Season and festival actions

The last tab of Festival settings holds the three big moves: start next season, archive this season, and delete the festival. None of them happens from the row itself — each opens a confirmation first, and each confirmation carries a monospace line counting exactly what is about to be affected.

/org/<organization>/<festival>/<season>/settings?tab=actions

The two background jobs

Starting a season and deleting a festival both run in the background rather than while you wait. A strip appears above the three rows telling you where the work is:

While it runs	Starting a season says	Deleting a festival says
Waiting to start	Starting the next season	Deleting the festival
Working	Building the next season	Removing the festival's records
Finished	The next season is ready	The festival was deleted
Stopped by a problem	Starting the next season did not finish	Deleting the festival did not finish

While work is in flight the strip carries a step count and a time, and says "Leaving this page is safe. The work continues in the background." The page re-reads itself every few seconds until the job ends, so the strip keeps up without you reloading.

One job at a time per festival. While either job is running, all three buttons are unavailable, and a second attempt is answered with "That is already running. Wait for it to finish."

A job that failed keeps its amber strip, with the reason underneath, until another one replaces it.

Start the next season

The first row is titled with next year — "Start the 2027 season" — and its button reads Duplicate season. It makes a new season from this one.

Choose Duplicate season.
The confirmation counts what will be carried: "73 categories, 9 awards, 12 scorecards, 0 submissions carried over". Every figure is measured from this season; the last one is always zero, and it is stated so that it is never a surprise. The awards figure counts every award the season runs — the category awards that come with its categories as well as the ones attached from the library — so on a season with 73 categories and 9 library awards it reads "82 awards".
Choose Duplicate season again in the dialog.

What the new season is: a draft season, one year later, with the same season name — "Spring 2026" becomes "Spring 2027". Its dashboard opens with the Finish setting up strip and judging not yet open, even when the season you duplicated is mid-judging — opening judging is a decision each season makes for itself (see Opening judging).

What carries over

Every category attached to this season, with its name, its description, its place in the order, its entry fee and both of its judge pay rates. Each one brings its category award with it — empty, with its rank held — exactly as a category attached by hand would; see Every category is also an award.
Every award attached to this season from the library, with its add-on price.
Whether the season pays its judges at all — the Paid or Volunteer choice from the Categories tab. See Judge pay.
The time zone, Judges per category and Skipping a submission. The Written comment rule is no longer one of them: it has been taken off Settings → Judging, and what judges write is now decided by each creative scorecard — see Written feedback. The stored reminder choice carries too, though Settings no longer shows it and no reminder is ever sent.
The section weights — how this season divides a submission's 100 points between creative, technical and press kit. The new season is scored the same way this one was, and there is no field on the dialog to change it; adjust it afterwards on the new season's Judging tab, see Section weights.
Creative judging waits for technical approval — on or off, as this season has it. See Creative judging waits for technical approval.
The season's description, location and contact email, from the Season tab's About this season card.
The season's parts of the public festival page — the office phone, the festival director, the programming partner, and every venue, with its name, address, use and photo. The edition moves on by one: a 12th edition makes a 13th, and a season with no edition makes one with none. See The public festival page.
From the Results tab: when scorecards become available, the note on every scorecard, and Press kit after judging closes — whether a press kit keeps its score as judged.
How filmmakers hear from you — Email each one as it arrives or I'll send them myself, chosen on the Season overview or in the Emails tab's How it sends. A season nobody has decided for makes a new season nobody has decided for, and its overview asks. A copy set to email each one as it arrives emails only the films that reach it after the copy was made — so a film submitted before then and moved in later is left for Send now. See Inviting submitters.

The pay rates come from the season you duplicated, not from the organization library — next season starts where this one finished. If you would rather have the library's numbers, use Reset pay to library on the new season, see Reset pay to library.

The library is not consulted at all here, and neither is the DEFAULT set that decides what a brand-new festival starts with. This copies the season in front of you — see When it does not apply.

What does not

Submissions. Not one, whatever its status — and so no Priority mark and no On hold mark either, since those belong to a submission.
Award pool entrants, winners and honorable mentions — and, on a category award, its released rank. Every category's rank starts held in the new season.
Dates. Every date on the Season tab's Dates card — the festival's own start and end dates, the final submission deadline, judging opens and closes, the notification date and award winners announced — and the dates listed on the public page's Dates tab. (The time zone on the same card does carry.) The new season starts unscheduled, which is why it can be edited freely on its first day. Its public page will not save until it has a festival start date — set Starts in the Event dates row of the new season's Dates card, or on the page itself.
The Scorecard ready promo code. The new season's Step 2 · Scorecards ready card on the Emails tab starts at No promo code; choose a code there if you want one. See Scorecard ready.
The scorecard release. A season that has released its scorecards to its submitters passes on the setting — when scorecards become available — and not the fact. The new season starts with nothing judged and nothing released, and its own release is its own decision. See Releasing scorecards.
Who has been emailed. The choice of how filmmakers hear from you carries; the record of which submitters were sent their page stays with the submissions, and there are none in the new season.
The lock on the section weights. A released season cannot change its split; the new season can, because nothing in it has gone out yet.
The star. A new season is not the season the festival opens on until somebody stars it. See The season a festival opens on.

The venue photos are shared, not copied. Both seasons point at the same image, and replacing or removing a venue's photo on one season's public page leaves the other season's alone — an image another season still uses is never deleted.

The "scorecards" figure in the confirmation is a count of the distinct scorecards attached in the library to the categories being carried. It is there to tell you what the new season will be able to judge with; nothing is copied, because scorecards live in the library.

Finding the new season. When the strip reads "The next season is ready" it carries an Open the new season's settings link — go straight there and set its dates. The new season is also at the top of the season switcher in the top bar.

If a season with that name and year already exists, the job stops with a message naming it — "Spring 2027 already exists for this festival. Rename or remove it first." — and nothing partial is created.

The other route: Add new season

The season switcher in the top bar carries + Add new season at the bottom, and it opens a full page rather than a dialog: Start a new season. It queues the same background job and copies the same things — the difference is that most of what the job carries is on the page, editable before you press the button, and you choose which season it is modelled on.

Model on is the second field, next to the locked festival name. It lists every season of this festival, newest first, including ones marked completed and archived — an old season that ran well is exactly the kind you may want to copy.
Changing it reloads the page with that season's line-up count and that season's rules filled in. Anything you had already typed is replaced, because those were edits to a different season's settings.
The year is proposed from the festival, not from the model. It is always the newest year this festival has plus one, so modelling 2027 on Fall 2023 does not offer you 2024 — a year that already exists, and one the job would have had to refuse. The season label does follow the model: copy a "Fall" season and you get a "Fall" one.
Everything else works exactly as the dialog does, including what carries and what does not. The Judging section's first field is Judges per category — the same setting as on Settings → Judging, see Judges per category — followed by Skipping a submission, the same setting as on Settings → Judging; there is no Written comment or Reminders field any more. The Scorecard release field offers the same five choices the Results tab does, including When every submission is approved and As each submission is approved — see Choosing when it happens. The Contact email field is the model's contact email, the same one as on the Season tab's About this season card.
Some things carry without a field on the page — among them the Paid or Volunteer choice, the section weights, the description and location, the press kit choice, how filmmakers hear from you, and the public page's office phone, director, programming partner, venues and edition (moved on by one). The new season takes the model's; change them afterwards on the new season's own Settings tabs, or on its public page.

Pressing the button leaves you on the season you started from, with the job strip reporting progress — the same strip, since it belongs to the festival rather than to one season.

Who can use it: organization owners and org admins. Festival admins use the dialog on this tab instead.

Archive the season

Archiving is for a season that is finished with: it gets it out of the way without touching anything in it.

It is unavailable while judging is open. "Open" here means both that the season has been opened with the Open judging button and that today falls between its judging dates. While that is true the button is greyed out and its line says "Judging is still open, so this is unavailable."; close judging first (see Festival settings). Everything else can be archived:

A draft season — one nobody has opened judging on — can be archived at any time, whatever its dates say. No judge can score on it, so there is nothing to close first.
A season whose judging was never scheduled can be archived.
An opened season whose closing date has passed, or whose opening date is still ahead, can be archived.

Choose Archive season.
The confirmation counts what is in the season — "128 submissions in this season".
Choose Archive season again in the dialog.

The rule is checked again when you confirm. A tab left open while a colleague opened judging is refused with "Judging is still open. Close judging before archiving the season." and nothing changes.

What actually changes: the season leaves the season switcher, so nobody picks it by accident when they meant this year's. That is the whole visible effect. Its status reads Archived on its dashboard — the Season overview, which its addresses keep serving.

If it was the season the festival opened on, the festival goes back to opening on its newest. The star is not thrown away: it is simply overlooked while the season is archived, and it counts again if the season is ever put back. See The season a festival opens on. The festival's public page follows the same rule when it picks a season to show — see Which season the page shows.

What does not change:

Its addresses keep working. Anyone with a link — or the switcher, while you are standing in the archived season itself — reaches every one of its screens as before.
Its records stay readable, and editable. Archiving is not a lock — nothing in this release prevents an import or an edit being pointed at an archived season. The on-screen wording says only what archiving really does, so there is no promise here to misread, but it is still worth being careful which season an import is aimed at.
Its submitters keep their scorecards. Archiving a released season does not close anybody's scorecard, expire an access code or take back a scorecard somebody has unlocked.

There is no un-archive button. If you archive the wrong season, ask whoever administers FilmScorecard for you to put it back.

Delete the festival

The third row is amber, and it is the only genuinely irreversible action in FilmScorecard. It removes the festival and everything that belongs to it. There is no undo, no restore, no waiting period and no export.

Choose Delete festival.
The confirmation names the festival and counts what dies: "3 seasons, 412 submissions, 96 pool entries". The pool entries figure counts every entrant in every pool, category awards included — and since every submission is an entrant in each category it competes in, it is usually larger than the submission count.
Choose Delete festival again in the dialog.
You are taken to your organization's page straight away, while the work runs in the background.

A festival judges have scored cannot be deleted. The confirmation does not say so — it is checked once the work starts, before anything is removed — so read If a deletion does not finish before you press it on a festival that has been judged.

What is deleted

Every season of the festival, not only the one you were in.
Every submission in those seasons, their category placements, and any private flags anyone set on them — and each one's Audit tab history: its judging, status and email entries, and the filmmaker's visits and actions.
Every award pool and every entrant in one, and the winners and honorable mentions recorded with them — category awards and their released ranks along with the rest.
The season line-ups — the attached categories and awards, with their fees, prices and judge pay rates — and the festival's own record of which library categories and awards it offers.
Every import batch and the CSV file it was made from.
Every released scorecard, with the access codes submitters used to open them and the receipts for the ones they unlocked. Those links stop working.
Access given to this festival or its seasons — a coordinator's grant to this festival disappears with it. Their account and their access to your other festivals are untouched.
The festival's public page, with its dates and venues. Its address answers "page not found".
The festival's logo, when it was uploaded on the Settings screen, and finally the festival itself.

What survives

Your organization's library, in full: every category, every award, the eligible-category lists, every scorecard, the default judge pay on each category, and which of them a new festival starts with. Deleting a festival never un-writes your organization's vocabulary.
The filmmakers' works. The film and screenplay records that submissions pointed at are shared across festivals and are not deleted.
Every other festival you run, and everyone's account.
The image files uploaded on the public page — a logo replaced there, the backdrop and the venue photos. Nothing links to them once the festival is gone, but the files are not removed from storage.

If a deletion does not finish

Because you leave the screen as soon as the job is accepted, a failure is not announced anywhere you are standing. The signal is that the festival is still there. Open that festival's Settings → Season actions: the amber strip carries the reason.

Two reasons are deliberate, and both leave nothing deleted:

The person who asked for the deletion no longer administers the organization. The job checks again before it starts, and refuses:

The person who requested this deletion no longer administers this organization. Nothing was deleted.
Judges have scored submissions in the festival. A judge's scorecard is never deleted, so a festival with any creative scorecard on any of its seasons — filed or still in progress, and including one your own staff filled in — is refused before anything is removed. The strip reads:

Judges have scored submissions in this festival, so it can't be deleted. A judge's scorecard is never deleted.

Pressing it again refuses the same way for good: a judged festival stays. If you no longer want it in the way, archive its seasons instead — see Archive the season.

Festival settings — the rest of the screen, including closing judging.
The public festival page — the season details a duplicate carries over, and the dates it does not.
The season a festival opens on — the star in the season switcher, and what archiving does to it.
Judge pay — the rates and the Paid/Volunteer choice a duplicate carries.
Releasing scorecards — the Results tab's one-way actions, and what a duplicated season does not inherit.
Inviting submitters — how filmmakers hear from you, which a duplicate carries, and what it does once the new season has submissions.
A season's categories and awards — the line-up that a duplicate carries.
What a new festival starts with — the library set a new festival is born with, which this action never reads.
Imports — rolling one import back, which is the smaller and reversible way to undo a mistake.