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something that happens on a regional level or a local level, and these people don’t even think of going to Sundance, and that’s an amazing service to be doing for the public. And for the filmmaker.” While Sundance is seen as the most prestigious domestic festival for short filmmakers, outside of the U.S. it’s Clermont-Ferrand. CF happens every February in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Their market is attended by some of the top buyers, distributors, and festival programmers internationally. There is no entry fee; they show approximately 190 films, of which fewer than 25 come from North America. The average number of submissions they receive is close to 6,000 (1,200 French and 4,800 international)—a bit more than Sundance. Laurent Crouzeix has programmed for CF for over ten years. He gives us an overview: “We have three competitions and there is a selection committee of about ten people for each. The films are shared between groups of two programmers who view the films. This means that each film submitted to Clermont-Ferrand is seen by at least two programmers. All the films that have been viewed by all members of the committee are then discussed to choose the ones that are going to be selected. It is a very democratic process. Some choices are easy, but for others discussions can become tense. The organization of the festival rests on collective decision, and so does the selection. For international entries, less than 10% of the films submitted make it to the final round of discussions. Yet a number of films that may not make it to the selection can actually be picked up for other programs, like children’s programs for instance. Some eventually make it to a special thematic or regional retrospective years later. You never know . . .”