Experience a live performance capture of the multi-award-winning ballet Nureyev, choreographed by Yuri Possokhov (San Francisco Ballet Choreographer in Residence) in collaboration with stage director Kirill Serebrennikov, with a score by composer Ilya Demutsky. The production blends ballet, opera, and drama into a sweeping homage to one of the 20th century’s greatest dancers, tracing his rise […]

Experience the live performance capture of Zaccho Dance Theatre's The People’s Palace. Set inside San Francisco City Hall, this production was a free performance installation that sent aerialists soaring beneath its 307-foot rotunda dome.  Dancers moved through and against its architecture, and large-scale projections were mapped directly onto its walls to tell a more inclusive story […]

China Moves presents dance films by filmmakers working inside China alongside those creating from afar. Eight films explore story, memory, and transformation across generations and geographies. Several works reclaim ritual and rework heritage into something lived-in rather than performed. Others examine the experience of moving between cultures: the disorientation, the negotiation, the quiet acts of […]

My Benjamin follows Benjamin Pech during his final year as an Étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet, tracing the arc of his artistic life inside the storied Palais Garnier, from his entry into the Opera’s ballet school at age ten to the severe hip injury that now threatens to end his career. A visual essay […]

A music-driven night of rhythm, soul, and screen-shaking visuals at the SHACK15 social club. Get ready for a high-energy evening where the music takes center stage. Cue the Music at SHACK15 transforms San Francisco’s iconic Ferry Building into a dynamic celebration of sound and movement on screen. With the chance to mingle with festival filmmakers, this […]

Doc Shorts features five compelling documentaries that reveal how dance carries memory, identity, and cultural legacy across the globe. From a martial art form kept alive by one woman in rural Bangladesh to a near-forgotten ritual dance revived by a new generation in Colombia, several of these films capture communities working to ensure their traditions […]

In Other Words brings together five story-driven films where feeling takes physical form, featuring an impressive roster of talent, including Emmy-nominated choreographer Chris Scott (Wicked, In the Heights), Czech National Ballet’s Jakub Rasek, and Romina Contreras of Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. With expressive cinematography and carefully crafted choreography, this collection of short films proves […]

Body Language: Screendance Shorts showcases a full slate of international screendance work, spanning nine countries across four continents. From the shores of Lake Michigan to a South African weaving mill, the program moves through ritual and reclamation, isolation and connection, labor and tenderness. Whether meditative or explosive, each of these evocative short films explores what […]

Barefoot Boy traces the extraordinary life of Bill Evans, a trailblazing choreographer who transformed early adversity into a lifetime of dance innovation. Born in 1940s Lehi, Utah, Bill found in dance an escape from isolation, a form of self-expression, and eventually, a career. He danced his way from the U.S. Army to the Joffrey Ballet […]

These Violent Delights reimagines “Romeo and Juliet” as a kaleidoscopic journey of queer belonging, defiance, and self-discovery. Juliet awakens in The Apothecary, surrounded by the wreckage of a story already ended — daggers, spilled poison, Romeo’s body — before the film rewinds into a fevered hallucination that blurs memory and nightmare, cinema and dance. Produced […]

Representing the very best of the festival’s creative range, Spotlight Shorts promises fresh ideas and cinematic daring. This curated collection features an eclectic blend of whimsy, longing, and quiet comedy, while spanning hand-drawn ink animation, immersive lighting design, and full-scale collaborations with world-class dance companies. With choreography from world-renowned artists Christopher Stowell (Royal Winnipeg Ballet), […]

The Sea is a black-and-white feature film captured entirely on location along the Baltic Sea. Drawing inspiration from the evocative landscapes of Ingmar Bergman’s Fårö Island, the film explores aging and the intimate relationships between men in their later years. Featuring a cast of predominantly untrained performers from the Fårö area, The Sea reflects on […]

Make Work is both an intimate portrait of artistic creation and a broader meditation on the future of ballet, set at the New York Choreographic Institute. By pulling viewers directly into the creative engine of contemporary ballet, the film asks a central question: how can this centuries-old art form remain relevant in a contemporary world, […]