Frequently asked questions

A group adds films, 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. Works for any group: a flat, a friend circle, a family, including friends spread across different cities or countries who don't get to see each other much, giving everyone a regular reason to check in and watch something together.

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, and 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) among the films currently on it. Pick your favourite under Spin settings on the Spin tab. 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 (under Spin settings on the Spin tab) for future picks, and whoever spun the current film can nudge its individual deadline from the film card at any time.

Optional, and separate from the watch-by deadline (which stays flexible for everyone's own time either way). Under the deadline on the film card, tap "Planning a movie night?" to propose a specific date and time. It shows to the whole club with an "I'm in" / "Can't make it" RSVP and add-to-calendar links. Any member can propose, change, or cancel it, not just whoever spun the film.

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 "Can't watch this week?" on the film card, then Just this one. 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. If you're going to be away for longer than one film, the same prompt has duration options ("1 week", "2 weeks", etc., or your own return date), which also excuses you from turns you'd otherwise be spinning while you're away.

The round closes on its own once the deadline passes: reviews reveal and the turn moves on to the next person, whether or not everyone's finished. Nobody has to remember to do anything, and nobody's stuck waiting on whoever's behind.

If you missed it, you're not shut out completely. Once the round's closed and before the next person actually spins, you can ask to add your review late. Whoever's about to spin next decides: if they say yes, it counts even though the round's already revealed. The moment they spin, that window's gone.

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, tap Notifications next to Account (under the Menu button on phones) and turn it on for each device you want nudged. It's remembered per club, so you can have it on for one club and off for another, or if you're in several clubs and want the same on/off setting everywhere, use "Apply to all your clubs" in that same screen instead of switching each one individually. 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 into your spin, 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.

iPhones silence sound at the system level. There's no way for a website to see or override that, only an app downloaded from the App Store could do that. So the Sound toggle in the menu can only control whether CINECLUB tries to play a sound. Older iPhones do this with a physical Ring/Silent switch on the side, flip it off. Newer iPhones dropped that switch for the customisable Action Button, which isn't always set to Silent Mode, so it might not do anything at all. Either way, the setting that works on any iPhone: go to Settings, then Sounds & Haptics, then turn off Silent Mode. Android doesn't have this limitation, the Sound toggle there is all that decides it.

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.