# Scoring a film

> From FilmScorecard Help: https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/scoring-a-film

The scoring screen is where you actually watch a film and record what you
think. You reach it one way — **Start scoring** on
[your judging home](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-judging-home.md) — and you leave it by filing your
card, by [leaving the film](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/leaving-a-film-you-started.md), or by going
anywhere else in the app — the judge sidebar (on a phone, **Menu**) stays
around the scoring screen, and **Next submission** takes you back to your
judging home.

This page covers how a film becomes yours, how long it stays yours, what the
screen is made of, how to tell the festival something is wrong, and how work is
saved and filed. The two cards have their own pages:
[The technical review card](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/technical-review.md) and
[The creative scorecard](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/creative-scorecard.md).

**While you are holding a film, it is the only one you are offered.** That
rule, and the two ways out of it, are on
[One film at a time](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/one-film-at-a-time.md).

## Starting a film takes it

**Start scoring is not a link.** Pressing it *takes* the film: it claims every
card that is open to you on it, and only then opens the scoring screen. While it
works the button reads "Opening…" and cannot be pressed again.

That matters because of what it does for you. From the moment you press it, the
cards you hold are **out of every other judge's queue**. Nobody can take the
film out from under you halfway through your notes.

Two things follow from it:

- **Opening the address of a scoring screen never claims anything.** Loading
  the page writes nothing at all. If you have no card on that film, you are put
  back on your judging home rather than shown an error.
- **The claim can come back empty.** Between your judging home loading and your
  press, the film may have filled up, been withdrawn by the festival, or left
  your scope. Nothing is taken, and you land back on your judging home with an
  amber line above the next film: **"That film is no longer available. Here's
  your next one."** — or just the first sentence when there is no other film
  for you. It never says which of those happened. See
  [If the film is gone when you press Start scoring](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/how-the-judging-queue-works.md#if-the-film-is-gone-when-you-press-start-scoring).

If the press itself cannot go through — the connection dropped, or something
failed on our side — you stay where you are and a red line appears under the
button:

> This film is no longer one of yours to score. Nothing was recorded.

## Your hold lasts 48 hours

**A card is yours for 48 hours from the moment you take it.** Pressing
**Continue scoring** to pick a film back up starts a fresh 48 hours. After that
the hold lapses:

- The film goes back into every judge's queue — **including yours**.
- **Everything you typed is kept** while the film waits.
- Pressing **Start scoring** on that film again gives you a fresh 48 hours and,
  as a rule, picks your draft up exactly where you left it. The exception is a
  card that comes back on a different scorecard — see
  [Picking a lapsed film up again](#picking-a-lapsed-film-up-again).

**Nothing on the screen counts this down or names the 48 hours.** There is no
timer, no warning and no email. If a film is going to take you longer than two
days, that is fine — just expect it to reappear in your queue, and re-open it
from there.

A lapsed hold is only a problem if **the card's place was filled while it was
lapsed**. See [When a card goes back to the
queue](#when-a-card-goes-back-to-the-queue). If the place is still free, you can
keep typing and file it as though nothing happened.

### Picking a lapsed film up again

**Start scoring on a lapsed film is a fresh claim**, and it hands out cards the
same way it did the first time. Most of the time that is the card you had, on
the same scorecard, with your draft on it. It is a different scorecard in three
cases:

- **Your creative card lands in another of the film's categories, and that
  category uses a different creative scorecard.** On a film in more than one
  category you are given whichever of them has the fewest scorecards at the
  moment you press — not necessarily the one you had before.
- **Your technical card lands on the film's other technical checklist.** Some
  films carry two, and you are given the first one that is free at the moment
  you press — not necessarily the one you had before.
- **The festival has changed the scorecard your category uses** since you took
  the film.

When that happens, **your answers to the old scorecard's questions are
cleared**, because the card no longer asks them. The card opens on the new
scorecard's questions, unanswered.

**Only those answers go.** Your feedback, your award recommendations and your
answers to the filmmaker's own questions stay exactly as they were. On a
technical card the answers are everything on it: every Pass, Fail and fail
note.

- **Nothing tells you.** There is no notice on the card or anywhere else; it
  simply asks different questions.
- **The cleared answers do not come back.** If the film later puts you back on
  the first scorecard, that card opens blank as well.
- **Two categories that share one scorecard change nothing.** If the scorecard
  is the same, every answer stays where it was.
- **Continue scoring never does this.** Picking up a film you are still holding
  keeps you on the card you started, whatever has changed since. Only a lapsed
  hold picked up again with **Start scoring** can move you.

**A tab you left open from before still shows the old questions.** An answer
you give there reads **Not saved**, and trying again does not help. Reload the
page to see the card as it is now.

## If you leave before you file

**The film you are working on stays on your judging home.** While you hold a
card on it, it is the **Next submission** — with an **In progress** pill and a
**Continue scoring** button — and no other film is offered beside it.

So:

- **Close the tab whenever you like.** Go back to `/judge`, press **Continue
  scoring**, and you are returned to the same sitting with every answer, mark
  and note where you left it. The 48-hour hold is re-armed at the same time.
- **The address still works too**, for as long as you hold a card on that film.
  It is `/judge/`, your festival's identifier, `/score/` and the film's
  identifier — but **Continue scoring** is the reliable way back.
- **If you filed one of two cards and then left**, you are still holding the
  other one, so the film is still your Next submission and **Continue scoring**
  still opens it. It leaves you when the last card in your hand is filed.
- **If you file nothing for 48 hours**, the hold lapses, the film returns to
  every judge's queue including yours, and your draft is kept. Your judging home
  then offers you a new film. Picking the lapsed film up again brings the draft
  back with it, with [one exception](#picking-a-lapsed-film-up-again).

**Continue scoring never quietly gives you more work.** Picking a film back up
re-opens the cards you already hold; it does not hand you a card on the same
film that has become free since you started.

## One card, two cards, or the technical card alone

The screen renders whichever cards you actually hold on that film. **You do not
choose**; it follows from the roles the festival gave you and the categories
the film competes in.

| What you hold | What you get |
| --- | --- |
| The creative card only | One card, headed **Creative Judging** in the top bar, with the layout buttons. |
| Both cards | One screen with two tabs — **Technical review** first, then **Creative scorecard**. |
| The technical card only | One card, headed **Technical Review** in the top bar. |

**Two cards means one viewing, not two films.** The line under the tabs says
so:

> You pulled both open cards on this film, so you watch it once. Take them in
> whichever order you like; each files on its own.

Each tab carries a small marker and a running figure — how much of that card
you have done out of its total. A filed card's marker becomes a green tick, and
a filed technical card shows its score in place of its count.

Why the sittings differ: **the technical card is held by one judge at a time
and filed once**, while the creative card is filed independently by as many
judges as the season asks for **in each category the film competes in**. You
take one creative card on a film, for one of those categories — whichever had
the fewest when you pressed Start scoring. Which cards reach you depends on the
roles your festival gave you, and on which categories the film competes in.

**Press-kit cards are never handed to a judge**, whatever a category has
attached to it.

### When the creative card waits for the technical review

**Unless the festival has switched it off, a film's creative card waits for
its technical review.** In a category that has a technical checklist, nobody is
offered the film's creative card until its technical review has been filed and
the festival has approved it. A category with no technical checklist never
waits.

What that means at Start scoring:

- **If you judge creatively only**, a film that is waiting is not offered to
  you at all. It counts as upcoming on your judging home until it is approved —
  see
  [Films waiting for their technical review](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-judging-home.md#films-waiting-for-their-technical-review).
- **If you judge both**, Start scoring on a film whose technical review nobody
  has taken yet gives you **the technical card alone** — unless another of the
  film's categories has no technical checklist, when you get both. File the
  technical card and the film leaves your hands: your judging home offers you
  another, and counts this one as upcoming, not as scored. Once the festival
  approves your technical review, the film comes back into your queue for its
  creative card, if a creative place on it is still free.
- **A card you already hold is never taken away.** The wait only decides what
  a new Start scoring hands you, and a scorecard sent back to you for changes
  can always be filed again.

## The top bar

The app's own sidebar and top bar sit around the scoring screen, so the
festival's name is in the top bar's festival switcher and the way out is the
sidebar. The scoring screen's own bar, left to right: the sitting's name on a
single-card screen, the film's title, its tracking number, and a **Due** pill
carrying the season's closing date when it has one.

On the right:

| Sitting | What is there |
| --- | --- |
| Both cards | **Report an issue**, then a status line — "Two cards open to you on this film." |
| One card | **Report an issue**, then "Can't score this film?", **Skip: technical issue** (creative card only) and **Decline: conflict or other**. |

**On a narrow window or a phone** the top bar is shorter. The app's own bar
sits above it — the FilmScorecard mark, **Inbox**, **Menu** and your profile
circle — and that is the way out. Below it: the film's title with its **Due**
pill, the festival and the sitting's name underneath, and a **⋯** button —
"More for this film" — that opens **Report an issue** and, on a single-card
screen, **Skip: technical issue** and **Decline: conflict or other** under
"Can't score this film?". The festival's mark and the tracking number are left
off. Then the **Film** and **Scorecard** tabs, which stay pinned as you scroll.

**Report an issue keeps the film with you** — see
[Reporting an issue](#reporting-an-issue). **Skip and Decline hand it back**,
and both are covered on [Leaving a film you
started](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/leaving-a-film-you-started.md). **There is no Skip button when you
hold the technical card** — a file that will not play is a Fail you record on
that card, not a skip. **And there is no Skip or Decline on a screen holding
both cards** — Report an issue is the one control there.

**Skip and Decline here withdraw a card you have already filed on the film**,
whatever the reason. The **Skip this film** button on your judging home also
works on the film you are holding, and it withdraws a filed card too, whatever
the reason — its dialog says so. See [One film at a
time](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/one-film-at-a-time.md#handing-a-film-back-two-places-both-work).

## Reporting an issue

**Report an issue tells the festival something is wrong with this film without
giving it up.** It is on every scoring screen — one card or two — in the top bar,
and in the **⋯** menu on a phone.

1. Press **Report an issue**. A dialog opens, headed **Report an issue** with
   the film's title under it.
2. Under **What's wrong?**, pick one:
   - **Screener or file problem**
   - **Category or scorecard doesn't fit**
   - **Something else**
3. Under **What happened**, write what is wrong. **This is required** — a few
   words at least, up to 2,000 characters.
4. Press **Send report**. **Cancel** sends nothing.

What happens next:

- **You stay on the film.** The dialog closes and your card is exactly as you
  left it — nothing is handed back, nothing is filed, and your hold carries on.
  Keep scoring if you can.
- **The button now reads "Issue reported"** and cannot be pressed, until the
  festival marks your report resolved. After that it reads **Report an issue**
  again the next time the screen loads, and you can report again.
- **The festival's staff are told**, by email and on their own screens, with
  your reason and your words. They may write back to you — their reply arrives
  in [your inbox](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-inbox.md), on the Messages tab.
- **Nothing tells you when it is resolved**, apart from the button coming back.
- **No other judge ever sees your report**, or knows that anyone reported
  anything.

**Use Report an issue when you can carry on, or want the festival to fix
something first.** If the film truly cannot be judged by you — a screener that
will not play at all, a conflict of interest — **Skip** or **Decline** is the
way to hand it back; see
[Leaving a film you started](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/leaving-a-film-you-started.md).

## The film pane

The left half of the screen never changes while you work. Switching tabs,
typing, filing — none of it reloads it.

**Some films play here; the rest open in a new tab.** A **Vimeo, YouTube or
Google Drive** link is played in place, in a frame at the top of the pane.
Every other host — FilmFreeway, Dropbox, Frame.io, and anything FilmScorecard does
not recognise — gets a block that says where the work lives, with a button that
opens it:

> **This film plays on Vimeo**
>
> Open it in a new tab and score here as you watch.
>
> **Watch on Vimeo ↗**

The platform's name is read from the link itself — Vimeo, YouTube,
FilmFreeway, Dropbox, Google Drive or Frame.io. Anything else reads "the
filmmaker's link". A screenplay says "This screenplay is on …", "score here as
you read" and **Read on …**.

**A screenplay the festival uploaded as a PDF has its own block**:

> **This screenplay is a PDF**
>
> Open it in a new tab and score here as you read.
>
> **Open PDF ↗**

- **Open PDF opens the script in a new tab**, in your browser's own PDF
  viewer. Each press opens a fresh copy that works for about ten minutes, so
  if a tab you left open stops loading, come back and press **Open PDF**
  again.
- **There is no password with it**, and no link to copy — the PDF is the
  festival's own copy of the script, and it is the only version you are given.
- **It opens while the film is yours**: while you hold a card on it, and
  afterwards for a card you have filed. Once a hold has lapsed it no longer
  opens.

- **A film playing in the frame still gives you the link out**, as **Open on
  Vimeo ↗** beside the password strip. Use it if the frame shows an error
  rather than the film: a private video, or one whose owner turned embedding
  off, fails inside the frame and FilmScorecard cannot tell that it did.
- **A password strip** appears under the player when the submission carries
  one, with a **Copy** button that flips to "Copied" for a moment. The password
  is on screen in full beside it, so you can also just read it, and a line
  beside it says where you will need it.
- **If nothing was submitted to play from**, the block says so instead:

  > **No screener link on this submission**
  >
  > Nothing was recorded for this film to play from. Report it rather than
  > scoring blind.

  On a screenplay it reads **"No PDF on this submission"** and "Nothing was
  recorded for this screenplay to read from. Report it rather than scoring
  blind."

- **On the creative-only screen** there is a **Link broken? Skip: technical
  issue** button beside the password strip, because that is the moment you find
  out.

Under the player: the word **Submission**, the title, then the tracking number
and whatever the record actually holds — project type and genres, the runtime
or the page count, the aspect ratio, the shooting format — then the **tagline**
in italics, and the synopsis.

### The rest of the record

Below the synopsis, in this order, come four blocks. **Every one of them is
left out entirely when the festival recorded nothing for it**, so a sparse
submission shows you the player and the title block and nothing else. You never
see a heading with nothing under it.

| Block | What is in it |
| --- | --- |
| **Poster** | The film's key art, if one was uploaded. |
| **The statement** | The filmmaker's own words about the work. |
| **Credits** | Directed by, Written by, Produced by, Cast, Other credits. |
| **Details** | Completed, Language, Country of origin, Country of filming, Colour. |

**There is one statement, and its heading says what kind of work you are
looking at**: **Director's statement** on a film, **Writer's statement** on a
screenplay. Nothing else about it varies — the heading is the whole of it.

**A statement is signed by nobody.** No name is printed under it, ever. It is
the submission's own statement about the work, not a named person's, and the
people who made the film are the ones listed under **Credits**.

**Credits are printed as the festival recorded them.** One line may hold several
names — "Ana Reyes, Tom Fisher" — because that is one field in the record, not
a list.

### What is deliberately not in it

You are shown the **film**, not the filmmaker. The scoring screen carries none
of the following, and they are not merely hidden from view — they are never
sent to your browser at all:

- **The submitter's name, email address, phone number, city or region**, and
  any other personal detail the festival holds — a birthdate, a postal address,
  a biography or a cover letter.
- **The production budget**, and what the filmmaker paid to enter.
- **The filmmaker's own links** — trailer URL, project website, Instagram,
  Twitter, Facebook.

The only link here is the screener the festival recorded, in the player block,
and it is there so you can watch the work.

**Anything the festival did not record is left out rather than shown empty.**

## Making room

On a single-card screen, two small buttons beside the card's heading change the
split:

- **Expand scorecard to full screen** hides the film pane.
- **Collapse scorecard, show film only** hides the card, leaving a **Show
  scorecard →** button.
- Either button pressed again, or **← Show film pane**, restores the split.

**You can also drag the seam between the two panes.** The narrow grey column
between them is a handle: drag it left or right to give either side more room,
anywhere between roughly a third and four-fifths of the width. It also takes
keyboard focus — **left and right arrows** move it in steps and **Home** puts
it back to the resting split — and **double-clicking it** resets it too. The
handle is there on both the single-card and two-card screens whenever both
panes are showing, and it is gone on a narrow window or a phone, where the
panes stack one above the other.

**Changing the layout changes nothing else.** Your answers, the film pane's
scroll position and your award picks all survive it, and so does a drag.
The width you set is not remembered after you leave the sitting.

## Autosave, and the dot

**There is no Save button, and there is no draft to lose.** Everything you do
is written as you do it.

| What you do | When it saves |
| --- | --- |
| Click a score, a Pass, a Fail, a Yes, a No, or a choice | Immediately |
| Tick or untick an award recommendation | Immediately |
| Type in a fail note, a feedback box or a recommendation note | About a second and a half after you stop typing, and at once when you click out of the box |

The footer's right-hand corner reports the last write:

| The line | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **Saved just now**, green dot | Everything you have done is on the server. |
| **Saving**, amber dot | A write is in flight. |
| **Not saved**, amber dot | At least one change was refused or did not get through. |

**"Not saved" is never silent.** A line appears above the commit button as
well:

> A change could not be saved. It will be retried when you next edit this card.

That is exactly what happens — the next time you touch that field it is sent
again, and the dot goes green when it lands. The dot stays amber while *any*
field is still unsaved, so it will not tell you your work is safe while one box
is behind.

**Nothing is sent optimistically.** If the dot is green, the server has
acknowledged it.

## Questions from the filmmaker

On some creative cards, a block sits between the festival's questions and the
feedback boxes:

> **Questions from the filmmaker**
>
> Written by the person who entered this film. Your answers go to them on their
> scorecard and never count toward the score.

**The filmmaker of this film wrote them, on their own private submission page,
before judging started.** A festival lets each submitter ask up to two
questions of their own, and every creative judge on that film answers them.

- **They are marked `Q1` and `Q2`** rather than numbered into the festival's
  list, so you can tell at a glance which half of the card you are in.
- **They are answered exactly like the festival's questions** — a row of ten
  cells, a Yes and a No, a pick-one list, or a box to write in — and they save
  the same way, the moment you answer or a second and a half after you stop
  typing.
- **Answering them is required.** The card will not file until every one is
  answered; see [Filing a card](#filing-a-card).
- **None of it is scored.** A 1-to-10 answer here is a number for the
  filmmaker, not a score: it is not added to the film's result, to any average
  or to anything else. The line under the heading says so, and it is exact.

**Most films have no such block at all**, and nothing is drawn where it would
be — no heading, no empty space. **It is never on a technical review card**,
whatever the film. A technical reviewer does not see these questions.

**You are not told who wrote them.** The block carries the questions and
nothing else: no name, no email, nothing about the person behind the
submission. That is the same rule as everywhere else on this screen — see
[What is deliberately not in it](#what-is-deliberately-not-in-it).

**There is no Rewrite button on your answer**, the same as everywhere else on
your screen. That is a coordinator's tool; see
[Rewriting written feedback](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/rewriting-feedback.md).

### If a question appears while you are working

A filmmaker can still change their questions right up until the first creative
scorecard on their film is filed — which may be after you took the film. When
that happens:

1. You press **Submit creative scorecard** on a card the screen thinks is
   finished.
2. The filing is refused: "This card is not finished yet."
3. **The screen reloads the card in place.** The new or changed question
   appears, with an empty answer, and **everything you had already written
   stays exactly where it was** — scores, your feedback, recommendations, and
   every other answer.
4. Answer it and press the button again.

**A question you had already answered and the filmmaker then reworded loses
that one answer**, because you would otherwise be on record answering a
question you never read. Nothing else is touched.

**This can only happen before anybody files.** The first filed creative
scorecard on a film freezes its questions for good, so once you have filed —
or anyone else has — they cannot move again.

The same reload happens if the festival **switches a feedback box on** while
you have the film: it appears, empty, and has to be filled in before the card
files. See [The two feedback boxes](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/creative-scorecard.md).

## Filing a card

The blue button at the bottom of the card is the commit. **Each card files on
its own** — filing one never files, requires or blocks the other, and you can
take them in either order.

| The button says | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Complete technical review** | Files the technical card. |
| **Submit creative scorecard** | Files the creative card. |
| **Open the technical review** / **Open the creative scorecard** | This card is filed; switches to the other one. |
| **Next film in your queue** | Everything on this film is filed; takes the next film and opens it. |

**The button is grey until the card is finished**, and a line under it names
what is missing, in your own terms:

> Add 2 more questions to score and positive feedback to submit.

> Add 1 filmmaker question to answer to submit.

> Add 3 items still to mark and 1 fail note to complete this card.

**The filmmaker's questions are named separately from the festival's**, so "2
more questions to score" always means the festival's list and never the block
underneath it.

Pressing the grey button on a technical card is not nothing: it turns every
fail that still has no note red, so you can find them.

To the left of the dot, a line tracks the same thing while you work — "3 of 5
marked, 1 fail", "4 of 6 scored, feedback incomplete", "All 6 scored, feedback
complete" — and, on a film whose submitter asked something, that line ends with
the filmmaker's questions too: "All 6 scored, feedback complete, 1 of 2
filmmaker questions". Once the card is in it becomes "Technical filed, 16 of
20" or "Creative filed, 6 of 6 scored".

### After you file

**A filed card is read-only.** Buttons lock, boxes go grey and read-only, and
the award list shrinks to the recommendations on the card, with their notes
read-only and no search. Your answers to the filmmaker's questions lock with
everything else.

**You cannot unfile it — but the festival can send it back to you.** Before it
approves a scorecard, a festival can return it with a note asking for changes.
It then heads a **Returned** list on your judging home with **Make changes**;
the card opens again with the note above it under **Returned**, you edit it as
before, and you file it again with the same button. It never stops you taking
new films, and it keeps the rate it was first filed at. See
[Scorecards sent back to you](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-judging-home.md#scorecards-sent-back-to-you).

**The festival may also change the award recommendations on a filed creative
card.** One it added reads **Added by coordinator**, and one it pointed at a
different award reads **Changed by coordinator**; you can see them, and you
cannot change or remove them, even on a card sent back to you. A
recommendation the festival withdrew no longer shows on your card.

**A filed technical card** gets a recap strip at the top of the card: green
when everything passed — "Technical review filed, everything passed" — and
**amber** when anything failed: "Technical review filed with 1 fail". Both
carry the two figures. On the creative tab the strip collapses behind **Read
it**, which expands to every item with its Pass or Fail and any note you wrote.
A filed creative card gets no strip — its tab already shows it is in.

The strip ends with the honest instruction:

> Filed and locked. Message the coordinator if something here is wrong.

— unless the festival has sent the card back to you, when it opens for changes
instead.

**Your feedback is proofread just after the creative card files.** Filing does
not wait for it: the card files at once, with the **Positive feedback** and
**Opportunities for improvement** boxes it asks for exactly as you typed them —
except that every line break and run of spaces becomes a single space, so each
box files as one paragraph. Then the text of those boxes is sent to OpenAI to
correct spelling, grammar and punctuation — nothing else: not your wording,
your tone or what you said — and the corrections replace the text on your
filed card a few seconds later. You are usually on your next film by then;
open the filed card again and you see the corrected wording.

Your words stay exactly as filed when the correction would change more than
spelling, grammar and punctuation, when it does not come back within ten
seconds, when the festival has already edited your feedback before it lands,
or when the film's scorecard has already been sent out to its filmmaker. Your
answers to the filmmaker's questions are not proofread. **A box the festival
has switched off files empty**, whatever you had typed in it before it went —
see [The creative scorecard](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/creative-scorecard.md).

**With both cards in**, the footer prints a green confirmation — "Both cards
filed on *Title*." with "Technical 16 / 20 · Creative 6 of 6" underneath — and
the button becomes **Next film in your queue**. That claims **the next film in
your queue, not this one**; if your queue is empty you land on your judging
home and it tells you so. If that next film fills up in the moment between
your press and the claim, you land on your judging home with the same **"That
film is no longer available."** line that Start scoring gives.

**With one of two cards still in your hand, you have not finished the film.**
It stays your Next submission until the second card is filed too — see
[One film at a time](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/one-film-at-a-time.md).

The recap strips end with when the card went in: **"filed just now"** for the
first ten minutes, and the day you filed it after that — "filed Aug 15".

## When a card goes back to the queue

Occasionally a card turns amber and stops accepting work:

> **This card went back to the queue**
>
> The hold on it lapsed and the slot was taken, so it can no longer be filed.
> Everything you wrote has been kept.

**This means two things happened, in order**: your 48 hours ran out, *and*
then the card's place was filled.

- **A technical card** goes back when another judge took it.
- **A creative card** goes back when the category it is for received every
  scorecard the season asks for while your hold was lapsed. Only that category
  counts: on a film in two categories, the other one filling up has no effect
  on your card.

A lapsed hold on its own does nothing — if the place is still free you can
carry on and file it normally.

What it does to the screen:

- The card becomes read-only in place. Your answers are all still there to
  read.
- Its commit button is inert. Pressing it could only repeat the refusal.
- If the other card on the film is still yours, **it is unaffected** — the line
  under the tabs says "One card went back to the queue. The other is still
  yours to work on."

**There is no way to reclaim that place.** The work is not lost, it is simply
not going to be filed there. If you had put real time into it, message the
festival — that is a decision for them, not something any screen can reverse.

**The film itself can still come round to you** when it has room for you
somewhere else — another of its categories, or its other technical checklist.
**Start scoring** then gives you the card on that one, and what happens to your
answers is on [Picking a lapsed film up again](#picking-a-lapsed-film-up-again).

You may also meet it at the moment you press the commit, if the place was
filled while you were finishing. The card flips to the amber state in place and
one line appears above the button:

> This card went back to the queue while it was open, so it can no longer be
> filed. Your draft has been kept.

**This is never silent.** A filing either succeeds or says why.

## What you see of other judges, and what they see of you

**Nothing, in both directions.** The scoring screen contains no other judge at
all: no name, no score, no note, no average, no count, no report, and not even
how many judges this film needs. That is not a festival setting — there is no
switch for it anywhere, for anybody.

The one trace of anyone else here is **"This card went back to the queue"**, and
it is deliberately shaped as an effect with nobody attached: the card tells you
its place was taken, never who took it. The same is true of **"That film is no
longer available."** on your judging home.

Where your own work goes:

| What you write | Who reads it |
| --- | --- |
| Your scores and Pass/Fail marks | The festival's coordinators. |
| **Positive feedback** and **Opportunities for improvement**, where the card asks for them | "Shared with the submitter after coordinator review" — the festival decides and passes it on; it is not published automatically. |
| Your answers to the **filmmaker's own questions** | The filmmaker, on their scorecard, once the festival has approved your card and released it — under "Judge 1", "Judge 2", never under your name. A coordinator can edit them first, exactly as they can your feedback. |
| A fail note, an award recommendation note, a skip or decline note | "Seen by the coordinator only, never by the filmmaker." |
| A report sent with **Report an issue** | The festival's staff, by name — never the filmmaker. |
| Anything at all | **No other judge, ever.** |

**Filmmakers can rate the review, and you never see it.** A filmmaker who
unlocks their scorecard may answer a few 1-to-10 questions about it, including
one about each judge — "To what extent do you feel the judge reviewed your
entire submission?", asked of "Judge 1", "Judge 2" and so on, never by name.
The festival sees only averages, and only once at least three filmmakers have
answered; no one at the festival can read one filmmaker's answers. **No judge is
shown any of it** — not your own average, not anybody else's.

**The film's own submitter is not named on this screen** either — you see the
work, the tracking number and what the festival recorded about the film, and
not who sent it in. The people named under **Credits** are the film's own
credits, which is a different thing from the account that submitted it, and
the statement above them names nobody at all. **That holds for the filmmaker's
questions too**: you answer them without ever being told whose they are.

Filed cards go to the festival's own review screen, where its staff read and
approve them — you are not shown any of that. And **"message the coordinator"
now has a real route**: write to them from the
[Messages tab of your inbox](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/messaging-festival-staff.md). Your message
reaches the staff member you pick as an email, and their answer comes back to
you by email.

## If something is refused

Everything you have typed stays on screen through all of these, and nothing is
written unless you are told it was.

| The message | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| "A change could not be saved. It will be retried when you next edit this card." | One autosave did not land. Keep working; the next edit to that field sends it again. **If it never clears** in a tab you had left open, the card has moved to a different scorecard since — reload the page. See [Picking a lapsed film up again](#picking-a-lapsed-film-up-again). |
| "This film is no longer one of yours to score. Nothing was recorded." | The card, the film or your place on the season went out of reach — withdrawn by the festival, or your access changed — or, under **Start scoring**, the press could not go through at all. Go back to your judging home. The same sentence can answer **Send report**. |
| "This card is not finished yet." | The commit was pressed on an incomplete card. The line under the button names what is missing. **If the card looked finished**, the filmmaker changed their questions, or the festival switched a feedback box on, while you had the film — the screen reloads and the new one appears; see [If a question appears while you are working](#if-a-question-appears-while-you-are-working). |
| "This card could not be filed. Nothing was submitted. Try again in a moment." | Something went wrong on our side. Nothing was filed. |
| "This card went back to the queue while it was open, so it can no longer be filed. Your draft has been kept." | Your hold lapsed and the card's place was filled before you filed. See [above](#when-a-card-goes-back-to-the-queue). |
| "This could not be recorded. Nothing has changed. Try again in a moment." | A skip or decline did not go through. The film is still yours. |
| "Remove one to pick another." | You ticked a fourth award on a creative card. Three is the most one card can recommend — see [Award recommendations](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/creative-scorecard.md#award-recommendations). |
| "Pick what the problem is." | **Send report** was pressed with no reason chosen. |
| "Tell the festival what is wrong, in a few words." | The report's note is empty or too short. |
| "Keep the note under 2000 characters." | The report's note is too long. |
| "You already reported an issue on this film. The festival has it." | Your earlier report on this film is still open. The button reads "Issue reported" once the screen catches up. |
| "This festival is not taking reports right now." | The festival's account is on hold. Nothing was sent. |
| *The Judge Code of Conduct appears instead* | **Start scoring** or a filing found you have not agreed to the current Judge Code of Conduct — a new version was published while you worked. Nothing was taken or filed, and everything you typed is kept. Confirm it, and carry on. See [The Judge Code of Conduct](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-judging-home.md#the-judge-code-of-conduct). |
| "The report could not be sent. Nothing was recorded. Try again in a moment." | Something went wrong on our side. The dialog stays open with your words in it. |