Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

OPUS Film Awards, contactable at info@opusfilmawards.com.

2. What we collect

• Name, email address, and film/production details when you submit an entry
• Payment information, processed securely by Stripe (we do not store your card details ourselves)
• Email address if you sign up for our newsletter
• Basic technical data (browser type, general location) when you visit our website

3. Why we collect it

• To process and administer your festival submission
• To process payment via Stripe
• To contact you about your submission status
• To send occasional updates, if you have opted in to our newsletter
• To improve our website and services

4. Legal basis for processing

We process your data based on: performance of a contract (processing your submission), consent (newsletter sign-up), and legitimate interest (running and improving the festival).

5. Sharing your data

We do not sell your personal data. We share data with Stripe (payment processing) and, where relevant, with our jury panel (film title, director name, and submitted work only) for judging purposes.

6. Content and usage rights

Submitting a film grants OPUS a non-exclusive license to use excerpts, stills, and trailers for promotional purposes. Winning films may be showcased via partner platforms, subject to the filmmaker's agreement, as set out in our Rules & Terms.

7. Data retention

We retain submission data for as long as necessary to administer the current festival cycle and for a reasonable period afterward for record-keeping, unless you ask us to delete it sooner.

8. Your rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to access, correct, or request deletion of your personal data, and to withdraw consent to marketing communications at any time. You can use our data request form to ask us to delete, send or correct your data, or email info@opusfilmawards.com.

9. Cookies & similar technologies

We do not run any advertising, profiling or cross-site tracking cookies on this website, and we do not use Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, TikTok Pixel or similar third-party analytics tags today. A cookie banner is shown on your first visit so you can accept or reject non-essential analytics cookies; nothing beyond strictly necessary storage is loaded unless you press Accept. You can change your choice at any time using the “Cookie preferences” link in the footer.

The only data stored on your device by opusfilmawards.com is strictly necessary browser storage (not marketing cookies), used to make the site work:

• opus-cookie-consent (local storage, provider: OPUS Film Awards) — records whether you accepted or rejected analytics cookies so we do not ask again. Stored until you clear your browser data or reset it from the footer.
• opus-overture-seen (session storage, provider: OPUS Film Awards) — remembers that you have already seen the opening title sequence so it is not replayed on every page during your visit. Cleared when you close the tab.
• opus-large-text (local storage, provider: OPUS Film Awards) — remembers your large-text accessibility preference. Stored until you clear your browser data.
• opus-admin-token (session storage, provider: OPUS Film Awards) — used only on our internal admin pages to keep an authorised administrator signed in. Never set for public visitors.
• Lovable hosting (provider: Lovable) — our hosting platform records aggregate, privacy-friendly page-view counts (such as page path, referrer, country and device type) for site performance and reliability. It does not set advertising cookies and does not build a profile of you.
• Stripe (provider: Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd.) — when you proceed to payment you are taken to Stripe's own checkout, where Stripe sets its own strictly necessary cookies for fraud prevention and to process the transaction. See stripe.com/privacy.
• Supabase (provider: Supabase, our database and file storage host) — sets a session token in browser storage only for authenticated administrator sessions; it is not used for public visitors or for tracking.

9a. Third-party pages we link to

Some journeys leave our site: FilmFreeway (submissions), Luma (ceremony tickets), Stripe (payments) and our social media profiles. Those services set their own cookies, including analytics cookies, once you are on their pages, and are governed by their own privacy and cookie policies rather than this one.

You can block or delete browser storage and cookies at any time in your browser settings. Blocking our essential storage may mean the opening sequence replays and your text-size preference is not remembered, but the site will still work. If we ever introduce analytics or tracking cookies, we will update this section and ask for your consent first.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be available on this page.