# When a festival is unavailable

> From FilmScorecard Help: https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/when-a-festival-is-unavailable

Now and then a festival you judge for — or one that has invited you, or one
whose call you applied to — becomes **unavailable** on FilmScorecard. While it
is, you cannot work on it: there are no films to score there, its open calls
come off the board, and its invitations cannot be accepted.

**Nothing you have done is lost**, and when the festival is available again
everything comes back where it was. FilmScorecard does not say why a festival
is unavailable, or for how long — that is a question for the festival.

## On your judging home

**The festival's card goes grey.** In the **Your festivals** grid it shows the
festival's name, its season year, and one line:

> This festival is unavailable.

No date line, no pill, no progress bar, and the card cannot be clicked.

**Opening the festival shows the same sentence in place of your film.** Pick
it from the sidebar's **Your festivals** list or the festival switcher — both
still list it, with no count beside it — and where the **Next submission** card
would be there is a grey card reading "This festival is unavailable." There is
no **Start scoring**, **Continue scoring** or **Skip this film**.

A few more things follow from it:

- **If it is the festival `/judge` opens for you** — the one you last worked
  in — that is what you land on. Pick another festival from the switcher.
- **The numbers at the top leave it out.** "Scored", "left" and "upcoming", and
  the pace pill, count only the festivals you can work on.
- **A link to one of its scoring screens** — a bookmark, or the page you had
  open — brings you back to that festival's judging home and its grey card.
- **A film you had already started is not held for you.** The usual 48-hour
  hold keeps running while the festival is unavailable, exactly as if you had
  stepped away. See [One film at a time](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/one-film-at-a-time.md).
- **Everything you already filed is kept**, exactly as it was.

## Its open calls

- **Its calls leave the board**, from the **Open calls**, **Applied** and
  **Past** tabs and from their counts — even a call you applied to.
- **A call's page, and your application's, give "page not found"** meanwhile,
  so there is nothing to apply to and no counter to answer.

When the festival is available again its calls come back, and your
application with them, in whatever state it was in. See
[Open calls](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/open-calls.md).

## Its invitations

**On your Invitations tab** the invitation stays **Awaiting your answer**.
Accepting it — **Accept invitation**, then confirming — leaves the dialog open
with:

> This invitation is unavailable.

Nothing was written. **Decline** and **Block this festival** still work, and
the invitation's deadline keeps running. See
[Your invitations](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-invitations.md#if-an-answer-is-refused).

**The emailed link** says the same thing: pressing **Accept invitation** — or
coming back to the page after logging in to accept — replaces the buttons with
the heading "This invitation is unavailable." The link is not used up; reload
the page and **Decline** is back. See
[Your judging invitation](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-judging-invitation.md#if-the-invitation-is-unavailable).

## Its staff

**You cannot write to the festival's staff, and they cannot write to you.**
They leave the list behind **New** on your Messages tab, and a conversation you
already had stays readable, with its message box replaced by the strip:

> **No longer staff at *the festival***
>
> The conversation stays readable. Their replacement will start a fresh
> thread.

**Here that strip does not mean anybody left.** It is the same strip a
departed staff member's conversation shows, and it goes away — with the message
box back in its place — once the festival is available again. See
[Messaging festival staff](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/messaging-festival-staff.md).

To reach them in the meantime, use email. A reply to the festival's invitation
email reaches them whenever they have given FilmScorecard a support address.

## Your account

- **Asking to leave that festival** from the **Festivals** tab of
  [your account](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-account.md#festivals) cannot go through while it is
  unavailable; the request answers "Your request could not be sent. Try again."
  Ask again once the festival is back.
- **Pausing new assignments still works.** That festival is simply not told
  about it.

## When it is available again

Everything returns by itself: the card, your queue and your counts, its open
calls, invitations whose deadline has not passed, and your conversations with
its staff. There is nothing for you to do.

## Related guides

- [Your judging home](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-judging-home.md) — the screen these cards sit on.
- [Your invitations](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/your-invitations.md) — every offer a festival has made
  you.
- [Open calls](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/open-calls.md) — the board, and why a call can leave it.
- [Messaging festival staff](https://www.filmscorecard.com/help/messaging-festival-staff.md) — conversations
  with the people who run your festivals.
