A method and system for processing a substrate in a film removal system. The method includes providing the substrate in a substrate chamber of a film removal system, where the substrate has a micro-feature containing a dielectric film on a sidewall of the micro-feature and a photoresist film covering a portion the dielectric film, and performing a first film removal process using supercritical CO.sub.2 processing to remove the portion of the dielectric film not covered by the photoresist film. Following the first film removal process, a second film removal process using supercritical CO.sub.2 processing can be performed to remove the photoresist film. Alternately, wet processing can be used to perform one of the first film removal process or the second film removal process.