Although the field of film festival research has grown over the last years with almost the same rapidity as the film festival landscape, the issue of programming films did not come into focus until only recently. Amongst the existing attempts to research how and why films are selected for screening at a festival, the notion of programming as a myth and well-protected secret seems persistent. This thesis sets out to defy this notion by conducting a case study of the programming process and selection criteria at the 30th Brunswick International Film Festival (BIFF) in Lower-Saxony, Germany, with a combination of methods, the most important being expert interviews. The programming of the BIFF then contains several stages and smaller steps in which formal and informal selection criteria as well as other factors influence the decision-making. These findings are later tested with a sample film out of the programme of the 30th BIFF. The significance of this project thus not only lies in the suggestions and impulses it can provide for future research but more so in the practical recommendations for the BIFF.