GuidesFor AgenciesShortlists

Shortlists are where an agency turns a flood of new faces into a focused set of candidates worth acting on. They are your working memory on Motherhunt — the place every promising profile lands before you evaluate, bid, or hand it to a booker.

This guide covers how to build shortlists, keep them organised, and share them across your team so the right talent never slips through the cracks.

What a shortlist is

A shortlist is a named collection of model profiles. Think of it as a casting bucket: you add the faces that fit a brief, review them side by side, and remove the ones that no longer make the cut. Shortlists are private to your agency and visible to the bookers you invite.

• Group candidates by campaign, season, client, or booker
• Compare measurements, looks, and availability at a glance
• Keep a living record that updates as the market changes

Before you start

Shortlists live inside an approved agency account. If your agency is not onboarded yet, begin with the Applying guide to set up your profile and invite your team.

Building a shortlist

Creating a shortlist takes a few quick steps:

1. Open the market and filter faces by the parameters you book for
2. Create a new shortlist and give it a clear, descriptive name
3. Add promising profiles directly from the market or a model page
4. Reorder and annotate candidates so your top picks rise to the top

Move quickly — strong talent attracts competing agencies, and a profile you hesitate on may be gone by tomorrow.

Organising and sharing

Keep one shortlist per active brief rather than a single overflowing list. Bookers you invite can view and contribute to the shortlists you share, so ownership stays clear and nothing is duplicated. See the Bookers guide for how to structure team access and responsibilities.

From shortlist to decision

A shortlist is a starting point, not a verdict. Once a face earns its place, run it through your casting criteria, then commit when it fits.

• Evaluate each candidate against your brief — see the Evaluating guide.
• Place a bid or send an offer on the talent you want — see the Bidding guide.
• Hand confirmed talent to a booker to manage the booking.

Where shortlists fit

Shortlists are the second stage of the agency loop: discovery fills them, evaluation sharpens them, and bidding converts them. For the full picture of how every stage connects, read the Agency workflows guide.