Ana Souza and Diana Cadavid

What Sundance and TIFF Performers Are Really Looking For

Ever wondered how festival programmers decide which films make the cut? For our first episode of 2026, I'm joined by two incredible festival programmers who've been shaping the landscape of independent cinema for over a decade.

Ana Souza has been with Sundance Film Festival for 10 years, working alongside some of the most exciting independent filmmakers in the world. Diana Cadavid is currently Director of Industry Programs for the Latino Film Institute (LFI) in Los Angeles, and International Programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) She helped build IFF Panama's programming department from scratch.

In this conversation, we break down the REAL selection process (spoiler: it's not about who you know!). We also share how to effectively map your premiere status strategy BEFORE you finish your film, how the big film/small film balance that keeps festivals alive (and why you should stop resenting those studio movies), and how distribution changed in the post-COVID era (why the all-night bidding wars are gone, but deals are still happening…). Finally, we discuss why attending festivals WITHOUT a film might be the smartest career move you can make

Tune in!

xx cg

“Film festivals are the job fairs of the entertainment industry. If you’re making films in isolation and not watching what’s beingn programmed, you can’t understand where your work fits.”

- Diana Cadavid

Episode Transcript