Watch a Submission Fund Drain in Date Order, Not in Inbox Order — Free
Submission season runs on optimism: eleven festivals, a $340 fund, and a spreadsheet nobody updates until the fund declines. This tag runs the fees as a ledger in date order — entry fees out, waivers and refunds back in — and shows the closing balance, the lowest point, and the day the fund goes under if you enter everything on the list.
The proof surface
Free path: the tag computes locally in the browser with no key and no account. Where an AI step helps, any free chat assistant works — Google AI Studio's free tier and Groq's free tier were both no-card and rate-limited when this page was reviewed on 2026-09-13 (limits change; check before you rely on them).
Why the flat version breaks
A list of festivals with their fees is a total, not a plan. It cannot tell you that the third entry takes the fund below zero, because the fees are not in date order and the waivers are in a different email thread. Running the same numbers as a dated ledger shows which entry is affordable and which one has to wait for the early-bird refund.
How to use the festival entry tag in four passes
A number you decide in September is a decision; the same number discovered in November is a surprise. Enter it as the opening balance and treat the ledger as a record of that decision.
Most festivals waive fees for local filmmakers, students, first features or people who ask. A waiver is a positive entry, and it changes which of the later submissions is affordable.
The ledger reports the day the fund dips lowest. If that figure is below zero, one of the entries after it has to move to the next round, be waived, or be dropped.
Extended deadlines and late-entry fees move the dates and the amounts. Change the row and re-run — the ledger is only useful while it matches what you actually paid.
SAMPLE DATA, NOT A VERIFIED CLAIM: 'Harbour Light' · autumn 2026 · fund $340 · eleven entries · Bramhope $35 early bird, Aesthetica $55, a $25 waiver on 12 Oct · Manchester Film Festival $32 on 1 Dec. Replace these values with your own source before you rely on anything.
What breaks first
Forgetting the costs that are not entry fees
Screeners, poster frames, travel to a screening, a publicist's retainer. They are not in this ledger unless you add them as rows, and a fund planned without them is optimistic.
Entering everything and refunding later
Most entry fees are non-refundable, and a withdrawal usually returns nothing. The refund row in the starter record is the exception, not the plan.
Comparing fee sizes to festival value
A $55 entry to a large festival is not five times the value of an $11 local one. The ledger tracks the fund, not the wisdom of each submission.
What you pay otherwise
| The usual route | What it leaves out | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| A submission platform's account balance | Fees prepaid into a wallet, refunds at their discretion | money sitting in another account |
| A festival strategist | They choose the list and take a share of any award | a percentage or a flat fee |
| A declined card at the eleventh deadline | The submission that mattered most is the one that failed | a missed deadline and a late fee |
| This page + the free festival entry tag | Computed in your tab, result on screen before you type anything | $0 |
Try the free festival entry tag
Eleven entries are already run against a $340 fund, with a $25 waiver credited in October and the lowest point marked where the ledger goes under. Raise the fund to $420 and the closing balance recovers.
Open the free festival entry tag →Keep the work if you will use it again
Every row, the running balance, the lowest point and the credits, plus copy and share-link, with no account.
The on-screen result is free and repeatable forever. The one-time tier adds a tangible file you keep and the saved history that comes with it; it never removes or degrades the free result.
Boundary: This tracks the figures you type in; it is not accounting, tax or funding advice, and it cannot verify a festival's fees, waiver policy or refund terms. Check each festival's own published fees and deadlines, and keep the receipts for any funding claim.