Frequently asked questions

A group adds films to a wheel, takes turns spinning to pick the week's film, sets a watch-by deadline, then everyone marks it watched and leaves a sealed half-star rating and review. Reviews unseal — and the turn passes to the next person — once everyone in the club has watched and rated (or passed on the week).

From the CineClub home screen, choose Create a club, give it a name, and share the invite code (or invite link) with your group. No sign-up needed — just a name to get going.

Choose Join a club and enter the code they gave you, or just open the invite link they shared — it fills the code in for you. An existing member then needs to approve you in, which keeps clubs private to the people actually in them.

No — you're up and running with just a name. Everything's tied to your browser on that one device by default. If you want to use CineClub on a second device without losing your seat, see "How do I use CineClub on a new phone…" below — that's what "saving your account" is for, and it's entirely optional.

Whoever's turn it is spins the wheel (or the film-strip reel, if your club prefers that — pick your favourite under the picker toggle on the Spin tab) among the films currently on it. Once it lands, that's the week's film, with a watch-by deadline attached.

It's how long the club gets to watch that week's film — 7 days by default. A club can change that default (Spin tab, next to the picker) for future picks, and whoever spun the current film can nudge its individual deadline from the film card at any time.

So nobody's score anchors off the loudest opinion in the group chat before they've watched it themselves. Ratings and written reviews stay completely sealed — not even hinted at in Stats — until every member who hasn't passed on the week has both watched and rated. Then everyone's reviews land at once.

Tap Pass on the film card. You're excused from that round — it won't hold up everyone else waiting on you, though it does show up in the club's stats. Changed your mind after passing? There's an undo right there too, as long as the round's still open.

Nothing happens automatically — CineClub never force-finishes a round on its own. But once the deadline's actually passed, anyone who's held up their own end (watched it, or passed) gets a "move things on" option on the film card, so the round doesn't stay stuck on one missing person forever. Whoever still hasn't watched isn't the one who gets to make that call — that's deliberate.

Yes — tap "Streaming info wrong? Fix it" under the film card and correct which services it's actually on. That correction is shared with the rest of your club (and reused if another club spots the same film later), since the "where to watch" data behind it isn't always accurate.

Yes, if your club has it turned on — it's optional and off until someone sets it up. When it's on, go to Account in the app and tap Turn on reminders on each device you want nudged. You'll get a notification once the watch-by deadline is close, if you haven't watched yet.

A few possible reasons, roughly in order of likelihood:

• Reminders haven't been switched on for this club yet — ask whoever runs your club's CineClub setup.
• On iPhone specifically, this only works from an icon on your Home Screen — not from a regular Safari or Chrome tab, an Apple limitation with no workaround. Open thecineclub.co.uk in Safari (it has to be Safari — other iPhone browsers can't create this kind of icon), tap the Share icon, then Add to Home Screen, and always open CineClub from that icon afterwards. (Android doesn't have this restriction — reminders work fine from an ordinary Chrome tab there, installing is optional.)
• Your browser or phone has notifications blocked for the site — check your device's notification settings for CineClub (or your browser, if it's not installed as an app).

• Open the Account screen again, from the same place you turned it on — does it say "Reminders are on for this device"? If it's still showing the "Turn on reminders" button, it didn't actually save — tap it again.
• Reminders are only sent to people who haven't watched yet — if you've already marked the film watched, that's working as intended, not a bug.
• They only go out once the deadline is within about 48 hours (or already passed) — nothing sends before then.

Still stuck? Use the Feedback button and describe what you're seeing.

Save your account first, from your original device — Account menu, then Google or email. On the new device, choose Sign in to your account (on the landing screen, or wherever it's offered) rather than joining as if you were new — that reclaims your existing seat, name, and history instead of creating a duplicate person in the club.

Apple keeps an installed Home Screen app's logins completely separate from Safari's — so a Google sign-in popup opened from inside the app genuinely can't see any Google account you're signed into elsewhere on your phone. It's a limitation of iPhones, not something CineClub can turn off.

Two ways round it: sign into your Google account for the first time right there in the popup (Face ID can usually fill your password from your device's keychain), or use the email link option instead — no password involved, and it's built to work reliably from an installed app.

Nobody — not even the rest of your club — can see a review's score or written text until every member has watched and rated (the "sealed" state). Clubs are private to the people in them; joining requires an existing member's approval. See the Privacy Policy for the full detail on what's stored and how.

Yes — from the Films tab, use Import and hand it a Letterboxd (or IMDb) CSV export. You'll get a checklist to pick which films actually go onto the wheel, rather than dumping the whole list in at once.

The major UK ones — Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, Plex and others — shown as "where to watch" chips on the film card. It's sourced from TMDB/JustWatch, so it isn't always perfect; see "The streaming info for a film looks wrong" above.

No — it's a free hobby project, and always will be for the core experience. There's an optional way to chip in via the Support CineClub link if you'd like to, but it's entirely optional.

Not from an app store, but you can install CineClub straight from your browser like a proper app — on iPhone, Safari's Add to Home Screen; on Android, Chrome will usually offer to install it for you. It then opens full-screen with its own icon and works offline for whatever you last had loaded.

The Feedback button (in the app's menu, and on the landing screen) — bug report, idea, or anything else. It goes straight to the person who built this. You can also email hello@thecineclub.co.uk directly.