48 hours later.

Sending a scorecard back is not sending the film back. Send back to judge on the Review Queue reopens a filed scorecard for its judge to change and file again; it puts nothing in their queue and takes no place on the film.

A scorecard on a category the film has since left does not count as dealing with it. A judge who scored a film in a category you then removed can be offered the same film again, for one of its remaining categories.

10. The judge is the submitter

A film saved to the judge's own FilmScorecard account is excluded from their queue automatically, and the Issue tab will not send it to them. It is saved there by itself when the judge logs in, or opens Your projects, with the address the submission was entered under, once their account has a project; before that, it is saved when they open their first project from it. A submission entered under another address reaches the judge's account only with its access code, through Save to your account on its submission page or scorecard, or Add an entry on one of their projects. (Keep it, on the scorecard, logs in on the address the submission was entered under.) See Saving a submission to your account.

• If the judge was holding it at that moment, their hold is let go and the film goes back to the other judges.
• A scorecard they had already filed on it stands. Nothing removes it; read it, and decide what to do with it, in the Review Queue.

The Conflict mark on the season's Judges screen tells you when a judge's email matches a submitter this season, and it is worth reading — the automatic exclusion only covers a submission saved to the judge's account, so a film entered under another address, or one whose judge has not logged in since it was imported, can still reach them.

11. It is an older season of that festival

A judge who holds a place on two seasons of one festival only reaches the most recent one.

12. The film is On hold

A submission On hold is offered to no judge, whatever every other rule says. It is out of every judge's queue, their open count, their upcoming count and the Remaining figure on your roster. It is still on your Submissions list, still counted on your dashboard and award screens, and you and your colleagues can still fill in a scorecard for it yourselves.

• Where to see it: the Judging column on the Submissions screen reads On hold, and the Judging filter gathers every held film. The season's dashboard counts them — "4 submissions on hold".
• How it got there: somebody turned on Hold from judges on the submission's Settings tab, pressed Hold on the bulk bar with it ticked, or imported it in a batch confirmed with On hold.
• How to undo it: set it Ready — turn the same switch off, or Ready on the bulk bar. It is offered to judges again on their next visit.
• A judge already holding it when it was put on hold keeps it, and can finish and file it. Nobody else is offered it meanwhile, and if that judge lets it go — a lapse or a hand-back — it goes to nobody until it is Ready.
• You cannot send a held film back to a judge. The Issue tab says "This submission is on hold for judging. Set it Ready, then send it back." — see When a film cannot go back.
• Priority does nothing while it is held. A held film marked Judge this first is in nobody's queue, so there is nothing to put first until it is Ready.

13. Its technical review has not been approved

With Creative judging waits for technical approval on — Settings → Judging, on the Scoring card, and on for every season unless you turned it off — a film's creative scorecard in a category is offered to no judge until the technical review that category uses has been approved. See Creative judging waits for technical approval.

• Filed is not enough. A technical review on the Review Queue's Pending tab, or one you sent back to its judge, keeps the creative scorecard waiting. Approving it — one at a time or in bulk — opens the film to creative judges the next time each of them looks. See What approving does.
• Nobody has filed it. If no judge with the technical role can reach the category, the season's dashboard says so — "No technical judge yet, so creative judging is on hold". Fill the technical review in yourself and it is approved as you file, which opens the film at once — see Filling out a scorecard yourself.
• The approval was lost. If the judge who filed an approved technical review later withdrew from the film — a conflict of interest, or a screener that will not play — their review went with them, and the film waits again until another one is approved.
• Each category waits on its own, and a category with no technical scorecard never waits.
• Your judges count the waiting films as upcoming, and one with nothing else to do is told how many films are waiting for their technical review — never which ones.
• Three things are never held: a creative scorecard a judge was already holding, one you sent back to its judge, and a film you send back to a judge from the Issue tab. Your own team's filings are never held either.

Putting a film first

Priority is the one general control you have over the order. Switching on Judge this first, on the Settings tab of a submission's detail panel, moves that film to the front of the queue of every judge who can take it. Setting it, the mark it leaves on the list and the filter that finds it are on Submissions; what it does to the queue is here.

• Only two things come before it: the film a judge is already holding, and a film you sent back to that judge.
• It changes the order and nothing else. A judge is still only offered a priority film if every rule above lets them — in their scope, a place free in a category they may score, FilmFreeway access if it needs it, not their own submission, judging open, not on hold. A priority film whose categories all have their full panel is in nobody's queue.
• Every priority film is equal. It makes no difference which you marked first, and there are no levels. Among them, judges follow the rest of the usual order — films already started first, then length, then the one nearest to finished — so marking twenty films gets them finished one after another rather than all begun at once.
• It takes effect the next time each judge's judging home loads. Nothing is sent to anybody.
• No judge is ever told. There is no mark on the film, nothing on the scoring screen and nothing in any email — a judge cannot tell a priority film from any other.
• A finished film's mark does nothing. Once every category has its panel, the film is in no queue, so there is nothing left to put first. The same goes for a film that is withdrawn, disqualified or on hold.

Two things that are not what you would expect

• Every judge on a roster is a scoring judge. There is no judging role that reviews other people's work instead of filing scorecards, so "they are only a coordinator" is never the reason a queue is empty — a judging coordinator is a member of your organization rather than somebody on the panel. See Judging coordinators are staff, not judges.
• Judges cannot see the size of the season, so "there are 40 films and I have only seen 12" is not a question they can ask from their own screen. Their numbers are always their own workload.

What you cannot do from any screen

Stated plainly so you do not go looking:

• Assign a specific film to a specific judge. Nothing in FilmScorecard works that way — the queue is derived, always. Sending a film back is not an exception: it returns a film to the judge who reported it, and there is no way to hand that film to a different judge instead.
• See what a judge has in front of them, or what they have filed but not submitted. Those records are kept and waiting for the screen that shows them.
• See every reason a judge left a film. The two that describe a broken film are on the Issue tab, with the note in full. Conflicts, expertise and deadline declines are recorded and counted and appear on no screen.
• Put a film first for one judge, rank priority films against each other, or push a film to the back. Priority is one switch that applies to every judge who can take the film; the only move that is about one judge is sending a reported film back to the front of that judge's queue. Holding a film takes it away from every judge at once — there is no hold for one judge.
• Release a judge's hold early, or extend one past 48 hours.
• Lift a judge's own pause. Yours is a separate control; theirs is theirs.
• Turn FilmFreeway access on for every judge at once. The switch is per judge, on their row or their panel; there is no bulk switch and no filter on the column. And a judge's FilmFreeway handle is shown nowhere — only whether they say they have an account.