Leaving a film you started

Once you are on the scoring screen there are two reasons to hand a film back: the screener will not play, or you should not be the one judging it. They are different buttons with different consequences, and neither can be undone by you.

These buttons, and Skip this film on your judging home, are the only ways to put down a film you have started. Until you use one of them — or file every card in your hand — that film is the only one your judging home offers you. See One film at a time.

Everything else about the screen is on Scoring a film. The Skip this film button on your judging home is a different thing again, governed by the festival's skip setting — see If you have already filed a card and Skipping a film.

The three buttons, and which you get

Two absences are deliberate:

• There is no Skip button whenever you hold the technical card, on either the two-card or the technical-only screen. A file that will not play is a Fail you record on that card, not a film you hand back — you are the one judge who is supposed to report it.
• The two-card screen offers no reason list. Its one action is Declare a conflict. If you need to leave a two-card film for some other reason, message the festival.

Both flows work in every season, including one where the festival switched off skipping on your judging home. A season may decide judges cannot pick and choose; it has not decided that a broken file must be scored blind or that a conflict must be judged anyway.

Which of these can come back to you

Only the ones about the film. A coordinator reads what you wrote, and if they can fix the problem they can hand the film back to you — it arrives at the front of your queue with a note saying what changed. See A film came back to you.

Coming back is never guaranteed, and you are not told when a coordinator decides against it. Silence is the ordinary outcome either way.

Skip: technical issue

Use it when the screener will not play, will not open, or is not the work it claims to be.

1. Press Skip: technical issue. A dialog opens headed "Report a technical problem?" with the film's title underneath, and an amber block:

   The film goes back to the coordinator.

   Use this when the screener will not play. The coordinator is told what went wrong and the film leaves your queue.

2. Write what went wrong under What went wrong — "What is wrong with the screener, in one line. The coordinator reads this."

3. Press Report and leave this film. Cancel backs out and changes nothing.

The box is not enforced, so an empty one still goes through — but it is the entire point of the report. A coordinator who is told only that a film was skipped cannot fix anything, and what you write is the whole of what they have to work from. "Will not load" gives them nothing; "plays four seconds then black, tried Chrome and Safari" gives them something to act on.

The reason is recorded for you as Screener will not play; there is no list to pick from on this dialog.

Decline: conflict or other

Use it when you should not be the judge on this film — you know the people involved, it is outside what you can assess, or you simply will not finish it.

1. Press Decline: conflict or other. The dialog is headed "Decline this film?" with an amber block:

   You are taking yourself off this film.

   Declining excludes you from this submission. The film returns to the queue for other judges.

   The heading names the act rather than the outcome, because the outcome depends on the reason you have not picked yet: three of the four take you off the film for good, and Other goes to the same coordinator worklist a screener report does.

2. Pick one reason under Why are you declining? — the four are:

   • Conflict of interest — never comes back
   • Not in my area of expertise — never comes back
   • Unable to finish before the deadline — never comes back
   • Other — a coordinator reads it and may hand the film back

   A reason is required. Without one you get "Pick a reason before you decline." under the list.

3. Add anything you want under Anything to add — "Optional. The coordinator reads this." On the Other reason, write something: it is the only thing telling a coordinator what to do next, and an empty box gives them a row with nothing in it.

4. Press Decline and leave this film.

Declare a conflict

On the two-card screen the same flow appears as Declare a conflict, headed "Declare a conflict on this film?". There is no reason list — it is fixed to conflict of interest — the note is still optional, and the button reads Declare a conflict. This one never comes back.

If you have already filed a card

An extra line appears in the amber block, in bold, and it means exactly what it says:

A card you have already filed on this film will be withdrawn, and the slot returns to the queue.

Declining after filing takes the filing back. It stops counting toward the film anywhere, the card reopens for another judge, and you cannot put it back. If you filed a card and then realised you have a conflict, that is the right outcome — but do it knowingly.

And it does not reopen for you, even if the film later comes back. A returned film arrives as fresh work; the card you withdrew stays withdrawn.

Skip this film on your judging home does the same. It also puts down the film you are holding and withdraws a card you have already filed, whatever the reason, and its dialog says so in bold inside its amber warning:

Anything you have already filed on this film will be withdrawn.

See Skipping a film.

What happens next

You land back on your judging home, where:

• An amber strip names what you did:

  Title skipped

  It has left your queue and other judges at the festival can still score it. The coordinator sees your reason.

  PCFF24-133 · Screener will not play

  with a Dismiss button. The strip appears once — reload the page and it is gone. It is a confirmation, not a record.

  Two things about its wording. The headline says "skipped" whichever of the three buttons you used, and the second sentence appears whichever of them you used too — all three record a reason a coordinator reads. The strip says nothing about the film coming back, which is right: whether it can depends on the reason, and a confirmation is not where you would find that out. The monospace line under it names the reason that was actually recorded, which is the half to read — and the table above says what each one means.

• A different film is in front of you — you are no longer holding anything, so the queue moves on at once — and your counts have moved: the film is added to your "skipped" total and stays in the "of N" denominator, never in "scored". If the film is later handed back to you, it comes off that "skipped" total again.

Underneath, in the festival's records:

• Every card you held on that film is released. Anything unfiled goes back for other judges; anything filed is withdrawn.
• Your reason and note are kept for the festival's coordinators. No other judge sees any of it, and the judge who eventually scores the film is not told anybody passed on it.

What you cannot undo

You cannot put the film back yourself. Not when the hold would have lapsed, not by any button on any screen. The drafts you had written are kept on file, out of your reach unless the festival hands the film back (below), and the scoring screen's address stops working for you.

The festival can, on two of the four reasons. A technical report or an Other decline lands on a coordinator's worklist with your words on it; if they fix what you described they can send the film back, and it turns up at the front of your queue with a note. On a conflict, your expertise or the deadline there is no such button — for them or for anybody, and the refusal is enforced underneath rather than left to somebody remembering.

If it does come back you are told twice: by email, and by the film itself reappearing with a Returned pill and the coordinator's note on it. See A film came back to you.

If you left a film by mistake, tell the festival. Whether they can hand it back depends on which button you used.

If something is refused

Nothing is written until you press the commit button. Cancel, Escape and clicking outside all discard what you typed. While the write is in flight both buttons lock and the dialog will not close, so nothing can be left half-done.

Doing it twice is not an error. A back button or a stale tab simply returns you to your judging home; the first one stands and nothing is doubled.

Related guides

• A film came back to you — what it looks like when a coordinator fixes what you reported.
• Skipping a film — the same decision from your judging home, with its own five reasons.
• The technical review card — where a broken file is a Fail rather than a report.