Setting up your judge profile

Four short screens that ask what you are willing to review, who you are, and how much you can take on. FilmScorecard shows them once, the first time you open your judging area. Answer them, skip them, or just leave — either way you are not sent back to them again.

It takes a couple of minutes. Nothing you enter here is shown to a festival you do not already judge for until you choose to be listed — that switch is on Your account, not here — and nothing here is a commitment. See What these answers do not do.

These four steps are the way in; they are no longer the way to edit. Everything below can be changed afterwards, more comfortably, on Your account. See Changing your answers.

When you see this

The first time you open /judge with an unfinished profile, you are sent here instead — and only the first time. Opening the steps once is enough: after that your judging area opens whether or not you finished them. The judging area is what is gated, not you. Two pages are never interrupted: an open call's application, and your own account at /account, which opens with your profile empty until you fill it in.

In practice that means:

• You accepted a judging invitation — and chose to come here. Accepting counts as setting up your profile, so it takes you straight to your judging home and never through these steps. Until your profile says what you judge, a Complete your profile card at the top of that home links to the first step you have not answered. It is optional: what you fill in here is what other festivals see when they look for judges, and none of it changes the judging you were invited to do. Dismiss hides the card in this browser. See Your judging invitation.
• You signed up as a judge. Choosing the Judge card on the sign-up screen sends you to the judging area as soon as you are in, and the judging area sends you here — so these four steps are the first thing you see. Nobody has to have invited you.
• Not when you came for an application. A festival page's Apply to judge button — or any open call's application — opens the application itself, with no steps first. Sending it counts as Skip for now: once a festival takes you on, the Complete your profile card on its judging home links to these steps. See Applying to judge from the page.
• You logged in and judging is your only connection to FilmScorecard. Logging in takes you to the judging area, which sends you here.

The invitation page itself is never interrupted. You can open, read, accept or decline an invitation without being pulled into this flow.

The steps remember where you were going. Whatever page of the judging area you were trying to open when you were sent here — an open call's application, the open-calls board, one festival's judging screen — finishing the four steps takes you there, not to your judging home. Only a page in the judging area is remembered; anything else lands on your judging home as before.

If you leave part way through, nothing is lost. Everything you have already submitted is saved, and the rest can be filled in on Your account whenever you like.

Every step's bottom row carries a quiet Skip for now. It takes you on to where you were going — your judging home, usually — keeping whatever you have answered so far, and Your account is where you fill the rest in later.

What the screens look like

Every step has the same three pieces above the questions:

• A line naming who invited you — the festival and season in small capitals, and under it a sentence like "Ada Reyes invited you as a Creative judge. Answer four short steps and your judging home opens." If FilmScorecard cannot work out who sent the invitation, the sentence starts "You were invited as…" instead.
  • If no festival has you on a season yet, that line reads "Set up your judge profile" with "You are not attached to a festival yet. Fill this in now and festivals can find you when they invite judges." underneath.
• Four step pills — Formats, Genres, About you, Availability. Steps you have already answered turn green and are links you can go back to. The current one and anything ahead of it are not clickable. On a narrow window or a phone the pills are replaced by one line reading "Step 2 of 4" and the step name.
• A heading and one sentence saying what the step is for.

At the bottom of every step: Back (from step 2 onwards), Skip for now (see above), the step count, and the blue button — Continue on the first three steps, Finish and save my profile on the last.

Two things about that button:

• Nothing in this flow is ever greyed out. Continue always submits and always tells you what was wrong. You will never be left with a dead button and no explanation.
• It shows a spinner while it saves, and a second press does nothing until the first one has finished.

The stepper only walks backwards. You can revisit any step you have answered, from the pills or from Back. Typing the address of a step you have not reached yet sends you back to the one you are actually on.

The top of the page carries the address you are signed in as and a Sign out link, and nothing else — no navigation, no festival switcher. There is one thing to do on these screens.

Step 1 — What do you review?

Pick every format you are willing to score. Coordinators read this when they build your queue, and you can change it later in your account.

Two cards. Choose one or both; at least one is required.

If a festival invited you, each format card also carries a count from that season — "Riverside Shorts Festival, 29 films this season", "…8 screenplays this season". The count is every submission the season has taken in that format, whatever has happened to it since. If no festival has you on a season, the counts are left off rather than showing zeros.

Judge type

Under the format cards, a second pair headed Judge type. Choose one or both; at least one is required.

These two cards carry no season count, invited or not.

What the answer does: it is printed beside Paid or Volunteer on your card in the judges directory, festivals can narrow the directory by it, and when a festival invites you from there the invitation's own Judge type starts from what you picked here — which they can change before they send. It does not decide the role a festival gives you; that is on the invitation you accept. A judge who skips this step, or never opens it, is recorded as both until they change it on Your account.

Pressing Continue with no format chosen gets an amber line under the cards:

Pick at least one format to continue.

With a format chosen but neither judge type:

Pick at least one judge type to continue.

Nothing is saved when either happens, and whatever you had ticked stays ticked.

Step 2 — Which genres suit you?

This is a preference, not a filter. Coordinators use it to sort work toward you, so you may still be assigned outside the list when a queue needs cover.

A grid of 29 genres, the same 29 at every festival on FilmScorecard: Action, Adventure, AI Created, Animation, Asian, Biography, Black/African American, Comedy, Crime, Documentary, Drama, Experimental, Faith Based, Family Content, Fantasy, Hispanic/Latino, Historical, Horror, LGBTQ+, Mature Content, Mental Health, Music Videos or Musicals, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Sports, Thriller, War, Western.

At least one is required here. If you are genuinely happy with anything, use Select all 29 — that is what the error message tells you to do:

Pick at least one genre. Choose Select all 29 if you are happy with anything.

(The same list on your account allows zero, so you can clear it afterwards if you would rather name none.)

Above the grid:

• A search box headed "Search 29 genres". Typing narrows the grid as you go. Clear it with the small ✕ inside the field or by pressing Escape.
• Select all, which changes to Select all 3 matching while a search is running — and it means it. A search narrows what you can see and nothing else: selecting all the matches, then clearing the search, leaves those picks in place alongside everything you had already chosen. Pressing it again while every match is ticked clears those matches only.
• A count of everything selected, and a Clear button that empties the whole selection.

The tick box on Select all shows a dash when only some of the matches are chosen.

A search that matches nothing never leaves you with an empty grid. You get a block reading No match for "zzz", the line "The genre list is fixed across every festival on FilmScorecard.", and a Clear search button.

Step 3 — About you

Coordinators at festivals you judge for can see this. Submitters never see judge profiles.

Two answers are required: your display name and your country. Everything else on this step is optional and can be left empty.

An error replaces that field's help line rather than appearing beside it, so nothing on the screen jumps around. One message per field, and a single amber line above the buttons saying the step was refused.

Where you are

Country, State or territory and City replace the single Location box that used to sit here. Three answers instead of one, and only the first is required.

• Country is a list, not a box. You pick a country by name; nothing you can type is refused, because there is nothing to type. Leaving it on Select a country stops the step with "Choose a country from the list."
• State or territory appears only for the United States, as a list of the states and territories. Pick any other country and the field is not there at all, and nothing is stored for it. Blank is a real answer.
• City is free text, and blank is a real answer. Write it however people where you live write it — FilmScorecard does not check it against anything.
• They are put together into one line wherever a coordinator sees you — city, then state, then the country's full name, skipping whatever you left out. "Austin, Texas, United States", "Seoul, South Korea", or just "Ghana".
• The country is what makes you findable. Festivals can narrow the judges directory by country, then region, then city — so a state and a city you fill in are a state and a city somebody can search you by. That is the only thing the three answers do.
• You cannot go back to having no country. Once it is set, saving a blank one on either screen is refused with the same sentence, and your stored answer is left alone.

Nothing here is a street address, and there is no map, no distance and no "near me" anywhere in FilmScorecard.

The three lists — Country, State or territory and Time zone — open with a search box rather than as a plain dropdown. Click the field, type part of a name — gha for Ghana, wash for Washington, central or chicago for Central Time (Chicago, Dallas); case does not matter — and choose the row. If nothing matches you get No match for "…". and a Clear search link rather than an empty list. Escape clears the search, or closes the list once it is empty. On a phone, tap the search box to bring the keyboard up.

Your photo

At the top of the step: a square placeholder, a Choose file button and the name of the file you picked.

• PNG, JPG and WebP are accepted, up to 5 MB. The help line under the row only names PNG and JPG; WebP works too.
• The upload runs in the background and never holds you up. Pick a photo and carry straight on — Continue does not wait for it, and neither does Finish.
• If you finish before the upload lands, your initials may show in its place for a moment. Reload and the photo is there. Nothing is lost and nothing needs re-doing.
• A refused or failed photo never blocks the step. The message appears on the photo row alone, the rest of your answers are untouched, and Continue still works. You will see one of:

• A photo is optional. Without one, your initials are used.
• Replacing a photo replaces it. There is one photo per judge; choosing a new file overwrites the old one.
• This screen cannot remove a photo, only replace it. Remove photo on your account puts you back to initials.

Languages you can review in

Under the fields, a second list — 12 languages, the same anywhere on FilmScorecard: Arabic, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish. It works exactly like the genre list, search and select-all included.

English starts ticked. The first time you reach this step, English is already selected — untick it if it does not apply. Once you have submitted the step, whatever you chose stands, and it is not re-ticked on a later visit.

This one is genuinely optional. Leaving it empty is a valid answer and the step will not stop you. The line above it reads "Films and screenplays outside these languages are only assigned to you when subtitles or a translation exist." — that describes how coordinators are meant to read the list, not something FilmScorecard enforces.

FilmFreeway account

Under the languages, the same block the What I judge card on Your profile carries. It opens with one line saying what the answer is for:

Festivals see this answer when they invite you. Each festival decides on your invitation whether submissions viewable only on FilmFreeway are offered to you.

Then the box I have a FilmFreeway account, and — only while the box is ticked — a FilmFreeway profile or email field. Both are optional; untick the box and whatever was in the field is cleared when you continue.

The answer is information for festivals, not a switch on your queue. A festival deciding whether to turn FilmFreeway access on for you reads it as "Judge says: has a FilmFreeway account" or "Judge says: no FilmFreeway account", beside the switch they hold for you; if you list yourself in the directory, it also appears on your profile there as a FilmFreeway account cell reading Yes or No. Whether submissions that can only be watched on FilmFreeway actually reach you on a season is decided by that festival's switch, not by this box — the whole of it is on the account page, under FilmFreeway account.

Step 4 — How much, and what you need

Both answers are for the coordinator building your queue. Neither one caps what can be assigned to you.

Weekly review capacity — a number between 1 and 200, starting at 12, with 5 a week / 10 a week / 15 a week / 25 a week shortcut buttons that fill the box for you. Typing a number that matches one of them lights that button up. The box only takes digits, and anything outside 1–200 is refused with:

Enter a number between 1 and 200.

The help line reads "A guide, not a limit. Most judges in this season file between 8 and 20 a week." That sentence is fixed text, not a measurement of your festival.

Accessibility needs — a free-text box, optional, 1000 characters at most. Its placeholder suggests "Captions, extended viewing time, screen reader support, anything else."

Under both, a card headed What coordinators will see, built from the answers you have already given:

The strip along the bottom of that card reads "All of it stays editable in Your account." — and that screen now exists. See Your account.

The button reads Finish and save my profile.

Finishing checks the earlier steps too. If you somehow arrive at this screen with a format, a genre or a display name missing, Finish refuses and names what is missing rather than letting you out with half a profile.

When you finish

Finish and save my profile saves the last step and takes you straight on — there is no summary screen in between:

• If you were on your way to a page in the judging area when you were sent here — most often an open call's application, from a festival's public page or from the open-calls board — you land back on that page, ready to carry on.
• Otherwise you land on your judging home, /judge, which puts you straight into one festival with the next film in front of you, or tells you plainly that no festival has assigned you films yet. See Your judging home.

Skip for now lands in the same place.

Your judge ID

Your judge ID is a JDG- number — JDG-1001, JDG-1042 — and it appears on the judge list of every festival you judge for.

Three things worth knowing:

• It is one number for you across the whole of FilmScorecard. Judge for two festivals run by two different organizations and both see the same number. It is tied to your email address, so an invitation to [email protected] and one to [email protected] are the same person with the same ID.
• You have one from the moment you answer step 1, even if no festival has ever invited you.
• It is never given to anybody else. If a festival deletes your record from its own list, the number stays yours; an invitation from anywhere on FilmScorecard brings the same number back.

If you judged for a FilmScorecard festival before this release, your number may have changed. Numbers used to be handed out separately by each organization, which meant one person could hold two of them and one number could mean two people. They were reissued once, as part of the change, so that each judge has exactly one.

Changing your answers

Your account is the place to change any of this, and it holds more than these four steps ever asked: whether you are listed in the judges directory, whether you judge for pay or as a volunteer, your preferred turnaround, a note to coordinators, pausing new assignments, and your notification settings.

Where each answer moved to:

The four steps still work as an edit surface too. Open /onboarding: every step renders with what you saved last time, Continue saves the changes, and every pill is a link once the profile is finished. Nothing there disagrees with the account screen — both write the same profile, and both require a country.

You still cannot delete your profile or your account from any screen.

Who can see your profile

One profile, kept once, for the whole platform. It is not copied per festival, and it travels with you to the next festival that invites you.

Who can read it:

Two things the wording on the screens does not spell out, and which are worth knowing before you type anything sensitive into the accessibility box:

• The link is to an organization, not to one festival or one season, and it does not expire. It is made when you accept that organization's invitation. An organization that runs four festivals reads your profile from any of them, keeps reading it after the season is over, and keeps reading it after it has removed you from a season.
• Your phone number, your accessibility needs, your weekly capacity and your note to coordinators are never shown on a screen anybody else uses. The organizations above are allowed to read them; nothing displays them. The one screen that shows a judge profile to a coordinator is the judges directory, and it carries none of those, no photograph and no email address — your own preview says so at the foot of it. Your FilmFreeway answer is the exception on a festival's own screens: the festivals you judge for see whether you say you have an account — never the handle — beside the FilmFreeway access switch they hold for you.

Everything in the profile is optional except the display name, your country and the three minimum-one picks here — formats, judge type and genres — so leave out anything you would rather not share until the screens that use it exist.

The judges directory

Festivals have a screen listing judges from across the whole platform, so they can find people they have never worked with. You are not on it unless you put yourself on it, and nothing on these four steps does — the switch is List me in the judge directory on your account.

Once you are listed, a festival anywhere on FilmScorecard sees: your display name (or your JDG- number, if you have not set one), where you are and your time zone, your genres, your languages, your bio, your credits, whether you judge for pay or as a volunteer — never an amount, because you are not asked for one — which kind of judging you do, whether you say you have a FilmFreeway account, your availability, and a record of the seasons you have judged — for every festival, not just theirs. They do not see your email address, phone number, accessibility needs, weekly capacity, formats, FilmFreeway handle or photo.

They can also narrow that list by country, region and city, which is what the three answers on step 3 are for — and by judge type, which is what the pair on step 1 is for. There is no FilmFreeway filter.

Being listed is also what lets those festivals invite you — there is no separate switch for it — and a Blocked festivals card beneath it lets you stop a particular festival from inviting you at all. Both are on Your account.

What these answers do not do

The step headings say this in their own words, and it is worth collecting in one place. Judge type, formats, genres, languages, weekly capacity and your FilmFreeway answer are preferences and information. Nothing in FilmScorecard enforces any of them.

• They do not decide what reaches you. The films you are offered are worked out from the scope the festival sets for you, not from anything on these four screens. See How the judging queue works.
• Judge type does not decide your role on a season. A festival ticks the role on the invitation it sends you — starting from your answer when they invite you from the directory, and free to change it before they send.
• Weekly capacity is not a cap. Nothing counts against it and nothing stops at it. The screen says so: "A guide, not a limit."
• Languages do not restrict anything. The line about subtitles describes what a coordinator should do, not what the software does.
• Where you are changes nothing about your work. Country, state and city are how a festival finds you in the directory; no film, no deadline and no assignment reads them.
• Your FilmFreeway answer does not open or close your queue. Whether a submission that can only be watched on FilmFreeway is offered to you is a switch each festival sets for you on its own roster; your answer tells them what you said, and nothing more. See The FilmFreeway rule.

The one answer that does change what reaches you is on your account, not here: pausing new assignments empties your queue everywhere until you resume. See Pausing new assignments.

If something is refused

Nothing in this flow is optimistic. A step is saved when you press the button and the screen tells you if it was not.

Your answers stay on screen through all of these. Nothing is cleared and nothing needs re-typing.

What is not built yet

Stated plainly so you are not left waiting for something that is not coming this release:

• Nothing calls you. The phone field's "deadline calls" describes an intention, not a feature. What FilmScorecard sends is email, plus notices in your judging inbox; what actually goes out is listed on your account.
• No festival you have not judged for sees your profile unless you list yourself. The judges directory is the only route.
• There is no way to delete your profile or your account.

None of that needs anything from you. Your answers are saved and they are what those screens will read when they arrive.