Your submission page

You entered a film or a screenplay in a festival that runs on FilmScorecard, and the festival has sent you a private page for that submission — usually soon after the festival brought your entry in, or whenever it chose to send it. It opens on an overview of your submission, and from there on four pages of its own: Submission details, where you correct its details yourself; Questions for judges, where you ask the judges up to two questions of your own; How it's judged, the scorecard every judge fills in; and, at a festival that offers it, Award consideration. You can also write to the festival from it. This guide covers the email, getting in, the overview, your two questions, how it's judged, what you may change and what only the festival may change, the press-kit checklist, the poster, saving, and what the page shows once edits are closed.

You do not need an account. The button in the email opens the page and signs you in, and the nine-character code printed under it gets you in on any other device. There is no password anywhere in this, and nothing to sign up for. If you already keep your festival entries in an account of your own, see Saving it to your account. It is optional, and nothing on this page depends on it.

Everything you save is live the moment you save it. Nothing is reviewed, nothing is approved, and there is no draft: press Save changes and the judges reading your film — and the festival's own screens — read what you just wrote.

The email

It reaches you in one of three ways, and it is the same message each time:

• on its own, within minutes of the festival bringing your entry in, when the festival has chosen to send it to each submission as it comes in — once your entry is in one of the festival's categories;
• when somebody at the festival sends it by hand — to you alone, to a batch of submitters, or to everybody not yet invited with Send to N now;
• because you asked for it, by pressing Email me a new link on the page itself — see Getting in.

It comes from "the festival via FilmScorecard".

Which version you get

What it says depends on where judging has got to at the moment it is sent, and on whether anything that counts toward your score is missing from your page. Judging has started only once the festival has opened it — a start date going by is not enough on its own.

"Not sent in a batch resend" is a real rule. When somebody at the festival picks a group of submissions on its list and emails them all their links at once, a submission that is already being scored, or that is under way with nothing missing, is skipped and no email goes. The festival can see that it was skipped, and why, on its own record of your submission. Every other way the email goes out sends it whatever judging has reached — on its own as your entry arrives, to you alone, or to everybody not yet sent it.

The count in the subject is a word — "one thing", "two things" — and the date is dropped from the subject when the festival has not set one.

What it says

Under the festival's name, a message sent before judging starts reads like this — the festival, the title, the dates, the list, the link and the code are your own:

RIVERSIDE SHORTS FESTIVAL FALL 2026 · JUDGING STARTS 10 OCTOBER

Thank you for submitting The Lighthouse Keeper.

Judging for Riverside Shorts Festival Fall 2026 starts on Saturday 10 October. We're using FilmScorecard for our judging, so we've set up a private page for your submission using the details from your entry. Judges read your tagline, synopsis and statement from it when they score. It's private, not a public page.

These count toward your score.

Your entry didn't include a poster. Part of your score comes from what's on your page, and a blank field earns nothing toward it. Add it before Saturday 10 October, so every judge sees it. You can still add it after that.

• Poster — Missing

Open your submission page

ACCESS CODE 4F2AKM7QR — Code expires in 30 days.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

• 10 Oct · Judging starts.
• 6 Nov · Judging closes.
• After 6 Nov · We email you when your results are ready. Your final score is free, and you can buy the full scorecard to see every judge's scores and feedback.
• 20 Nov · Selections are announced, and every submitter hears whether their submission was selected.

WHILE YOU'RE THERE

Ask the judges two questions of your own.

Find out if the ending landed, which scene stuck, or anything else you've wondered. Every judge who reviews the creative side of your submission answers in their own words.

“Which scene stayed with you after it ended?”

“Did the ending feel earned?”

The answers are part of your full scorecard, a paid unlock once results are released. Judges answer separately from scoring, so your questions never change your score. Add them before Saturday 10 October.

Then, at the foot: "Questions about your entry? Reply to this email and it goes straight to the festival team." when the festival has an address for replies; a short About FilmScorecard note; and "You're receiving this because your title was entered in the festival and season. If you didn't enter it, you can ignore this message." over the festival's postal address.

With nothing counted missing, the amber block is replaced by a green one: "Please confirm your info is correct. Everything judges score came through from your entry. Open your page to check it the way judges will see it on Saturday 10 October, and fix anything that's wrong or out of date."

Once judging is under way the message counts toward judging closing instead: the line over the heading ends "Judging is under way", the body opens "Judging for the festival is under way.", the deadline is "before judging closes on 6 November 2026", the first date row reads "Judging started.", and while nothing has been scored the list adds "Your submission hasn't been scored yet, so there's still time." The questions panel ends "Add them before the first judge scores your submission." — and is left out entirely once a creative scorecard is filed.

Once judging has closed, and until selections are announced, the message is the under-way one with three changes: the line over the heading ends "Judging has closed", the body opens "Judging for the festival has closed, and selections are still to come.", and the deadline is "before selections are announced on 20 November 2026" — or "before selections are announced" when the festival has not set the date. The subject, the date rows and the questions panel are the under-way version's. At a festival that keeps its press kit score as judged — and every festival does unless it has chosen otherwise — the list in this version is your press kit as it stood when judging closed: a field you have filled in since still reads Missing, and filling one in now moves no points. See When the page says "Edits are closed".

• The dates are the festival's own, as dates only, in its own time zone. A date the festival has not set drops its row, and with no start date the message says "before judging starts" instead of naming a day.
• A start date that has already gone by is left out too. If the festival's start date has passed but it has not opened judging yet, the message is still the before-judging one — and rather than name a day that is behind you, it says "before judging starts" and "when judging starts". Judging has not begun, and your questions are still open.
• The list is only what is missing, each row with an amber Missing pill: Tagline, Synopsis, your statement and Poster when they are blank, and any other field that counts toward your score and is blank — credits, a link, a contact detail, or something only the festival can fill in. Nothing is listed as filled in. Checks a person makes by reading your material are never listed. Fill the missing ones in, and they drop off the list in the next email you get — unless you filled them in after judging closed, at a festival keeping its press kit score as judged (above), where they still read Missing.
• "Nothing counted is missing" is decided by what counts toward your score. A season whose press kit carries no weight sends the green version whatever is blank.
• The statement is named for what you entered — a director's statement on a film, a writer's statement on a screenplay.
• The button signs you in. Open your submission page opens your page's overview and lets you straight in, in that browser, with no code to type — with your press kit across the top when the festival scores one; see The featured tile. The same link is printed under the button for a mail program that hides buttons.
• The access code is printed too, for opening the page on another device: type it into the page's code box — see Getting in. "Code expires in 30 days" counts from this email.
• A festival's email reuses your link and code. If you already hold a live link from an earlier email, the festival's next one carries the same link and the same code, and gives them 30 more days from that send — so every email you have from the festival keeps working. Two things replace them: your own Email me a new link (see Getting in), and age — a link is never extended past 90 days from when it was made, so the festival's first email after that carries a new link and code, and the old ones stop working.
• The festival's automatic email reaches you once. Any copy after that is somebody at the festival sending it again, or you asking for a new link.
• This is not your results email. It can reach you at any point until selections are announced, and it carries no score, no rank and nothing a judge wrote. Results are a separate message later — see Your scorecard.
• Your SUB- number is not in the email. It identifies one submission across the whole of FilmScorecard and is printed on the page's code box, and under Sent with your message when you write to the festival from the page. Quote it if you write to the festival any other way.
• The link never changes. The same address shows the code box or your overview, before edits close and after — and a short "Edits are closed" card instead only if your submission is withdrawn or disqualified. See When the page says "Edits are closed".
• The code goes only to the address the festival holds for your submission, and that address is not something you can change from this page — see What only the festival can change.
• Replying reaches the festival when it has given FilmScorecard an address for questions. If a reply bounces or goes unanswered, use Contact the festival on the page instead — see Contacting the festival.

Getting in

From the email, press Open your submission page. The page opens with you already in — no code to type — in that browser. The button works as often as you press it while the link lasts, and an email program that checks links for you cannot use it up or count it as a wrong try.

On another device, or from a bare link, use the code:

1. Open the link.
2. Type or paste the nine characters printed under the button in the email.
3. Press Continue to your submission, or the Enter key.

One code box guards every page. Open the address of any of them — the overview, or a page under it such as /submission/questions — without having proved who you are, and the code box is what you see; enter the code and that page opens. The code box, the code and Email me a new link go on working after edits close, because the overview stays open behind them — see When the page says "Edits are closed".

The card is headed:

PRIVATE SUBMISSION PAGE

Confirm it is you

Submission details can only be changed by the person who entered it. Anyone else with this link sees this page.

Under it a quiet block headed Submission names your film, its category or categories, its SUB- number and the season — then the Access code box and Continue to your submission. There is no Save to your account under it for now — see Saving it to your account.

Under the box sits a line saying where the code was sent: "In the email sent to c••••@example.test on 10 Sep 2026."

Under the card, a second, quieter box: "Codes expire 30 days after the latest email, at most 90 days after they were first sent. Asking for a new link replaces your code." and an Email me a new link button.

A link that no longer works lands you here, not on an error. If the button in an email has expired, or been replaced by a newer link, the card says so above the code box — "That link has expired. We can email you a new one." — and Email me a new link is the way back in.

The code works exactly as your scorecard's code does, because it is the same code. One code per submission, whichever page you type it at: uppercase as you type, nine characters, never the letters I, L, O or U or the digits 0 or 1, five wrong tries in an hour then a fifteen-minute lockout, Email me a new link with its 60-second wait, and 30 days per browser once a code has been accepted. All of that, with every message the box can show, is Getting into your scorecard — read it once and it covers both pages.

Two things read differently here. The wording says "your email" rather than "your results email", because the message you are looking for went out before there were any results. And the button says Continue to your submission.

If nobody emailed you a code but you have the link, the line under the box says so instead — "No code has been sent yet. Ask for one below and it goes to c••••@example.test." Press Email me a new link and one is sent to the address on your submission and nowhere else. A festival can hand the address over by other means — a message, a call — without emailing anything, so this is a normal state and not a fault.

Asking for a new link replaces your link and your code. The page answers "New link queued. It can take a few minutes to arrive." with the time. Once it is sent, the button and the code in every earlier email stop working — the festival's emails included — and every device that got in before will ask again, including the browser you are standing in. Use the newest email. It arrives as a short email of its own — "Your new link for the film", with the button and the access code under it — and because you asked, it is sent whatever stage judging is at, and after edits close too (not for a withdrawn or disqualified film).

What a link holder sees and nothing more. Without the code, this page shows the film's title, its categories, its SUB- number and the season. No detail, no synopsis, no poster, nothing about judging. Forwarding your link to somebody gives them that page and nothing behind it. The exceptions are the festival's own staff, who already hold your record — see What the festival sees — and you, signed in, once the submission is saved to your account. Forwarding the email is different: its button lets whoever presses it in, until the link expires or you ask for a new one.

The top of the page

Once the festival has released your scorecard, the bar at the very top of the screen carries a ← Your scorecard button at its right, which takes you to it — on the overview and on every page under it. That is also the way back after your scorecard's Finish your press kit sends you here. Before release there is no such button.

Once you are in, the page opens on its overview, and the overview opens on a dark header — the same look as the scorecard the festival sends you after judging. From the top, it carries:

• The festival and the season, a small line in capitals — "RIVERSIDE SHORTS FESTIVAL · 2026 SEASON" — with the festival's logo beside it when it has one.
• Your film's title, large.
• One line saying where things stand — see the table below.
• A row of chips: each category your submission is entered in, and the runtime — 12:47, or "94 pages" on a screenplay. A runtime the festival does not have is left out.
• Your poster, on the right, or a striped frame reading No poster yet. On a phone the poster is left out.

The line never names a date and never says judging has closed, because a festival goes on judging other films after yours has been scored.

There is no link to the festival's public page here, and no contact details: to write to the festival, use the Contact the festival tile below.

The overview

Under the dark header the overview is a set of tiles, one for each thing you can do. Most tiles are one large button: press anywhere on it to open what it names. The two exceptions are the Scorecard tile before your scorecard is released, which has a button of its own inside it, and the Submission details tile once edits have closed, which opens nothing. On a wide window the tiles sit in two columns, with Contact the festival sometimes running the full width under them; on a narrower window they are one column.

Moving between the overview and its pages is instant, with nothing reloaded. Each page opens at its top and has its own address, so Back and Forward in your browser walk you through the pages you opened, and a page can be opened in a new tab or bookmarked. Every page under the overview starts with a small trail — ‹ your film's title / the page's name — and the title takes you back to the overview. The trail stays pinned to the top of the window as you scroll, so the way back is always in reach.

Nothing you have typed is lost when you move. Changes you have not saved yet stay with you on every page, and the save bar follows you — see Saving.

The featured tile

When you arrive from one of the festival's emails, one tile can be drawn large, in indigo, across the full width under the header — picked by the email you came from:

The featured tile is never also one of the tiles below, and pressing it opens the same page its tile would. Once edits have closed, the press kit tile reads "Edits are closed, so your press kit is final." — headed "Your press kit", or "Your press kit is complete" — and has no button.

One of the tiles below can also be tinted indigo, to point you at it: the Questions for judges tile while you can still ask, or otherwise the Scorecard tile.

Submission details

Headed Keep your entry up to date: "Change your tagline, synopsis, credits, links and poster any time. Judges always see the latest version you save."

• Your press kit points, when your festival scores a press kit that counts toward your score: the points filled against the points available, with a coloured bar — Press kit points · its name for each one when you have two. See The press-kit checklist.
• Saved date, at its foot: the day you last saved, or the day the festival received your submission if you never have. After a save on this visit it reads "Saved today at 10:46", on your own clock.
• Edit details ›, which opens the Submission details page.
• An amber N unsaved pill while you have changes to your details or your poster that are not saved.

Once edits have closed the tile is no longer a button: it is headed "Edits closed on 6 Jun 2026" — or "Edits are closed" — with "Your details are final. Judges see the version you last saved." See When the page says "Edits are closed".

Questions for judges

Headed Ask the judges anything: "Answered on every creative scorecard and sent back to you. They never count toward your score." Under it, two slots — QUESTION 1 and QUESTION 2 — each showing what you have written, in quotes, with how judges answer it ("Free text", or "Single choice: Yes / No / Maybe"), or "Ask what only a judge can tell you" and "Room for a second question" while they are empty. Its foot reads "Open until the first creative scorecard", and its button Write questions — Edit questions once you have written one. What you have typed but not saved shows here too, with an amber N unsaved pill.

Award consideration

This tile is there only at a festival that has switched award consideration on for its season, and it opens a page of its own. It lists the festival's awards your submission could be considered for. It closes when the festival announces its awards.

Scorecard

Before your scorecard is released, the tile is headed In the judges' hands under an indigo Judging in progress pill — or Waiting for judging to start under Judging not started — and says "Judges score all season, each in their own time. When your scorecard is released, we email your address straight away." Under that:

• YOUR SCORE ??/100. The question marks are all it ever shows: your score is never on this page.
• COMING WITH IT, listing only what your scorecard will really hold: "Scores from every judge"; "Written notes from every judge" where the festival asks its judges to write; and "Answers to your questions" when you asked some.
• See how it's judged › — see How it's judged.

At a festival that has finished its season, there is no pill: the tile is headed Waiting for release, or No scorecard yet — with nothing listed under COMING WITH IT — when no creative scorecard was ever filed on your submission.

Once your scorecard is released, the tile reads Your scorecard is in: "Find out what the judges really thought: every score, their written feedback and their answers to your questions." The line names only what your scorecard really holds — "…every score, plus their written feedback." when you asked no questions, "…every score, plus their answers to your questions." where the festival asks its judges for no written notes, and "Find out what the judges really thought, score by score." with neither. Under it, ??/100 in large figures with "Your score" beside it over an empty grey bar — drawn like your press kit points — and View scorecard. With a scorecard in two or more categories, there is one ??/100 row for each, labelled with the category's name. The whole tile opens your scorecard.

Contact the festival

Headed Talk to the festival: "Questions about this submission go straight to the festival." Its foot reads "Replies to your address", and Send a message opens the form. It is not there when the festival has given FilmScorecard no address for questions. See Contacting the festival.

Your two questions for the judges

The Questions for judges page is the one part of your submission page that is not a correction to your record: you may ask the judges up to two questions of your own. Open it from its tile on the overview.

Under its title — "Set them before the first creative scorecard is filed. The answers come back to you on your scorecard." — a card sums it up:

Your questions never affect your score

Ask up to two questions only a judge can answer. Their answers come back to you as feedback, and never count toward scoring, selection or awards.

WHO ANSWERS Creative judges reviewing your submission WHEN THEY LOCK Once judging starts on your submission WHERE YOU SEE THE ANSWERS On your scorecard

Asking is free.

• "Creative judges" is exact. Creative judges answer your questions; technical reviewers never see them.
• "Once judging starts on your submission" means the first creative scorecard filed on it — see When your questions lock. Until the festival has opened judging and its start date has arrived, the line reads "Judging has not started yet. They lock once it starts on your submission."
• The answers come back on your scorecard and nowhere else — see The questions you asked.

Already on the scorecard

Beside your questions — under them, on a narrower window — a panel headed Already on the scorecard reads "Judges already answer these. Ask about something they do not cover." Under it is what the festival's own scorecards already ask the judges — the questions on the creative and technical scorecards of every category your submission is entered in, as their answers will be shown on your scorecard — and a See how it's judged › link. Read it before you write, so you do not spend one of your two questions on something the judges already answer.

• Each question is listed once.
• With one category — or several that ask the same questions — it is one list. When your categories ask different questions, the list is grouped under each category's name.
• It is the questions and nothing else. No scores, no judges, no weights and no answers.
• No such questions, no panel. A festival whose scorecards carry none shows the page without it.

Writing a question

With no question written, the page offers one card: "Your questions go to every creative judge on this submission." and an Add a question button, which opens a card headed Question 1. Once you have written something in it, the same card comes back under it — "Both questions go to every creative judge on this submission." and Add a second question; with two questions there is no third.

1. Type the question in the box. A live 47/160 counter sits beside the heading. You can type or paste past 160 — the counter turns red, and the save is blocked until the question is back under it.

2. Choose how judges answer, under JUDGES ANSWER WITH:

   The choice	The line under it	What the judge gets
   Free text	"Judges answer in a few sentences."	A box to write in. Where every new question starts.
   1 to 10 scale	"Judges pick a number from 1 to 10."	A row of ten cells. It is not added to your score.
   Single choice	"Judges pick one of your options."	Your own options, pick one.

   Yes / No is no longer offered for a new question. A question you saved as Yes / No before keeps it, and it stays on the list for that question. There is no tick-several kind. A judge picks one of your options or none.

3. For Single choice, write the options. Two boxes appear under an Options label; Add option gives you a third and a fourth, and that is the ceiling. Once there are more than two boxes, each carries a small × that removes it; the last two never do. Each label stops at 60 characters. The line under them is the rule: "Two to four options. Judges pick one. Empty options are dropped."

4. Press Save changes on the save bar. Nothing about a question is saved as you type, the same as everything else on your submission page, and the one save bar saves your questions and your details together — see Saving.

Remove this question sits on every question card, the first one included: remove them all and the page goes back to its single Add a question card.

Once a question is being written, one line closes the page: "Answering them is optional, and a judge may skip any question they find inappropriate or that is against our Terms of Service."

Read "Your questions never affect your score" literally. Nothing you ask here touches your score, your rank, your awards or whether you are selected — and that includes the 1-to-10 answer type, which is a number a judge gives you and is never added to anything.

When a question repeats the scorecard

If your question names something on the Already on the scorecard list, an amber line appears under the box as you type, saying how judges already answer it — for example:

Judges already score Pacing from 1 to 10. Ask about something a score will not tell you.

It matches whole words, in any capitals: "pacing" in "Was the pacing right?" counts, "spacing" does not. When the scorecard asks for a yes or no, a pick from options or a written answer, the line says so instead; when it cannot tell, it reads "Judges already answer Pacing on the scorecard. Ask about something the scorecard will not tell you."

It is advice and nothing more. It never stops a save, and the question is saved exactly as you wrote it.

The rules the save applies

Your questions are tidied on the way in, and only two things can actually stop a save:

When a save is blocked, it takes you to the problem: wherever you pressed Save changes, the Questions for judges page opens at its top, with "Fix the fields marked below, then save." above the cards and the message under the question itself. Nothing is saved — your details included — until it is fixed.

A half-finished question still counts as an unsaved change, so the save bar appears and the count includes it. That is deliberate: pressing Save changes is what puts the message under the card that tells you what is wrong. Without it, a question you never finished would quietly vanish on the next reload.

Changing your mind before judging starts

Until your questions lock — and while edits are open — you can edit a question, change its answer type, rewrite its options or remove it entirely. Two consequences, and both only ever touch work nobody has filed:

• Changing a question throws away the half-written answers to it. A judge who has your film open and has already answered that question loses that one answer, and answers it again against your new wording the next time they open the film. Nothing else on their card is touched.
• Removing a question deletes them. Same rule, same scope.
• Leaving a question exactly as it was costs nothing, even when you save the page ten times for other reasons. A question that has not changed is not touched, and nobody's part-written answer to it is disturbed.

None of this can reach a scorecard that has been filed. The moment one is, you cannot change a question at all.

When your questions lock

The first filed creative scorecard for your submission locks your questions, for good. No editing, no adding, no removing — by you or by anybody.

What locks it:

• any creative scorecard being filed, by a judge or by a member of the festival's staff;
• and it stays locked even if the festival later withdraws that scorecard. A question that has been answered cannot be un-asked.

What does not lock it:

• A judge holding your film but not yet filing. They are still typing; you can still change the question, which is exactly the window the rule above is about.
• A filed technical review or press-kit card. Neither of those ever shows your questions, so neither one has seen them.

If the lock lands while you have the page open, your save still goes through for everything else. The Questions for judges page redraws itself locked, and a red line appears at the foot of the page you are on:

Questions locked while this page was open. Everything else was saved.

Your tagline, your synopsis and anything else you were editing are saved. Only the questions were skipped.

The locked page

Once locked, the page becomes a plain record of what you asked. At the right of its title it reads LOCKED — "Since 6 Jun 2026, when the first creative scorecard was filed." — and the summary card's WHEN THEY LOCK reads "Locked since 6 Jun 2026, when judging started on your submission".

With questions on it, each is a card of its own, Question 1 and Question 2: the question as you wrote it, a pill naming its answer type — Free text, Yes / No, 1 to 10 scale or Single choice — and, for a single choice, your options joined by slashes.

With no questions on it, one quiet block reads No questions were added: "The first creative scorecard for this submission was filed on 6 Jun 2026, so questions can no longer be added. Creative judges answer the festival's questions only, and your scorecard still carries every one of their scores." The overview leaves its Questions for judges tile out altogether.

The Already on the scorecard panel stays, reading "Judges already answer these on the scorecard."

What this page never tells you

While judging is running, the page is a record of what you wrote and nothing else. It does not carry, and never has carried:

• any answer, or a hint of one;
• how many judges have answered, or how many are still to come;
• who they are.

The one thing it gives away is the date the lock landed, because a lock nobody can date reads as arbitrary. That date tells you somebody filed a creative scorecard on your film that day, and nothing else. Everything the judges actually wrote is on your scorecard, later.

How it's judged

See how it's judged, on the overview's Scorecard tile and under the Already on the scorecard panel, opens the scorecard every judge fills in for your category — empty. Your own scorecard comes back in the same layout, scored. "This is the scorecard every judge fills in for Narrative Short at Riverside Shorts Festival. Yours comes back in the same layout, scored." The category's name and "Scored out of 100" sit at the right of the title.

Entered in more than one category? A tab for each sits under the title, and each tab is that category's own scorecard.

The scorecard has up to three sections, each with its points — its share of the 100 — in large figures at its right:

A section the festival gives no weight in your category is left out. At the foot, Overall score reads ??/100 — your score is never on this page — and under the card: "Every judge scores on their own and never sees another judge's scorecard."

• Nothing here is about your film's judging so far. No judges, no count of them and no scores: only the questions, the points each section is worth, and whether your own press kit items are filled.
• "This festival hasn't set up a scorecard for your category yet." means just that; ask the festival. "The festival has not set up a scorecard for category." is the same, for one of your tabs.
• "We couldn't load this right now. Reload the page." is a passing fault.

What you can change

Edit details on the overview opens the Submission details page. Under its title — "Change your tagline, synopsis, credits, links, contact details and poster. Judges always see the latest version you save, and the fields marked Press kit add to your press kit score." — and the save status at its right (see Saving), it holds fifteen fields — fourteen on a screenplay with no Trailer box — and the poster. The fields are in five cards down the left of the screen, with the press-kit checklist, the poster and the Set by the festival card on the right. On a narrower window the page is one column — the press-kit checklist, then these five cards, then the poster and the Set by the festival card — and on a phone every card runs edge to edge, the full width of the screen.

The page is there only while edits are open. Afterwards its address shows the overview instead — see When the page says "Edits are closed".

Rules worth knowing before you type:

• Clearing a box and saving removes that value. A box of spaces counts as empty.
• The tagline can be at most 120 characters on this page. Over that, the message "A tagline can be at most 120 characters here. Shorten it to save." appears under the field and Save changes refuses until you shorten it. If the festival already has a longer tagline on file, the counter is red when you arrive and the message joins it the first time you press Save changes — it is not something you did, and shortening the line is the only way to save anything else, your questions included.
• The trailer must be a full link starting with https://. Any host is accepted. A link that is not one is refused with "Enter a full link starting with https://." — and that message is there as soon as you open the page when the festival's own copy of the link is not one, so a link the festival imported badly is pointed out the moment you can fix it.
• Website, Instagram and Phone are not checked at all. Whatever you type is what is stored.
• First name and Last name together become the name the festival's list shows. Clearing both leaves the existing name alone — a blank pair is not an instruction to forget who submitted this.
• "Up to 150 words" under the synopsis is guidance and never blocks anything. The word count beside the label is there to help you judge it.
• Very long text is refused. The synopsis, the statement and each credits box hold up to 20,000 characters; Website, Instagram, Phone, the two names, City and State or region hold up to 4,000. Past those limits Save changes takes you to the top of this page with "Fix the fields marked below, then save." and a message under the box that is too long, and nothing is saved until you shorten it.

What only the festival can change

The Set by the festival card, in the right-hand column under the poster, carries a LOCKED pill and lists what is not yours to edit:

Under the rows: "A new title, contact email, screener, password or category is a festival decision. Ask and they will update it on their side." A quiet Write to the festival button opens the Contact the festival form with My entry chosen — see Contacting the festival. When the festival has given FilmScorecard no address for questions, that button is not there — reply to whoever wrote to you instead.

Your contact email is on the same list, even though it sits in the Contact card with the fields you can type in. Access codes and results go to it, so changing it is the festival's decision, not yours.

The press-kit checklist

Some festivals score a press kit — a check that the submission's own record is complete — and when yours does, you see it in these places.

On the overview, the Submission details tile carries your press kit points — a large 12/20, the points filled against the points available, with a coloured bar — when the press kit counts toward your score in at least one of your categories. Arrive from the festival's email and the featured tile across the top lists every item still Empty — see The featured tile.

The checklist, at the top of the right-hand column of the Submission details page — on a narrower window, above the form. It does not follow you as you scroll. It reads, in order:

• Press kit as its heading, or Press kit · its name when your submission is in two categories with two different press kits — one card for each.
• "Fill in every field marked Press kit to earn the full press kit points and give your submission its best chance in the rankings." — "the field" when there is only one.
• The score: PRESS KIT POINTS over a large 12/20 figure, with a coloured bar under it and "3 of 4 items filled." The bar takes the same colours your scorecard uses for a score of that size.
• One row per item: the festival's own name for the item, a smaller line saying which field it watches — "From Synopsis" — and a green tick when it is filled or a red cross when it is empty. A row for a field on this page ends in a ›.

Press a row with a › to go to its field. The page scrolls that field to the middle of the screen and puts your cursor in it, ready to type. The Poster row takes you to the Poster card, and a row for your contact email to the email shown in the Contact card. A row for something this page does not edit — a genre, a completion year — has no › and does nothing when pressed.

A mark beside every field on the form that one of those items watches: a small green tick once it is filled, or an amber Missing while it is empty.

On a phone, the count follows you down the Submission details page. Once the page's title has scrolled out of sight, a slim dark strip slides in across the top of the screen:

PRESS KIT 3/5 filled ›

Tap it and the page jumps back to the checklist. Scroll back up to the title and the strip slides away again. With two press kits it shows both counts side by side.

Six things about it:

• Nothing here is a fixed number. How many items a press kit holds, and what each one is worth, is the festival's own setting. Two festivals will not show the same figures, and neither will two categories at one festival.
• The figures move when you save, not while you type. Fill in a synopsis and nothing changes until you press Save changes; then its row and its field turn to a tick, and the score on the checklist, the overview's Submission details tile, How it's judged and the phone's strip rise together. A change you never save never counts, so the figures only ever show what the festival actually holds. After judging closes, at a festival that keeps its press kit score as judged, a save moves nothing here: the figures stay as your press kit stood when judging closed — see When the page says "Edits are closed".
• An item counts in full or not at all. Anything in the field satisfies it; length and quality are not measured here.
• The checklist names fields the way the festival's screens do, which is not always the label on the form beside it — "From Cast" is the Key cast box, "From Trailer URL" is Trailer, "From Project website" is Website, "From Submitter phone" is Phone.
• Some items are not yours to fill. A press kit can watch a field this page does not edit — a genre, a completion year — and those rows are listed with their real state and never move while you work. Ask the festival.
• Some items are not on the list at all. A press kit can also carry checks a person makes by reading your material. Those are neither listed nor counted here, so the score on this page is not the whole of what your press kit is worth.

No press kit, no card. A submission whose categories carry no press kit — or whose press kit is all human judgement — shows no press kit points on the overview, no checklist, no strip on a phone and no marks beside the fields.

Your own questions are not part of your press kit, and asking none costs you nothing on it.

The poster

The Poster card sits at the top of the right-hand column when there is no press kit, and under it when there is.

What the file may be: "Portrait, 2:3. JPG, PNG or WebP, at least 1200 by 1800, under 10 MB." — the card says so itself.

Under the frame, a caption:

• Current poster · 1067 × 1600 for the poster already on file. The dimensions are measured by your own browser as the image loads, which is why they appear a moment after the picture does.
• No poster yet with a striped frame when there is none.
• poster.jpg · 1067 × 1600, 0.4 MB for a file you have just chosen, with "Replaces the current poster when you save." under it. That line describes the prepared copy, not the file you picked — see the next section — so it always says poster.jpg, and its size and dimensions are smaller than your original's.

Six things to know:

• Choosing a file does not upload it. It is uploaded when you press Save changes, along with everything else.
• Your image is prepared in your browser before it goes anywhere. Once it passes the checks it is fitted to 1,600 pixels on its longer side — a 2:3 poster comes out at 1067 × 1600 — any transparent areas are flattened onto white, and it is saved as a JPEG. The preview, the caption and what the festival keeps are all that prepared copy; the file on your computer is not touched. If your browser cannot prepare it, the file goes up exactly as you chose it.
• The minimum size is checked on the file you pick, not on the prepared copy. A 1200 × 1800 image is accepted and then kept at 1067 × 1600 — that is not a fault.
• A file that is refused changes nothing. Wrong type, too large or too small is a red line inside this card — "Posters must be a PNG, JPEG or WebP image.", "That poster is over 10 MB. Upload a smaller file.", "This image is 800 × 1200. It needs to be at least 1200 by 1800." — and the poster on file stays exactly as it was. Nothing becomes unsaved.
• The pixel check happens in your browser. An image the festival's own screens accept could still be refused here by a browser that cannot read the file, which is reported as "Use a JPG, PNG or WebP file." Re-save it as an ordinary JPG or PNG and try again.
• 2:3 is what the frame shows, not a rule. Only the minimum size is checked; a square image is accepted and will be cropped by the frame.

There is no way to remove a poster from this page. Uploading another replaces it; if you need it gone, ask the festival.

Saving

Nothing is saved as you type. The moment anything has changed, a bar appears at the bottom of the screen:

3 changes not saved yet. Discard changes Save changes

It is one bar for the whole of your submission page. Change your tagline, go to Questions for judges and write a question, go back to the overview: the bar is there on every page, counts both changes, and Save changes saves all of it at once, wherever you press it. On the overview, the Submission details and Questions for judges tiles each carry an amber N unsaved pill for the changes that are theirs.

On a wider screen it floats just above the bottom of the window. On a phone it is a full-width bar along the bottom edge, with Discard changes and Save changes side by side under the count.

• The count is fields, and a chosen poster counts as one. So does each question you have changed — edit both and the count goes up by two.
• Discard changes puts every field, the poster and both questions back to the last saved state, on every page, and the bar disappears.
• Moving between the overview and its pages keeps everything, but closing the tab or reloading throws away anything unsaved, without asking.

The save status, at the right of the Submission details page's title, says where you stand. When you arrive it is empty; it speaks only once something is happening:

Only the fields you changed are sent. So if the festival corrects something you did not touch while you have this page open, their correction survives your save — and yours survives theirs. If you both change the same field, whichever saves last wins, with no warning and no merge.

Your questions are the exception to that rule, and only among themselves. When any question has changed, both of them are sent together and rewritten as a pair — which is why removing one promotes the other rather than leaving a gap. Nothing else on the page is affected.

When a save fails

Every one of these but the first appears as a red line just above the save bar. A failed save never clears what you typed: your changes stay on the screen, and on every page, until you save them or discard them.

The poster and the text can come apart, and only in that one direction. A poster that fails to upload stops the save before anything is written; a poster that uploads and then meets a failed save is already live. The message says which happened, so read it rather than guessing.

When the page says "Edits are closed"

Three things close your page to edits, and any one of them is enough:

1. The festival's selection date arrives, in the festival's own time zone. A season with no selection date set stays open.
2. The festival finishes or archives the season.
3. The submission was withdrawn or disqualified.

After either of the first two, your page still opens, behind the same code — the overview, and every page you can still use:

• The Submission details tile says edits are closed: "Edits closed on 6 Jun 2026" — the festival's selection date — or, in a season the festival has finished, "Edits are closed", with "Your details are final. Judges see the version you last saved." It no longer opens anything, and the Submission details page's own address shows the overview instead.
• Your questions are read-only. Questions for judges shows what you saved, with "Edits have closed, so your questions stay as they are." under its title and "Closed with your other edits" under WHEN THEY LOCK; with none saved it reads No questions were added — "No questions were added before edits closed." Questions that had already locked stay as described in The locked page.
• How it's judged, the Scorecard tile and Contact the festival work as before, and so do the ← Your scorecard button, the code and Email me a new link.
• Arriving from the festival's email, the featured press kit tile reads "Edits are closed, so your press kit is final." and has no button.

A withdrawn or disqualified submission gets a short card instead, at every address of the page:

PRIVATE SUBMISSION PAGE

Edits are closed

the Submission block, naming your film

Edits are closed. The record is final.

• No code is asked for, and none would help. This is what a link holder sees whether or not they ever had one.
• A quiet View scorecard link appears once your scorecard exists. Nothing is drawn where it would be until then.
• There is no Save to your account here. See Saving it to your account.

Judging closing does not close the page to edits, and neither does your scorecard being released. Until selections are announced you can go on editing your page, and it opens with a ← Your scorecard button once your scorecard is out — see The top of the page.

After judging closes, an edit may no longer change your score. A festival can keep your press kit's score as it stood when judging closed, and every festival does unless it has chosen otherwise. There, anything you save after judging closes is kept, and shown in its box and on the festival's own screens, but it moves no points: the checklist's ticks and crosses, its press kit points and the overview's, the Filled and Empty pills on How it's judged, the strip on a phone and the marks beside the fields all stay as they were when judging closed — so a field you have just filled in can still read Missing. It works both ways: emptying a field that was filled costs you nothing either. Your scorecard counts the same press kit. The page does not say which way your festival works; ask the festival.

A festival that moves its selection date later re-opens the page to edits. If you were told edits had closed and the page now lets you edit again, that is the festival changing its mind about when selections are announced, not a fault.

Nothing is lost when edits close. The record is exactly as you left it; what has gone is your ability to change it. Your questions, and the answers to them, are unaffected — they are part of your scorecard now. And unless your submission was withdrawn or disqualified, you can still write to the festival — see Contacting the festival.

Saving it to your account

Save to your account is switched off for now, on this page as on your scorecard: the code card shows only Continue to your submission, and the bar across the top never offers it. The rest of this section is how it works once it is turned back on.

The code card is the one place this page offers Save to your account, under Continue to your submission — to anybody but the account the submission is already saved to, signed in or signed out. Once you are in, the bar across the top does not offer it.

Press it on the code card, after typing the code, which is checked exactly as Continue checks it. It reads Saving… while it works. Signed out, it takes you to the log-in screen first, and the save finishes when you come back. Then:

• Your account already has a project: the submission joins one of your projects in Your projects, and the page you were on — the overview, or whichever page under it you opened the code card on — opens again as yours.
• Your account has no project yet: you go to the welcome screen, which starts with this submission. See Your first project.

A refusal still lets you in, because your code was right: the page opens as usual, and Save to your account appears at the right of the bar across the top — the only time it does — with the reason beside it in amber. Nothing is saved. "This entry is already saved to another account." means somebody else has saved it. The other refusals are in When Save to your account is refused.

Keep it, on your scorecard, is switched off too. In the meantime, a submission entered under the address you log in with is saved to your account by itself once your account has a project, and one under another address can be added to a project with its access code — see Your festival entries. Everything about that — which project it joins and when it can be refused — is Saving a submission to your account.

Once it is saved, this page opens without a code whenever you are signed in to that account. Everything on it works as it does with the code: saving your changes, your questions and the poster, and Contact the festival. The code and the email's button still work too, in any browser.

Saving it to your account changes nothing for the festival. They keep their copy of your submission and go on editing it as before; what you keep in your own projects never reaches it unless you send it. See Sending something to a festival.

What the festival sees

• Your edits land immediately on the festival's own screens, and judges read them the next time they open your film.
• The festival can see what you changed. One line on its copy of the record says "Edited by the submitter on 10 Sep 2026.", and its staff can open a history of your saves that lists each field you changed, with what it said before and what it says now. Those entries carry the submitter's name as the festival's record has it — or "The submitter" when it has none — marked Submitter. Your questions are not listed in that history, because they are not fields on the record; saving one does still move the "Edited by the submitter" date.
• Their staff can open this page itself, without your code. Anyone signed in who works on this festival can read the overview and every page under it exactly as you see them — same fields, same questions in whichever state they are really in, same press-kit card, same poster — with a Viewing as staff note at the top of their screen on a wider window, in place of the ← Your scorecard button, and no press-kit strip on a phone. They cannot type in it, save anything, write or remove a question, replace your poster or send a message as you from there: their Contact the festival form reads "Preview only. Staff cannot send a message as the filmmaker." When the festival changes your record it is done on their own screens and recorded under their name, in the same history as your saves. Their visits are not recorded, nothing they do there is recorded as yours, and their reading never uses up one of your code tries or replaces your code.
• The festival can see when you open this page. Its record of your submission shows when you opened it, which of its emails you came from when you followed a link in one, and when you entered your code here. A visit counts once the page has been on your screen for 2 seconds, so a mail program checking the link is not counted. Anyone using your link or your code is counted as you. Nothing on the page tells you this; the whole list, for both your pages, is in What the festival sees of your visits.
• FilmScorecard keeps a record of how this page is used, to run the platform and improve it: how long it is on screen, which of its pages you open, which fields the form refused (never what you typed), whether a poster upload worked, whether you left with changes unsaved, when something fails, and whether you are on a phone, a tablet or a desktop. Only FilmScorecard reads it — never the festival, never anyone else, never sold — and it is deleted after 25 months.
• Coordinators answer your questions too. A festival that fills in a creative scorecard itself — instead of waiting for a judge — answers your questions on the same form, and their answers reach you as one more numbered judge, with nothing saying they were staff.
• The festival can see every email it sent you about this submission — or tried to — on its own record: which email, the address, when, and whether it was sent, failed or was not sent and why. Once one is sent, it can also see whether it was delivered, delayed, bounced or marked as spam, with the reason given for a bounce. It never keeps a copy of what the email said.
• Messages you send with Contact the festival are emailed to it, and its record of your submission notes each one with its topic. See Contacting the festival.
• Nobody is notified and nothing is approved. There is no review step for what you write here, questions included.
• You are never shown anything a judge scored or wrote. No scores — your score is ??/100 everywhere on this page — no ranks, no judge names or counts, nothing about whether your film was selected, and nothing about any other submission. The most it says is whether a creative scorecard has been filed on your film yet. That is true before you enter your code and after.

Related guides

• Your scorecard — the separate page your results email leads to, by way of this page's overview, and where the answers to your two questions arrive.
• Getting into your scorecard — the nine-character code in full: the lockout, asking for a new one, and every message the code box can show. The same code opens both pages.
• Saving a submission to your account — keeping your festival entries together in an account of your own.
• Contacting the festival — the message form on this page and on your scorecard: what it sends, who reads it, and how the reply comes back.
• Page not found — what a link that is wrong, cut in half by a mail program, or not for a submission that exists actually shows you.