Logging in

FilmScorecard has no passwords. There is nothing to choose, nothing to remember, and no "forgot password" link, because there is no password to forget.

There is one way in, and it works for everyone — hosts, coordinators, judges and filmmakers: a 6-digit code emailed to you. Type your address, we email you a code, you type the code.

Continue with Google has been switched off for the private beta. It is not on the log-in screen, either sign-up screen, or your account settings. If you used to sign in that way, nothing has been removed from your account — use the emailed code with the same address and you land in the same place. Google comes back when the beta ends.

Logging in with an emailed code

1. Open the log-in screen (/login). It is headed Log in, with one line under it saying there are no passwords and that we email you a code.
2. Type your address into Email address.
3. Choose Log in. The button changes to "Sending your code..." for a moment.
4. You land on a screen headed Check your email, which shows the exact address the code was sent to. Check that it is the address you meant — if it is not, choose Change email.
5. Open the email (subject: Your login code) and enter the six digits.
6. Choose Log in.

Use the address your account was created on. For an invited judge it is the address the invitation arrived at. A filmmaker needs an account of their own first — a festival entering your film does not create one — and it is on whichever address it was created with. See Creating an account.

Logging in never asks you to agree to anything. The box that agrees to the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy is on the screens that create an account, not here, and not on the code screen. See The Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy. The one exception is the code screen after Keep it on a scorecard, which says that entering the code is the agreement — see After Keep it on a scorecard.

If you were approved for the private beta, this is your screen. Use the address you registered with — approval makes your account for you, and there is no sign-up step in between. If the account has not been made by the time you get here, asking for a code is what makes it: the screen takes a moment longer, that one time, and two emails arrive together — the code, and the one saying your account is ready. See Requesting beta access.

Worth knowing: the Check your email screen appears whether or not that address has a FilmScorecard account. FilmScorecard never tells anyone which addresses are registered. If no email arrives, see Log-in problems.

Under the form, a note headed First time here? says the same thing:

If a festival invited you, your account is waiting, so log in with that email. Judges, festival hosts and filmmakers can request beta access.

An invitation makes your account for you. Sending in a submission does not, so unless you have made an account, logging in with your submission's address sends no code. request beta access opens the home page, where you choose A festival, A judge or A creator. A filmmaker's form is the creator's, on the Creators page — see Requesting beta access.

Logging in is not gated by the beta. If you have an account, it works, however you got it. Only opening a brand-new account for yourself needs an approved address, and approval creates that account for you, so this screen is where you come back to either way.

Arriving here from an invitation link changes that note: it offers Create an account instead, carrying the invitation with it, because an invitation is its own permission.

So does arriving from the Apply to judge button on a festival's public page, while that festival's page is on and its judge call is open. Create an account then opens a judge sign-up that is not held to the beta — see A festival's public page goes around it too.

And so does arriving from Save to your account on your own submission page or scorecard, in the browser where you typed its access code. Create an account then opens a filmmaker sign-up that is not held to the beta — see A submission's access code goes around it too.

Arriving here from an AI app does not change the note, when the app sent you to FilmScorecard's connection page before you were signed in: only an invitation, a festival page's Apply button or Save to your account does. You need an account to connect an app anyway, so log in with it. See Connecting an AI app.

At the very foot of the screen, under a thin rule, sit four small links: Help, Terms, Privacy and Contact. Help opens these guides — Log-in problems is the one to read if a code is not working. Terms and Privacy open the documents; Contact opens the contact form, which is where to write if you cannot get in. See Contacting us. The same four links are on the code screen and both sign-up screens.

Entering the six-digit code

The code screen is six separate boxes. It behaves the way you would hope:

• Paste the whole code. Copy the six digits from the email, click any box, and paste — the digits fill forward from the box you pasted into. Pasting into the first box fills all six. The screen says so too: "Paste the whole code and it fills every box."
• Typing moves you along. Each digit you type jumps to the next box. Type over a filled box to replace what is there.
• Backspace clears backwards. In a box that has a digit, backspace clears that box and stays put. In an empty box, it clears the box before it and moves there — so holding backspace wipes the code right to left.
• Left and right arrows move between boxes without wrapping around.
• Digits only. Letters and symbols are ignored, whether typed or pasted.
• On a phone, your keyboard may offer the code as an autofill suggestion once the message arrives.

Two rules to know:

• The code expires after 10 minutes. After that it stops working and you need a new one.
• Nothing changes on your account until you log in. If this is the first time you have logged in, logging in is what activates the account.

Every log-in also looks for your festival entries. Any festival submission entered under the address you log in with is saved to your account at that moment, whatever kind of account it is — once the account has a project. Until then nothing is saved by itself: Your projects shows the newest such submission on the screen headed "We set up Title from your entry", and it joins only when you press Open Title there. See Your first project and Saving a submission to your account.

Asking for a new code

Below the Log in button, the screen shows "Resend available in 1:00" and counts down. When it reaches zero the line is replaced by a Resend code link. Choose it and a fresh code is sent, and the one-minute countdown starts again.

If more than one code email is sitting in your inbox, use the newest one.

Resend code repeats the whole send, not just the email. So if your beta request was approved after you first pressed Log in, Resend makes the account and sends the code, without your going back to the log-in screen. It never shows the agreement box again: if you came from a sign-up screen, you ticked it there, and that is where it was recorded.

Asking for codes faster than that gets you the message "Too many codes requested. Wait a minute, then use Resend code." — see Log-in problems.

After Keep it on a scorecard

Pressing Keep it on your scorecard sends a code without the log-in screen, and the Check your email screen it opens differs in three ways:

• The address is partly hidden, such as n••••@studio.co. The code went to the address the festival has on your submission, and whoever pressed the button may not own that address, so the screen never prints it in full.
• There is no Change email. The address is the submission's, not one you typed.
• One line sits under the boxes: "By entering the code, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy." Both names are links that open in a new tab.

Everything else, the boxes, the 10 minutes and Resend code, works as above. Both Resend code and Log in check again that the access code you typed on the scorecard is still the current one. If the festival has sent a new one since, Resend code takes you back to the scorecard, and Log in answers "That code didn't work or has expired. Check it or resend."

Whether the code makes an account or logs you into one is in Keep it, on a scorecard, needs no sign-up at all.

Where you land after logging in

Where you go depends on what your account is for:

A beta account registered on the Festivals page lands on the first row, one registered on the Judges page on the third, and one registered on the Creators page on the fourth, as a filmmaker account. The page you registered on is what decides it, and the role question is never asked again.

A host approval on an account you already had does not change where you land. A judge or filmmaker account approved to run a festival keeps landing on its judging home or its projects, including when you log in from the approval email's Set up your festival button. Once you are signed in, press that button again, or type /host/festival, and the form is there.

Someone who is both festival staff and a judge lands on their festival screens, because that is where the rest of their job is. A filmmaker who also runs or judges for a festival lands where they otherwise would, and reaches their projects from the Your projects row in their account menu.

An organization FilmScorecard has suspended is skipped. If you belong to another organization, you land there instead; if every organization you belong to is suspended, you land on a one-line page saying so. See When your organization is suspended.

A log-in that started at an invitation link goes back to the invitation, whoever you are, so you can finish answering it.

A log-in that started at a festival's public page goes back to the page, from its Log in button. One that started at an open call — the page's Apply to judge button, or any address on the judge portal's open-calls board — goes back to that address, by way of the judge profile screens if yours is not finished yet. See The public festival page.

A log-in that started at Save to your account goes back to the page you pressed it on, the submission page or the scorecard, which finishes saving the submission to your account. If your account already has a project, you are back on that page, now as its owner; if it has none, you go on to the screen headed "We set up Title from your entry". See Saving a submission to your account and Your first project.

A log-in that started at Keep it on a scorecard lands by the same rule: on the screen headed "We set up Title from your entry" (Your first project) if your account has no project yet, or else back on the scorecard as its owner, with no keep bar and no access code to type.

A log-in that started at an AI app's connection page goes back to that page, so you can allow or deny the app. See Connecting an AI app.

Staying logged in, and logging out

You stay logged in until you log out. There is no session timer to worry about.

• The judge home screen has a small header showing the email address you are signed in as, with a Sign out link beside it. Sign out returns you to the log-in screen.
• Festival screens show your name and role in the top-right corner instead. That block is a button: choose it, then choose Sign out at the bottom of the menu and confirm. See Your account menu.
• In Your projects, your name over "Creator", with your initials beside it, is at the right of the top bar. At 1024px wide and below it sits on the bar beside Menu, and at 640px and below only your initials are shown. Choose it, then Sign out, and confirm. See The account menu.
• If you are already logged in and you open the log-in or sign-up screens, FilmScorecard sends you straight back to your own page instead. That is not an error. The same is true of Log in on the home page and on the Festivals, Judges and Creators pages.
• If you are logged out and you open a signed-in page, you are sent to the log-in screen.

Switching to a different account

Log out first, then log in with the other address. On the One question left screen there is also a Not you? link, which logs you out and returns you to sign-up.