# Opening a submission

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

Clicking a submission's title on the [Submissions](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md) screen —
or **View submission** in its row menu — slides a detail panel in from the
right, over the list. It opens over the list rather than taking you to a new
page on purpose: working down a long list, you should not lose your place to
read one synopsis.

The panel has six tabs — **Display**, **Information**, **Scoring**,
**Awards**, **Settings** and **Audit**. The Information tab is the editable
record; the Settings and Awards tabs act on the submission.

**This is where a submission's categories un-fold.** The list has one line per
row and compresses them to a pill and a `+2`; the panel has room, so it names
every one of them in the header, gives each its own scoring section, and lists
each one's scorecards separately.

The same panel opens from an [award pool](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/award-pools.md), where it is
read-only and its Settings tab holds only the two address cards — see
[Opened from an award pool](#opened-from-an-award-pool).

## Opening, closing and resizing

**The panel opens on the click.** The frame, its width, the submission's title
and its tracking number are on screen in the same moment you press. The record
itself — the type, the length, the category pills, the status pill, the score
and everything on the six tabs — arrives just behind them, and until it does
the body shows placeholder bars. **Your own flag shows beside the title if you
had set it**, as a marker rather than a button: it becomes pressable when the
record lands.

**Reopening a submission you have already looked at is instant.** Its record is
still in your browser from the first time, so there is nothing at all to wait
for — and if it has been sitting there a while it is quietly re-read behind what
you are already reading.

- **To close it**: press Escape, click anywhere on the darkened list behind
  it, or use **Close** in the footer or the ✕ in the header.
- **Closing costs nothing.** The list behind it does not reload, does not lose
  your place in it and does not forget which rows you had ticked.
- **The address includes the submission**, so a refresh keeps the panel open
  and the link opens straight to it. The browser's Back button does not close
  the panel — use one of the ways above.
- **It keeps up while it stands open.** The score, the status and the flag in
  the header come from the list, which re-reads itself in the background; the
  record behind the tabs is re-read on the same rhythm — about once a minute
  while the tab is in front of you, and whenever you come back to it. A
  scorecard a colleague approves while you are reading appears on the Scoring
  tab without your closing anything. See
  [The list keeps itself up to date](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#the-list-keeps-itself-up-to-date).
- **To resize it**: drag the left edge. You can also give the edge keyboard
  focus and use the left and right arrow keys, which move it in steps. Your
  width is remembered in this browser, for every submission you open after
  it.
- **On a narrow window** (below roughly 700px) the panel fills the screen and
  the drag edge is gone.

Opening a different submission starts the panel fresh: it returns to the
Display tab and any unsaved edits are discarded.

## When the record cannot be shown

Two things can leave the panel standing with nothing on its tabs, and they say
different things.

**"This submission is no longer on the list."** Somebody withdrew the
submission, or moved it to another season — or the FilmFreeway sync withdrew
it — while you had the list open, so
there is no record left to read here. The list behind the panel re-reads itself
as it happens, and the row leaves with it. Close the panel; there is nothing to
retry. See
[Withdrawing a submission](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#withdrawing-a-submission) and
[Moving a submission to another festival](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#moving-a-submission-to-another-festival).

**"This submission could not be loaded."**, with a **Try again** button under
it. The record simply could not be fetched — a connection that dropped, or a
moment the server could not answer. Nothing is wrong with the submission
itself: press **Try again** and it loads.

In both cases the panel keeps the title, the tracking number, the ✕ and its
**Close** button, and it closes every way it usually does. What is missing is
the six tabs, because there is nothing yet to draw on them.

## The header

Under the title sit the facts you need to be sure you have the right
submission: the tracking number, **Film** or **Screenplay**, the length, **a
pill for every category the submission competes in**, the status pill and the
score.

There is no `+N` here — all the pills are shown, wrapping onto a second line if
they need to. A submission attached to nothing reads **No category** in plain
text instead.

The two buttons on the right are the flag — the same private flag as the row,
described under [Flags are private](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#flags-are-private) — and
close. **Priority and the judging hold are not in the header**: their switches
are on the [Settings tab](#the-settings-tab), and their marks are on the list — the
Priority chevrons before the title, and **On hold** in the Judging column.

The score beside the pills is the same one the list row shows: **the points
banked by whichever category has banked the most**, out of 100, not a total
across them — or **"No scores"** until an approved scorecard counts toward one
of its categories. See
[Which category's score a row shows](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#which-categorys-score-a-row-shows).

The **Scoring** tab carries a monospace **"2 of 5"** beside its name once the
season has a judging panel size — approved creative scorecards against the
judges expected. A season with no panel set shows no count there. **It can read
past the panel — "4 of 3" — when more scorecards have been filed than the panel
plans for**, which the panel size does not prevent; see
[Filling out a scorecard yourself](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/filling-out-a-scorecard.md#what-it-does-not-do).

## The Display tab

The read-out: what this submission is, for someone about to watch or read it.

**At the top, the screener block** — under any
[FilmFreeway notices](#filmfreeway-notices), which come first of all. A **Vimeo,
YouTube or Google Drive** link
plays in place, in a frame. Every other host gets a block naming where the work
lives — "This film plays on FilmFreeway", or "This screenplay is on Dropbox" —
with a **Watch on FilmFreeway** (or **Read on Dropbox**) button that opens the
recorded link in a new tab. **The platform is read from the link itself**, so a
FilmFreeway screener is never announced as a Vimeo one; a host FilmScorecard does
not recognise reads "the filmmaker's link" instead of guessing.

When no link has been recorded, the button is replaced by a greyed-out **No
screener link yet** (or **No PDF link yet**) that does nothing. Add a
link on the [Information tab](#the-information-tab).

**A screenplay your team has uploaded as a PDF** shows one row instead —
**Screenplay · PDF** — with an **Open PDF ↗** button that opens the file in a
new tab. There is no link and no password to show beside it, because a
screenplay holds one or the other, never both. See
[A screenplay as a PDF](#a-screenplay-as-a-pdf).

**Below it, the password**, when the submission has one: the password in
monospace with a **Copy** button that flips to **Copied**, and a line beside it
saying where a judge will need it. If your browser blocks the copy, you get
"Your browser would not let this page copy the password." and the button does
not flip — because it did not copy. **When the film is playing in the frame, an
Open on Vimeo ↗ link sits on the same row**: the frame cannot tell you that a
private video refused to play, so the way out is always kept.

**On a film the FilmFreeway sync keeps up to date, a missing password gets a
quiet grey line in its place**: "FilmFreeway doesn't share screener passwords.
Add one if this link needs it." FilmFreeway never sends a screener password, so
a film whose link lives somewhere else — a private Vimeo link, say — arrives
without one. The line is drawn only when the film has a link, no password, no
uploaded PDF, and a link that is not a FilmFreeway page (which needs no password
of its own). It is a reminder and nothing more: it is not a notice, nobody is
emailed about it, and it goes as soon as a password is saved on the
[Information tab](#the-information-tab). The sync never changes or clears a
password you add.

**Then the submission itself**: the title, a line of context (project type and
genres, the runtime or page count, and **every category, spelled out and
separated by commas**), **the tagline in italics**, and the synopsis.

**Then the statement**, under a small heading that says what the work is —
*Director's statement* on a film, *Writer's statement* on a screenplay. **A
submission has one statement and nothing is signed under it**; with no
statement on the record, no heading is drawn at all. See
[The tagline, the statement and the poster](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/statements-taglines-and-posters.md).

Underneath, a grid of credits — Directors, Writers, Producers, Key cast,
Language, Country of origin, Completed and Budget.

**Empty fields are left out, not drawn blank.** An imported record is mostly
gaps, and eight labels with nothing under six of them reads as a broken
screen. If a field is missing here, it is missing from the record — open the
Information tab to fill it in.

**The poster is not on this tab.** It is on the Information tab, and in the
judge's own view of the film.

This tab is a summary, not the whole record. Everything FilmScorecard stores is on
the Information tab.

### FilmFreeway notices

On a festival [connected to FilmFreeway](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/connecting-filmfreeway.md), the sync
keeps each film it brought in — or found already here from a CSV import — up to
date with FilmFreeway.

**A filmmaker's withdrawal is applied here.** On FilmFreeway only the filmmaker
can withdraw a submission, so when the sync sees a film withdrawn there it
withdraws the film here too — the same change **Withdraw from season** makes —
as long as no judge has started a creative scorecard on it and its scorecard
has not been unlocked (bought, comped or free). The film leaves the list, and
its [Audit tab](#the-audit-tab) says **FilmFreeway withdrew the submission**,
with the time. Nobody is emailed about it.

**Everything else is left to you.** The sync never disqualifies a film, never
takes a category away, and does not withdraw a film a judge has started or a
filmmaker has unlocked. When FilmFreeway does one of those things, the film
gets an amber notice at the very top of this tab instead, one per thing, oldest
first, and you decide:

| The notice | What happened on FilmFreeway | What to do here, if you agree |
| --- | --- | --- |
| "Withdrawn on FilmFreeway. It stays in judging here until you withdraw it." | The filmmaker withdrew the submission there, and the sync left it to you: a judge has started scoring it here, or its scorecard has been unlocked — or the sync had already withdrawn it once and somebody put it back. | **Withdraw from season**, on the [Settings tab](#move-and-withdraw). |
| "Disqualified on FilmFreeway. It stays in judging here until you withdraw it." | The submission was disqualified there. | The same. |
| "Moved out of *Drama Film* on FilmFreeway. It stays in that category here until you edit its categories." | A category the sync brought in is no longer on the film there. A category your team added here is never compared. | **Edit categories**, on the [Information tab](#the-information-tab). |
| "No longer on FilmFreeway. Nothing has changed here." | The sync stopped finding the film at all. | Nothing has to be done. |

- **Nothing on a film with a notice changes by itself.** Its status, its
  categories, its scorecards and anything its filmmaker has bought stay exactly
  as they are until somebody acts.
- **The sync withdraws a film once, and never again.** A film it withdrew that
  is ever back in the season is not withdrawn a second time: while FilmFreeway
  still reports it withdrawn, it carries the notice instead, and **Dismiss**
  settles it.
- **Disqualified on FilmFreeway is the festival's own decision there**, so the
  sync only ever raises the notice for it. FilmFreeway's Not Selected is not
  read at all.
- **Dismiss**, on the notice, puts it away for everybody. It is there for the
  people who can open the season's [Settings](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md) screen —
  owners, org admins and festival admins, or anybody given *Edit festival
  settings and team* — while FilmFreeway sync is on for your organization.
  Everybody else reads the notice with no button, and so
  does everybody on a record opened from an
  [award pool](#opened-from-an-award-pool) or the
  [Review Queue](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/review-queue.md). The notice stays until the dismissal is
  saved; if a colleague got there first you are told "That item has already
  been dealt with.", and it goes.
- **A dismissed notice does not come back** while FilmFreeway leaves that thing
  as it is. It is raised again only when FilmFreeway changes it again — the film
  reinstated there and then withdrawn a second time, say.
- **A notice also goes by itself once its cause has gone**: at the next sync
  after you withdraw the film or take the category off here, or after
  FilmFreeway reinstates the film, gives the category back or starts returning
  the film again.
- **The list finds them for you.** The **Changed on FilmFreeway** chip on the Submissions
  toolbar narrows the list to every film with a notice — see
  [Searching and filtering](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#searching-and-filtering).
- **Neither a notice nor its dismissal is on the
  [Audit tab](#the-audit-tab).**

## The Information tab

The editable record. From the top:

**Categories** is a read-only list of the categories this submission competes
in, one per line, alphabetically. A submission attached to nothing reads "No
category. This submission is not being judged against anything yet." What each
category is scored against — its scorecards, their sizes and the split — is the
[Scoring tab's](#the-scoring-tab) business, not this card's. The scorecards
themselves are decided by the category and edited in your organization's
library, see
[Categories and scorecards](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/categories-and-scorecards.md#attaching-scorecards);
the split is a season setting, see
[Festival settings](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#section-weights).

**Edit categories**, the button under that list, is what you *can* change from
here: which categories this submission competes in, and therefore which
scorecards it is judged against. It opens the same dialog as the row menu on
the list — see
[Editing a submission's categories](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#editing-a-submissions-categories).
The list is drawn in the read-only panel an [award pool](#opened-from-an-award-pool)
opens; the button is not.

**Then the record itself: nine cards in one form, saved together by Save
changes**, and the **Poster** card under them, which saves on its own. Every
card's heading carries a count of how many of its fields hold something —
`3/9` — and **the heading is a button that opens and closes the card**. Five
cards start open and four start closed, because most of what is in the closed
ones is rarely touched:

| Card | Starts | What it holds |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Screener access** | Open | The **Screener link** and the **Screener password** — on a screenplay, the **PDF link** and the **PDF password**, or an uploaded PDF in their place. |
| **Project** | Open | Project title, Project type, Genres, Type (Film or Screenplay), Runtime (or Pages for a screenplay), Completion year, Language, Country of origin, Country of filming, Production budget, Student project, Name of school, First time filmmaker, then **Tagline**, **Synopsis**, **the statement**, Project title (original language), Synopsis (original language) and Lyrics. |
| **Technical specs** | Closed | Shooting format, Aspect ratio, Film color, Camera, Lens, Focal length, Shutter speed, Aperture, ISO / film. |
| **Credits** | Open | Directors, Writers, Producers, Key cast, Other credits. |
| **Submitter** | Open | First name, Last name, Email, Phone. |
| **Personal details** | Closed | Birthdate, Gender, Pronouns, Address, Address 2, City, State, Postal code, Country. |
| **Links** | Closed | Trailer URL (on a screenplay, not always — see below), Project website, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. |
| **Background** | Closed | Submitter biography, Cover letter, Screenings / awards, Distributor information. |
| **Entry record** | Closed | **Tracking number** and **Submission date**, shown but not editable, then Submission deadlines, Submission fee, Discount code, Optional label and Discount amount. |
| **Poster** | Open | The poster image, with its own buttons — see below. |

**A closed card still saves.** Its fields are part of the form whether you can
see them or not, so **Save changes** writes what is in them. And if one of them
holds something the form will not accept, pressing Save opens that card and puts
your cursor in the first field that needs fixing.

**Screener access** — both fields editable, both saved by the footer's **Save
changes** along with the rest of the form. A small badge under the link names
the host it recognises, or reads **Unrecognized host**. Correcting a link
corrects the current cut; it does not create a new version of the submission.
If the submission has no file version on record, both fields are disabled and
the card says so: "There is no version on file for this submission yet, so
there is nothing to link to." **On a screenplay the link field also takes a
PDF**, through an upload button beside it — see
[A screenplay as a PDF](#a-screenplay-as-a-pdf).

**Project** — the box under Synopsis is the statement, headed *Director's
statement* on a film and *Writer's statement* on a screenplay. The tagline,
synopsis and statement all save with the rest of the form. See
[The tagline, the statement and the poster](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/statements-taglines-and-posters.md).

**Credits** — one name per line, or comma separated; it is stored as you type
it.

**Links** — a film always has its **Trailer URL** field. **A screenplay has it
only when it counts**: when a press kit on one of the screenplay's categories
scores the trailer, or when a trailer is already saved on it, so a saved one
can still be read and cleared. Otherwise the card holds the other four fields,
and its count is out of four.

**Entry record** — the **Tracking number** is issued by the source platform and
is this entry's identity, and the **Submission date** is when the entry was
made, in the season's time zone; neither can be changed here. **The fee and the
discount amount are a record of what happened on the submission platform**:
they are in US dollars, and nothing in FilmScorecard adds them into any figure.

**The fields the FilmFreeway import added are for your staff only.** Birthdate,
Gender, Pronouns, Address, Address 2, Postal code and Country; the
original-language title and synopsis and the lyrics; the six camera fields;
Twitter and Facebook; the four Background fields; and everything on the Entry
record card below the tracking number and the date — **none of them is ever
shown to a judge**, on the filmmaker's own submission page or scorecard, on the
public film page, or to a connected AI app. The import fills them from a
FilmFreeway export; see
[What a FilmFreeway export brings in](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/importing-submissions.md#what-a-filmfreeway-export-brings-in).

**Poster**, below the form, is covered on its own page:
[The tagline, the statement and the poster](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/statements-taglines-and-posters.md).
**It saves by itself, immediately** — it does not wait for **Save changes**,
and Save changes does not save it. **The whole card is a drop target**: drag an
image file from your desktop over it and the card turns indigo; let go and the
file uploads, exactly as if you had chosen it with the button. The card takes
nothing, and its button reads "Uploading…", while an upload is running — one
started here, or one started by dropping a file on this submission's row on
the list behind the panel. What is done to the image before it is sent, and
what is refused, is on that page; the faster route for a whole season is
[Adding posters from the list](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#adding-posters-from-the-list).

**The submission's addresses are not on this tab.** The **Submission link** —
the filmmaker's own edit page — sits with the scorecard link on the
[Settings tab](#the-settings-tab).

**There is no Category field in the form.** A submission competes in a *set* of
categories rather than one, and the set is edited in its own dialog — **Edit
categories**, under the Categories card at the head of this tab and in the row
menu on the list. See
[Editing a submission's categories](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#editing-a-submissions-categories).

**A note above the cards names what the record is missing** — "This
submission is missing a tagline, a poster and a statement." — when anything is
short. It is advice and nothing more: nothing on this tab, or anywhere else, is
refused for being incomplete. See
[An incomplete record](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/an-incomplete-record.md).

**And a second grey line under it says when the submitter last edited the
record themselves** — "Edited by the submitter on 10 Sep 2026." — once a
filmmaker has saved their own submission page. It is drawn in the season's time
zone, and **it is not a prompt**: their edits are already live and nothing asks
you to approve them. The line itself does not say which fields moved; **See
what changed**, beside it, switches the panel to the [Audit tab](#the-audit-tab),
where their edits are listed field by field, with what each field was and what
it is now. Most of the fields on this tab are theirs to correct while judging is
under way — see
[Letting submitters fix their own details](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submission-links.md).

**This tab is also where a press kit is filled in.** Most press kit items watch
one of the fields on this tab and are satisfied the moment it has something in
it — so adding the tagline here is what marks the press kit's Tagline item, and
there is no separate box to tick anywhere. Nothing on this tab says which
fields a press kit is watching; the [Scoring tab](#the-press-kit-card) is where
you read that. See
[Press kit items](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/building-a-scorecard.md#press-kit-items-fields-and-manual-checks).
**Once judging has closed, a season that freezes its press kit stops counting
these edits** — see
[Freezing the press kit when judging closes](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#freezing-the-press-kit-when-judging-closes).

**It is not where a film's public page comes from.** A film's public page
belongs to its filmmaker and shows their own project, never this record; what
reaches it from your festival is only the results you announce. See
[If you run a festival](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/public-page.md#if-you-run-a-festival).

A few fields behave in ways worth knowing:

- **Project title and Email are required.** Everything else may be left
  empty.
- **First name and Last name together become the name shown in the list.**
  Clearing both leaves the existing name alone — a blank pair is not an
  instruction to forget who submitted this.
- **Student project and First time filmmaker have three answers**, not two:
  *Not stated*, *Yes* and *No*. "Not stated" means nobody was ever asked,
  which is a different fact from "No". A press kit item watching one of them
  counts *Yes* and *No* equally, and only *Not stated* leaves it empty.
- **Runtime and Pages describe the current cut.** Clearing the field means
  "nobody has measured this", not zero — and the Length column on the list
  goes empty to match. If the submission has no file version on record at all,
  there is nothing for a length to attach to and that one field is not saved.
- **Birthdate is written year-month-day** — `1990-05-21` — and has to be a
  real date.

### Saving

**Saving the record is explicit. There is no autosave.** Your edits to the
form cards stay in the panel until you press **Save changes** in the
footer, and **closing the panel throws them away without asking**. If you have
typed anything you want, save before you close.

**The one exception is the poster**, which writes as soon as you choose a file,
drop one on its card, or press **Remove**. It is not part of the form and
closing the panel does not undo it. A screenplay's PDF behaves the same way —
see [A screenplay as a PDF](#a-screenplay-as-a-pdf).

After a successful save the footer reads "Saved just now by *your name*".
**That line lasts only until the panel is closed.** It is a note about this
session — reopening the submission shows no saved-at line at all. **The save
itself is kept**, on the [Audit tab](#the-audit-tab): your name, the time, and
every field you changed with what it held before. A submitter's own save is
kept there too, and announced by the grey line above the form.

If something you typed cannot be saved, the message appears under the field it
belongs to **and** as a red summary at the top of the tab, because the panel
scrolls and an inline message twelve fields down is a message nobody sees.

| If you see | It means |
| --- | --- |
| "Title is required." | The title field is empty. |
| "Enter the submitter's email address." | The email field is empty, or is not an email address. |
| "Enter a plain amount, for example 18000 or 18,000.00." | The budget is not a plain money figure. |
| "Enter a plain amount, for example 30 or 30.00." | The submission fee or the discount amount is not a plain money figure. |
| "Enter a real date as year-month-day, for example 1990-05-21." | The birthdate is not a date in that form, or is not a real day. |
| "Enter a four digit year." | The completion year is not four digits, or is outside 1878–2200. |
| "Enter minutes and seconds, for example 12:40." | The runtime is not in `m:ss` form. Seconds must be 00 to 59. |
| "Enter a whole number of pages." | The page count is not a whole number above zero. |
| "The change could not be saved. Try again." | Something went wrong in transit. |

A length message can also appear under a long field. The synopsis, the
statement, the five credit fields, the original-language synopsis, the lyrics
and the four Background fields hold up to 20,000 characters each; every other
text field holds up to 4,000. Pasting more is refused rather than trimmed, and
nothing else on the form is saved when it is.

The two category messages — "A submission has to compete in at least one
category." and "That category is no longer in this season. Refresh the page and
try again." — belong to the Edit categories dialog and cannot appear on this
tab.

**The money fields are relaxed about presentation and strict about value.**
`18000`, `$18,000`, `18,000.00` and `18000 USD` all mean the same thing. A
third decimal place, a negative or stray letters are refused rather than
quietly trimmed, because a figure that silently loses a digit is worse than
one that will not save. A budget reads back as `$18,000.00 USD`.

If two people edit the same record at once, the last save wins. There is no
warning and no merge — though both saves are on the Audit tab afterwards, each
under its own name, so you can see what the other person's save overwrote.

**A submitter saving their own page is gentler than that.** Their page sends
only the fields they actually changed, so your edit to a field they did not
touch survives their save and yours survives theirs. Where you both changed the
same field, the last save still wins.

**One field of theirs is stricter than yours: the tagline.** Yours holds 4,000
characters and theirs holds 120, and a stored tagline over 120 blocks their
whole save until it is shortened — see
[The tagline](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/statements-taglines-and-posters.md#the-tagline).

### A screenplay as a PDF

**A screenplay can be judged from a PDF your team uploads**, instead of from a
link to wherever the writer keeps it. Judges then press **Open PDF** on their
scoring screen to read it — see [Scoring a film](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/scoring-a-film.md) — and
so does anybody filling in a scorecard from your own team.

On a screenplay, the **Screener access** card's **PDF link** field has a
small upload button beside it:

- **With no PDF stored**, type the link into the field as usual and save it
  with **Save changes** — or upload a PDF instead.
- **With a PDF stored**, the field is replaced by **Open PDF ↗**, and the
  button beside it replaces the file.

**To upload one:**

1. Press the upload button beside **PDF link** and pick the file — or
   drag a PDF from your computer and drop it on the field, which lights up as
   you hold it there. The button fades while the file goes.
2. That is all. **The file saves by itself, straight away** — like the poster,
   it does not wait for **Save changes**, and closing the record does not undo
   it.

**What the file may be:** **one PDF, up to 25 MB.** Anything else is refused
before it leaves your computer, in red under the field:

| The message | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| "Screenplay files must be a PDF." | The file is not a PDF. |
| "That PDF is over 25 MB. Upload a smaller file." | Too big, or empty. |
| "The PDF could not be uploaded. Try again." | The upload broke in transit, or the file could not be stored. Nothing was recorded; the record keeps whatever it had. |
| "There is no version on file for this submission yet." | The submission has no cut on record, so there is nothing to attach a file to. The upload button is not drawn in that case. |

**A screenplay holds a link or a PDF, never both**, so a judge is never shown
two copies:

- **Uploading a PDF clears the link and the password.** The fields go empty,
  and a later **Save changes** cannot put the old link back.
- **Saving a new link clears the PDF.** Press **Use a link instead** under
  **Open PDF ↗**, type the new address, and press **Save changes**: the stored
  file is no longer the screenplay's
  copy, and judges are given the link instead. A password cannot be saved on
  its own while a PDF is stored. Changed your mind before saving? **Keep the
  PDF**, where **Use a link instead** was, puts the field back to **Open PDF
  ↗** and drops what you typed, so the next **Save changes** cannot replace
  the PDF by accident.

Five more things:

- **Open PDF opens a fresh copy every time you press it.** Each press is good
  for ten minutes, so copying the address out of the new tab and sending it
  to somebody does not share the file for long. The file itself is private:
  only your festival's staff and the judges who hold or have filed a scorecard
  on the submission can open it.
- **Only your team uploads — or the FilmFreeway sync.** The filmmaker cannot,
  from their own page or anywhere else, and never sees the file. On a festival
  [connected to FilmFreeway](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/connecting-filmfreeway.md), a screenplay whose
  FilmFreeway submission carries a script PDF gets that file stored here, just
  as if you had uploaded it — but only while the screenplay has no PDF and its
  link is empty or a FilmFreeway page. A link to anywhere else is never
  replaced.
- **Films have no PDF.** The upload button is offered only on a submission
  stored as a screenplay — change **Type** to Screenplay and save first. A film
  that somehow holds one still shows **Use a link instead**, so the way back to
  a link is always there.
- **A replaced or cleared file is deleted a day later.** Nothing keeps old
  versions.
- **Nothing about it is on the Audit tab** — like the link and the password,
  the file is part of the screener, which the tab does not record.

**The quick way through many screenplays** is the **Screener link** column in
Edit mode on the Submissions list, which takes a PDF on a screenplay row — see
[Edit mode](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#edit-mode).

## When a filmmaker saves a submission to their account

A filmmaker can save their submission to their own FilmScorecard account. It
happens by itself when the address on your record is the one they log in with,
once they have their first project. The access code in your email does it
too: **Save to your account** on their submission page or scorecard, or **Add
an entry** on their own project's Festivals tab, whatever address they log in
with; or **Keep it** on the scorecard, which logs them in on the address on
your record. It gives them their own copy of the film, in a
workspace of their own. Their side of it is
[Saving a submission to your account](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/saving-a-submission-to-your-account.md).

**Nothing changes for you.** The record stays yours to edit, exactly as before:

- every field on the Information tab, saved with **Save changes** — the
  statement box with the rest;
- the poster — uploading, replacing and removing it on the Poster card, or
  dropping a file on the row on the list;
- its status, its categories, your flag, **Priority**, whether it is **On
  hold**, its award pools, filling in a scorecard for it, moving it to another
  season and withdrawing it.

**Only the [Audit tab](#the-audit-tab) says it has happened.** There is no mark
on the list and no line on the rest of the panel, because saving a submission
to an account changes nothing on the record. The Audit tab lists "Alex Rivera
claimed the submission", with the address their account had at the time —
"Signed in as …" — for any save since it began recording them; one from before
that shows nothing.

**Their own copy never reaches your record.** What a filmmaker keeps in their
account is separate, and editing it changes nothing here. Two things of theirs
do reach your record:

- **a save on their submission page**, as it always has;
- **a send from their own copy** of one field your press kit is waiting for —
  the tagline, synopsis, trailer link, poster, or one of the four credit
  lines — which they can do only while their submission page is open.

**Both arrive as the submitter's own edits.** The "Edited by the submitter"
line moves, and the Audit tab lists the change under the submitter's name,
with **Submitter** under it.

**Their own copy can have a public page.** A filmmaker can make a public web
page for the film from their account. It shows their copy, never your record,
and carries your festival's result only once your season's Selections
announced or Awards announced date arrives. You have no control over it. See
[If you run a festival](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/public-page.md#if-you-run-a-festival).

**Their two pages open for them without a code** once the submission is saved
to their account and they are signed in. Your own way in, as staff, is
unchanged — see [Seeing what a submitter sees](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/seeing-what-a-submitter-sees.md).

**If the filmmaker also judges for you**, the film leaves their judging queue
once it is saved to their account — see
[The judge is the submitter](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/how-the-judging-queue-works.md#10-the-judge-is-the-submitter).

## Opened from an award pool

Clicking an entrant's title on an [award pool](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/award-pools.md) opens this
same panel **in read mode**:

- **Six tabs, as on the working list — but the Settings tab holds only the
  submission's two addresses**: Submission link and Scorecard link, each with
  its Copy link button. No Edit categories, no Priority, no Judging, no
  scorecard access, no move and no withdraw.
- **Every field on the Information tab is greyed out**, there is no **Save
  changes** button, and there is no flag button in the header.
- **The Awards tab only reads.** It lists the pools the film is in, with no
  **Add to an award** or **Remove** — see
  [The Awards tab](#the-awards-tab).
- **The Audit tab reads exactly as it does here.** The history is a read, and
  a pool is allowed to read. The one thing missing is the **See what changed**
  button on the Information tab's "Edited by the submitter" line — the tab is a
  click away in the strip.
- **The Scorecard link card shows where the release stands and never the
  Release scorecard button** — see
  [Releasing one submission's scorecard](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/releasing-one-scorecard.md).
- **The Submission link card is there, with its Copy link button**, exactly
  as on the working list: it is an address rather than an action.
- **It opens the same way** — the frame on the click, the record just behind
  it, and an entrant you have already looked at this sitting reopens at once.
  The header carries the title alone, because a pool row has no tracking
  number and no flag.
- Closing, resizing and the address behave exactly as they do here.

A pool is a place to look a submission up while you decide an award, not the
place to edit its record. To change anything, open the same submission from
[Submissions](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md).

**A withdrawn entrant cannot be opened from a pool at all** — its row stays,
but its title is plain text and its menu has no View submission, because the
record is no longer on the season's working list.

## The Scoring tab

**One section per category, alphabetically.** A submission in Drama Film and
Experimental Film gets two sections, each headed with the category's name, each
describing the judging in *that* category only.

**Every category a submission can be scored in is scored out of 100**, so the
two sections are comparable — but they are never added together. Two categories
can share one technical review between them, and a combined figure would count
it twice, so there is no total across categories anywhere on this tab.

Each section holds, in this order:

1. **The score**, a large banded figure — **the points this category has banked
   so far**, out of 100 — or **"No scores"** until an approved scorecard counts
   toward this category, and for good on a category whose every section is
   weighted zero. It grows as the outstanding scorecards are approved; see
   [What the figure counts](#what-the-figure-counts).
2. **"2 of 5 judges in"** with a row of ticks. A season with no **Judges per
   category** set reads **"No judging panel is set for this season yet."**
   instead. **A category with no creative scorecard has neither** — it has no
   panel to count.
3. **One sentence saying exactly where this category stands** — see
   [The sentence under the score](#the-sentence-under-the-score).
4. **The split this category is scored on** — see
   [What the 100 is divided into](#what-the-100-is-divided-into).
5. **Creative, one per judge** — a line counting the judges who have filed,
   and one card per filed creative scorecard. A category with no creative
   scorecard has no such group.

Under the category sections sit the cards for the reviews that are filed once
for the whole submission — **Technical**, drawn once a technical review has
been filed, and **Press kit**, which lists that press kit item by item. The
submission's two addresses — **Submission link** and **Scorecard link** — are
not on this tab; they are on the [Settings tab](#the-settings-tab).

**The "N of M" and its ticks tell the truth past the panel.** A fourth creative
scorecard on a panel of three reads "4 of 3", with four ticks, all filled —
**Judges per category** decides how many judges are offered each category, not
how many scorecards it may carry. A colleague's own scorecard can be filed on
top of a full panel.

**What fills these sections' figures is approval, not filing.** Judges file
scorecards in their own workspace, and each one waits in the
[Review Queue](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/review-queue.md) until someone approves it. A filed scorecard
still under review is listed with **Pending approval** after its filing date,
but it is in none of the figures — not the score, the count, the ticks or the
sentence — however finished it is. **A scorecard a colleague filled in from the
list is approved as it is filed**, so it counts here at once — see
[Filling out a scorecard yourself](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/filling-out-a-scorecard.md).

**The press kit is the one exception**, and it has its own card below: its
items answer for themselves whether or not anybody has filed anything, so the
**Press kit** card is drawn as soon as the submission's categories reach a
press kit scorecard at all. What those items are worth only joins a category's
score once an approved scorecard counts toward that category — see
[What the figure counts](#what-the-figure-counts).

A submission attached to no category reads: "This submission is not attached to
a category yet, so there is nothing to score it against." — and no scorecard
cards are drawn, because there is nothing they could hold.

**A category the submission no longer competes in has no section here**, and
the creative scorecards filed under it are not listed either — they belong to
no category of this film now. They are still filed, and still approvable and
payable, in the [Review Queue](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/review-queue.md#scorecards-on-a-removed-category),
where they read "*Category* (removed)".

### What the figure counts

**The score is what the approved work has banked, not a forecast of where the
film will finish.** The technical and press-kit reviews put their whole share
in the moment they are approved; **the Creative share is divided equally among
the judges the season expects per category**, and each approved creative
scorecard banks one of those shares. Cards nobody has filed hold points nobody
has banked, so they are outside the number and named in the sentence underneath
it instead.

On a season split 50 Creative / 30 Technical / 20 Press kit, a film with one of
three judges in who marked it 80 out of 100 reads **13** — a third of the 50 —
and reaches 40 when the other two judges file at the same standard.

**The first approved scorecard starts the score, whichever kind it is.** A film
whose technical review is approved before any judge has filed reads the
technical points it banked — 24, say, on that season, for a checklist passed at
80% — and the judges' shares are added as they are approved. Until something
that counts has been approved, the category reads **No scores**.

Four riders, all of which you can see on the tab itself:

- **More scorecards than the panel plans for divide the share further.** Four
  cards on a panel of three bank a quarter each, so the section never exceeds
  what it is worth.
- **A season with no Judges per category set treats whatever has been filed as
  the whole panel**, so one card banks the whole Creative share and the
  sentence names no missing judges.
- **The press kit's share can move without anybody filing anything — once the
  category has a score.** From the moment an approved scorecard counts toward
  the category, and once the press kit is settled, every item that watches a
  submission field is counted live — so filling in a tagline, uploading a
  poster or writing the statement raises this figure the next time the panel
  is opened. **The submitter can raise it too**, from their own page, without
  telling anybody. See [The press kit card](#the-press-kit-card). **Until
  judging closes, that is**: after it, a season that freezes its press kit —
  every season, unless somebody turned it off — leaves this figure where it
  stood. See
  [Freezing the press kit when judging closes](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#freezing-the-press-kit-when-judging-closes).
- **Field items alone never make a score.** A film nobody has scored reads
  **No scores** however complete its record is: its satisfied items wait for
  the first approved scorecard in the category.

**The colour is not the number.** A section's colour is that scorecard read
against its own maximum, and the big score's colour is what has been banked
against what could have been banked *so far* — so a strong film with one judge
of three shows a small number in green rather than a red one. The full rule is
on
[The number and the colour answer different questions](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#the-number-and-the-colour-answer-different-questions).

### The sentence under the score

One sentence, and it is the fastest read on the tab. Seven wordings, in the
order the screen tries them:

| The sentence | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| "No scorecard has been filed yet." | Nothing approved in this category. |
| "4 scorecards are filed. Every section this category is scored on is weighted zero, so it awards no points." | Real work, deliberately worth nothing: the festival weighted every section this category is scored on at 0. |
| "4 scorecards are filed. Nothing attached to this category can award points, so there is nothing to score." | The cards exist but none of them can award a point — a scorecard of free-text questions only, or of items worth zero. |
| "4 scorecards are filed, but none of them can award points, so nothing has been scored yet." | The category *is* worth 100, but everything filed so far sits on a part that awards nothing. |
| "13 of 17 points filed so far; 2 more judges, technical and press kit outstanding and worth 83 more points." | Part-way. The first figure is what has been banked; the second is how much of the 100 the approved work could have banked by now. Everything still to come is named after it. |
| "All scorecards filed. 90 of 100 points, creative is the mean of 3 judges." | Everything this category uses is in. **The count is the scorecards actually filed**, not the panel size, so on a film carrying more than the panel plans for it reads "the mean of 4 judges". |
| "All scorecards filed. 90 of 100 points." | The same, on a category with no creative scorecard — or one whose creative scorecard awards no points — where there is no mean of judges to name. |

The part-way sentence is built to a rule, and it is worth knowing because its
shape moves:

- **Everything outstanding is named, in one list, in this order**: the missing
  judges, then technical, then the press kit. Commas between them and "and"
  before the last — "2 more judges, technical and press kit outstanding".
- **The missing judges are counted, and the count is singular when it is one**:
  "1 more judge outstanding".
- **A semicolon follows the opening figures only when the judges are in the
  list**; otherwise it is a comma, exactly as it has always been. So "60 of 80
  points filed so far, technical outstanding and worth 20 more points." on a
  film every judge has scored, and "30 of 30 points filed so far; 3 more judges
  and press kit outstanding and worth 70 more points." on one nobody has.
- **"and worth N more points" appears only when there are points still to
  come.** A section the festival weighted zero is still named — it still has to
  be filed — so the sentence can read "80 of 100 points filed so far, technical
  outstanding." with no worth clause at all.
- **With nothing outstanding to name, the sentence stops after the figures** —
  "90 of 100 points filed so far." That is what a season with no Judges per
  category set reads once its one card and both reviews are in.
- **A section the category does not use is never named.** A category with no
  creative scorecard never lists missing judges, and one with no technical
  review never lists technical.

**"Press kit outstanding" now means one specific thing: a coordinator has not
filed its card yet.** Two things follow:

- **A press kit with nothing for a coordinator to mark is never outstanding.**
  It settles the moment the submission exists, so it is never in this list and
  never holds the category short of complete — however empty the record is. Its
  empty items are simply worth nothing yet, and its satisfied ones join the
  score once another approved scorecard has given the category one.
- **A press kit that has been filed is never outstanding again**, even though
  its field items are still moving. Filing is a statement about the
  coordinator's half, not about the record.

Two things about that count: **it counts cards, not sections** — three judges
plus a technical review is "4 scorecards" — and an outstanding section is named
even when it is worth no points, because it still holds the category short of
complete.

### What the 100 is divided into

Under the sentence sits the split this category is scored on:

> Scores out of 100 — Creative 75, Technical 25, no press kit

Those numbers come from the season's **section weights**, set on
[Settings → Judging](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#section-weights) and starting at
60 Creative / 20 Technical / 20 Press kit. **They are shares, not fixed
points**: a category that carries no press-kit scorecard is scored over the
sections it does use, so 60/20/20 reads Creative 75 and Technical 25 here and
still tops out at 100.

Read the line carefully, because it says two different things:

- **"no press kit"** — this category is not judged on one at all. A scorecard
  that cannot award a point counts as absent here too, which includes a press
  kit scorecard whose items are all worth zero.
- **"Press kit 0"** — it is judged on one, and the festival weighted it zero.
  The card is still filled in, the filmmaker still reads it, and the category
  is still not complete without it. It simply adds nothing to the score.

Two categories with nothing to score have their own sentences in place of the
split:

- "Every section this category is scored on is weighted zero, so it awards no
  points."
- "No scorecards are attached to this category yet, so there are no points to
  award."

### Creative, one per judge

Inside each category section, under a line that counts the panel:

> 3 of 5 judges have filed. Each judge's card banks an equal share of the
> creative section's 75 points.

— or "No judge has filed a creative scorecard yet." That figure at the end is
this category's Creative share of the 100, and **it is what the panel divides**:
on a panel of five, each judge's card is worth up to a fifth of it, and the
shares of the judges who have not filed are simply not on the board yet. The
whole sentence after the count is left off when the share is zero. A category
with no creative scorecard has no such group at all.

**That count is of approved scorecards only.** Under it, one card per filed
creative scorecard, collapsed:

- **The filer's name**, and **"Filed Aug 4"** beneath it — followed by
  **· Pending approval** on a card not yet approved. **A scorecard your
  own staff filled in is named "*Fay Festival* (staff)"** — the marker is how
  you tell a colleague's filing from a judge's.
- **That card's own figure**, banded — `56 of 60`. **This is the raw score on
  that scorecard's own scale, not its share of the 100.** A card is always read
  against the card it was filled in on.
- **Press the card to open it**: one row per question with the same raw
  reading — `8 of 10` — any note the reviewer left under the line it belongs
  to, and, on a creative card, the two written boxes — **What worked** and
  **Opportunities** — or "This judge left no written feedback." A card whose
  questions cannot be listed says so instead: "This card's questions are not
  available to show."
- **Edit**, beside the card, opens the review queue's editor over this panel
  for anyone who can approve scorecards. You keep your place in the list. See
  [Reading and editing a scorecard](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/editing-a-filed-scorecard.md).

### The Technical card

**Technical and the press kit are reviewed once for the whole submission, not
once per judge**, so their cards sit under the category sections rather than
inside one. Two categories using the same technical scorecard share that one
review between them; two categories using different ones are each reviewed on
their own.

The card headed **Technical** is drawn only once a technical review has been
filed; until then there is no card, and
[the sentence under the score](#the-sentence-under-the-score) names technical
as outstanding. **It starts collapsed**, showing the scorecard's name and version
— `Technical v2` — then the filer and the filing date, with **· Pending
approval** until it is approved, and the card's own figure, banded and raw.
Press the head to open it: one row per question, the same as a creative card,
with no written feedback boxes. **Edit** sits on the head for anyone who can
approve scorecards.

**While it reads Pending approval, judges are not offered this submission's
creative scorecard** in the categories using that review, on a season where
[creative judging waits for technical approval](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#creative-judging-waits-for-technical-approval)
— the default. Approving it in the [Review Queue](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/review-queue.md#what-approving-does)
opens the submission to them.

**Each category applies its own weight to that one review.** A technical review
of 15 of 20 is 75% of the Technical share wherever it counts — which is 25
points in a category with no press kit and 20 in one that has one. **Being
reviewed once is also why these two are not divided among the judges**: the
whole share lands with the one approved card — and on a film no judge has
reached yet, that share is the whole of the score.

**One thing to expect as judging runs.** A judge reviews a submission once,
under one of its categories. Judges go on being offered a submission until each
of its categories has its full panel, and each judge is given the category that
is furthest behind — so both sections do fill, as long as some of your judges
may score each category, but not always at the same pace. This tab is where you
see that: one section fuller than the other, or one still empty. The list's
score columns show whichever category has banked the most, so this tab is the
only place that gap shows — see
[Which category's score a row shows](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#which-categorys-score-a-row-shows).
**This tab is also the honest way to check what a panel has already done**
before you fill a scorecard in yourself — the chooser dialog does not say.

To change what a category is judged on, attach different scorecards to it —
see
[Categories and scorecards](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/categories-and-scorecards.md#attaching-scorecards).
To change how the 100 is divided, use the section weights on
[Settings → Judging](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#section-weights). To change which
categories apply, use Edit categories at the head of the Information tab.

### The press kit card

The card headed **Press kit** is the one place on FilmScorecard that shows a press
kit item by item with what each field actually holds.

**It starts collapsed**, showing three things: the words **Press kit**, a line
reading **"4 of 6 on file"** — how much of the card is accounted for, counting
both halves — and the press kit's figure, banded: what it has banked out of
its share of the 100 in the category the list row shows — `14/20`. **Until an
approved scorecard counts toward that category, the figure reads a dash**
against the share, however many items are on file: field items alone bank
nothing. A press kit weighted zero shows its own raw total instead. Press the
head to open it.

Opened, it reads:

> Field items are satisfied by the submission itself and keep moving as the
> record is filled. Manual items are marked by a coordinator.

Then one line per item, with its own figure — `2 of 2` — and a second line
underneath saying where that item stands:

| The item | What its second line says |
| --- | --- |
| **Watches a field, and the field has something in it** | **What the field actually holds** — the tagline itself, the synopsis itself, the statement itself, `12:40`, `$18,000`, `2018`, `Yes`. Long text is clamped to two lines; hover it to read the whole thing. |
| **Watches a field that is empty** | "Empty, nothing submitted yet". |
| **A coordinator's item** | **Passed**, **Failed**, or **Not yet marked** when nobody has filed the card yet. |

**Two fields describe themselves instead of showing their value**: Screener
password reads "On file", and Poster reads "1 file". A password is not printed
on a read-out, and a poster is a picture rather than a line of text.

Three things this card is good for:

- **Seeing what a submission is still missing, in the festival's own terms.**
  Every "Empty, nothing submitted yet" line is a field somebody could fill in
  on the Information tab, and doing so moves this card at once — and the
  category's score with it, once the category has one — with nothing to file
  and nobody to ask. Once judging has closed, a season that freezes its press
  kit keeps this card and the score as they stood, and the change shows only on
  the Information tab — see
  [Freezing the press kit when judging closes](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#freezing-the-press-kit-when-judging-closes).
  **Many of them are fields the submitter can fill in too** — the same
  checklist, minus the manual half, is what their own page shows them; see
  [The press kit is what this is for](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submission-links.md#the-press-kit-is-what-this-is-for).
- **Knowing whether the coordinator's half is done.** **Not yet marked** on any
  line means the press kit card has not been filed, and the sentence under the
  category's score will be naming the press kit as outstanding.
- **Reading a press kit that never had a card at all.** When every item on the
  scorecard watches a field, this card is the whole record of it, and there is
  nothing in the [Review Queue](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/review-queue.md) to open.

**The card is drawn whenever the submission's categories reach a press kit
scorecard that has items**, whether or not anything has been filed. A category
with no press kit slot, or a press kit scorecard with no items at all, draws no
card rather than an empty one.

**Edit sits on its head once a coordinator has filed the press kit's card**,
for anyone who can approve scorecards — and only on a press kit with items for
a coordinator to mark, because a card of field items has nothing to edit.

---

## The Settings tab

The submission's two addresses first — **Submission link** and **Scorecard
link**, each with a small **ⓘ** beside its heading that says what the card's
buttons do — then one card of actions, a row each, with what the action does
on the left and its switch or button on the right: **Judge this first** and
**Hold from judges** for somebody who can make changes to the season, **Move
to another festival** for somebody who can open the season's Settings screen,
and **Withdraw from season**. Whether
the scorecard has been unlocked, and the button that comps it, sit inside the
Scorecard link card for somebody allowed to see money. **Nothing on this tab is
a field**, so it has no Save of its own: each control either copies an
address, opens a dialog or acts outright. The two address cards are drawn in
the read-only panel an [award pool](#opened-from-an-award-pool) opens; the
actions card is not.

**There is no Public page card any more.** A film's public web page now
belongs to its filmmaker, who publishes it from their own account; you cannot
publish one for a submission or take one down. See
[If you run a festival](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/public-page.md#if-you-run-a-festival).

**Submission link**, the first card, is the address of the **submitter's own
edit page** — where a filmmaker can correct their tagline, synopsis, statement,
credits, links and poster while judging is under way: the address in monospace
and a **Copy link** button that reads **Copied** once it has. It is always
shown, in every state, because that address is never broken: before judging
ends it opens the edit page, and afterwards it opens a page saying edits are
closed. It works in a read-only drawer too — it is an address, not an edit.
And **copying it is not a send**: passing it on is a perfectly good way to
reach one filmmaker, since the page will email them a link and a code when
they ask for one. **The send is the Email button beside Copy link**, for the
people who can open the season's Settings: it asks first — "Email submission
page links to 1 submission?", with the address it **Sends to** — and then
emails this one filmmaker the same message the season's invitation sends. It
goes even when the bulk send would skip the submission, and even when the
submission is in no category, which the season's automatic send and **Send to
N now** both wait on; see
[Who gets one](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/inviting-submitters.md#who-gets-one). The same send for many
submissions at once is **Email submission links** on the
[Submissions](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#emailing-submission-page-links) list's bulk bar.
**Paste it into your own browser and you are let straight in**, with no code
asked for, to a read-only copy of what that filmmaker sees — see
[Seeing what a submitter sees](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/seeing-what-a-submitter-sees.md). The whole of
it — what a submitter may change, what keeps their page open, and the line that
records their edit — is
[Letting submitters fix their own details](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submission-links.md).

### The scorecard link

**Scorecard link** is the submission's own scorecard address, with a **Copy
link** button that reads **Copied** once it has. It is the page the results
email opens, so you can hand it over by other means — a message, a call, a
printed sheet. **For the filmmaker the page behind it asks for the access
code**, which only ever goes to the address on the submission — the button in
their own emails signs them straight in, but this plain address does not — and
before the scorecard is released it shows a "Not available yet" page naming the
film and nothing else.

**Beside Copy link, an Email button**, for your organization's owners and org
admins, emails the filmmaker their scorecard link and access code: "Email the
scorecard link?", with the address it **Sends to**, then **Send link**.
"Scorecard link queued." confirms it. **It is greyed out until the scorecard
has been released.** It sends the short "Your link for *the film*" message, not
the results email, and it reuses the link and code the filmmaker already
holds rather than replacing them — see
[Getting into your scorecard](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/getting-into-your-scorecard.md#one-link-and-one-code-at-a-time).

**You are not asked for a code.** Paste the address into your own browser and,
signed in with access to this festival, you read the filmmaker's scorecard
exactly as they read it — locked or unlocked as they left it, read-only, under a
**Viewing as staff** pill, with no way to buy, comp or share it from there. **A
Staff view | Filmmaker view switch sits at the top of the page**: Filmmaker
view shows it as the filmmaker sees it, with the price, the checkout and
Share. Nothing pressed there charges, creates a share link or sends feedback —
each says "Preview only." instead — though **Save image** on Share still
downloads the picture for you. It is the quickest way to check what you are
about to send somebody. Who else can do it, and what those pages will not let
you do, is
[Seeing what a submitter sees](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/seeing-what-a-submitter-sees.md). **Before the
release you get the same "Not available yet" page they would** — being staff
does not open an unreleased scorecard.

**Above the address, one line says where this submission's release stands** —
**Not released**, **Not released · no approved scorecards yet**, **Released
2 Sep 2026 by Nadia Brandt · link emailed** (or **· no email sent**),
**Released automatically on 2 Sep 2026 · link emailed** on a season set to
release **As each submission is approved**, or **Released with the season on
17 Aug 2026** — and, on a submission that is ready but not yet released, a
**Release scorecard** button beside it for somebody who can approve scorecards
and change the season. That button opens this one submission's scorecard ahead
of the season, with or without emailing the filmmaker their results, and it
cannot be undone. The whole of it — the states, the dialog, who has the button
and what the filmmaker then reads — is
[Releasing one submission's scorecard](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/releasing-one-scorecard.md); the
season's own release is [Releasing scorecards](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/releasing-scorecards.md).

**Under the release line, for somebody with *View revenue and payouts*, a
second line says whether the scorecard has been unlocked** — **Not
unlocked**, **Unlocked · SC-40318 · 14 Aug 2026** or **Refunded · SC-40318** —
and, when there is something to comp — a released scorecard, with the season
or on its own, on a priced season, with a category not yet unlocked — a **Comp
scorecard access** button that gives the filmmaker their full scorecard at no
charge. Without that permission the line is not drawn and its figures are
never read, and the button additionally needs somebody who can change the
season. The whole of it — what is sold, what you earn, who may comp and what a
refund does — is [Selling scorecard access](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/selling-scorecard-access.md).

**A scorecard released before the panel has finished shows the filmmaker the
same banked figure you are reading on the Scoring tab**, and it rises as the
rest of the cards are approved. The release dialog says as much, one line per
category.

**A released scorecard's press kit can move for a reason that has nothing to do
with judging** — somebody finishing the submission record. The filmmaker's
scorecard lists the press kit item by item, each one either counted or "Not
provided, so it did not count", and reads the record afresh on every visit: an
item that was amber on one visit can be counted on the next, with the score
risen to match. If that matters to you, finish the record before you release.
**Once judging has closed it stops moving**, unless the season's **Press kit
after judging closes** has been set to **Keep counting edits** — see
[Freezing the press kit when judging closes](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#freezing-the-press-kit-when-judging-closes).

### Judge this first

**Judge this first**, the first row of the actions card, is a switch. Turned
on, it sends this film to the front of the queue of every judge who can take
it; turned off, the film goes back to the ordinary order. It changes on the
press, and the mark before the title on the list behind the panel changes with
it. If the change is refused, the switch goes back and **"Could not change
priority."** appears at the bottom of the screen.

The row is drawn for everybody who can make changes to the season — viewers
do not see it. It is the only place Priority is set: there is no Priority item
in the row menu and none on the bulk bar. What it does to the judges' queues,
and why a judge never sees it, is on
[Priority: judge this first](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#priority-judge-this-first).

### Hold from judges

**Hold from judges**, the row under it, is the film's judging hold, and the
switch says it plainly: **on means held**.

- **Turn it on** and the film is **On hold**: no judge who is not already
  scoring it is offered it, from their next visit. The switch is amber, and
  the list's Judging column changes to **On hold** with it.
- **Turn it off** and the film is **Ready** again, offered to judges as
  before.

It changes on the press, exactly as Judge this first does: the switch cannot
be pressed again while the change is saving, and if the change is refused the
switch goes back and **"Could not change the judging hold."** appears at the
bottom of the screen. The row is drawn for the same people — everybody who can
make changes to the season, and not viewers.

**What a hold does, and what it leaves alone** — a judge already scoring the
film keeps it, your own team can still fill in its scorecards, and the film is
still on every list and count — is on
[Holding a submission out of judging](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#holding-a-submission-out-of-judging).
Many films at once are held from the list's bulk bar, and a whole import can
arrive on hold — see
[Ready for judging or On hold](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/importing-submissions.md#ready-for-judging-or-on-hold).

### Move and Withdraw

**Move to another festival**, the row above Withdraw, has one button —
**Move** — and one line: the film keeps its number, screener and links, and
the dialog lists anything that cannot move before you confirm. Everything else
worth saying depends on where the film is going, and the dialog works that out
when it opens. The row is drawn only for the organization's owners and org admins and
for this festival's festival admins — the same people who can open the
season's [Settings](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md) screen. Coordinators, programmers
and viewers do not see it. It is not in the row menu. The dialog, which
seasons it offers, what a move deletes and keeps, and what the filmmaker and
the judges see afterwards are all on
[Moving a submission to another festival](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#moving-a-submission-to-another-festival).
A move closes the panel, because the submission has left the list behind it.

**Withdraw from season**, the last row, in amber, with its **Withdraw**
button. The same consequence line and the same dialog as the row menu —
see [Withdrawing a submission](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#withdrawing-a-submission).
Withdrawing closes the panel, because the submission is no longer on the list
behind it. **It also closes the submitter's own edit page**, for good, and
takes your festival off the filmmaker's public page, if they have one — see
[What each festival's tile shows](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/public-page.md#what-each-festivals-tile-shows).

## The Awards tab

**The award pools this film is in** — the same pools the
[Awards](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/awards.md) screen and the [award pools](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/award-pools.md) work on,
read from the film's side. Awards the film is not in are not listed.

The pools come in two groups, **Category awards** first and then
**Non-category awards**, each A to Z; a group with nothing in it is left out.
A film in no pool at all reads **"Not in any award pool."** Each row carries
the award's name and, under it, **how the film entered**: **Director added**,
**Complimentary**, **Paid add-on**, **Judge recommendation** or **Category
entry**. Beside it sit the film's **result** in that pool — Undecided,
Selected, Finalist, Award Winner and the rest — and an **Honorable mention**
marker when it has one. Both are read-only here; results and mentions are
decided on the Awards screen and the pool.

### Adding to and removing from a non-category award

For somebody who can make changes to the season:

- **Add to an award**, under the list, opens a small dialog headed "Add
  *Title* to an award". Pick the **Award** from the non-category awards the
  film can still enter — ones it competes for through one of the award's
  eligible categories and is not already in; when there is only one it comes
  picked. Below it are the pool screen's two choices of **How it enters** —
  **Director added** ("No charge, recorded as a director decision.") or
  **Complimentary** ("No charge, the add-on is waived for this entrant.") —
  and an optional **Note for the record**, kept on the pool entry with your
  name and the date and never shown to judges. Press **Add to pool**, or
  **Cancel**. The button is not shown when there is no award left the film
  can enter.
- **Remove**, on a non-category row. It asks first, with the same
  confirmation the pool screen uses for **Remove from pool**.

**A category award is never offered, and its row never has a button.** Its
pool is the category's entries, kept for you; the way to put a film in it or
take it out is **Edit categories** on the Information tab. See
[A category award's pool](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/award-pools.md#a-category-awards-pool).

**Changes go both ways at once.** An add or a removal here is on the award's
pool and the Awards screen's cards without a reload, and a change made on a pool screen shows on this
tab the next time you look at it. If somebody else put the film in the pool
while your dialog was open, the dialog says so and the tab re-reads itself.

### When the tab only reads

**Nobody gets the buttons** — no **Add to an award** and no **Remove** — when:

- your festival role is **Viewer** — you can read the tab, and nothing more;
- the panel was **opened from an award pool** — see
  [Opened from an award pool](#opened-from-an-award-pool).

### Loading, and when it cannot load

**The tab is read the first time you open it**, not when the panel opens, with
placeholder rows while it loads. **"The awards could not be loaded."**, with a
**Try again** button, means the read failed; nothing is wrong with the awards.
A season that runs no awards at all reads **"This season runs no awards."**

## The Audit tab

The submission's history: **one timeline of everything that has happened to
it, newest first** — how it arrived, every edit to its record, its judging, its
status and its hold, its release, the emails sent about it, and what the
filmmaker has done on their own two pages. Each entry is one sentence naming
who did what — "Jo Whitaker edited 2 fields" — with that person's role under
it and the detail under that. It answers the question the rest of the panel
cannot — "why does this read differently from what I remember?" — and, in the
same place, "has the filmmaker seen their results yet?"

**Nothing here can be edited or removed, by anyone.** Entries are written as
things happen and read back as they stand, which is what makes them worth
reading.

**Only your own team reaches it.** Judges and filmmakers never see this tab or
anything on it. It reads the same wherever the submission is opened — from
the list, from an [award pool](#opened-from-an-award-pool) or from the
[Review Queue](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/review-queue.md).

**The tab's name carries a count** — **Audit 19** — of every entry on it, before
any filter or search.

**Three ways in**: the tab itself, last in the strip; **See what changed**
beside the "Edited by the submitter" line on the
[Information tab](#the-information-tab), which switches to this tab; or the
**Emails** cell on the [Submissions list](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#reading-a-row),
which opens the submission straight onto this tab with the **Type** filter set
to **Emails** and **Scorecard access** — each email beside what the filmmaker
did after it.

### What one entry shows

**Entries are grouped by day**, under a grey band that names the day and the
date — **Thursday 9 Oct 2026** — with that day's count, **4 events**, at its
right. Each entry has its time on the left, to the minute. Days and times are
in the season's time zone, as it is set now.

**The sentence starts with who did it, and their role is under it:**

| The sentence starts with | The role under it | Who it is |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A name — *Jo Whitaker* | Their role on this season — **Owner**, **Org admin**, **Festival admin**, **Coordinator**, **Programmer**, **Viewer**, **Finance** or **Member**, or **Platform admin** for FilmScorecard's own administrator — or **Festival staff** if they no longer hold one | A member of your team. The name is the one on their profile. |
| **A staff member** | **Festival staff** | A member of your team FilmScorecard can no longer name — usually because their account has been removed. The entry is kept; the name is not. |
| A judge's name — or the address you invited them at, when there is no name to show | **Judge** | A judge, for their own scorecard work. |
| The submitter's name, as the record has it — *Alex Rivera* — or **The submitter** when the record has none | **Submitter** | The filmmaker, on their own submission page or scorecard. Anybody they pass their link or code to counts as them. |
| **FilmScorecard** | **System** | Something FilmScorecard did by itself, with nobody signed in: sending an email, a refund arriving from the payment processor, an automatic release, a change made by a background job. |
| **FilmFreeway** | **Sync** | The FilmFreeway sync, on a festival [connected to FilmFreeway](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/connecting-filmfreeway.md): a film it brought in, every change it made to a film's details, screener link or runtime, and a film it withdrew because the filmmaker withdrew it on FilmFreeway. Its mark is a dark square reading **FF**. The **Who** filter counts it under **System**. |

**The role is the one they hold now**, except on a status, hold or withdrawal
entry, which keeps the role they held when they made the change.

**Under the sentence sits whatever the entry has to say**: the fields an edit
moved; label-and-value pairs such as **Order** `SC-40211` and **Paid** `$29.99`;
a line such as "2 of 3 scorecards filed"; two status pills, from and to; an
amber note — the reason a scorecard was sent back, or why an email bounced; or
an **Open order** button. Each kind of entry is described below.

### Edits to the record

**A burst of saves by one person is one entry.** Saves by the same person, each
within ten minutes of the one before, fold together — as long as nobody else,
FilmScorecard included, did anything to the submission in between. The entry
reads "Jo Whitaker edited 2 fields", and its time is the last save's.

**Under the sentence, one row per field, with its net change**: the field's name
as the Information tab prints it — *Key cast* here is *Key cast* there, and the
statement is *Director's statement* on a film and *Writer's statement* on a
screenplay — then **Was**, what it held before the first save, and **Now**,
what the last save left. Fields come in a fixed order whatever order you edited
them in. A field that was empty reads **Empty**. Long values are printed in
full, with their line breaks kept, so a synopsis reads as a paragraph.

**A field that ended where it started is not a row.** It is named once on a
**Reverted** line instead — "Film color was set to Black and white at 9:39 AM
and cleared at 9:41 AM. No net change." The count in the sentence is the fields
that moved; when every field ended where it started, it counts those instead.

**Show the 3 saves**, under an entry that folded two or more, lists each save,
newest first, with its time and one line — "Changed Aspect ratio from 1.85:1 to
2.39:1", "Rewrote Synopsis", "Added the poster", or "Changed 4 fields: …" with
their names for a save that moved more than two. It reads **Hide the 3 saves**
once open.

A few fields are printed in their own terms rather than as stored:

- **Production budget**, **Submission fee** and **Discount amount** read as
  money — `$18,000.00 USD` — the same way the Information tab reads a budget
  back.
- **Student project** and **First time filmmaker** read **Yes** or **No**.
  *Not stated* is an empty answer, so it reads **Empty**.
- **Type** reads **Film** or **Screenplay**.
- **Poster** reads **Empty** and **New poster** for a first upload, and
  **Previous poster** and **Empty** for a removal. The picture itself is not
  shown.

**What the FilmFreeway sync changes is listed the same way, under
FilmFreeway.** On a festival connected to FilmFreeway, a sync that updates a
film's details is an entry of its own — "FilmFreeway edited 2 fields", with
**Sync** under it and the same **Was** and **Now** rows — and it never folds
into a person's. **A new screener link or runtime from FilmFreeway is an entry
too**, one per field — "FilmFreeway changed the screener link" (or "the
PDF link" on a screenplay), "FilmFreeway set the runtime" — with the old and new value
side by side. When the sync replaces something your team or the filmmaker typed
here, the **Was** is what they typed, so you can put it back by hand on the
Information tab.

### Everything else on it

Each entry is one of six types — the names the **Type** filter uses (see
[Finding an entry](#finding-an-entry)). Edits are **Details**; emails are
**Emails**, below. The rest:

**Intake** — how the submission arrived.

- **"Jo Whitaker imported this submission from FilmFreeway"**, with the
  import's batch code (**Import** `IMP-2026-08-08-1`) and the categories the
  import put it in. The name is whoever ran the import; FilmScorecard, when
  that cannot be read.
- **"imported this submission from Film Festival Circuit"** — a past event
  FilmScorecard brought in for you. It reads **FilmScorecard** as the one who
  did it.
- **"FilmFreeway added this submission"** — one the FilmFreeway sync brought
  in, with the sync's batch code (**Import** `IMP-2026-10-09-1`) and the
  categories it arrived in. A film first imported from a CSV export keeps its
  import entry, under whoever ran it, even once the sync keeps it up to date.
- **"FilmScorecard added this submission"** — one that did not come from an
  import.
- **"Alex Rivera claimed the submission"**, with "Signed in as
  alex.rivera@example.com" — the filmmaker saved it to their own FilmScorecard
  account, and this was the address on that account at the time. See
  [When a filmmaker saves a submission to their account](#when-a-filmmaker-saves-a-submission-to-their-account).

**Judging** — the judges' work on it, never their scores.

- **"Ana Ruiz started the Drama scorecard"** — a judge took the film from their
  queue. The other two kinds read "the technical scorecard" and "the press kit
  scorecard".
- **"Ana Ruiz skipped this film"**.
- **"Ana Ruiz filed the Drama scorecard"**, with "2 of 3 scorecards filed" —
  how many of the film's scorecards had been filed by then, out of those
  filed or still being scored now. A scorecard your own team fills in is filed
  under that person's name, with no "started" before it.
- **"Jo Whitaker sent Ana Ruiz's Drama scorecard back"**, with the reason the
  judge was sent in an amber note — "Reason sent to the judge: …".
- **"Ana Ruiz refiled the Drama scorecard"**, with "3 of 3 scorecards filed,
  after the return on 9 Oct 2026".
- A scorecard in a category the film has since left reads **"a scorecard in a
  removed category"**.

No score, answer or note from a scorecard is ever on this tab. Approving a
scorecard and editing one are not on it either — the
[Review Queue](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/review-queue.md) keeps those.

**Status** — where the submission stands.

- **"Jo Whitaker changed the status to Selected"**, with two status pills under
  it: what it was, an arrow, and what it became.
- **"held the submission out of judging"** and **"returned the submission to
  judging"** — the **Hold from judges** switch, the bulk bar's **Hold** and
  **Ready**, and an import that arrived on hold, under the name of whoever ran
  it. See [Holding a submission out of judging](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#holding-a-submission-out-of-judging).
- **"withdrew the submission"**, **"restored the submission"** and
  **"disqualified the submission"**. **"FilmFreeway withdrew the submission"**,
  with **Sync** under it, is the sync applying a filmmaker's withdrawal on
  FilmFreeway — see [FilmFreeway notices](#filmfreeway-notices).

**Scorecard access** — the results, and what the filmmaker did with them.

- **"Jo Whitaker released the results"** — this submission's own release or the
  season's, under the name of whoever released it — or **"FilmScorecard
  released the results automatically"**, when the season's schedule released it
  as it was approved. The line under it says what the filmmaker can now see. A
  season's release is listed only on a submission with a filed scorecard.
- **"Alex Rivera viewed the final score"** — they opened their scorecard
  before unlocking it — or **"viewed the full scorecards"**, after.
- **"signed in with the code"** — they typed their access code to get in.
- **"started checkout"**, with the categories, the **Total** and, when one was
  used, **Promo code** Applied.
- **"unlocked the full scorecards"** (they paid), **"unlocked the full
  scorecards free"** (with a free code), or **"Jo Whitaker comped the full
  scorecards"**, with the category, the **Order** number, what was **Paid**
  when anything was, and the **Code** when one was used.
- **"FilmScorecard refunded order SC-40211, access revoked"**, with the
  category and what was **Refunded**. Refunds arrive from the payment processor
  and carry no name.
- **"sent feedback"**, with the category. Never a word of what they wrote.
- **"created a share link"**, **"turned off the share link"** and **"saved a
  share card"**, with its **Style** and **Size**.

**Details**, besides edits — the filmmaker's own submission page.

- **"Alex Rivera opened the submission page"**.
- **"signed in with the code on the submission page"**.
- **"messaged the festival · Their entry"** — or **Awards**, **Their scorecard**
  or **Something else**: the filmmaker wrote to you with **Contact the
  festival**. The topic only, never what they wrote; the message itself went to
  your questions address (see [Messages from filmmakers](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submission-links.md#messages-from-filmmakers)).

**The money in these lines is shown only to somebody with *View revenue and
payouts*.** For anybody else, started checkout, unlocks, comps and refunds are
not on the tab at all — not hidden, never read, and in none of its counts — and
a release's line says what the filmmaker can see without the price. **Open
order**, under an unlock or a refund, opens that order on [Orders](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/orders.md);
it is drawn only for the organization's owners and org admins, the people that
screen opens for. Anybody else with the permission reads the order number and
no button.

**A filmmaker's visits fold by the day.** Opening the same page — or sending
feedback on the same category — more than once in a day is one entry, "viewed
the full scorecards 3 times", with every time under it (**Views** 9:02 AM,
1:15 PM, 8:40 PM) and the entry at the last of them. One visit has no count.

**A visit that began in one of your emails says which** — "Opened from the
Scorecard ready email", with the times when the day held more than one. A visit
from an email sent before FilmScorecard began recording this, or from a typed
address, says nothing about where it came from.

**A visit counts once the page has been on their screen for two seconds.** A
mail scanner checking the link, or a page closed at once, is not a visit. Only
the filmmaker's own visits count — see
[What is recorded, and what is not](#what-is-recorded-and-what-is-not).

### Emails on the Audit tab

**Every email FilmScorecard sends the filmmaker about this submission is an
entry of its own**, in the same newest-first timeline as everything else, under
the type **Emails**. FilmScorecard does the sending, so the entry is its own,
with **System** under it:

> 9:02 AM · **FilmScorecard** sent the Scorecard ready email
> System
> To alex.rivera@example.com · Queued 9:01 AM · Sent 9:02 AM · Delivered 9:02 AM

**The sentence is one of three**: "sent the … email", "could not send
the … email" or "did not send the … email". Once the email provider has
reported on a sent email, the sentence ends with the newest report — "sent the
Receipt email, which was delivered", "…, which bounced", "…, which was
delayed" or "…, which was marked as spam" — and every report stays listed
under it, oldest first. "The Scorecard ready email with a
promo code" is the results email when a release attached a code and it went in
the email. The name is the one
[Emails your festival sends](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/emails-your-festival-sends.md) lists it under:

| The sentence names | What it was |
| --- | --- |
| **Submission page link** | The email that sends the filmmaker their submission page: the season's automatic send as the submission arrives, **Send to N now** on Settings → Emails, **Email submission links** on the list, or the **Email** button on this submission's Submission link card. |
| **New link** | The short message with a link back and the access code: the filmmaker pressing **Email me a new link** on their own page, the **Email** button on the Scorecard link card, or **Resend access link** on Orders. |
| **Scorecard ready** | The results email — from the season's release, this submission's own release, or the season's release schedule. |
| **Receipt** | The receipt for a scorecard purchase, or one resent from Orders. |
| **Promo code** | **Email this code** on Promo codes, for this film. |

**Under it, the address and what became of the email, each with its time** — on
the entry's own day the time alone, on a later day with its date. First **To**,
the address it went to or would have gone to; then **Queued**, when the send
was asked for (left out when that record is gone); then the outcome; then
anything the mail service reported afterwards, in the order it happened:

| It reads | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **Sent** | The mail service accepted it. |
| **Failed** | The send did not go through. One entry per try: a send that is tried again adds another entry, sent or not. |
| **Not sent: already being scored** | **Email submission links** on the Submissions list passed the submission by, because a judge had already filed a creative scorecard on it. The season's automatic send, **Send to N now** and the **Email** button never skip a submission for this. See [Who gets one](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/inviting-submitters.md#who-gets-one). |
| **Not sent: nothing missing** | A send from the Submissions list's bulk bar passed the submission by, because nothing that counts toward its score was missing: **Email submission links** while judging was under way, or the missing-items reminder at any stage. The season's automatic send, **Send to N now** and the **Email** button never skip a submission for this. |
| **Not sent: submission page closed** | A submission-page email was due, but the page had already closed. |
| **Not sent: unsubscribed** | A promo-code email was due, but the filmmaker has unsubscribed from your organization's offers. |
| **Not sent: event mail off** | FilmScorecard was holding back your organization's event emails at the time. |
| **Delivered** | The filmmaker's mail server took it in. That is as far as anybody can see: it does not mean they read it. |
| **Delayed** | The mail server has not taken it yet, and the mail service is still trying. |
| **Bounced** | The filmmaker's mail server refused it. The reason it gave is in an amber note under the entry — "Bounced: …". |
| **Marked as spam** | The filmmaker reported it as spam. |

**Delivered, Delayed, Bounced and Marked as spam are added to an entry as the
mail service reports them**, after the send; the entry keeps its place in the
timeline. They exist only for emails sent since FilmScorecard began recording
them: an older email reads Sent and nothing after it.

**The same "Not sent", for the same reason and address, twice in a row is one
entry, not a pile.** Press **Email submission links** again on a submission it
passed by last time, and if it passes it by for the same reason, the one entry
moves forward to the latest time.

What is **not** an entry:

- **A send that was never due.** The season's automatic send or **Send to N
  now** skipping somebody who has already been invited, either of them waiting
  on a submission with no category, or a send asked for twice, leaves nothing
  here.
- **What the email said.** No copy of any email is kept, so the tab cannot show
  it again. The **Emails** tab in Settings shows what each kind of email looks
  like — see [Emails your festival sends](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/emails-your-festival-sends.md).
- **Opens and clicks.** Nothing records whether the filmmaker opened an email
  or pressed its button. What the tab does show is the filmmaker arriving on
  their scorecard or submission page, and which email they came from — see
  [Everything else on it](#everything-else-on-it) and
  [Opens and clicks](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/emails-your-festival-sends.md#opens-and-clicks).
- **Emails to judges and to your team.** Only emails to the submitter about
  this submission are listed.
- **Anything sent before these entries began.** The first emails listed are
  the first ones sent after the tab started recording them.

### Finding an entry

Along the top of the tab sit a search box and two filters, **Type** and
**Who**.

**The search box** — "Search 19 events" — finds an entry by anything it prints:
a name, a role, the sentence, a field's name, a value it held or holds, a
label and its value — an email's "Bounced", say, or a view's "9:02 AM" — a
line or a note. Capitals do not matter, and a straight apostrophe finds a curly
one. The list follows a moment after you stop typing. The ✕ in the box empties
it, and so does Escape; a second Escape, with the box empty, closes the panel
as usual.

**Type and Who** each open a short list with a box per choice and, beside
each, how many entries it would show — counted with the other filter and the
search already applied:

- **Type**: Details, Emails, Intake, Judging, Scorecard access, Status.
- **Who**: Festival staff, Judges, Submitter, System.

Tick as many as you like. Within one filter an entry needs to match any one of
them; across the two it must match both. **Select all**, at the head of the
list, ticks every choice, with a count such as **2 of 6** beside it, and
**Clear** empties that filter. The button reads **Any type** or **Anyone** with
nothing ticked, the choice's name with one, and **2 selected** with more, and
takes an indigo tint while it is set. Escape or a click elsewhere closes the
list. **Opened from the Emails cell on the list, Type starts with Emails and
Scorecard access ticked** and reads **2 selected**; from there it is yours to
change like any other filter.

**Clear filters**, beside them once anything is set, empties both filters and
the search at once.

**When nothing matches**, the list reads **No events match**, with a line
naming what you asked — "No Emails by System on this submission." or "No
events matching “bounced” on this submission." — and a **Clear filters**
button.

**Changing a filter or the search starts again from the newest entry.** While
the new answer is on its way, the entries you were reading stay on screen.

### What is recorded, and what is not

**Every field on the Project, Technical specs, Credits, Submitter, Personal
details, Links, Background and Entry record cards, plus the poster**, with two
exceptions:

- **Runtime or Pages is not recorded.** It describes the current cut, not the
  record.
- **The Tracking number and the Submission date** cannot change, so they have
  nothing to record.

**An edit made in Edit mode on the Submissions list is recorded exactly as the
same edit here would be**: under your name, with a row for each field that cell
or pop-out changed — and a run of cell edits ten minutes apart or less is one
entry, like any burst of saves. See [Edit mode](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#edit-mode).

The staff-only fields are recorded here like any other, and stay staff-only:
**a connected AI app reading a submission's history is not shown their lines**.

**The Screener access card is not recorded at all** — neither the screener link
nor the password, nor a screenplay's PDF. A save that changed only the
screener link shows nothing here. **The one exception is the FilmFreeway
sync**: a screener link or runtime it changes is an entry under FilmFreeway,
old value and new — see [Edits to the record](#edits-to-the-record).

**Beyond the record, the tab lists what [Everything else on it](#everything-else-on-it)
and [Emails on the Audit tab](#emails-on-the-audit-tab) describe** — its
arrival, its judging, its status, its hold, a withdrawal, its release, the
filmmaker's visits and actions, and its emails. **Some things that happen to a
submission are still not listed**: which **categories** it competes in, your
**flag**, its **Priority**, its place in an **award pool**, a scorecard's
approval and any edit to one, and a **move** to another season.

**A move is not an entry, and the history goes with the submission.** The new
season's team reads all of it, and the season it left keeps none. The judging
lines of scorecards the move deleted go with them — see
[Moving a submission to another festival](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#moving-a-submission-to-another-festival).

**Your team's reading is not recorded.** You or a colleague opening the
submission, here or on its scorecard and submission pages, leaves no entry —
see [Seeing what a submitter sees](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/seeing-what-a-submitter-sees.md). Nor does
a judge opening it. **Only the filmmaker's visits are listed**: their
scorecard and their submission page, folded by the day, and signing in to
either with their code.

**FilmScorecard's own measurements never appear here.** FilmScorecard also
keeps track of how its pages are used — to run and improve the product — and
reads that only itself; it is never shown to a festival.

Four more things to know:

- **A save that changed nothing writes nothing.** Pressing Save changes on an
  untouched form leaves no entry, and neither does a submitter saving a page
  they did not alter.
- **Replacing a poster with another file leaves no entry** — whether from
  this panel's card or by dropping a file on the row on the list. The record
  points at one poster, and a new file goes in the same place — so the record
  itself does not change, and the tab cannot see it. Only the first upload
  (**Empty** to **New poster**) and a removal (**Previous poster** to
  **Empty**) are recorded. The submitter's page has the same rule, with one
  wrinkle: a poster they replace still moves the date on the Information tab's
  "Edited by the submitter" line, so that line can be newer than anything this
  tab lists.
- **Edits from before the Audit tab arrived are not in it.** The edit history
  starts from that day, however many hands the record had been through before.
- **An older submission shows only what was already on record.** Its arrival,
  its emails, its unlocks and refunds, its judges' starts, filings, skips and
  send-backs, and its release are all there, because FilmScorecard already
  kept them. Its status changes, holds, withdrawals and saves to a filmmaker's
  account from before this timeline arrived are not, because nothing kept them
  — except that a film already on hold that day shows when it was held, and by
  whom. The filmmaker's visits, sign-ins, checkouts, feedback, share links and
  share cards, and every email's delivery, start from that day too.

### Reading it

**The tab shows 50 entries at a time, newest first.** The line at its foot says
what you are looking at — "19 events, all types, by anyone, newest first." —
and, with a filter or a search set, how many matched out of the whole: "1 of
19 events, Scorecard access, by Festival staff, newest first." With more than
50 to show it reads "Showing 50 of 212 events, …", beside a **Load 50 more**
button (fewer when fewer are left) that adds the next ones under those already
there. A day's count in its grey band is that day's whole total under your
filters, even when Load more has not brought all of it in yet.

**Every submission has at least one entry** — how it arrived — so the tab is
never empty unless a filter or the search empties it.

**The tab is read when the submission opens**, beside the rest of its record —
that is what puts the count in its name — so it is usually there the moment you
choose it. Placeholder bars stand in when it is not; coming back to the tab is
instant. **While the tab is in front of you it is re-read about once a minute**,
and again when you return to the browser tab — the same rhythm as the rest of
the panel, see [Opening, closing and resizing](#opening-closing-and-resizing).

**Your own saves appear at once.** Saving the Information tab, uploading a
poster — from this panel or by dropping it on the row — or removing one
refreshes the history in the same breath, so your entry is there when you
switch over. **Anything else appears within the minute** — a submitter's save,
a colleague's change, the filmmaker's visit, an email once FilmScorecard's
background sending has dealt with it, or what the mail service reports about
one.

| If you see | It means |
| --- | --- |
| "The audit log could not be loaded.", with **Try again** | The read failed, so there is nothing to show. Press Try again. If it is the answer to a new filter or search that failed, the search box and filters stay above it, so you can change what you asked instead. |
| "Couldn't refresh the audit log. Showing what was last loaded." | A red message at the bottom of the screen: the minute's re-read failed, and the entries on screen are the last good ones. It clears itself the next time a re-read succeeds. |
| "Couldn't load more events. Showing what was already loaded." | **Load more** failed. Nothing already shown is lost, and the button stays for another try. |
| "No events match" | Nothing fits the filters and search you set — see [Finding an entry](#finding-an-entry). |

**The tab can be named in the address.** `tab=audit` on the end of a
submission's link opens the panel straight onto it — handy in a message to a
colleague. `tab=awards` does the same for the Awards tab.

## What does not work yet

- **No scorecard opens from here.** The cards on the Scoring tab open in place
  to show their questions and notes; approving, rewriting and the full audit
  trail live in the [Review Queue](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/review-queue.md).
- **No scorecard is filled in from here either.** *Fill out a scorecard* is on
  the row menu on the list, not in this panel — see
  [Filling out a scorecard yourself](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/filling-out-a-scorecard.md).
- **Nothing on the Press kit card links to the field it is waiting for**, and
  nothing on the Information tab marks a field as one a press kit watches. You
  match them up by name. **The submitter's own page does mark them**, with a
  small "Press kit" badge beside every field one of its items watches — so the
  hint exists, one screen over: open their page yourself to read it, as
  [Seeing what a submitter sees](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/seeing-what-a-submitter-sees.md) describes.
- **The scorecard access line does not say how a submission was unlocked** —
  bought, comped or unlocked for nothing all read the same there, and there is
  no refund control anywhere in the panel. The Audit tab tells them apart, for
  somebody with *View revenue and payouts* — see
  [Everything else on it](#everything-else-on-it).
- **The Audit tab says an email went, not what it said.** Each email about the
  submission is listed with its address, whether it was sent and — for one sent
  since FilmScorecard began recording it — whether it was delivered or bounced;
  see [Emails on the Audit tab](#emails-on-the-audit-tab). No copy is kept, and
  nothing records whether the filmmaker opened it, only whether they came to
  their page from it.
- **Judge this first does not say who set it, or when**, and nothing else in
  FilmScorecard shows that either. **Hold from judges does not say so on its
  card** — the Audit tab does, for every hold since it began recording them.
- **A scorecard on a category the submission has left is not shown here.** It
  is in the [Review Queue](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/review-queue.md#scorecards-on-a-removed-category).
- **The Awards tab does not set results or mentions**, and does not add a film
  to a category award. Results and mentions are decided on the
  [Awards](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/awards.md) screen and the pool; a category award's pool follows
  the film's categories.
- **The Audit tab covers one submission, and does not export.** There is no
  history across a season or your organization, and no way to download one.
- **The Audit tab does not see everything.** The screener link, the password,
  a screenplay's PDF, the runtime or page count (except a link or runtime the
  FilmFreeway sync changed), a FilmFreeway notice, the categories, the flag,
  Priority, award pools, a scorecard's approval or edits, a move, and anybody
  on your team reading the submission are outside it, and a poster replaced by
  another file leaves no entry — see
  [What is recorded, and what is not](#what-is-recorded-and-what-is-not).
- **Nothing tells you the panel has just been re-read.** A score or a scoring
  card that changes while you are reading changes quietly, and a form you are
  part-way through typing is never disturbed by it.
- **Only Vimeo, YouTube and Google Drive play inside the panel.** Every other
  screener opens in a new tab at the link recorded for it, and a frame that
  shows the platform's own error instead of the film is something FilmScorecard
  cannot detect — use the link beside it before you conclude the screener is
  broken.
- **Only the Audit tab says whether a filmmaker has saved the submission to
  their own account**, and only for a save since it began recording them. It
  changes nothing you can do — see
  [When a filmmaker saves a submission to their account](#when-a-filmmaker-saves-a-submission-to-their-account).