How Cannes and Sundance Select the Films in Their Lineups

Both festivals are famous for launching careers, yet they reach their lineups in very different ways. One is led by a small team that invites films it wants. The other is built on a huge open call that programmers work through over many months.

The numbers from the past few editions show how much sorting goes on behind the scenes. Here is how each festival handles it, based on figures and details the festivals and trade press have published.

Two Different Front Doors

Cannes presents its Official Selection as the work of a selection committee. The committee is exclusively in charge of the Official Selection and decides which section a film can enter. A filmmaker can register a film, but the festival makes the call on where, or whether, it fits.

Sundance runs on a more open submission model. Its 2026 program was selected from 16,201 submissions from 164 countries or territories, including 4,255 feature-length films. Programmers then build the lineup from that pool, often supplemented by films they have followed for a long time.

Cannes Eligibility Rules

Cannes sets some firm technical conditions before a film is considered. A feature must run more than 60 minutes. Films between 15 and 60 minutes are not accepted.

Deadlines and formats are also spelled out. For 2026, the registration deadline was March 13th. Films in French or English need no subtitles, while other languages need French or English subtitles. Unfinished films can still be sent, because a working copy is allowed, though submitting one rules out sending a final copy later.

The Cannes Volume Problem

The pile at Cannes has grown considerably. At the 2026 announcement, Thierry Frémaux said 2,541 features were submitted, about 1,000 more than ten years earlier but below the record of 2,909 the year before. Even so, that is a lot of films for a committee to watch.

Frémaux has addressed the workload directly. Ahead of the 2024 edition, he said of the then-record pile of more than 2,000 films, that the festival sees them all. He also described the choice as a trade, noting that choosing one film means giving up another.

Late Decisions and Final Choices

The Cannes lineup is not locked in until very late. In 2024, Frémaux said that films are arriving later and later, and the last choices are the most important. Waiting can pay off for a film still being finished.

The 2026 edition showed this clearly. Lukas Dhont’s Coward, which many thought would not be ready, was selected, and programmers had only seen it the day before. At the same press conference, Frémaux hinted that one more film by a high profile male director would be added to Competition.

Sections Within the Official Selection

Cannes sorts films into several strands. Its own program lists a main Competition, Un Certain Regard, Out of Competition and Special Screenings. The selection committee handles Competition, Out of Competition and Un Certain Regard.

Placement is part of the decision, not an afterthought. The committee decides which section a film can take part in. The 2026 Competition included 22 films.

Cannes Parallel Sections Choose Separately

People often assume everything at Cannes comes from one team, but that isn’t true. Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week are independent of the Festival de Cannes and handle their own selections. Each has its own programmers and its own calendar.

Critics’ Week focuses on first and second features. Its 2026 delegate said her team starts viewing in December and begins issuing invitations once every submission has been seen, typically at the end of March or early April. The 2026 edition included seven competition titles and four special screenings.

How Sundance Handles Its Submissions

Sundance’s pool is far larger than Cannes’s, so it relies on a bigger team and a layered process. Festival programmers have said the festival retained eight features programmers and ten shorts programmers when that interview was published. They also said it relies on trusted industry professionals as prescreeners who rate features before passing them to programmers.

Programmers also scout beyond the open call. Festival director Eugene Hernandez said the team has been tracking films sometimes for years, traveling the world and visiting markets. Telefilm Canada, for example, arranged a screening session with two Sundance senior programmers in Montréal ahead of the 2026 edition.

Premiere Rules and Rough Cuts at Sundance

Sundance cares about premiere status, especially for features. Programmers have explained that all U.S. Competition slots must be world premieres. They are more flexible with shorts, which can have played at a festival or even online.

The festival also expects unfinished work. Telefilm’s call for entries noted that programmers are used to viewing films at the rough cut stage, with no color timing, no final mix and temporary music. For shorts, length matters: programmers have said films over 25 minutes are harder to program, since each shorts program runs six or seven films.

What the 2026 Lineups Looked Like

Sundance’s final Park City edition was 90 features and seven episodic projects, which together with the Park City Legacy program totaled 105 projects. Thirty-six of the 90 feature directors, about 40 percent, were first time feature filmmakers. Ninety-four projects, or 97 percent, were world premieres.

The shorts side was tighter still. The 54 short films were curated from 11,480 submissions. At Cannes, Frémaux has pushed back on the idea that the same names always appear, saying in 2025 that most of the selection is made up of filmmakers coming for the first time. He also acknowledged a long tradition of loyalty to certain directors, dating back to the 1950s and 1960s.