In many cultures going to the movies continues to be a common pastime despite the fact that there are now other ways to approach film and audiovisual content, most recently with the rise of streaming services. Film programmers are one example of the intermediaries needed for films to encounter an audience. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how film programmers at public film organizations perceive their responsibilities as cultural gatekeepers. Drawing on gatekeeping theory as a guiding framework, it is argued that film programmers balance overlapping internal and external forces in their curating processes in a continuously changing artistic and economic scenario. Using an ethnographical methodological approach, the project describes the film programming process for the May 2023 offer at Cineteca Nacional México, a public institution in Mexico City. I have been an employee at Cineteca for several years and my position in this study was both as a researcher and as a member of the programming committee. Together, the findings demonstrate how programmers serve as cultural bridges between producers and consumers, enhancing the value of film content throughout their economic and sociocultural functions. However, the context for arthouse film promotion and exhibition has shifted into an act of negotiating balance within intersecting challenges. This study focuses on a particular cultural organization’s gatekeeping procedure, making it a promising location for future studies that aim to investigate the processes of the previous and following set of gatekeepers and their intermediaries and compare the results with those of other public film institutions in various international contexts.