The 2016 Sundance Film Festival recently faded to black, but staff is already gearing up for next year's event. That's because every year, the Festival's programming team must winnow more than 12,000 film submissions to 200 official selections. Finding the very best independent films is a big undertaking, requiring collaboration among programmers. With the Festival having premiered many films that have gone on to win Oscars-like Boyhood and Whiplash-screening thousands of submissions is a high-stakes production.