# Releasing scorecards to submitters > From FilmScorecard Help: https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/releasing-scorecards When a season's judging is done, FilmScorecard can hand each filmmaker their own scorecard: their scores, their judges' written notes and their place in the season. This guide covers the one setting that decides when that happens, the **Release scorecards** and **Release the rest** actions, and exactly what a submitter gets. It all lives on the **Releasing scorecards** card of **Settings → Results** (`…/settings?tab=submitter`), a tab only owners and staff of the organization can open — it was called **Submitter profile** until recently. **Settings → Emails** sets the same release setting too, as **When it sends** on the **Step 2 · Scorecards ready** card, beside the promo code for releases that happen on their own. See [Festival settings](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#results) for the screen as a whole. **This page is about the season.** One submission's scorecard can go out ahead of the rest, from the **Release scorecard** button on that submission's own detail panel — see [Releasing one submission's scorecard](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/releasing-one-scorecard.md). Everything below still applies to it; the season's release simply finds it already open. **A submitter's rank is released separately**, category by category, from the [Awards](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/awards.md#releasing-a-categorys-rank) screen. Releasing scorecards does not release any rank, and releasing a rank does not release any scorecard — see [Ranks are released on their own](#ranks-are-released-on-their-own). ## Before anything is released **Approval is what makes a scorecard exist for its submitter.** A judge's filed card reaches nobody until a coordinator approves it on the [Review Queue](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/review-queue.md). Until then it is not counted, not scored on the submitter's page, and not part of anything below. So the order is: judges file → coordinators approve → the season releases. **A submission with nothing scored is not released to anybody.** "Scored" means an approved scorecard counts toward one of its categories — a judge's creative scorecard, or the technical review or press-kit card a category is scored on — or a judge's creative scorecard has been approved in any of them. A submission with neither gets no email, and its scorecard address shows a "Not available yet" page — the film's name, its category, its `SUB-` number and the season, and one sentence saying it opens once the festival releases it — even for the person who submitted it. Approve its scorecards and it joins the rest on its next load — nothing needs re-releasing. **A technical review is enough to put a film on its filmmaker's page.** A film whose technical review is approved and whose judges have not filed yet is released with the score that review has earned, and the filmmaker's page shows its Creative section as "Not judged yet". There is nothing for them to buy in that category until a creative scorecard in it is approved — see [The unlock, and what it costs](#the-unlock-and-what-it-costs). **Settle your section weights first.** How a score is divided between the creative, technical and press-kit scorecards is a season setting on Settings → Judging, and **releasing locks it for good** — the season's release or one submission released early, either one, and on **As each submission is approved** that means the first submission it releases. Check it before you release; see [Section weights](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#section-weights). **And check how far the judging actually got.** A filmmaker's score is what the approved work has earned, so a film released two judges short of its panel shows a lower figure than it will finish on. It is a real number and it rises as the rest are approved — but if you would rather nobody read the lower one, release after the panels are complete. The Scoring filter on [Submissions](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#about-scores) is how you see which films are short. The two approval schedules below — **When every submission is approved** and **As each submission is approved** — wait for that on their own. **And know that releasing closes every submitter's own edit page.** If you have sent [submission-page links](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submission-links.md), the filmmakers holding them can correct their taglines, synopses, credits and posters right up to the release and not one second past it. Release when you want the record final. On **As each submission is approved** the pages close one at a time, each at the moment its own submission is released. ## Choosing when it happens **Scorecards become available** is a choice of five, each with a line under it saying what it waits for — for the two dated choices, the date itself. The row's own sentence sums it up: "From this moment submitters can see their scores, and the Scorecard ready email goes out. A submission with no approved scorecard gets neither. Releasing can't be undone." Pick a dated choice whose date is not set and an amber warning appears under the list — "No judging close time is set yet, so scorecards won't be released until you add one on the Season tab.", or the same for the selections date — which does not stop you saving. Pick one of the two approval choices and the line under the list says how far the season has got. **When it sends**, on the Emails tab's **Step 2 · Scorecards ready** card, is this same choice — "The same setting as on the Results tab, so the email and the scorecard arrive together." — with the same five options, the same lines and the same confirmation, so you can change it from either tab. Once the season's scorecards have gone out it becomes a padlocked "Sent" and the date, with **Open Results** to bring you back here. | The choice | When scorecards open | | --- | --- | | **When judging closes** | The moment the season's judging close time passes. The line under it is that time, or "Uses the judging close time on the Season tab." With no close time set, never. | | **When selections are announced** | From midnight on the Season tab's **Selections announced** date, in the season's own time zone. The line under it is that date, or "Uses the selections date on the Season tab." With no date set, never. This choice was called **On the selection date**. | | **As each submission is approved** | One submission at a time: each opens, and its submitter is emailed, on the first background check after its own judging is fully approved — see [As each submission is approved](#as-each-submission-is-approved). Its line: "Each submitter gets theirs as soon as every scorecard on their submission is approved." | | **When every submission is approved** | All at once, on the first background check after every submission in the season is fully judged and approved — see [When every submission is approved](#when-every-submission-is-approved). Its line: "Everyone gets theirs together, once the last submission is approved." | | **Only when I release them** | Never, until you press **Release scorecards**. Its line: "Nothing is released until you do it yourself." | **A new festival's first season starts on As each submission is approved.** A season started from another one takes that season's choice instead — see [Seasons, festivals and imports](#seasons-festivals-and-imports). Three things about this that are easy to get wrong: - **"When judging closes" includes closing judging by hand.** Choosing **Close judging now** — under the Judging row on the Season tab's Dates card — sets the closing time to that moment — and on this policy that opens every eligible scorecard in the season straight away. If you are not ready for that, move the season to **Only when I release them** first. - **The Selections announced date is a real trigger on that policy.** On any other policy it only puts **Official Selection** on public film pages and appears in the results email — it opens no scorecards. - **Changing the policy or the date takes a Save.** Nothing on this tab acts until you press **Save changes** on the bar at the bottom of the screen — and a Save that moves a season to **As each submission is approved** while some of its submissions are already fully approved asks first, because it releases them; see [Switching to it mid-season](#switching-to-it-mid-season). ### When every submission is approved This schedule watches the season's judging and releases the scorecards itself, all together, once there is nothing left to approve. The line under the list reads the season's live state: > Waiting on 14 submissions. > Every scorecard is approved, releasing on the next sweep. **What "fully approved" means.** A submission is fully approved when, **in each of its categories**, every scorecard that category uses has its approved card: - **a full panel of approved creative scorecards**, when the category has a creative scorecard — as many as the season's **Judges per category** asks for, and never fewer than one. A colleague's own filing counts as one of them, exactly as it counts in the score; see [Filling out a scorecard yourself](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/filling-out-a-scorecard.md). Judges are offered each category until it has that many, so a film in two categories reaches a full panel in both from your judges alone — provided some of them may score each category. - **an approved card for the technical review**, when the category has one — even a checklist worth no points, or one weighted 0%. A technical review shared by two of a submission's categories is one card and satisfies both. - **an approved press-kit card**, when the category's press kit has something on it for a coordinator to mark. **A scorecard the category does not use owes nothing.** A category with no creative scorecard is fully approved on its technical review and press kit alone, without waiting for any judge. The full rule, and everything else it decides, is on [When a film is fully judged](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/how-scoring-works.md#when-a-film-is-fully-judged). The season is complete when every submission still in it is fully approved — withdrawn and disqualified ones do not count. A submission attached to no category is never fully approved, and **a season with no submissions never releases this way** — choosing this on an empty season does nothing until something is imported, and the line reads "Waiting on 0 submissions." in the meantime. **The count is submissions, not scorecards.** "Waiting on 14 submissions" is how many films still owe at least one approval. The Scoring filter on [Submissions](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#about-scores) is where you find which ones — remembering that its **All scores in** leaves the press kit out, so a film can read All scores in and still owe its press-kit card here. **It is checked by FilmScorecard's background work, and approving sets it going.** Approving a scorecard on the Review Queue — one at a time or in bulk — or filing one yourself starts that check straight away, so "releasing on the next sweep" normally means within about a minute of the last approval. A change that completes the season some other way — a category taken off a submission, say — is picked up on the next background run, which happens at least once a day. A season that becomes complete and then, before the check, gains a new submission or loses an approval simply goes back to waiting. Once released, the padlocked row appears as under any other policy, and nothing that happens afterwards un-releases it. **A press kit that fills itself is not waited for.** A press-kit scorecard whose every item watches a submission field — one that fills itself in and is never offered to a coordinator to mark (see [A press kit that fills itself is not offered here](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/filling-out-a-scorecard.md#a-press-kit-that-fills-itself-is-not-offered-here)) — owes no card, so it never holds this schedule up. A press kit with even one item somebody marks does: that card has to be filled in, from [Filling out a scorecard yourself](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/filling-out-a-scorecard.md), before the submission counts as fully approved. ### As each submission is approved This schedule releases the season one submission at a time. The moment a submission is fully approved — the same test as above, applied to that submission alone — FilmScorecard opens its scorecard and emails its submitter, without waiting for anybody else. The line under the list counts how far the season has got: > 12 of 40 submissions released. Waiting on 28. Once every submission is out, the second sentence goes: "40 of 40 submissions released." A season with nothing in it yet reads "No submissions yet." **"Released" counts every submission whose scorecard is open on its own** — released by this schedule, or by hand from its detail panel. Everything else is waiting: a submission still owed an approval, one attached to no category, and one that has just become fully approved and not yet been picked up. The line reads the season as it was when the page loaded; reload to see it move. Three things follow from releasing submission by submission: - **A submission in two categories waits for both.** A finished panel in one does not release it; it goes out when the second is finished too, with both categories on its page. To send one out ahead of its slower category, release it by hand — see [Releasing one submission's scorecard](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/releasing-one-scorecard.md). - **A submission attached to no category never releases this way.** It stays in the waiting count until it is attached and judged, or until you use [Release the rest](#release-the-rest). - **A withdrawn submission is left out, and comes back if it is restored.** Restored and fully approved, it is released on the next background run. **Approving is what sets it going.** Approving a scorecard on the Review Queue — one at a time or in bulk — or filing one yourself starts the background check straight away, so a submission whose last card you have just approved normally opens, and its email leaves, within about a minute. A change that completes a submission any other way — a category taken off it, a withdrawn submission restored — waits for the next background run, at least once a day. **Each submitter is emailed once.** It is the same results email a season release sends — see [What a submitter gets](#what-a-submitter-gets) — sent when their own submission is released, and not again when the season is later marked released. Their page reads like one released ahead of the season: the rank card carries "This can still change while the season is being judged." until the season is marked released. And their own [submission page](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submission-links.md) closes as their scorecard opens; everybody else's stays open. **Each release is permanent.** A submission released this way stays released if a scorecard on it is later withdrawn, and if you move the season to another schedule afterwards — the submissions still waiting then follow the new schedule. A coordinator can still release a submission early, by hand, from its detail panel; this schedule never releases, or emails, a submission that is already released. **When the season itself is marked released.** The padlocked **Released** row appears on its own once both of these are true: **judging has closed**, and **every submission in the season has been released**. No email goes out at that point: every submitter was emailed at their own release — except any you released by hand without the email, who are not emailed now either. Until then the season stays open to more releases, which is why it waits for judging to close: submissions imported late simply join the waiting count and release one by one as each is approved. **Close judging now**, on the Season tab's Dates card, starts the check at once; a close date that simply passes is picked up on the next background run. **A season with no judging close date is never marked released on its own** — use [Release the rest](#release-the-rest). After the season is marked released, as under every schedule, a submission added or first approved later becomes readable at its first approved scorecard, with no email. #### Switching to it mid-season If you move a season to this schedule while some of its submissions are already fully approved, saving releases them — so **Save changes** asks first: > **Save and release 12 scorecards now?** > > Each submitter is emailed a link to their scorecard. This cannot be undone. The number is how many submissions were fully approved and not yet released when the page loaded. **Save and release** saves the tab and releases them, normally within about a minute. **Cancel** saves nothing and leaves your changes on the form, still unsaved. When nothing is ready to release, Save simply saves. Making the same change in **When it sends** on the Emails tab asks the same question. ## Releasing by hand On a season set to **Only when I release them**, a **Release scorecards** row appears under the choice list, with its button and the sentence "Every submission with an approved scorecard becomes readable, and its submitter is emailed a link to it. You'll confirm first." — but only once the choice has been *saved*. Switching the choice and looking for the button will not find it; save first. 1. Choose **Release scorecards**. 2. A dialog opens: > **Release scorecards for this season?** > > Every submission with an approved scorecard becomes readable, and its > submitter is emailed a link to it. This cannot be undone. > > `12 submissions have no approved scorecards yet and will not be emailed or unlocked` > > ☐ Include a promo code That `12 submissions` line is measured off your own season at the moment you open the dialog. When there are none it reads "2026 season · every submission has an approved scorecard" instead. **Read it before you confirm** — those submissions are the ones whose filmmakers will hear nothing. **Include a promo code** is there only for owners and org admins, and only when one of your organization's codes is Active and covers this season — see [Including a promo code](#including-a-promo-code). **On a season imported from Film Festival Circuit whose organization has no mailing address**, the dialog also carries an amber line: "Your organization has no mailing address, so submitters who haven't unlocked their scorecard won't get this email. Add one in Organization settings → Organization profile first." It stops nothing — the release still goes ahead if you confirm — so add the address first if those submitters should hear from you. **What it counts is submissions with nothing scored** — no approved scorecard counting toward any of their categories, and no approved creative scorecard. A film whose technical review alone is approved has a score and is not in it: it is released, and its filmmaker is emailed. Withdrawn and disqualified submissions are counted too. 3. Choose **Release scorecards** in the dialog, or **Cancel**. The row is then replaced, permanently, by a padlocked one: > **Released** — Aug 17, 2026, 3:20 PM > > This season's scorecards have gone out. Submitters open theirs from the link > in their Scorecard ready email. The time is shown in the season's own time zone. **There is no un-release.** No button, no dialog, no support path back. Once submitters have been emailed and some of them have unlocked, the release has happened. This is why the dialog says so twice. **And the season's section weights are fixed from that moment**, whichever of the five schedules opened the scorecards. The three shares in the **Counts for** column of the Judging tab's Scoring card become plain figures, under "Shares are locked because scorecards have been released." — see [When the weights lock](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#when-the-weights-lock). Every other judging rule stays editable. ### Release the rest On a season whose *saved* choice is **As each submission is approved**, a **Release the rest** row takes the same place, until the season is marked released: its button, the "12 of 40 submissions released. Waiting on 28." line under it, and the sentence "For submissions whose scorecards won't all be approved: release whatever is still waiting, as it stands. You'll confirm first." It is how you finish a season whose last submissions are never going to be fully approved — a panel that never filled, a submission nobody attached to a category — or one with no judging close date. 1. Choose **Release the rest**. 2. With submissions still waiting, a dialog opens: > **Release the 28 scorecards still waiting?** > > Each one with an approved scorecard becomes readable as it stands, and > its submitter is emailed a link to it. This cannot be undone. > > `12 submissions have no approved scorecards yet and will not be emailed or unlocked` "As it stands" is the point: a waiting submission two judges short goes out with the score its approved work has earned so far. The monospace line is the same count the **Release scorecards** dialog carries — read it before you confirm. **Include a promo code** is offered here too, on the same terms — see [Including a promo code](#including-a-promo-code); it rides only the emails this release sends, not those already sent by earlier releases. So is the amber mailing-address line, on the same seasons — see [Releasing by hand](#releasing-by-hand). With nothing waiting — every submission already released, but judging not closed yet, or never given a close date — it reads instead: > **Mark this season's scorecards released?** > > Every submission is already released, so nothing is sent. This one has no promo code choice: there is no email for a code to ride. 3. Choose **Release the rest** — or **Mark released** — in the dialog, or **Cancel**. Either way the season is now released, and the row is replaced by the padlocked **Released** row. After **Release the rest**, the waiting submissions that have something scored become readable and their submitters are emailed; nobody already emailed by their own release is emailed again — see [Release happens in two halves](#release-happens-in-two-halves). After **Mark released**, nothing is sent to anybody — not even to a submission you released by hand without the email, whose filmmaker still needs the link from you or a new link asked for on their own scorecard page. ### Including a promo code **You can put one of your organization's promo codes in the results emails a release sends**, so each filmmaker is offered their full scorecard at a lower price as they hear their results. 1. In the **Release scorecards** or **Release the rest** dialog, tick **Include a promo code**. 2. A **Promo code** list appears, set to the first code. Each choice is the code and what it takes off — "SPRING20 · 20% off", "FIVEOFF · $5.00 off", "PANELIST · Free". Pick one. 3. Confirm the release as usual. Untick the box to send without a code. **Who gets the choice, and which codes.** Only your organization's **owners and org admins** see it, and only codes that are **Active** and cover this season are listed — see [Promo codes](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/promo-codes.md). With no such code, or for anybody else, the dialog has no promo choice at all. **What each filmmaker gets.** Every email is priced **at the moment it is sent**, for that filmmaker's first category they have not unlocked: - **The code works then** → the email shows the price struck through beside the price with the code, the code in a box with what it takes off and "Already applied when you unlock from this email.", and its last day if it has one. Every scorecard link in the email — **See your final score** as well as **Unlock** — opens their submission page with **Your scorecard is in** at the top; **View scorecard** there opens their scorecard already priced with the code, and every checkout they open there starts with it applied. See [With a promo code](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-scorecard.md#with-a-promo-code). - **The code does not work then** — paused, ended, used up, or a Free code your organization is not allowed to give — → that email goes without it, at the full price. The rest of the release carries on. - **The filmmaker has unsubscribed from your organization's offers** → they still get their results, without the code. **It reserves nothing.** Sending the code uses none of its uses; only an order does. A filmmaker who opens the email after the code has stopped working sees the full price, and the checkout says the code cannot be used. **Where it shows afterwards.** Each release that carried the code adds a row to the code's **Emails** section on Promo codes — the people and films it reached, marked "With scorecard release" — see [The Emails section](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/promo-codes.md#the-emails-section). Each submission's Audit tab records that email as "FilmScorecard sent the Scorecard ready email with a promo code" — see [The Audit tab](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/opening-a-submission.md#the-audit-tab). **A release by hand picks its own code; a release that happens on its own takes the season's.** These two dialogs, and releasing one submission by hand, include the code chosen there or none. A release nobody presses a button for — on **When judging closes**, **When selections are announced**, **When every submission is approved** or **As each submission is approved**, and the **Save and release** confirmation, which hands its submissions to that last schedule — has no dialog, so it carries the **Promo code** an owner or org admin has chosen on the Emails tab's Step 2 · Scorecards ready card, or none. On a season that releases only by hand that field is greyed out: "Promo codes are only added to emails that send on their own. When you release by hand, you pick a code then." The code is the one chosen when the release comes due, and each email is priced as it is sent, as above. See [Scorecard ready](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#scorecard-ready). A scorecard link sent again carries no code. For one submission, see [Releasing one submission's scorecard](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/releasing-one-scorecard.md#including-a-promo-code). **Where it shows afterwards, for an automatic release.** Like a dialog's code, each email that carried it reads "sent the Scorecard ready email with a promo code" on the submission's Audit tab. ## Release happens in two halves Worth understanding, because hosts see it as one event and submitters do not: - **The pages open at the exact moment the policy names.** Midnight on the Selections announced date, the second judging closes, the instant you confirm the dialog — or, on **When every submission is approved**, the moment the background check finds the season complete, and on **As each submission is approved**, the moment it finds that one submission complete. - **The emails follow shortly afterwards.** They are sent by FilmScorecard's background work, which runs at least once a day and usually within minutes of the release itself. Pressing **Release scorecards** or **Release the rest** starts that work immediately, and on the two approval schedules so does the approval that completes the work. So a submitter who has heard from you by other means can reach their scorecard slightly before their email lands. That page asks them for a code — the one from any earlier email of yours still works, if it is current — and it lets them ask for a new link themselves, so nobody is stuck waiting. **Every submitter's own edit page closes in the first half, not the second.** The moment the pages open, every [submission page](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submission-links.md) in the season reads "Edits are closed" — before any email has left, and whether or not the submitter ever had one. **Submissions released on their own beforehand are part of this too.** Their pages were already open, so nothing changes there; their detail panels go on naming their own release rather than the season's; and the email half skips every submission whose own release already asked for its results email — one you released by hand with the email ticked, or one **As each submission is approved** released — however long ago that was. So nobody is mailed their results twice. **Every other submission with something scored gets its results email**, whatever other emails it has had: a filmmaker you released *without* the email, one who asked for a new link on their own page, one you sent a submission-page link or a promo code. The one exception is **As each submission is approved**, where a season marked released with nothing left waiting, on its own or by **Mark released**, sends nothing at all. See [When the season releases later](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/releasing-one-scorecard.md#when-the-season-releases-later). **The results email reuses the filmmaker's link and code.** A filmmaker holding a current code — from a submission-page email during judging, say — finds the same code in their results email, and its button signs them in. See [One link and one code at a time](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/getting-into-your-scorecard.md#one-link-and-one-code-at-a-time). **The padlocked "Released" row appears under every policy**, including the four that release on their own, once the release has been recorded. It is your record of when the season went out. On **As each submission is approved** it records when the season was marked released; the submissions themselves went out before it, each on its own day. **Each submission's Audit tab carries one release entry**, at the time the release was recorded: "*Nadia Brandt* released the results" when somebody pressed **Release scorecards** or **Release the rest**, "FilmScorecard released the results" when a dated or approval schedule released the season, and "FilmScorecard released the results automatically" for a submission **As each submission is approved** released. A submission released on its own beforehand keeps that release as its entry. Under it, one line on what the filmmaker can now see — "The final score is free to view. The full scorecards unlock at today's list price of $29.99 for the first category." for people with the *View revenue and payouts* permission, and "The submitter can now see their final score and unlock the full scorecards." for everybody else. A submission with no filed scorecard has no season-release entry. See [The Audit tab](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/opening-a-submission.md#the-audit-tab). **Moving a date backwards before the release has been recorded closes the pages again.** A season set to release on the 12th, with the date pushed to the 30th on the 12th itself, may have been readable for part of that day. Once the row above appears, the release is permanent whatever the dates say afterwards, and any scorecard already unlocked stays unlocked. ## What a submitter gets **One email per submission, to the address on the submission**, from "*your festival* via FilmScorecard". Its subject is "Your scorecard from *your festival* is ready", with or without a promo code; the code is named in the email itself. It is the same email whichever way the scorecard was released: the season's release, one submission released by hand, or **As each submission is approved**. What it says, in order: - **The judges have finished reviewing *the film*.** Their results are ready on FilmScorecard, and final decisions have not been made yet. - **Their final score, free**, behind a **See your final score** button that signs them straight in to their submission page, with **Your scorecard is in** at the top and **View scorecard** one press away. - **Their access code**, for typing on another device, and when it expires. - **What happens next** — your **Selections announced** date, while it is still ahead, under the heading "Selection date." with "The festival makes its final decisions, and every submitter hears whether their submission was selected." With no date set, or one that has passed, this part is left out. - **The full scorecard, as a paid extra**: the season's price, "One-time fee. Per category, per festival season. No subscription.", their own questions to the judges quoted back to them when they asked any, and a list of what the full scorecard holds — only what theirs actually has, so the notes row appears only when a judge wrote notes, the technical row only with a technical review, and "Your place in the category" only when one of the film's categories has an award. Then that it is optional, that buying never affects scoring, selections or awards, and that the payment goes to your festival less FilmScorecard's service fee — and an **Unlock** button. - **At the foot**: that replies reach your festival — only when there is an address for them to reach — and your organization's mailing address, from Organization settings, when you have set one. **It never carries a score, a rank, a judge's name, how many judges there were or anything a judge wrote.** Replies go to the season's **Contact email** — on the Season tab's [About this season](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#about-this-season) card — when you have set one, and to your organization's support address otherwise. **You can read it yourself** with **Preview email** on Settings → Emails, on the **Step 2 · Scorecards ready** card — see [Emails your festival sends](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/emails-your-festival-sends.md#preview). Then, behind that button or that code, they read their own scorecard. In full: - their overall score out of 100, and how it was reached — or **No scores** for a category whose every section you weighted 0; - every question your scorecard shows, each judge's answer, and the averages; - both written feedback fields from each approved card; - the technical review's checks, and the press kit item by item with its figure; - **their ranks** — their place in the season, films against films and screenplays against screenplays, and their place in each category they entered — **each shown only once you have released it**, and reading "Calculating" until then. See [Ranks are released on their own](#ranks-are-released-on-their-own). **All of that is per category, and so is the unlock.** A film judged in two categories has two scorecards on one page, and the one button on that page unlocks every locked category together — see [The unlock, and what it costs](#the-unlock-and-what-it-costs). A category that is left locked, because you comped one or a purchase was refunded, keeps its answers, its notes and its rank held while the other is shown in full. **That score is what the approved work has earned, not a forecast.** Each judge on a film's panel earns a share of the creative part, and the technical and press-kit reviews earn theirs when they are approved — so a film released while its panel is short reads lower than it will finish on, and climbs on its own as the remaining cards are approved. The ranks are ordered on the same figure, which is why a film that is behind ranks below one that is finished. Nothing about this needs a second release or a second email. They never see a judge's name, another submission, an unapproved or withdrawn scorecard, an award recommendation, or any question you marked internal. Judges are Judge 1, Judge 2, Judge 3 on every page — that is not a setting. **Nor do they see your section weights**: the score is out of 100 and the split behind it is yours alone. **Nor how many judges are still to come** — their page names the judges who have filed and nothing about a panel that is unfinished. On a scorecard that went out ahead of the season — including every one **As each submission is approved** sends — the rank card also says "This can still change while the season is being judged." until the season is released, when the sentence goes. **And they can share their result, publicly, from that page.** Every scorecard carries a Share button that builds a card — an image, or a public link anyone can open — with your festival's name on it. A locked scorecard shares only the film, the festival and the score; once something is unlocked the card can add **one** of the submitter's released ranks — the season's or a category's — and up to two lines picked from the judges' written notes, quoted and labelled "Festival judge" — never a judge's name or number, and never anything about another submission. A rank you have not released cannot be put on a card, and **neither a rank nor a quoted line can come from a category the submitter has not unlocked**. Nothing you approve or write reaches the public except what the submitter deliberately puts on that card, and the full scorecard itself is never shareable. What the submitter sees of it: [Sharing your scorecard](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/sharing-your-scorecard.md). The second card on this tab, **Set by blind judging**, states what a submitter is promised in two padlocked rows — "These protect judges and keep judging fair, so they can't be changed. They're listed here so you know what submitters will and won't see.": | Row | Value | Its sentence | | --- | --- | --- | | **Judge names** | Never shown | "Comments are labelled Judge 1, Judge 2 and Judge 3 instead." | | **Rank against other submissions** | Only on an unlocked scorecard | "A submitter sees where they placed this season only after unlocking their full scorecard." | **Where staff see a rank.** A category's positions are on the [Awards](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/awards.md) screen — the top three on the category's card, and every scored film's position on its pool — whether or not the rank is released. The season-wide rank is on no staff screen of its own; the one place it appears is the submitter's own unlocked page, which a coordinator can open exactly as the filmmaker sees it — see [Seeing what a submitter sees](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/seeing-what-a-submitter-sees.md) — and, if the submitter chooses to include it, the share card built from that page. The **Note on every scorecard** box, the last row of the Releasing scorecards card (up to 320 characters), is added to the sentence at the bottom of the page. The address printed at the foot of every scorecard is the season's **Contact email**, set on the Season tab's [About this season](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/festival-settings.md#about-this-season) card rather than here. ## Ranks are released on their own A submitter's scorecard carries up to two kinds of rank: their place in each **category** they entered, and their place in the **season** — films against films, screenplays against screenplays. Neither is released by anything on this tab. - **Each category's rank is released from its card on the Awards screen**, by a **Release rank** switch, once every film in the category is fully judged — every scorecard the category uses approved; a **Release all ranks** button does every ready category at once. See [Releasing a category's rank](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/awards.md#releasing-a-categorys-rank). - **The season rank follows.** It is released once every category holding scored films of that kind — films, or screenplays — has its rank released. There is no switch for it. - **Until a rank is released, an unlocked scorecard reads "Calculating"** in its place — no number, no pool size — and the purchase card on a locked one promises "your season rank once it is calculated" rather than a place. Releasing the scorecards does not change that; releasing the rank does. In the other order — ranks out, scorecards not — the submitter sees nothing at all until their scorecard is released and unlocked. - **A released rank can be held again**, from the same switch, and the pages go back to "Calculating". No email goes out either way. ## The unlock, and what it costs A released scorecard opens **locked**: the submitter sees their score, every question in full, and how many notes are waiting — with the answers held back behind an unlock. **Unlocking costs the filmmaker $29.99 USD for the first category and $22.49 for every category after it** — so a film judged in two costs $52.48, paid once — and your organization keeps that less the platform fee. The whole of the money side — what has to be true before anything can sell, what you earn, where the figures appear, comping one filmmaker's access, and refunds — is its own guide: [Selling scorecard access](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/selling-scorecard-access.md). The short version, for a host standing on this tab: - **You do not set the price.** They are the same figures at every festival on the platform, and there is no price field on any of your screens. - **A scorecard is unlocked one category at a time**, and the button on the filmmaker's page unlocks every locked category at once, in one payment. Most submissions are in one category, where this changes nothing. - **Only a category with an approved creative scorecard is for sale.** A category scored so far on its technical review or press kit alone is on the filmmaker's page with its score, locked, with nothing to buy until a creative scorecard in it is approved — and a category with no creative scorecard at all is never for sale. - **Your payout account has to be finished first.** Until it is, submitters see the price and what they would get, with no button and one line: "This festival is not set up to accept payments yet. Check back soon." See [Connecting payouts](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/connecting-payouts.md). - **You can give one filmmaker their scorecard for nothing.** **Comp scorecard access**, on the Scorecard access card in a submission's drawer, unlocks every category that has not been bought, permanently, at $0.00 — and earns the festival nothing. It is the only way a scorecard is unlocked for nothing; a [promo code](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/promo-codes.md) lowers the price but never to zero. - **Purchases are final**, and the submitter's page says so before they press. There is no refund control anywhere on your screens or theirs. - **You can see whether one submission has been unlocked**, on that same Scorecard access card — "Not unlocked", "Unlocked · SC-40318 · 14 Aug 2026", the same with "· 1 of 2 categories" on a multi-category film, or "Refunded · SC-40318". It needs the *View revenue and payouts* permission. - **A submission whose scorecard has been unlocked cannot be moved to another season**, whoever unlocked it and whether or not it was refunded afterwards — see [A sold scorecard does not move](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/submissions.md#a-sold-scorecard-does-not-move). - **A submission's Audit tab shows what its filmmaker has done with their scorecard** — each day they viewed it, and which of your emails they came from; signing in with their code; sending feedback; making or turning off a share link, and saving a share card. Starting checkout, each unlock and any refund are there too, for people with *View revenue and payouts*. Anybody holding the filmmaker's link or code counts as the filmmaker. Your own visits to their page are not recorded, and nobody who opens a public share link is counted. See [The Audit tab](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/opening-a-submission.md#the-audit-tab). ## Seasons, festivals and imports - **A new festival's first season starts on As each submission is approved**, whichever form made it. Change it here before anything is approved if you want a different schedule. - **Duplicating a season carries the setting, not the release.** The new season keeps "Scorecards become available" — any of the five — the contact email and the note, and starts unreleased — as it must, since nothing in it has been judged. It also carries the section weights, and the new season's are editable again. Every category's rank starts held. See [Season and festival actions](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/season-actions.md). - **Archiving a season changes nothing for its submitters.** Their links, codes and unlocked scorecards go on working. - **Deleting a festival deletes its access codes and its receipts** along with everything else it holds, and every scorecard link — and every public share link a submitter made — for it stops working. - **An import batch holding an unlocked scorecard cannot be rolled back.** The rollback is refused before anything is removed, with a line naming how many of the batch's submissions are in the way — a receipt is never quietly destroyed — and it will keep refusing while those receipts exist. See [Rolling a batch back](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/imports.md#rolling-a-batch-back). ## Messages | The message | What it means | | --- | --- | | This season releases scorecards on its own schedule, so there is nothing to release by hand. | The season's saved choice is **When judging closes**, **When selections are announced** or **When every submission is approved** — none of which has a button. Change it to **Only when I release them** and save, or wait for the date — or, on **When every submission is approved**, for the last approval. | | Scorecards for this season have already been released. | Somebody — or the schedule — got there first. Reload; the padlocked row is what you will see. | | The scorecards could not be released. Nothing has been sent. Try again. | **Release scorecards** or **Release the rest** failed before the season was marked released. Nothing opened and nobody was emailed; the dialog stays open so you can try again. | | That promo code can't be included. Refresh the page and try again. | **Release scorecards** or **Release the rest** with a promo code you can no longer attach — it belongs to another organization, or you are no longer an owner or org admin. Nothing was released. The same sentence under the Emails tab's **Promo code** means the code stopped being offered for this season after the page loaded; it was not saved. | | The change could not be saved. Try again. | Something went wrong before anything was written. Nothing was released and nothing was sent. | | Running festivals is paused until an owner of *your organization* accepts the Festival Host Agreement. | **No owner of your organization has agreed to the current Festival Host Agreement yet**, so nothing can be released by hand — not **Release scorecards** or **Release the rest** here, not one submission's **Release scorecard**, and not the release-ready card on the season's dashboard. Nothing was released and nobody was emailed. A season on an automatic schedule still releases on it. An owner agrees the next time they open any of the organization's screens — see [Until an owner agrees](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/terms-and-privacy.md#until-an-owner-agrees). | | You do not have permission to change this festival's settings. | Releasing the season is owner-and-staff work. A coordinator cannot open this screen at all — though they can release one submission at a time from its detail panel; see [Releasing one submission's scorecard](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/releasing-one-scorecard.md). | ## What this does not do yet - **There is no way to resend one submitter's results email from your screens.** What you can send again is their link and code: the **Email** button on the submission's Scorecard link card, for owners and org admins — see [The scorecard link](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/opening-a-submission.md#the-scorecard-link) — or **Resend access link** on Orders. The submitter can also ask for a new link themselves from their own scorecard page. **Email submission links**, on the Submissions list, is not a substitute: it sends the edit page's own message, and it skips every submission whose page has closed — which after a release is all of them. - **Nothing announces selections or awards.** Releasing scorecards releases each filmmaker's own scores to that filmmaker, and nothing else. Winners, mentions and selection decisions stay inside your organization — see [Awards](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/awards.md). - **Release does not check a season's status.** A draft season whose date has arrived is treated like any other; in practice its submissions have no approved scorecards, so nothing opens and nothing is sent. - **Three of the five schedules do not check how far judging got.** A submission two judges short is released with the rest, showing the score its approved work has earned. Only the two approval schedules wait — and **Release the rest** deliberately does not. - **As each submission is approved does not release one category at a time.** A submission in two categories waits for both panels. There is no way to send its finished category on its own, short of releasing the whole submission by hand. - **Nothing on As each submission is approved falls back at judging close.** Submissions still waiting when judging closes stay unreleased — and the season stays unmarked — until they are fully approved or you press **Release the rest**. - **Releasing does not release ranks, and nothing tells a submitter when a rank arrives.** See [Ranks are released on their own](#ranks-are-released-on-their-own).