Disclosed herein are methods and systems for providing continuous presence video layout in a cascading video conference, i.e., a video conference that is conducted over more than one MCU. A cascading continuous presence composition controller (CCCC) selects which endpoints from among all of the endpoints participating in the conference should be displayed in the layout, regardless of which MCU the endpoints are associated with. The CCCC can be resident on one of the MCUs, resident on a cascading conference server, or can be distributed among all of the MCUs involved in a cascading conference.