# Opening a judge call

> From FilmScorecard Help: https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/opening-a-judge-call

A **judge call** is your season's advertisement for judges: it puts the season
on the [Open calls board](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/open-calls.md) that every judge on FilmScorecard can
read, so people you have never met can apply to work on it. The **Open judge
call** card is where you write one, open it, and close it again.

It is the second card on **Settings → Judging**
(`…/settings?tab=judging`), under the **Scoring** card. Like every card on that
tab it starts folded: its title, its `CALL-` code and status pill, its sentence
— "Invite judges to apply to judge this season. The call is listed in the judge
portal, and every application comes to you to accept or decline. One call per
season." — and its requests line. Click **Open judge call** to open it. Only
the people who can open Settings can reach it — owners, org admins and festival
admins; see [Festival settings](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#who-can-open-it).

**One call per season, and this card is the only place one exists.** There is
no other screen for creating, editing, opening or closing a call, and a season
can never end up with two.

## The switch is the listing

Everything else on the card describes a listing. **The Accepting applications
switch decides whether there is one.** Its sentence: "Turn this off to stop new
applications. Any you've already received stay open for you to decide on."

| The switch | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **On**, saved | The season is on the judge portal's open-calls board. Any judge can read the call and apply to it. |
| **Off**, saved | The season is off the board. Judges cannot find it and cannot apply. |

Beside the switch, a few words say which: "Open. Listed in the judge portal."
or "Closed. Hidden from the judge portal." While it is off, the line under it
adds:

> Judges can't find this season or apply to it, but invites still work. The
> roles, submission types and categories you pick are kept for when you open it
> again.

Three things follow from that, and they are worth knowing before you touch it:

- **Inviting judges by email is unaffected either way.** A closed call closes
  the *public* door only — [Judges](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/judges.md) and
  [Invites sent](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/invites-sent.md) work exactly as before.
- **Closing does not cancel the applications you already have.** Every request
  filed while the call was open stays on your
  [Requests tab](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/judge-requests.md), still shortlistable, counterable,
  acceptable and declinable. The judge who filed it keeps seeing their own
  application too, marked closed.
- **Nothing is written until you press Save changes** on the tab's bar at the
  bottom of the screen. Flipping the switch marks the tab unsaved, like any
  other edit on this screen.

**While your festival's public page is on, an open call is on it too**, as its
**Judging** tab — see
[What your call looks like to a judge](#what-your-call-looks-like-to-a-judge).

## The header line

Beside the card's title:

- **A `CALL-` code in monospace** — `CALL-214` — but **only once the call
  exists**. A season that has never been saved on this card shows no code, and
  nothing is invented in its place. Quote that code if you ever need to refer
  to a call; it is the same one the judge sees.
- **A pill** reading **Accepting applications** in indigo, or **Closed to
  applications** in grey. It follows the switch as you move it, so the card is
  always a preview of what Save will do.

Under the title sit the card's sentence, the requests line on a call that has
had applications, and **Review requests**, which is there either way — see
[Requests, and where they are decided](#requests-and-where-they-are-decided).
All of it shows while the card is folded.

**The state is worked out, never stored.** A call whose close date has passed
reads closed the next time you open the screen, exactly as it now reads closed
to judges. There is no separate "listed" flag that could disagree with what the
board is doing.

## Opening a call for the first time

On a season that has never had one, the card starts closed, with no code, and
its rows already filled in with sensible defaults — both judge roles, every
submission type that has a category attached, and every category selected. The
one thing it cannot guess is your deadline.

1. Click **Open judge call** to open the card.
2. Turn **Accepting applications** on. The rest of the rows appear.
3. Set **Applications close**.
4. Check **Judge roles wanted**, **Submission types open to applicants** and
   **Categories open to applicants** — the defaults are usually right.
5. Press **Save changes** on the bar at the bottom of the screen.

The bar goes, a `CALL-` code appears beside the heading, and the season is on
the board. Nothing else has to happen: there is no publish step and no
approval.

**You can do all of this while judging is already open.** The amber notice on
the Scoring card above — the one about the number of creative judges — does
not apply here. A season that needs another judge mid-window is the ordinary
reason to open a call.

## Applications close

A **date**, not a time.

- **It is read in the season's own time zone**, the one on the Season tab, not
  in your browser's. A host in London setting a deadline on a Los Angeles
  season is setting a Los Angeles date.
- **The call closes at the end of that day.** "Applications close on the 18th"
  means the 18th is the last day anybody can apply.
- **Today is allowed.** A call opened for the last day of your own window is a
  real thing to want.
- **A past date is refused**: "That date has passed. Pick today or a later
  date."

The row's sentence states the rest:

> The last day judges can apply. This can be different from when judging
> closes.

**It is not the judging dates.** The **Judging** row's **Opens** and
**Closes**, on the Season tab's [Dates](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#dates) card, are
when your panel scores; this is when you stop taking applications. Nothing links them,
and neither one moves the other.

**When the date arrives, the call simply stops.** It leaves the board, your
card reads closed the next time you open it, and the requests you already have
are untouched. Nothing is emailed to anybody at either end.

Judges see the deadline as a whole-day countdown — "Closes in 5 days" — counted
in universal time, so it can read a day out from your own calendar. See
[The closing line](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/open-calls.md#the-closing-line).

## Judge roles wanted

Two chips, **Technical** and **Creative**, and you can pick either or both.
This is the kind of judging you are recruiting for, and it is real: it decides
what an applicant can apply as.

| Picked | The line under the chips |
| --- | --- |
| Both | "Applicants say which they are applying for, and one judge can apply as both." |
| Technical only | "Only technical judges can apply to this season." |
| Creative only | "Only creative judges can apply to this season." |
| Neither | Amber: "Pick at least one judge role. The call cannot be listed without one." |

On a call hiring for **one** role the applicant is never asked the question —
their application is for that role. On a call hiring for **both** they choose
**Creative**, **Technical** or **Both**, and **Both is one application**: it asks
for a creative and a technical figure on every category, and lists only the
categories scored both ways. When you accept it you can still take the judge on
for just one of the two — see
[Accept and add to season](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/judge-requests.md#accept-and-add-to-season). See
[Step 1 of the application](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/applying-to-an-open-call.md#step-1--about-you).

> **One thing this card does not check for you.** A judge can only be assigned
> from a category that has a scorecard for the kind of judging they applied as.
> If you open a **Technical** call on a season whose categories carry no
> technical scorecard, applicants reach the call and are told "This call has no
> categories listed yet" — and cannot apply at all. Attach the scorecards
> first: see [Categories and scorecards](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/categories-and-scorecards.md).

## Pay shown to applicants

**Read-only, and derived.** There is no rate field on a call and there is not
meant to be one: what a judge is quoted comes from the per-category rates on
the **Categories** tab, so the call can never quote a figure the season does
not actually pay. The row's sentence says so — "Judges are paid for each
scorecard they file, at the rate set on each category. This range is worked out
from those rates. Change them on the Categories tab." — and **Open Categories**
under it takes you there. The row was called **Pay shown in the call**.

One box per role you are recruiting for, each naming the role and showing a
span — **Creative** `$8.00 to $16.00 per scorecard`:

- **The span is across the whole season's categories**, not across the ones you
  ticked in the picker. It is what this season pays, per scorecard filed.
- **Rates of `$0.00` are left out of it.** A zero on a paying season is an
  unfinished rate rather than free work, so it never drags the bottom of the
  range down.
- **It collapses to one figure** when every priced category pays the same:
  `$16.00`, not "$16.00 to $16.00".

**The figure the judge is shown can be narrower than this one.** The span on
the board card and on the call's page is worked out from the categories you
opened; the box here is the season's. Opening a call to your two dearest
categories leaves your own card reading `$8.00 to $16.00` while the judge reads
`$16.00`. Both are right — they are spans across different sets.

Three things in its place are **not** money and must not be read as `$0.00`:

| The row shows | When | Does it block anything? |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Volunteer season**, one quiet box | The season's judge pay is set to Volunteer. The row's sentence becomes "The season is volunteer, so the call states no pay. Judge pay is a season-wide choice on the Categories tab." | No. |
| **Not priced yet**, in a role's box | A paying season where the role you want has no priced category anywhere. A line under the boxes says "A role with no rate anywhere shows no figure to judges. Set per-category rates on the Categories tab." | No. |
| "Shown once you pick a judge role." and no box | Neither role chip is picked. The amber line above is already telling you to fix that. | The empty role list does; this line is only a placeholder. |

**Neither Volunteer nor Not priced yet stops you listing the call.** A judge
can still apply to a call with no prices on it, and name what they want for
each category they pick — see
[Money on these screens](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/open-calls.md#money-on-these-screens).

**To change any of it, go to the Categories tab.** The per-category rates and
the season-wide Paid-or-Volunteer choice, **Judge pay this season**, both live
there — see [Judge pay](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/judge-pay.md).

## Submission types open to applicants

Two chips, **Film** and **Screenplay**, each carrying the number of this
season's categories it covers — `6 categories`, `1 category`. The row was
called **Work types open to applicants**.

**They decide which categories can be opened at all**, which is what the row's
sentence says: "Judges can only apply to judge categories of these types."

| The chip | Which of your categories it covers |
| --- | --- |
| **Film** | Film categories — and any category that has no type of its own, such as a one-off you created for this season. |
| **Screenplay** | Screenplay categories only. |

Two behaviours to expect:

- **A chip with no categories under it cannot be picked**, and it says so with
  a `0 categories` count. If it is already picked — because the last category
  of that type was detached after the call went up — it stays pickable, so you
  are never trapped behind a dead control.
- **Unticking a type drops its categories from your selection**, there and
  then. Ticking it again does not bring them back; the picker starts from what
  is selected now.

**Picking neither is refused**, in the message's own older words: "Pick at
least one work type. The call cannot be listed without one."

## Categories open to applicants

A button that states the answer rather than the question, and opens a picker.
The row's sentence: "Leave this on all categories, or narrow the call to some.
Applicants only see the categories they could judge."

| The button reads | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **All 39 categories**, plain white | Every category the picked submission types reach is open. |
| **12 of 39 categories**, indigo-tinted | A restriction: some of them are open and some are not. The colour is the only place on the card where a restriction is visible without opening the picker. |
| **0 of 39 categories**, indigo-tinted | Nothing is picked. Amber under it: "Pick at least one category. The call cannot be listed without one." |

Inside the picker, under the heading **Open to applicants**:

- **A search box** — "Search 75 categories" — matching category names and their
  `CAT-` codes. It is empty every time the picker opens.
- **Select all**, which becomes **Select all 6 matching** while a search is
  narrowing the list and then applies to those matches only. Nothing you cannot
  see is ever ticked for you.
- A monospace **"12 selected"** count, and **Clear**.
- One row per category, with its `CAT-` code on the right. A one-off category
  with no library record shows no code.
- **"No category matches “xyz”."** with a **Clear search** button when the
  search finds nothing.

### All of them keeps up with your season; some of them does not

The two are stored differently, and the difference matters later.

- **Every openable category picked** — the button reading **All 39
  categories**, whether you left it alone or ticked every row yourself —
  stores **no restriction at all**. The call is open to the season's line-up,
  whatever that line-up becomes — so **a category you attach next week is
  automatically open** without anybody coming back here.
- **Any smaller selection** is stored as a restriction naming exactly those
  categories. A category attached next week is **not** in it.

**Detaching a category takes it out of the restriction too.** Nothing is left
pointing at a category the season no longer has, and a call whose entire
restriction is detached goes back to being open to everything remaining.

### What the restriction does on the judge's side

The row's sentence — "Applicants only see the categories they could judge." —
is true as written. From the moment you save, a restriction narrows every place
a judge meets your call:

- **The card on the open-calls board names only the categories you opened.**
  It is also what the board's search matches on, so a judge searching for the
  name of a category you did **not** open will not find your call that way.
- **The call's own page lists only those categories, with their prices**, and
  the count in that card's heading is the number you opened.
- **The pay span on the board card and on the call's page is worked out from
  them alone** — the cheapest and the dearest of the categories you opened, not
  of the season.
- **The application form offers only those categories on step 1.** There is no
  way for an applicant to ask to be assigned from a category you did not open.
- **An application naming a category you did not open is refused when it is
  submitted**, so a form somebody left sitting open while you narrowed the call
  cannot slip one through. They pick again and resubmit.

**The restriction narrows; it does not overrule anything else.** A category you
opened is still only offered where the kind of judging on the call can actually
be scored there — one with no scorecard for that kind carries no price and
cannot be picked, exactly as before. And **if none of the categories you opened
can be judged the way this call hires**, the call reads "This call has no
categories listed yet" and nobody can apply to it at all.

**Applications already on file are untouched.** Narrowing a call after somebody
applied leaves their application exactly as they filed it: the
[Requests tab](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/judge-requests.md) still names the categories they picked, you
still decide it, and accepting still scopes them to those picks — including a
category the call no longer opens. The restriction governs who can apply next,
not what you already have.

### The two empty states

When the picked submission types reach no category, there is no picker to open
— the row shows a grey **No categories** box instead:

| The row shows | What to do |
| --- | --- |
| **No categories**, alone | No submission type is picked. Pick one above — its own amber line is already asking you to. |
| **No categories**, with **Attach categories** beside it | Nothing of the picked types is attached. **Attach categories** takes you to the Categories tab. Amber under the box says the same: "Attach a category of this type in Categories before the call can be listed." |

## What applicants send

A row that is a statement, not a setting. Its sentence: "Every application has
the same parts at every festival, so there is nothing to set up here." Beside
it, a list of the three parts: **Past credits**, **A short bio** and **The
categories they want to judge**.

There is no application form to design, no question to add, and nothing to
switch off. What an applicant is asked is fixed for the whole platform — see
[Applying to an open call](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/applying-to-an-open-call.md) for the three steps
they walk. The application does not ask how many submissions a judge can take a
week, or when they are away. Credits and a bio come from the judge's directory
profile, when they have one.

## Where applicants send questions

An optional email address, the card's last row, for judges' questions about
this call — "An email address on your public festival page, for judges who want
to ask something before they apply." It was called **Questions from judges**.
It is there whether the switch is on or off, and it saves with **Save changes**
either way.

**Where it shows:** on your festival's
[public page](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/public-festival-page.md), as **Judging coordinator** in its
Contact card — and only while the call is open, the address is set, the page is
on and its Contact card is switched on. It is not on the open-calls board, on
the call's page in the judge portal, or in any email.

Leave it blank and the line under it says what happens: "Leave it blank and
your page shows no address for judge questions." The page has no Judging
coordinator row — the season's contact email does not stand in for it — though
judges can still use the festival office address on the same card. An address
that is not a valid email is refused under the field, and nothing on the card
is saved.

## Editing the call from your public page

**Two of this card's fields can also be changed on your festival's public
page**, while its judge call is open: in edit mode the **Judging** tab carries
**Apply by** — this card's **Applications close** — and **Judging coordinator**
— this card's **Where applicants send questions**. They are the same values, saved by the
same rules: a change on either side is a change on both, and a past date or a
bad address is refused there in the same words as here. The same tab also edits
the season's judging dates and each category's creative and technical rate. See
[Editing the page](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/public-festival-page.md#judging-in-place).

The switch, the roles, the submission types and the category picks are edited
here and nowhere else.

## The four rules that block a listing

A call **cannot be listed** without a close date, at least one judge role, at
least one submission type, and at least one category. With **Accepting
applications** on, each rule turns its own line amber the moment the card is
in the wrong state:

| The message | Which control |
| --- | --- |
| Set the date applications close. | **Applications close**, empty. |
| That date has passed. Pick today or a later date. | **Applications close**, before today in the season's zone. |
| Pick at least one judge role. The call cannot be listed without one. | **Judge roles wanted**. |
| Pick at least one work type. The call cannot be listed without one. | **Submission types open to applicants**. |
| Pick at least one category. The call cannot be listed without one. | **Categories open to applicants**, nothing ticked. |
| Attach a category of this type in Categories before the call can be listed. | The picked submission types reach no attached category at all. Picking harder here cannot fix it. |

**While any of them stands and this card holds an unsaved edit, the Judging
tab cannot save.** The card opens itself if it was folded, and **Save changes** on the bar
is greyed out, with
"Fix the highlighted setting before saving." — for the Scoring card's changes
too. Nothing is written; the stored call is exactly as it was.

**None of these rules applies to closing.** They gate *listing*. Turn the
switch off and the same card saves without complaint, whatever the fields were
in the middle of saying.

## Closing the call, and opening it again

1. Turn **Accepting applications** off. The roles, pay, submission types,
   categories and What applicants send rows go; **Applications close** and
   **Where applicants send questions** stay, and the line under the switch
   reads:

   > Judges can't find this season or apply to it, but invites still work. The
   > roles, submission types and categories you pick are kept for when you open
   > it again.

2. Press **Save changes** on the bar at the bottom of the screen.

That takes the season off the board immediately — and off your festival's
public page, whose Judging tab goes with it. Judges who never applied cannot
find it; judges holding a filed request keep their own application, shown as
closed, and you can still decide it — see
[Closing the call does not close these rows](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/judge-requests.md#closing-the-call-does-not-close-these-rows).

**Your work survives the close.** The close date, the roles, the submission
types and the category picks are all kept, so re-opening is the switch plus a
fresh date.

**Two details worth knowing about an OFF save:**

- **It writes the closure, the close date and the Where applicants send
  questions address, and nothing else** — which is why only those two rows
  stay on screen. If you edited the roles, the submission types or the
  categories in the same sitting and then turned the call off, those edits are
  not stored — the card will show the previously saved values again. Save your
  content changes with the switch on, then close.
- **On a season that has never had a call, saving with the switch off still
  creates one**, born closed. That is where the `CALL-` code comes from, and it
  is invisible to every judge.

**To re-open**, turn the switch back on. The date you had is still in the field
— and if it has since passed, the amber "That date has passed" line will be
waiting for you, because a call cannot be re-listed on a deadline that is gone.
Pick a new one and save.

## Requests, and where they are decided

In the card's head, under its sentence — so they show even while the card is
folded — a line about what has arrived and a link out.

| The line | When |
| --- | --- |
| **"8 requests received, 5 awaiting a decision."** | The switch is on and at least one request exists. |
| **"3 requests still awaiting a decision from while the call was open."** | The switch is off and some requests are still waiting on you. |
| *nothing* | No requests, or a closed call with nothing left waiting on you. Zeros are never printed. |

**"Awaiting a decision" means the same here as on the Requests tab:** New and
Shortlisted, plus every countered request the judge has answered, because their
answer hands the move back to you. A request you have countered and the judge
has not answered yet is not in it.

**Review requests** goes to this season's judge requests —
`/org/<organization>/<festival>/<season>/judges?tab=requests` — which is where
applications are actually read, countered, accepted and declined. It is there
whether or not anything has arrived, and it is an ordinary link, so a middle
click opens it in a new tab. See
[Judge requests](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/judge-requests.md).

## Sending judges your public page

**This card no longer has a Copy link button.** The address to send judges is
the festival's public page — the one a stranger can open without an account,
and which shows an open call as its **Judging** tab — and it is on the
**Festival** tab, in the Festival profile card's **Page link** box, with
**Copy** and **Open ↗**. See
[Sharing the page](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/public-festival-page.md#sharing-the-page).

## What your call looks like to a judge

Worth reading once, because the card gives you no preview.

- On the board it is one card: your festival's name, a monospace
  **"CALL-214 · Spring 2026 · Judge call"** line — the code, the season and the
  round — then what the work pays and the closing line. **"Judge call" is a
  fixed label** on every call written here: the card collects no name for the
  round and there is nowhere to change it.
- **The call's page lists the categories you opened, with what each one pays**,
  under a **Film** heading and a **Screenplay** heading — the whole season's
  line-up when every category is picked. The application groups
  them the same way. See
  [What the restriction does on the judge's side](#what-the-restriction-does-on-the-judges-side).
- **The page is mostly bare, and that is expected.** A call written here carries
  no film estimate, no pace, no languages, no written brief and no judges-needed
  figure, because this card collects none of them. The judge's "The work" panel
  simply closes up around what is missing.
- **On your festival's public page, while it is on**, the call is the
  **Judging** tab — its pay, its categories and an **Apply to judge** button —
  and the page opens on it. **A visitor with no FilmScorecard account can create
  a judge account from that button**, past the private beta, and is brought back
  to your application form once their profile is set up. See
  [Applying to judge from the page](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/public-festival-page.md#applying-to-judge-from-the-page).
- **No email goes out when you open a call**, to anybody. Judges find it by
  looking at the board, or at your public page.
- **Nobody is told how many people have applied** — not other judges, and not
  the applicant.

The whole judge's-eye view is [Open calls](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/open-calls.md).

## Saving, and the amber dot

This card shares the Judging tab's one Save bar with the **Scoring** card
above it.

- **Change anything on either card and the bar appears** — **Unsaved changes on
  Judging**, **Discard** and **Save changes** — and the **Judging** tab's name
  gets its amber dot. Folded, this card shows an amber dot of its own beside its
  title while it holds an unsaved edit.
- **Save changes saves both cards**, each to its own record. If one is refused,
  the other is still saved. The refused card opens and says why — under the
  setting it refused, or at its top — and the bar stays, reading "Some changes
  weren't saved. The card above says why."
- **Discard** puts both cards back to their last saved values with no
  confirmation, the switch included.
- **The tab's "Last saved" time** is whichever is later — this call's last
  save, or the season's.

Leaving the screen with anything unsaved raises the browser's own "leave
without saving?" confirmation. See
[The two save models](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#the-two-save-models).

## What this card cannot do

Named plainly so you do not go looking:

- **A second call for one season.** One per season, by design.
- **Deleting a call.** Close it; the record and its `CALL-` code stay.
- **Naming the round**, writing a brief, or posting how many judges you need,
  how many films there are, what pace you expect or what languages the slate is
  in. None of them is collected here, and the judge's page leaves them out.
- **Setting a rate on the call.** Prices come from the categories — see
  [Judge pay](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/judge-pay.md).
- **Restricting who sees the call.** Every judge on FilmScorecard can read every
  open call; that is the point of the board.
- **Warning you that a category you are closing is named on applications you
  already hold.** Narrowing a call is silent about the requests on your
  Requests tab, and it does not change them.
- **Telling anybody a call has opened or closed.** No email, no notice, no
  announcement.

## Related guides

- [Festival settings](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md) — the screen this card lives on:
  its tabs, who can open them, and how each one saves.
- [The public festival page](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/public-festival-page.md) — where an open call
  becomes the Judging tab, the **Where applicants send questions** address is
  shown, the page's address is copied from, and strangers can sign up to
  apply.
- [Judge requests](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/judge-requests.md) — what arrives when your call is
  listed: reading an application, countering the prices, accepting somebody
  onto the season, and declining.
- [Judge pay](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/judge-pay.md) — the per-category rates the pay row is derived
  from, and the season-wide Paid or Volunteer choice.
- [Judges](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/judges.md) — the roster, inviting judges by email, and narrowing
  what somebody may be assigned once they are on.
- [Open calls](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/open-calls.md) — the judge's side of the board your call
  appears on.
- [Applying to an open call](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/applying-to-an-open-call.md) — the three-step
  form an applicant fills in, and what they are asked for.
- [Categories and scorecards](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/categories-and-scorecards.md) — where a
  category gets the scorecards that decide which kind of judging can cover it.