Just the rating of the submission in general (i.e. 5-0 stars), if you broke one of the portal rules then chances are it will get taken by the administration team instead, which is worse: https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/help-information/terms-of-use/movie-guidelines
Overall if the rating for a submission is lower than required, it will get blammed/deleted: https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/help-information/user-accounts/blams-and-saves
I know it's awful, but Newgrounds isn't as massive as YouTube or other platforms. Since Movies and Games take up the most storage on the site, they set this system up for the main portal so that storage wouldn't be so problematic and that content featured would actually be good (this was from what I read somewhere, so take it with a grain of salt). If they didn't set up the saves and blams system, then the site would be overrun by low effort content and storage would be a hassle to sort through. Overall, just see it as way of making sure you put your heart and soul into these movies. The more effort you put into something = the less likely something of yours will be deleted, and an increased chance of getting featured.
Ceejaythe630th
The Blam Effect. If your rating for a submission gets too low for movies or games, it'll get deleted.
miahcreator
Like age rating or what??? Also: What the hell??? How is that fair?!