How we verify casting calls

Trust is the product. This is what happens before a listing goes online, every day after, and when something is wrong.

Before publication

1. We open the original source. Every listing comes from a real, reachable page: a production company, an agency, a theatre, a festival, a film commission, an official announcement. If the source does not answer or does not contain the call, the listing does not enter.
2. We check who is asking. A named production, a role, a date or an identifiable organisation must exist. Anonymous "opportunities" with only a social handle or a phone number are rejected, and so are calls for minors without an identifiable production.
3. We check the money. If candidates are asked to pay anything to apply — registration, membership, a "premium application", a mandatory photo shoot or course — the listing is rejected and the website goes on our blocklist. Unpaid but serious roles (student films, community theatre) are welcome and clearly marked.
4. We check the dates. The closing date is the one the source declares; if the dates of the shoot or of the auditions have already passed, the call is closed even if its page is still online. When the source gives no closing date, the listing says so.
5. We rewrite in our own words. Each listing is written in the language of the country where the casting takes place, with the requirements, the pay and the contacts in the open.

How we choose our sources

6. The source is the page of the single call, never a list of many calls: every listing takes you to the page of that call.
7. First hand comes first. For every source we record what kind of site it is: the organiser's own site, an agency, a platform where casting directors publish, an aggregator, a newspaper. When a call reaches us through an aggregator or a newspaper, we look for the original announcement and, when we find it, the listing points to it.
8. We read the terms, not only the form. For agencies, platforms and aggregators we read the conditions a candidate accepts when signing up, the FAQ and the prices. A fee to apply — even an occasional one — or paid priority over other applicants blocks the source, even when signing up is free. These terms are read again every day, a few sources at a time.
9. We respect those who do not want to be republished. A source whose pages or terms forbid republishing its listings is not used.
10. On social media we look at who publishes. Calls posted by casting directors and productions are read one by one; a profile marked as AI-generated, an organiser that cannot be found anywhere, or a post in an open group where anyone can write is not a source.
11. Every decision is written down, accepted or rejected, with what we saw on the page.

Every day after

12. Expired listings come off the board automatically, also at midnight. What you see is open.
13. We reopen the sources in rotation, 110 a day: when a page is gone, says that applications are closed, or all the dates of the event have passed, the listing is checked by hand and, if the call is over, taken off. When the source gives no closing date, we reread it before the date we set and extend the listing only if the call is still there.
14. A daily sweep takes off any listing whose website has been put on the blocklist.
15. Duplicates are merged, so the same casting does not appear five times from five aggregators.

What you see on every listing

«✓ No fee to apply»: applying costs nothing. «checked on …»: the date of the last check of the source. Official source when the source is the organiser itself; Listing source when it is a platform, an agency, an aggregator or a newspaper, with Organizer shown separately when the call names it. And the box ✓ OPEN SHOW PAGES verification, written only from our records: «Source verified when added to the board: …», «Source rechecked and still live: …» and, when it happened, «Deadline extended on … after rereading the source».

How we correct a mistake

16. Tell us. Every listing has the button ⚑ Report this listing; the removal page takes reports and removal requests; or write to openshow.contact@gmail.com with the link of the listing. We reply within 48 hours, and in case of doubt the listing comes off at once.
17. We reopen the source and fix it. A wrong detail is corrected on the listing. If the call is closed, asks for money or can no longer be verified, the listing comes off the board: its page stays online marked CLOSED, so that old links do not break, and a source that asks candidates for money goes on the blocklist.
18. Nothing is removed without a trace. Every removal is recorded with its reason.
19. The same mistake must not come back. Every error we find is fixed and then turned into an automatic check that runs every day, so that if it reappears — from the same source or from another — we see it the same day.

The promise

Candidates never pay. Ever. Browsing is free, with no sign-up. Publishing is free too for productions, agencies and professionals who pass our verification (signed authorisation form and identity document); the only paid option is the featured placement, which puts a listing first for 7 days — this is how.

The numbers of these checks, month by month, are in the pay-to-apply casting observatory.