A season's categories and awards

Two tabs of Festival settings decide what a single season competes in: Categories — the submission categories this season accepts — and Awards — the award categories whose pools this season fills. Both are also where the money for a season is written down: an add-on price per award, and — on the Categories tab — what this season pays its judges for each scorecard they file. A season does not record an entry fee. Entry fees are collected on FilmFreeway and never reach this platform.

Two things are true of both tabs and worth reading before anything else.

Attaching never creates anything. Categories and awards are written in your organization's library and shared by every festival you run. These two tabs only connect an existing library record to this season and set what it costs here. Renaming, rewriting, adding, importing or archiving one is library work — see Categories and scorecards, Award categories and Importing from the default list.

Both tabs wait for Save. Typing a rate, pressing Paid or Volunteer, Reset pay to library, attaching and detaching all change the tab on screen at once, but nothing is stored until you choose Save categories (or Save awards) in the footer. Until then the tab shows the amber dot, the footer offers Discard, and leaving the screen asks first. Each footer carries a count line and the time of the last change.

Where a season's line-up comes from before you touch it

Which rows a season starts with depends on how the season came to exist:

A festival's first season arriving with awards is new. Until this release awards reached a season only through the Attach awards dialog below, and every festival was created with none.

Whatever a season starts with, these two tabs are how you change it — with one shortcut on the Submissions screen, where an owner or org admin editing a submission's categories can tick a library category the season is not yet running and have it attached on the way (see Attaching categories). Nothing you do here ever reaches the library or another season.

Categories

Each row is one category this season is running.

The Submissions numbers can add up to more than the season holds. A submission competes in every category it is attached to, so one film entered in Drama and Experimental is counted by both — see A submission competes in every category it is attached to.

The table starts in name order and the footer says so: "4 attached of 73 in the library. Sorted by category, ascending." The library figure counts your organization's active categories — archived ones are not counted, because they are not offered for attaching either.

Three headings sort: Category, Technical pay and Creative pay. Click one to sort by it, click it again to reverse, and the footer keeps naming what you are looking at. Type and Submissions do not sort. Details are in Sorting by pay.

The name is this season's own copy. It was taken when the category was attached, so renaming the category in the library later does not rewrite what this season competed under. The short id, type and length on the other hand are read from the library every time the page loads, so they are always current — change a category's length in the library and every season running it shows the new figure the next time the tab is opened. The length is information only: nothing checks a submission against it. See The length.

The two pay rates are copies too, taken from the library at the same moment — and the whole of how they travel is in Judge pay.

Every category is also an award

Each category this season runs is a category award on the Awards screen, from the moment it holds a submission: its pool is the submissions entered in the category, its winner and honorable mentions are named by hand there, and it carries the category's rank — every scored film's position — which a coordinator releases to submitters from the same screen. Nothing on this tab creates or removes it: it comes with the category when the category is attached, takes the name on this row, and goes when the category is detached. It has no add-on price and no library page. See Two kinds of award and A category award's pool.

A category whose Submissions column reads 0 has no card on the Awards screen until something is entered in it.

Finding a row

• Search matches the name and the monospace line, so CAT-1006 finds a row as surely as its name does.
• Type is a multiple-choice filter listing only the types actually present in this season.
• Clear filters appears as soon as either is in use.

Both reset when you leave the tab. Rows you have ticked survive a tab switch.

With no match you get "Nothing matches those filters" and a way back; with nothing attached at all, "No categories are attached to this season yet."

A row that is not in the library any more

If a category was deleted from the library after this season attached it, the season keeps competing in it — the row stays, with its name and its submissions. It just has nothing to read the extras from, so:

• there is no monospace sub-line and no type pill (the Type cell shows "—");
• no Type filter value matches it;
• its row menu has no Open in library item;
• Reset pay to library skips it entirely — there is nothing to reset toward.

Its two pay rates can still be edited and it can still be detached.

Attaching categories

1. Choose Attach categories. The dialog lists only categories that are not already attached to this season — archived ones are never offered. Each row carries a monospace line with the id, the length when there is one, and the type: CAT-1008, 31–120 min, Film.
2. Search if the list is long. Select all ticks everything currently matching your search, and says so ("Select all 6 matching"), so you never pick up rows you did not see.
3. Tick what you want. The count beside the checkbox keeps up, and Clear empties the selection.
4. Choose Attach 6 categories. They wait in an amber Attach on save strip above the table, each with ✕ to take it back, and join the table when you choose Save categories.

On a paid season the dialog's footer says what arrives with the category: "Attached categories start at the library's default judge pay — which may itself be $0.00. Set it before submissions open." On a volunteer season there is no footer, because an attached category carries no money at all.

Three things worth knowing:

• Attaching twice is harmless. Anything already attached is skipped, so a double click or a dialog left open while somebody else attached the same record does not create duplicates.
• Attaching also records that this festival offers the category, which is what the library's "used by N festivals" note counts. Detaching from a season does not undo that.
• Edit categories on the Submissions screen attaches too. An owner or org admin changing which categories one submission competes in is offered the same library, and ticking a category the season is not yet running attaches it here — at the library's default judge pay, like any attach — on the way to the submission. It then appears on this tab as an ordinary row. See Editing a submission's categories.

When there is nothing to offer, the dialog says which of two things is true:

This dialog never imports, and nothing imports and attaches in one go. Importing from the default list puts categories in your library; attaching them here is always the second step. When you reach the library from this season — its Welcome page or its dashboard's Set up categories button — the line confirming an import links straight back to this tab. See Coming from a season.

The DEFAULT tag in the library has nothing to say here. It decides what a new festival is born with; this dialog offers every active category regardless.

Detaching categories

Detaching removes the category from this season only. The library keeps it, every other season keeps it, and you can attach it again. Its category award goes with it — an empty one, since a category can only be detached once it holds no submissions.

• One row: its row menu → Detach from season.
• Several: hover the number at the left of a row and it becomes a checkbox. Tick rows and a bar appears at the bottom of the list with Detach from season in it.

Either way the rows leave the table at once and are listed in an amber Detach on save strip above it, each with ✕ to keep it. Nothing is detached until you choose Save categories; Discard brings them all back.

Detaching and attaching again loses the season's tuned numbers. The category comes back at the library's default judge pay, not at whatever you had set here.

A category with submissions cannot be detached

This is a data rule, not a permissions one: while any submission in this season competes in a category, that category stays.

• The row menu has no Detach item at all, and the row itself says why: "3 submissions belong to this category. Detach is unavailable while any exist."
• In a mixed selection the bulk bar shows an amber note — "1 of 2 can be detached" — and detaching takes only the ones that can go. The note is left out when everything selected is free.
• If everything you picked is locked, the button is disabled.

If you really need the category gone, first take it off the submissions that hold it — Edit categories on the Submissions screen, one submission at a time — or withdraw them. A submission has to keep at least one category, so a submission in this category and nothing else must be given another one before this one can go. Withdrawn submissions still count here.

Row menu

• Open in library — the organization's category library.
• View submissions — this season's Submissions screen, filtered to that category.
• Detach from season — only when the category holds no submissions.

Judge pay

Above the toolbar sits JUDGE PAY THIS SEASON with two buttons, Paid and Volunteer, and a line saying what the current choice means. It decides whether the two pay columns exist at all.

What it is not is a rule about every judge. It is a ceiling: on a Paid season a coordinator may take one judge on as a volunteer, and a judge may apply to an open call as one, so a paid season can hold a mixture. A Volunteer season admits volunteers only.

It locks to Paid while a paid record is open or already agreed — a paid invitation still out, a paid open-call application still open, or a judge who has accepted paid terms. Volunteer places and volunteer applications never lock it. The padlocked row names the count.

That control, its lock, the two rate columns, the $0.00 warning and the Reset pay to library button all have a guide of their own: Judge pay.

Awards

The Awards tab works the same way, with different columns and one extra idea. Judge pay is not part of it — awards have no rates.

Category awards are not on this tab. It lists the awards attached from your library — the ones with an AWD- id and an add-on price. A category's own award has neither, cannot be attached or detached on its own, and lives on the Awards screen beside these; see Every category is also an award.

Above the table sits a line counting what the pools can draw on: "73 submission categories are attached this season. Only work in those categories can enter a pool." — with a button that jumps to the Categories tab. With no categories attached it reads "No submission categories are attached this season, so no pool can fill."

The footer counts the same way as Categories: "9 attached of 14 in the library. Sorted by award, ascending." Search matches the name and the monospace line; there is no Type filter here, and no column on this tab sorts.

A submission may enter an award's pool when any one of its categories is eligible for that award, and it enters once however many of them qualify — see What makes a submission eligible.

A new festival's first season starts with awards already on this tab — the ones in your library's default set, each at $0.00. Every season after it starts with whatever the season before it was running. See Where a season's line-up comes from before you touch it.

"None attached" is a warning

When none of an award's eligible categories are attached to this season, the Eligible categories cell shows an amber None attached pill instead of a count. That award's pool can never fill: no submission in this season is allowed to enter it. Either attach one of its categories on the Categories tab, or widen the award's eligible list in the library.

The attach dialog shows the same figure before you commit — an award with nothing eligible attached has an amber meta line there too.

A first season can arrive with one of these already showing. An award in the default set is given to a new festival whether or not anything can enter it; check this tab before submissions open.

Attaching and detaching awards

Identical to categories: only unattached, non-archived awards are listed; select-all is scoped to your search; each award arrives at $0.00; attaching twice is harmless.

With nothing to offer, the dialog reads "Your library has no awards yet." — with the owner's Import from default list link beneath it, opening the import dialog on its Awards tab — or, when every active award is already on this season, "Every award in the library is already attached."

Detaching closes that award's pool for this season and takes it off the list. The library keeps the award, and so does every other season. As on Categories, both wait in the amber strip until you choose Save awards.

An award with entrants in its pool cannot be detached. The row says "4 entries are in the pool. Detach is unavailable while any exist.", its menu has no Detach item, and a mixed selection behaves exactly as it does on the Categories tab. Empty the pool from the award's own pool screen first — see Award pools.

Nothing here touches a decision. Winners and honorable mentions are changed only on the awards screens; detaching an award never edits or clears a result.

Row menu

• Open in library — that award's page in the library.
• Open the pool — this season's pool for that award.
• Detach from season — only when the pool is empty.

Selecting in one table clears the other

The two tables share one selection bar, so ticking a row on Awards drops whatever you had ticked on Categories, and the other way round. The bar can only ever be about one list.

Setting fees and prices

The money boxes on these tabs are the two judge pay rates on Categories.

1. Click into the box and type an amount in dollars — 45 or 45.50. The $ is part of the field, not something you type.
2. Press Tab or Enter, or click elsewhere. The amount tidies to two decimals, but it is not saved yet: the tab's amber dot lights and the footer shows Discard and Save categories.
3. Choose Save categories to write every rate you changed, or Discard to put them all back. Escape in a box puts just that box back.

Amounts run from $0 to $10,000.00, with at most two decimal places. A figure with more than two decimals is refused rather than rounded — a price you did not type is a price nobody can find again. Every amount is shown to two decimals: 45.00, never 45.

Clearing a box is a deliberate zero. Empty it and leave it and it settles to 0.00 — and Save writes that. It is not treated as a typing mistake. On a paid season a judge rate at $0.00 is saved and flagged in red; see $0.00 in a paid season is an error, not "free".

If an amount is refused, a red line appears under the box and nothing is written. If it is accepted but the save then fails, the box keeps what you typed and shows the reason, and the footer says how many changes did not save — choose Save categories again to retry them. Leaving the screen with rates unsaved asks first, like any other unsaved change.

Nothing charges anyone yet

Add-on prices and judge pay rates are stored configuration. There is no checkout, no card, no payout and no invoice anywhere in FilmScorecard today, and nothing on this screen tells a submitter what anything costs, or tells a judge what they will be paid. Set them now so they are ready; do not expect money to move.

Messages

A change that is refused at Save stays waiting, with the message above the footer, so you never lose it to an error.

Related guides

• Festival settings — the rest of the screen.
• Judge pay — the Paid/Volunteer ceiling and its lock, the two rate columns, Reset pay to library, and what a filed scorecard records.
• Categories and scorecards — writing and maintaining the categories these tabs attach.
• Award categories — the same for awards, including which categories may enter each one.
• Importing from the default list — filling an empty library from FilmScorecard's ready-made list.
• What a new festival starts with — which of them a brand-new festival's first season is born with.
• Awards and Award pools — what a season then does with its awards, category awards included.
• Season and festival actions — carrying this line-up, prices and rates into next season.