Paying for your scorecard

Your score is free — in every category your film was judged in. What costs money is the judging behind it: every judge's own answers, the averages, the written notes, the technical review and your place in the category. This guide covers the price, the block that offers it, the checkout dialog and its bundle, a promo code if the festival gave you one, paying on Stripe, what happens when you come back, the receipt, and the states where there is no button at all.

A scorecard is bought one category at a time. A film judged in three categories has three scorecards, three panels and three prices — and you never have to buy more than the one you are reading.

You still never make an account. Paying does not create one, does not set a password, and does not change the access code that got you in. See Getting into your scorecard for the code itself.

What it costs

$29.99 USD for the first category on your submission, and $22.49 for every category after it. Access does not expire.

• A film judged in one category costs $29.99, and that is the whole of it.
• Every category after your first is 25% off, and it does not matter when you buy it. Adding the others in the same press and coming back for one six months later cost exactly the same: two categories come to $52.48, three to $74.97.
• "After your first" means what you already own, by any route — bought, comped by the festival, or unlocked free. A category the festival opened for you last month makes the next one $22.49 too.
• A refunded category does not count, and it can never be bought again. See Refunds.
• The same price at every festival. There is no price field on any festival's screens: the figure comes from the platform, so nobody you entered with chose it and nobody can change it for you.
• It is per submission, per season. Two films in one festival are two purchases; the same film entered again next year is a new submission with scorecards of its own.
• Only the categories on your page are for sale. A category your film was entered in but nobody has scored yet has no tab on your scorecard and is not charged for.

A few seasons carry no charge at all. Where that is so, the button reads Free unlock, no dialog opens, and pressing it unlocks every category on the submission at once. It is still a real unlock with receipt numbers, and it still cannot be undone. If the festival cannot take unlocks at the moment, pressing it answers "Purchases are not available yet." and unlocks nothing; try again later.

A promo code can bring the price down if the festival gave you one — and some festivals can give out a code that makes it free. See If you have a promo code.

The block that offers it

The purchase block sits along the bottom of the dark block at the top of your scorecard, and it is about the category you are reading. It is drawn while that category is locked and can still be bought.

FULL SCORECARD, DRAMA FILM

$29.99

USD, one time, permanent access. Your other 2 categories are 25% off after this one.

WHAT THIS ONE PURCHASE COVERS ✓ The Lighthouse Keeper in Drama Film, at Northern Lights Film Festival, Spring 2026 ✓ Every score and answer from your judges, their 6 written notes, the 6 answers to your own 2 questions and your exact season rank ✓ PDF, share card and permanent access, for this one scorecard

Unlock for $29.99 · Read the free preview first

• The line under the price says one of three things. With nothing owned and other categories still locked: "USD, one time, permanent access. Your other 2 categories are 25% off after this one." With a category already owned, the price is struck through beside a 25% off pill and the line names them: "25% off, because you already own Documentary. One time, permanent access." On a single-category submission with nothing owned it is simply "USD, one time, permanent access."
• The middle line of the contents card drops the rank clause — reading "Every score and answer from your judges and their 6 written notes" — while the festival has not released any rank for your submission. The page will not promise a number that is still being calculated. It drops "their 6 written notes" too on a category whose judges wrote no notes.
• "Read the free preview first" jumps you to the category's free preview — one judge's note, or one written answer where there are no notes. It is not drawn when the category has none. See The free preview.
• The counts are your own. The number of notes is counted off that category.

Two more places offer the same purchase, and both open the same dialog: a bar that appears at the top of the window once the block has scrolled out of sight (and hides again over the band at the foot of the page), and that band itself. On a phone the bar is at the bottom of the screen instead and the block's own button is hidden, so there is only ever one thing to press.

The checkout dialog

Unlock for $29.99 opens a dialog rather than sending you straight to Stripe. It exists to show you what you are buying before you leave the page:

Unlock scorecard The Lighthouse Keeper · Northern Lights Film Festival, Spring 2026

Drama Film scorecard — $29.99 Permanent access, PDF included

☐ Add your other 2 categories, 25% off each Documentary, Experimental. Separate scorecards, unlocked together. +$44.98

Total — $29.99

Have a promo code?

Not included: Documentary and Experimental on this submission, or any other festival or season. Payment is taken by Stripe on behalf of Northern Lights Film Festival; FilmScorecard never sees your card details.

Cancel Continue to checkout

• The line is the category you are reading. If you already own another category on this submission, its price is the 25%-off one, with $29.99 struck through beside it.
• The tick box is the whole of the bundle. Tick it and the Total and the "Not included" sentence change at once: every locked category is added at 25% off, and the sentence becomes "Not included: any other festival, and any other season." Untick it and you are back to the one.
• They stay separate scorecards. A bundle is one payment and one trip to Stripe; each category is unlocked in its own right, with its own receipt number.
• The row is not drawn at all when there is no other locked category — on a single-category submission, or once you own the rest.
• "Not included" always names the boundary: the categories this press does not buy, and — always — any other festival and any other season.
• Cancel closes the dialog and charges nothing. So does Escape, or clicking outside it.

Continue to checkout takes you to Stripe; while it is working, the two buttons give way to a small spinner and "Opening secure checkout at Stripe". If something goes wrong on the way, the buttons come back with the sentence above them and the dialog stays open — nothing has been charged.

If you have a promo code

Promo codes come from the people who run the festival. Each organization on FilmScorecard makes its own codes for its own festivals, so a code works only in the festivals and seasons it was made for — a code from one festival does nothing at another run by somebody else. If you have one, the festival's organizers gave it to you.

1. Press Have a promo code? in the dialog. A single Promo code field opens under it, with the cursor already in it and an Apply button beside it.
2. Type the code. Capitalisation does not matter — spring25 is the same code as SPRING25. Codes are 4 to 24 letters, numbers and hyphens; the field takes nothing longer.
3. Press Apply to see what the code takes off. See What Apply shows.
4. If you want your other categories too, tick Add your other … categories — before or after Apply. The code applies to everything in this one purchase.
5. Press Continue to checkout.

• Apply is optional. Continue to checkout uses whatever is in the field, applied or not, so skipping Apply never costs you a discount. Without it, the dialog goes on showing the price before the code, and what the code takes off is first shown on Stripe's own page.
• A code you type never changes the price on the page. Only the dialog's figures do, after Apply. A code that comes in the festival's email is the exception: the email's links price the page itself — see A code from your results email.
• The code applies to each scorecard in the purchase, at that scorecard's own price — after the 25% off. A 20% code takes $6.00 off a $29.99 scorecard and $4.50 off a $22.49 one. A $15.00-off code takes $15.00 off each, making them $14.99 and $7.49.
• A percent-off or amount-off code never makes a purchase free. However much one is worth, each category keeps part of its price, so there is always something to pay on Stripe — and never less than $0.50.
• A free-unlock code does. Some festivals can give out a code that unlocks the scorecard for nothing. Type it and press Continue to checkout, and you do not go to Stripe at all: you land straight back on your scorecard, unlocked, on the category you chose — and on every other locked category too if you ticked Add your other … categories. You are emailed a receipt for $0.00. It is as permanent as any other unlock. Apply it first and the dialog shows Free and a Total of $0.00, and the button reads Unlock scorecard.
• One code per purchase.
• Some codes can be used only once per person, counted by the email address the festival holds for your submission — across all your films in every festival and season the code covers. Nothing in the dialog says whether yours is one of them, so if you want more than one category, buy them together in the same press.
• An empty field, or one holding only spaces, is treated as no code at all. Apply stays greyed out until you type something.

A code from your results email

When the festival put a promo code in your results email, you do not type it. Press any of the email's scorecard links — Unlock the full scorecard, See your final score or the link printed under it. You land on your submission page with Your scorecard is in at the top, and its View scorecard opens your scorecard already priced with the code. Nothing opens on top of it — read the page, and press Unlock when you are ready.

An email the festival sends you about a promo code works the same way. Its View your scorecard button, and the link under it, open your submission page, and View scorecard there carries the code on to your scorecard.

FULL SCORECARD, DRAMA FILM

$23.99 $29.99 SPRING25 · 20% off

Unlock for $23.99

• Every price on the page is the code's price. The block at the top shows it with the price before the code struck through beside it, and a pill naming the code and what it takes off — "SPRING25 · 20% off", "R8AMT5 · $5.00 off" or "… · Free". The button reads Unlock for $23.99. The band at the foot of the page and the bar that follows you show the same price, the price before the code struck beside it.
• On a category that is already 25% off, the code's pill takes the place of the 25% off pill, and the struck figure is the 25%-off price.
• A free-unlock code shows Free and a button reading Unlock free. It still opens the dialog, where Unlock scorecard finishes it.
• Every checkout you open on this visit starts with the code applied — the code in the Promo code field and Apply already pressed, so the dialog shows what the code takes off, as described below. Choose your categories and press Continue to checkout as usual. Remove the code and it is gone for that checkout only; the next one opens with it again.
• The code stays in the page's address, so a reload keeps the price, and so does moving between categories: each one is priced with the code the first time you open it.
• ← Your submission leaves the code behind. Back on your submission page that way, View scorecard opens the page at the price without the code; press the email's link again to bring the code back.
• The page opens on a category you can still buy — the highest-scoring of them.
• The price is the one Apply would show, worked out when the page opens, not when the email was sent. For a moment as the page loads, the block shows the full price.
• If the code can't be used, the full price stands and the reason shows in one line under the price — "That code can't be used for this purchase." when it has stopped working since the email (paused, ended, used up). The dialog opens with the code in the field and the same sentence under it. Nothing is charged; buy at the full price, or close the dialog. "We couldn't check that code. Try again in a moment." means the check itself did not go through: reload the page, or press Apply in the dialog.
• Nothing changes when there is nothing to buy — every category already unlocked, say. The code is simply not used.

What Apply shows

Apply checks the code for this purchase and, when it can be used, shows what it does before you go anywhere. While it checks, the button reads Applying….

Drama Film scorecard — $29.99 Permanent access, PDF included

Code SPRING25 · 20% off — −$6.00 Total — $29.99 $23.99

• The category rows keep their prices before the code. One new row above Total names the code and what it is worth — "20% off", "$15.00 off" or "Free" — with what it saves on this purchase, in green.
• Total is what you will pay, with the price before the code struck through beside it. Stripe's page charges the same figure.
• The bundle tick switches the figures at once. Tick Add your other … categories after Apply and the saving and the Total change to cover every category in the purchase — a 20% code on $29.99 and two $22.49 categories saves $15.00 and makes the Total $59.97 — with nothing to press again. Untick it and you are back to the one.
• Apply becomes Remove. Remove empties the field and puts the figures back to the price before the code. Changing the text in the field does the same to the figures; press Apply again for the new code.
• A free-unlock code shows Free, a Total of $0.00 and a button reading Unlock scorecard. While it works, the dialog says "Unlocking your scorecard", and you land back on your scorecard unlocked, with no Stripe page.

If what the code takes off changes between Apply and Continue, Continue stops before Stripe with "This code's discount changed. Check the new total and continue." and the dialog shows the new figures. Nothing has been charged; press Continue to checkout again to pay the new total.

When a code is not accepted

Nothing is charged and no trip to Stripe is started. The sentence appears inside the dialog — under the field after Apply, above the buttons after Continue — the code stays in the field and the dialog stays open, so a typo is one correction away. A refused Apply leaves the figures as they were.

No message ever says which of those reasons it was, and that is deliberate: a page anyone can open must not be usable for guessing at codes.

For the same reason, ten codes that cannot be used within an hour close the field for a while. A refused Apply and a refused Continue count toward the same ten. After that, every code on the same submission gets "That code can't be used for this purchase." — even a right one — until the hour has passed. Wait, then try again with the code exactly as you were given it.

Paying

1. Press Continue to checkout.
2. Your browser goes to Stripe, in the same tab. Stripe is the payment company; the page is theirs, on their address, and neither the festival nor this site ever sees your card.
3. Stripe's page lists one line per category — Full scorecard access — Drama Film, with your festival's name under it, and another line for each category you added, at its own price. Your film's title is not on them — the lines are about what you are buying, not which submission it is for. With a promo code, each line is already at its price after the code, and the code and what it took off that line are printed beside the festival's name — "Northern Lights Film Festival · Code SPRING25, −$6.00". The total on this page is what you will pay — the same Total the dialog showed after Apply.
4. Pay by card. Apple Pay and Google Pay ride on the card, so they appear there if your browser offers them. No other payment method is offered.
5. Stripe sends you back to your scorecard, onto the category you bought.

With a promo code, Stripe's page stays open for 30 minutes. If it runs out, come back to your scorecard and start again with the same code. Starting again closes the Stripe page you opened before, so there is only ever one to pay.

Leaving Stripe changes nothing. Close the tab, press your browser's back button, or simply give up: nothing is bought and nothing is charged, and your next visit is the ordinary locked page. The festival can see that you started a checkout, though: every press of Continue to checkout that reaches Stripe puts a line on its record of your submission, with the categories and the total, whether or not you go on to pay.

A declined card is Stripe's business, not ours. They keep you on their own page to try again; nothing is recorded here, and your scorecard is untouched.

Coming back

Three things can happen when Stripe hands you back, and you do not choose between them — the page does.

Your scorecard is unlocked, on the category you bought, and a short sequence plays over the page counting out what you have just opened before handing you Show my scorecard. It plays once; a reload afterwards shows the page plainly. See Right after you pay.

"Payment received — unlocking…" appears where the price was, with the time you arrived under it. Your payment went through and the confirmation has not reached us yet — this takes seconds, not minutes. The page refreshes itself every couple of seconds for up to half a minute, and the unlock sequence plays as soon as it lands. If it runs out, the line becomes:

This is taking longer than usual. Your receipt email will confirm the purchase, and this page will unlock.

That is not a failure and you have not lost anything. Come back to the same link later. Nothing on the page offers the purchase again while that line shows, so there is no way to pay twice by mistake.

"Checkout canceled — nothing was charged." sits above the button, and the block is otherwise exactly as it was. That is what you get if you left Stripe without paying. There is nothing to dismiss — the line goes when you next move around the page.

Your receipt

One email, from us, for each payment — one message however many categories it covered. The payment confirmation sets it going immediately; if that nudge does not land, it waits for the next scheduled sending run instead.

Receipt SC-50001: your scorecard for The Lighthouse Keeper

PAYMENT RECEIVED

Thank you. Your scorecard is unlocked.

Your Drama Film scorecard for The Lighthouse Keeper is ready to read and keep.

[ Read your scorecard ]

Rate your scorecard

RECEIPT — SC-50001 Festival: Northern Lights Film Festival Spring 2026 Submission: The Lighthouse Keeper Category: Drama Film Date: Jun 3, 2026 Paid to: Northern Lights Film Festival Total paid: $29.99 USD View invoice

QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS PURCHASE? Contact Northern Lights Film Festival at their address.

Scorecard purchases are final and non refundable, since the content is released as soon as you pay. Access does not expire.

• SC-50001 is your receipt number, the same one printed in the strip at the top of that category. Quote it if you write to the festival.
• The date is the day you paid, in the festival's own time zone.
• The questions box names the festival's address when they have given one.
• Read your scorecard is the button, and it opens the same page you were on.
• Rate your scorecard, the small link under it, opens your scorecard with the rating panel already open, so you can tell the festival how useful it was. The message carries a plain-text version of itself as well, so a mail reader that shows no formatting still gets the festival, the receipt number, the money, the invoice and the link.
• It carries no access code, and asking for one does not resend it. Your existing code and the browser you are already in keep working exactly as before.
• Replies go to the festival, at the address they gave for questions.
• A season's Free unlock and a festival's own comp send no receipt email — nothing was charged, and you did not ask for anything at checkout. The receipt numbers are still on your page. A free-unlock code does send one, because you asked for it at checkout: its Total paid is $0.00, and it has no invoice — nothing went through Stripe.

Only one receipt is ever sent for a payment, however many times the confirmation is delivered to us.

If you bought more than one category

The subject and the heading count the scorecards, the Category line goes, and the receipt lists one line per category, each with its own number under it:

Receipt SC-50001: 2 scorecards for The Lighthouse Keeper

Thank you. Your 2 scorecards are unlocked.

Your Drama Film and Short Film scorecards for The Lighthouse Keeper are ready to read and keep.

Scorecard, Drama Film (SC-50001) — $29.99 Scorecard, Short Film (SC-50002) — $22.49 Total paid: $52.48 USD

• The message names only the categories you bought, never "every scorecard": the film may be in categories you did not pay for.
• Each category has a receipt number of its own. They are all yours and they all belong to the same payment; quote whichever one the festival asks for.
• Each category's tab shows its own number in the strip at the top.
• Total paid is what left your card.

If you used a promo code

The receipt shows the category at its price before the code, then a Promo line that takes the discount off:

Scorecard, Drama Film — $29.99 Promo SPRING25 — −$6.00 Total paid: $23.99 USD

• Total paid is what left your card. The line above the code is what the scorecard costs without it.
• The code is printed in capitals, however you typed it into the field.
• On a purchase of several categories each line shows its price before the code and one Promo line takes off the whole discount. The plain-text version of the email shows each category's own share of what you paid instead, with List price, Code and Paid lines under them.

The invoice

Stripe writes the invoice for the sale, and the receipt carries it two ways:

• View invoice, the link at the foot of the receipt, opens Stripe's own hosted copy — the document to keep, print or forward to whoever handles your receipts.
• The PDF is attached to the email as invoice-<number>.pdf when Stripe had it ready in time.

A missing attachment is not a missing invoice. The document is prepared on Stripe's side a moment after the payment, and the receipt does not wait for it: if it is not ready, the email goes out with the link alone and the link opens the finished invoice whenever you press it. If neither the link nor the attachment is there, quote your SC- number to the festival.

The no-refunds sentence is printed on that invoice too, in the same words as on the page and at the foot of the email.

When there is no button

Three states replace the price and the button in the block at the top of the page. None of them is something you can press your way out of, and none of them offers a promo-code field.

Your scorecard stays readable in the first state. Everything free on it, and every category you already unlocked, reads exactly as before, and asking for a new access code still works.

The refunded state covers every category on the submission. If one category was refunded and another was never bought, the page cannot sell you the second one either. Write to the festival; they can open it for you at no charge.

The rest of the page goes quiet with it. The band at the foot of the page and the bar are not drawn in these three states, and nothing on the page opens the checkout dialog.

Refunds

Purchases are final. The scorecard is released the instant you pay, which is why the page says so before you press anything and the receipt says it again afterwards.

• There is no refund button anywhere — not on your page, not on the festival's screens. Nothing in this product asks for a refund or grants one.
• A refund is an exception, not a step in the flow. If you believe you were charged in error, write to the festival — or, for anything about the payment itself, to [email protected]. Whether anything comes of it is not something this page can promise you.
• A full refund re-locks everything that payment bought, permanently. Every category in it goes back to its locked shape, and none of them can ever be bought again. A category you unlocked in a different payment is untouched and stays open.
• A refunded category does not earn you the 25%. The discount counts what you still own.
• Nothing is emailed when a refund happens. The page changing is the whole of the notice.
• A partial refund changes nothing. Your scorecard stays unlocked.
• Your share card follows the scorecard. If your unlock is refunded, a public share link falls back to the basic card — film, festival and score, no rank and no quoted lines — on its next view. See Sharing your scorecard.

Smaller things worth knowing

• If the category is already unlocked, the button does not take you to Stripe. It puts you back on your own scorecard, unlocked, with the receipt you already have.
• The festival can unlock your scorecard for you, at no charge, and that covers every category that has not been bought. It looks identical from your side: the same unlocked page, receipt numbers, and the same permanence. There is no way to ask for it from your page.
• Nothing about paying reaches your judges, and nothing about it can change a score. The foot of every scorecard says so: "Purchasing scorecard access never affects scores, selection or awards."
• Buying early does not lock your score in. The page is worked out fresh every time it is opened, so a scorecard you unlocked while your season was still being judged shows the higher figure later, once the rest of your scorecards are approved.
• Unlocking is per submission, not per browser. Once a category is unlocked it is unlocked for anyone who gets through the code page — which is you, on however many devices you enter your code on.
• A promo code changes what you pay and nothing else. Same unlocked page, same receipt numbers, same permanence, same everything behind it.
• The Share panel has an unlock button of its own, and it is the one control on the page that is not per category: it buys every locked category on the submission in one payment, and it names that total. It has no promo-code field. See Sharing your scorecard.

On a phone

• The purchase block sits under your score, and a bar fixes itself to the bottom of the screen with the category, the price and one button; the block's own button is hidden, so there is only ever one thing to press.
• The bar follows the button. In the three states above there is no bar at all, and no empty band where it would have been. Neither is there one on a free season — there, the block's own Free unlock button stays where it is.
• The checkout dialog fills the screen, and Cancel and Continue to checkout stay at the bottom of it however long the dialog gets.

Related guides

• Your scorecard — the page itself: the category tabs, your score, the tables, the free preview, your ranks and the PDF.
• Getting into your scorecard — the nine-character access code, the lockout, and asking for a new one.
• Sharing your scorecard — the Share button, the card it builds for the category you are reading, and the unlock button inside the share panel.