How to get your short film into Cannes?

Do you want to know how to get your short film selected at the Cannes Film Festival? Well, there is of course no guarantee or magic formula, but I would like to share with you my experience and my point of view as someone who has been working on short film selection committees of different sections of the Festival in recent years (the Directors' Fortnight and the Critics' Week).

When is the best time to submit a film? What is the most adequate section to apply to? Whether you are a student, a director or a producer, I can give you an insight into the type of questions, ideas and dreams that help build a short film selection from the inside.

Gregory Coutaut is programmer for the short film selection of Cannes’s Critics Week and film journalist. In 2017, he founded LePolyester.com, an online magazine dedicated to international arthouse cinema news, of which he is the co-editor-in-chief. Until 2021, he chaired Aloha Distribution, a distribution company that allowed the release of several foreign feature documentaries in French cinemas. In 2022, he joined Paolo Moretti's selection team for the Directors' Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival as an artistic advisor. In 2024, he joined Ava Cahen's committee for the short film selection of Cannes' Critics' Week. He is a member of FIPRESCI and of the French Syndicate of Film Critics (SFCC), and he is a voting member of the Académie des César.