The Official Selection of the AFI World Cinema Festival is engineered to showcase culturally diverse films from throughout the world. A feature length competition class and an out of competition class are embedded into this division of AFI, which handles all film related content. Independent commercial and art-house films with a wide audience appeal are represented in the competition.

The feature length out of competition class is for special screenings, classic films, or past films that have been successful at other festivals in prior years that the audience will enjoy. There is also a short film class and they have their own award category.