Terms of Use
Effective 2026-10-15
The agreement
These are the terms under which you use FilmScorecard (filmscorecard.com). By creating an account, requesting one, or using the platform, you agree to them and to the Privacy Policy. If you use the platform on behalf of an organization, you agree on its behalf as well, and you confirm you have the authority to do so.
Accounts and the beta
Accounts are for festival hosts, festival staff, judges and filmmakers. You must be at least 18 years old to hold one, and the information you give when you create it must be accurate.
During the private beta, a new account is created only for an address that has been approved from a beta request or invited by a festival or an organization already on the platform. We may approve or decline a request at our discretion, and we may end the beta or change who is admitted at any time.
You are responsible for what happens under your account. Signing in uses a code sent to your email address, so keep that inbox secure and tell us if you think someone else has used your account.
Host responsibilities
A host organization that imports submissions brings other people's information onto the platform: the works submitted to it and the details of the people who made them. The host is responsible for that information. It must have the right to import it and to have it judged here, it must tell its submitters what it does with their information, and it must respond to their requests about it.
The platform processes imported information on the host's behalf and only for the host's festival. The host decides which of its staff can see what, and it is responsible for the staff and the judges it brings in.
We also use data about how the platform is used, such as how submitters use their scorecard and submission pages, to operate the platform and to improve it. That data is never sold, and it is never shown to another festival.
A host that releases scorecards to submitters, charges for access to them, or pays its judges is responsible for the prices it sets, for the refunds it grants, and for its own tax and reporting obligations.
Every organization that runs a festival also accepts the Festival Host Agreement, which sets out paying judges, scorecard sales and what happens to a festival that does not pay.
Judge conduct
A judge scores submissions blind: without seeing other judges' scores or feedback, and without discussing a submission with the other judges before their scorecard is filed. The platform enforces the first; we expect the second.
Everything a judge sees in the course of judging is confidential. A judge must not share submissions, screener links, scores or feedback outside the platform, and must not contact a submitter about their submission. If a festival wants a judge to speak to a submitter, the festival arranges it.
A judge must tell the festival about any conflict of interest with a submission before scoring it, and must not score a submission they made or have an interest in. A judge who accepts a paid assignment is expected to complete it in the window the festival sets, and can pause or step back through the platform if they cannot.
Every score and every word of feedback on the platform is written by a person. A judge must not use an automated system to score or to write feedback.
Every judge also accepts the Judge Code of Conduct, which sets these rules out in full.
Scorecard access and refunds
A festival may release a submission's scorecard to the submitter, free or for a price the festival sets. A purchase unlocks that scorecard for the submitter and does not expire.
Refunds are the festival's decision. A refund of the full amount re-locks the scorecard. A partial refund does not change access; the scorecard stays unlocked. A payment dispute that is lost is treated as a full refund.
The platform is not a party to the sale between a festival and a submitter. It provides the page, the checkout and the receipt.
Creator Pro
Creator Pro is a paid plan for one project. It adds the Pro tools listed when you get Pro for that project. Each project has its own plan.
Pro costs $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year, in US dollars, including any tax. It starts as soon as you check out, at your request, and renews automatically at the end of each month or year, charging the card on file, until you cancel.
Your first Pro plan may start with a free 30-day trial, one per account. A card is required. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, it becomes a paid plan and your card is charged when the trial ends. We email you 7 days before.
You can cancel at any time from the project in your account. Pro then stays on until the end of the period you paid for and does not renew. We do not refund partial periods. Switching from monthly to yearly takes effect at once, with credit for the unused part of the month. Switching from yearly to monthly takes effect when the paid year ends.
If a renewal payment fails, it is retried and Pro stays on in the meantime. If it still fails, Pro ends. When Pro ends, for any reason, the contact form leaves the page and Messages and Stats lock. Nothing is deleted: messages, stats and page settings are kept and return if you take Pro again.
We may change Pro's price. A new price applies from your first renewal after we tell you about it, and you can cancel before then.
Payments, platform fees and split payments
Payments run through Stripe Connect. A festival that sells scorecard access must connect a Stripe account and is bound by Stripe's terms for that account.
When a submitter pays for scorecard access, the payment is split at the point of sale: the platform keeps a platform fee, shown to the festival before it enables sales, and the rest goes to the festival's connected account. The platform fee is not refunded when a festival refunds a sale.
A festival that pays its judges pays them itself, directly. The platform does not transfer, hold or guarantee judge pay; the Festival Host Agreement sets this out. The platform does not hold funds on anyone's behalf beyond what Stripe requires to settle a payment.
Acceptable use
You must not use the platform to break the law, to infringe anyone's rights, or to harass anyone. You must not upload anything you do not have the right to upload, attempt to reach information the platform has not shown you, interfere with the platform's operation, or use automated means to read or write to it other than through features built for that.
You must not use the platform to score or to give feedback on a submission by automated means, or to present automated output as a person's judgment.
Your content
You keep whatever rights you have in what you put on the platform. You give the platform the permission it needs to store, display and deliver that content to the people you intend it for, which is the only reason the platform touches it.
The platform itself, its design and its software belong to us or to the people who license them to us.
FilmFreeway data
A festival can connect its FilmFreeway account so that FilmScorecard reads the festival's submissions directly from FilmFreeway. When it does, we hold the festival's FilmFreeway key and the data we read with it, and we use them only to run that festival's judging on FilmScorecard.
We keep the festival's FilmFreeway key and that data confidential. We never sell them, and we never use them for marketing.
If we learn of a security breach that affects a festival's FilmFreeway key or that data, we tell the festival within 48 hours of learning of it.
When a festival asks us to, we delete its FilmFreeway key and the data we read with it. A festival can ask through the contact form or at [email protected].
Ending an account
You can stop using the platform at any time and ask us to remove your account. A festival can delete its festivals and the records under them.
We can suspend or end an account that breaks these terms, that is used in a way that harms the platform or other people on it, or where the law requires it. Where we can, we will tell you why. Ending an account does not remove the festival records the account worked on, because those belong to the festival.
Sections of these terms that by their nature should survive, including the ones about content, liability and disputes, continue to apply after an account ends.
Liability
The platform is provided as it is, during a beta, and we do not promise that it will be available at all times or free of errors. We do not make judging decisions, and we are not responsible for the selections a festival makes, the scores a judge gives, or the feedback a submitter receives.
To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, and our total liability to you for anything arising from the platform is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, or one hundred dollars if you paid nothing. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.
Changes to these terms
We may change these terms and the Privacy Policy. When we do, the effective date at the top of each document changes, and the version you agreed to is recorded with your account. If a change is material, we will tell account holders before it takes effect. Continuing to use the platform after a change takes effect means you accept it.
Questions about these terms can be sent through the contact form or to [email protected].