Cutlist

Cutlist is the working file of a national film classification board: the record of how a submitted work is viewed, what it contains, what age rating it is given, what cuts were required to reach that rating, and how the decision is defended on appeal. It is the board's own administrative record — not a streaming service, not a review site, not a cinema booking app.

Each work enters through the submissions register with its submission number, distributor, format, running time to the frame, country of origin and fee band. The examination record then holds each viewing session: the two examiners present, the date, the running time viewed and their individual sight notes. Every flagged moment is logged against its timecode in the classification issues log, categorised as violence, injury detail, sexual content, language, drug misuse, dangerous imitable behaviour, discrimination or threat — and each issue carries the rating it would compel on its own.

That is what makes the decision self-explaining: the awarded certificate is derived as the highest rating compelled by any single logged issue, shown alongside the issue that drove it. The cuts and interventions record then captures each required cut by in and out timecode, the frames and seconds removed, the reason, and whether the distributor accepted the cut or accepted the higher category instead. The certificate register binds each issued certificate to a specific version of the work with its consumer advice line.

Beyond the core decision the file carries appeals and reconsiderations with grounds, panel and hearing note; distributor accounts and fee invoicing against running time; exhibition compliance spot checks that cinemas and platforms are displaying the awarded category correctly; a precedent library so examiners rule consistently; a record of which published guidelines version each decision was made under; and the public complaints register. A distributor portal shows one distributor's submissions, their stage, outstanding cuts, certificates issued and fees due.

The design takes the printed cinema classification card and academy-leader countdown of the late 1960s as its reference: a deep ink-black and bottle-green ground, a double-ruled letterpress certificate card as the governing object, a drawn 35mm frame strip with sprocket perforations whose frames tint where an issue is logged, and timecode set in strict HH:MM:SS:FF tabular numerals throughout.