Festival Guide.
Updated 5 October 2026
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Festival Guide.
Festival organiser guide · GenFlix platform standards · Separate sign-in from Creator Studio
Your operating system for festivals on GenFlix.
Festival Studio is where you run each festival end to end: publish your listing, take submissions from filmmakers, curate on a Kanban board, invite judges and co-organisers, and communicate outcomes back to creators. Creators submit through GenFlix with films that are already on the platform, so your team reviews secure playback instead of chasing file transfers.
This guide explains how the product works and how we expect festivals to behave on GenFlix. It sits alongside the GenFlix Terms & Conditions. If anything here conflicts with those Terms, the Terms apply.
1. Festival Studio at a glance
After you sign in, the main tabs are:
| Tab | What it does |
|---|---|
| Overview | Pulse on active festivals, deadlines, and a quick path to start a new festival. |
| Festivals | Your desk of draft and live festivals. Open one to curate entries or continue setup. |
| Payouts | Connect Stripe when you charge entry fees. Set fees in Intake (step 2) and per category in Categories (step 3). Collected totals and refunds appear here for festivals with paid entry fees. |
| Insights | Entry pace, categories, and (when enabled) Audience Choice votes and Festival Flix totals per festival. |
| Team | Invite co-organisers and judges per festival, and pause access when a role is done. |
Judges see a reduced view: they work in the Judging zone column only, with private notes and scorecards. They do not get full festival setup controls.
The sections below follow a typical organiser path: set up and publish, configure entry fees, onboard judges and team, curate on the Kanban board, optionally run Festival Cinema, prepare master downloads, then close the programme. Platform expectations and legal topics are at the end.
2. Create and publish a festival
Use New festival to open the setup wizard:
| Wizard step | What it does |
|---|---|
| 1. Create | Name, public description, in-person or virtual, location when in person, festival dates, accepted format (vertical and/or horizontal), and whether entries are single films or full series. |
| 2. Intake | Submission open and close dates, entry terms filmmakers accept, entry fees (all free or charge on some categories with one entry fee currency and Stripe when needed), and programme hero banner. |
| 3. Categories | Award names, rules, and public tiles. When entry fees are on in Intake, set each category to free or a paid entry fee in that currency. |
| 4. Publish | Preview the public page (including per-category entry fees on category tiles), then set the festival to Active when you are ready for entries. |
| 5. Curate | Kanban board per category: review submissions, judges, and outcomes (see section 5). |
| 6. Prepare | Master file downloads for entries in the Winner column. |
| 7. Close | Close the festival when the programme is finished; the board becomes read-only. |
Each festival gets a public GenFlix page under your organiser profile. Filmmakers discover it there or via your link, then submit from Creator Studio with a live title on the platform.
Entry format (vertical, horizontal, and series)
In wizard step 1. Create, under How your festival runs, you set two controls that appear on your public page and in the filmmaker submit flow:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Accepted format | Choose vertical (9:16), horizontal (16:9), or both. GenFlix checks each submitted file against this rule before checkout. |
| Entries are | Single films (one live title per entry) or Series (one entry per show name, with every live episode in that series submitted together). |
| Format lock | After the first submission arrives, accepted format and entries are locked for that festival so existing entrants are not caught by a rule change. |
Step 4. Publish shows the same format summary on your review card so you can confirm it before you go live.
| Entry type | Filmmaker steps |
|---|---|
| Single film | Pick one live film from their library, accept your terms, and submit. Category rules (genre, runtime, and content type) apply to that film. |
| Series | Pick the series name from their show library. GenFlix loads every live episode in that series (minimum two). They confirm the episode list, then submit once for the whole series. |
| Orientation | Each episode or film must match your accepted format. A vertical-only festival rejects landscape masters even if the story is a series. |
| Runtime rules | When a category caps total runtime, series entries use the combined length of all episodes in the entry. |
| Duplicates | One entry per film or series name per category. An episode cannot be entered on its own if it is already part of a series entry in that category. |
3. Entry fees and Payouts
Set this up during wizard steps 2 and 3, before or when you publish, so your public page and checkout match your policy from day one of the open call.
Entry fees are optional. In Intake (step 2), under Entry fees, choose All entries free or Charge fees on some categories. When charging, pick one entry fee currency for the festival and connect Stripe in Intake if prompted. In Categories (step 3), set each award to free or a paid entry fee in that currency (for example $40, $20, and free on the same festival). Publish (step 4) shows each category with its fee on the open-call tile list.
When a filmmaker pays, checkout runs on GenFlix in your entry fee currency. The Payouts tab lists only festivals that have paid entry fees or collected money, with totals, refunds, and net to you by festival. Bank, tax, and identity stay in your Stripe Dashboard (also linked from Payouts), not inside GenFlix.
| Topic | What it does |
|---|---|
| Default | All entries free in Intake until you choose charge fees on some categories. |
| Stripe Connect | Connect from Intake when you turn on paid categories, or from Payouts; one connect per festival account. |
| Platform fee | GenFlix retains 10% on each paid entry fee; net after that and Stripe processing is yours. |
| Who connects Stripe | Account owner only; co-organisers can run the festival but cannot connect payouts. |
4. Judges, scoring, and Team
Onboard judges after publish (or just before entries close) so scorecards are ready when you move films into the Judging zone on Curate (section 5).
On Team, choose a festival, then add judges by name and email. When they sign in to GenFlix with that email, their roster row links and they can access the Judging zone for that festival only.
| Role | Access in Festival Studio |
|---|---|
| Lead organiser | Full setup, Curate board, payouts (Stripe owner), team roster, and communications. |
| Co-organiser | Same curate and programme setup as the lead organiser (per roster rules). |
| Judge | Judging zone only: watch shortlisted entries, leave notes, and complete the weighted scorecard (autosave). |
What judges see and how they score
Share this flow with your roster (word it for your festival and deadlines). After sign-in, judges open your festival, switch category pills, and work only in the Judging zone.
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Open a film and watch it (desktop and headphones work best for craft judging). Expand the player if you need a larger view. |
| 2 | Tap Score on the card. Add brief loved / improve notes. They stay useful for your panel and may inform creator feedback, so keep them constructive and professional. |
| 3 | Complete the Judge scorecard on the right: Storytelling (engagement and pay-off), Originality (freshness of idea and approach), and Execution (craft, coherence, and polish). Each criterion uses the 1-10 scale shown in the portal. |
| 4 | Scores autosave as judges slide; there is no separate submit button. When every criterion is scored, the scorecard counts as submitted. |
| 5 | Use Entry for filmmaker context, synopsis, and how the film was made. Close and move to the next title when done. |
| Topic | Guidance |
|---|---|
| Conflicts | Ask judges to declare personal or professional ties to a filmmaker before scoring; reassign or exclude that entry as needed. |
| Confidentiality | Until you publish results, shortlisted titles and entrant details should stay within the jury and festival team. |
| Support | Judges with login or access issues should contact GenFlix support; questions about your rules or deadlines stay with you as organiser. |
How scores roll up
Each judge's three criteria roll into a weighted total out of 100. GenFlix combines submitted scorecards into Judge Match on the Kanban card (see section 5). With five or more submissions, the trimmed mean drops the highest and lowest weighted totals before averaging. The Combined figure in the scorecards panel is the simple mean of the same submitted cards, with nothing removed.
You choose whether winners follow Judge Match, your own deliberation, or a mix. GenFlix does not pick winners for you.
5. Curate on the Kanban board
Open a live festival and go to programme step Curate (step 5). The festival name sits at the top; under it, three board toggles sit on one row: Show card details, Unreviewed only, and Notify creators on move. Below that, category pills (for example your award names plus optional Audience Choice Award) switch which board you are viewing. Each submission is a card you drag between columns or manage from card actions. There is no separate payments strip on Curate; change entry fees in Intake or Payouts if needed.
After your festival is Active, programme steps 6 Prepare and 7 Close unlock in the stepper. See sections 7 and 8 below for master downloads and closing the programme.
Columns (swimlanes)
Submitted
New entries landing from filmmakers.
Shortlisted
Internal longlist before judges weigh in.
Judging zone
Judges watch, note, and score. Only this column is visible to judges.
Winner
Winners, finalists, or official picks. Lock the column when the list is final.
Not selected
Entries you are passing on.
Same order as the Curate board (left → right). Scroll sideways on small screens.
Judge Match, Combined, and Festival Match
On cards in the Judging zone (and when expanded on other stages), you may see several numbers at once. They answer different questions:
| Signal | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Judge Match | Official organiser ranking figure on the card (shown as a percentage). It is the average weighted judge score (0-100) across submitted scorecards. With five or more submitted scorecards, GenFlix uses a trimmed mean: drop the highest and lowest weighted totals, then average the rest. That limits the effect of one extreme score. Use this for ordering and outcomes unless you choose otherwise. |
| 7/12 scored | How many rostered judges have submitted a complete scorecard for this entry, out of the total judges on the festival (for example seven of twelve). |
| Combined | In the Notes / scorecards panel: simple average of every submitted weighted scorecard for that film, with no scores removed. A straight reference view for the same judges. |
| GenFlix Festival Match | Separate AI read of how well the entry fits the category brief and programme terms. It is not calculated from human scorecards. |
Judge Match stays pending until at least three judges have submitted complete scorecards for that entry. Shortlisted and Winner columns can sort by consensus once scoring is underway.
Board controls (under the festival title)
One row of toggles applies to the whole board for the active category pill:
| Control | When on / what it does |
|---|---|
| Show card details | Poster, match score, country, and action buttons on each card. Off: compact title row only (click to open notes; drag still works). |
| Unreviewed only | Hide entries that already have organiser review notes. Column counts show filtered vs total (for example 3/12). |
| Notify creators on move | Email creators when a card's column changes (drag, Move dialog, or binge), except moves into Winner. Winner outcomes use Send feedback email to creator or Close festival. Moves into Not selected can attach saved feedback when you have it. Off: silent moves while you reorganise internally. |
Working a submission card
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Play | Secure streaming (GenFlix player). For a series entry, episodes play in season and episode order with a short Up next hand-off between episodes. Autosaving loved / improve notes stay pinned under the player for the whole screening. |
| Download master file | Organisers only. Creator master from the card (icon on compact row or poster). Not shown to judges. |
| Profile | Opens the creator's GenFlix studio profile in a new tab. |
| Entry | Public festival submission view for that film (when slugs are available). |
| Judge | Full-screen Notes: entry copy, organiser loved/improve fields (private, autosaved as you type), judge notes and scorecards (read-only for organisers), and Decision action for finals. |
| Move | Move or remove entry: change award category and/or column. No duplicate category entries. Remove from this award drops this category only (two-step confirm). |
| Drag | Handle on card: drop on another column to change stage only. Respects Notify creators on move and Winner column lock. |
Creator feedback and emails (Decision action)
Team notes (loved / improve) stay internal; they are not sent to creators verbatim. They feed AI draft feedback and your handover record.
In the Notes workspace, the right-hand Decision action panel is the controlled path for finals:
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Choose outcome: Winner or Not selected. |
| 2 | Generate a draft from organiser notes and submitted judge scorecards (edit freely), or write your own. |
| 3 | Save feedback draft: stores text without emailing or moving the card. |
| 4 | Send feedback email to creator: emails the paragraph; the column stays unchanged unless you move separately. |
| 5 | Move to Winner / Not selected: saves text and moves the card without emailing. For Not selected, you can instead drag with Notify creators on move on to email. For Winner, use step 4 or Close festival. |
If Notify creators on move is on and you drag (or use the Move dialog) into Not selected, GenFlix sends the stage email and attaches your saved feedback when available. Winner moves never send email from this toggle; use Send feedback email to creator or close the festival when you are ready to notify winners.
Winner column lock
Each category has a lock toggle in the Winner column header. When locked, nobody can drag entries into or out of Winner (including via the Move dialog or Decision move). Use this when your winner list is final and you want to prevent accidental changes. Unlock before you need to adjust again.
Binge review
Each column with entries shows Play all in the header. Binge mode plays every card in that column in order, with the same autosaving notes panel and stage moves as single playback. Series entries play all episodes before the binge advances to the next card. Use it for screening sessions without opening each card manually.
Master files during Curate
On a submission card, organisers can download a single master for a quick screen or DCP check. For batch handover per award, use programme step 6 Prepare (section 7).
Handover checklist for a new curator
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Festival status | Confirm Active vs closed and which category pills you own. |
| Notify creators on move | Agree when the toggle stays on vs off during internal reshuffles. |
| Judge visibility | Judging zone for judge-facing work; Shortlisted for internal longlists. |
| Winner lock | Lock the Winner column when the winner list is signed off. |
| Final comms | Decision panel (Send feedback email and/or move + notify) before Close festival. |
| Master exports | Section 7: Prepare downloads for archives, DCP partners, or offline juries. |
6. Festival Cinema, Audience Choice, and Flix (optional)
Turn these on during an active festival when you want a public viewing room or audience voting alongside jury curation.
Festival Cinema is an optional public viewing room for your festival. It lives at your festival's /cinema link (for example genflix.ai/festival/your-organiser/your-festival/cinema). Viewers sign in, browse the films you expose from the Kanban board, and watch with the same secure streaming GenFlix uses elsewhere. You do not have to turn this on; many festivals run on jury curation alone.
Series entries in Festival Cinema play as a continuous programme: viewers watch episodes in order with the same Up next transition organisers see on Curate. Audience Choice watch-time rules count viewing across episodes when deciding whether a vote unlocks.
When you enable Audience Choice, those viewers can cast one equal vote for the film they want to win your audience award (you can rename the award, for example People's Choice). GenFlix requires meaningful watch time on a film before its vote unlocks, so ballots reflect people who actually watched. Flix is a viewer recognition balance earned while watching in Festival Cinema. Viewers may optionally allocate Flix as Audience Backing to films they want to champion. Backing and Flix balances never change vote weight: one person, one vote.
How to enable it: open your festival in Festival Studio, go to Curate, and tap the Audience Choice Award control on the category bar (next to your category pills). In the panel:
| Step | What to set |
|---|---|
| 1 | Choose which Kanban stages feed the cinema and ballot (for example Winner only, or Shortlisted and Winner). Films must sit in at least one chosen stage to appear publicly. |
| 2 | Set voting open and close times (close date is required before you enable). |
| 3 | Name your audience award, then click Enable Audience Choice. |
| 4 | Use Copy watch link to share Festival Cinema with your audience. |
While voting runs, refresh results in the same panel to see leaders, vote counts, and Flix backing. The Insights tab also shows Audience Choice and Flix summaries when you filter to that festival. Juried scores on your Kanban board and audience ballots are separate paths: you can run both, or either, for the same festival.
7. Prepare: master file downloads
Programme step 6 Prepare (short label Prepare in the stepper) is your handover desk for high-quality master files. It unlocks once the festival is Active and you have moved work forward on the Curate board. GenFlix does not replace your cinema or DCP pipeline; it gives you signed downloads of each creator's master so you can screen offline, pass files to partners, or archive selections.
Only entries in the Winner column count. If a category has no winners yet, its programme block stays empty until you move cards into Winner on Curate (step 5).
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Programme block per category | One card per award, using the category listing image when you set one. Shows how many titles are in Winner and whether masters are ready. |
| Ready to ship | Every winner in that category has a master file GenFlix can sign for download. |
| Packaging | The creator master is not ready yet (still processing on GenFlix). Wait and reopen Prepare, or download later from the Kanban card when it appears. |
| Per-title Master | Download one film's master file (full quality from the creator upload, not the streaming preview). |
| Category ZIP | One ZIP per award category only. There is no single ZIP for the entire festival, so you can forward one jury pod or category at a time and re-download after you change winners. |
| Series winners | When a winner is a series entry, the category ZIP includes a master file for each episode in that submission, named so you can sort them in screening order. |
During Curate, the Download master file action on a card is the same source file for ad-hoc use. Prepare is the structured list once your Winner columns are set.
8. Close your festival
Programme step 7 Close is the formal end of your season on GenFlix. You review who won, what feedback creators will receive, and then confirm. Closing is deliberate: it is not the same as turning off submissions or finishing curation on the board.
Day-to-day moves on Curate can email creators when Notify creators on move is on (except moves into Winner). Close sends the programme result emails and then locks the festival.
| Group | Who is included |
|---|---|
| Category winners | Every entry in the Winner column, grouped by award. Preview shows the feedback text each creator will get in the close email. |
| People's Choice winner | Shown only when Audience Choice is enabled and a winner is selected. A separate result email. You must pick a winner before close if Audience Choice is on. |
| Finalists (not category winners) | Entries still in Shortlisted that did not win their category. They receive finalist feedback in the close flow when feedback is ready. |
What you can do before closing
| Action | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Refresh summary | Reload the list after you move cards on Curate or edit feedback drafts. |
| Generate missing feedback | When winners or finalists lack saved feedback, GenFlix can draft text from organiser notes and judge scorecards. Edit on the board first if you want full control. |
| Close festival and send emails | Two-step confirm. Sends result emails (if not already sent), marks the festival closed, and freezes the programme. |
Requirements to close
GenFlix blocks close until all of the following are true:
- At least one entry sits in a Winner column (category winner).
- Every category winner and every finalist in the close summary has creator feedback saved (use Generate missing feedback or the Decision / notes tools on Curate).
- If Audience Choice is enabled, a People's Choice winner is selected in Audience Choice settings.
What happens when you close
| Effect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Programme frozen | The festival becomes read-only in Festival Studio. You cannot move cards, edit categories, or change programme setup. |
| Status past | The festival is treated as completed for studio workflows and handover. |
| Result emails | Creators in the close summary receive the appropriate outcome email with the feedback shown in the preview. |
| Read-only summary | You can still open step 7 to review who was emailed and when. |
You choose when to close. Many festivals finish curation, send any extra notes on Curate, export masters in Prepare, then close when outcomes and feedback are final.
Platform expectations
9. GenFlix provides the software infrastructure
GenFlix provides the software pipeline connecting creators to festival organisers. We do not produce your festival, manage your physical or virtual events, or become the promoter, operator, sponsor, co-organiser, agent, partner, fiduciary, or guarantor of your festival unless GenFlix expressly agrees in writing. We provide the workflow infrastructure. Your team runs the festival.
10. Intellectual property and screening rights
Creators retain ownership of their submitted work. By accepting a submission through the GenFlix pipeline, organisers receive a limited, non-exclusive right to review the work and, if selected, use it for the festival purpose described in the public festival page and programme terms. You do not acquire any underlying rights to the creator's IP, characters, or future royalties.
11. Data privacy and communications
As an organiser, you will be granted access to creator metadata (names, project details, synopses) strictly for the purpose of festival curation and operational communication.
| Commitment | What it does |
|---|---|
| No resale or exploitation | Do not sell, distribute, or exploit creator metadata from submissions. |
| No unsolicited marketing | Do not add creators to third-party mailing lists without their explicit, separate consent. |
12. Platform moderation
GenFlix reserves the right to suspend or remove any festival from the platform that violates our community guidelines, misrepresents its event details, or repeatedly fails to communicate final decisions to submitters. We measure the integrity of the platform to ensure a high-quality experience for both creators and curators.
Ready to run your festival on GenFlix?
Open Festival Studio, start a festival, invite your team, and publish when you are ready for submissions.