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San Francisco Dance Film Fest

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📽 2026 Festival tickets on sale now:
Oct 23-Nov 8 in San Francisco theaters
Nov 9-30 streaming worldwide 💃

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🌟 ANNOUNCING: SFDFF 2026! 🌟

The San Francisco Dance Film Festival returns this fall for its 17th year, presenting over 80 films from around the world. The 2026 edition offers audiences a kaleidoscopic look at dance in its varied forms, from world-class ballet to endangered folkloric traditions and everything in between. With intimate documentaries, dazzling screendance, thrilling live performance captures, and much more, SFDFF 2026 invites you to celebrate the ever-evolving intersection of dance and film.

Eighteen in-person screenings will take place from October 23-November 8 at venues throughout San Francisco, featuring artist Q&As, masterclasses, and community gatherings that bring audiences and creators together. For those tuning in from afar, the Online Festival runs November 9-30.

Tickets and Passes are now live at the link in bio!

Media Sponsors: San Francisco Chronicle/SFGATE by @sfdancefilmfest

SFDFF returns from October 23 through November 8, inviting you to celebrate the ever-evolving intersection of dance and film.

Tickets and Passes available now - visit the link in our bio to learn more!

Trailer Edit: Tim Schaller
Music: Løven by RØRE

Media Sponsors: San Francisco Chronicle/SFGATE by @sfdancefilmfest

70s mime icon Robert Shields, well, speaks!

Funny, joyful, and full of wonder, documentary film “Robert Shields: My Life as a Robot” pulls back the curtain on a one-of-a-kind artist whose act began on the streets of San Francisco before catapulting him to the world’s largest stages, including the hit CBS show “Shields and Yarnell”.

🎬 Screening at Brava Theater: Friday, November 6, at 8PM
🎤 With a live Q&A with Robert Shields, director Mark Bonn, and producer Christine Seibert Bonn
🕺 Performance by YouTube sensation @poppinjohnsbk

This event is sponsored by Brava Theater. by @sfdancefilmfest

SFDFF’s “Doc Shorts” Program 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 Singaporean dancer traveling to Ghana to trace Afro Dance to its roots, to a blind woman’s experience of live performance reframing what it means to witness dance at all. For those drawn to the stories behind the movement, these real-life portraits are tender and resonant.

🎬 Screening on Friday, November 6 at 2PM at the Brava Theater

SLIDE 1: Akwaaba (Singapore) Dir. Zi Yuan Tan, Chor. Loy Xue Hui

SLIDE 2: Monalisa (India) Dir. Sumedha Bhattacharyya, Chor. Monalisa, Sumedha Bhattacharyya

SLIDE 3: A Moment of Reverence (UK) Dir. Olivia West Alvarez, Chor. Rachel Coleman by @sfdancefilmfest

“It’s Not That Serious” is a lighthearted reminder that sometimes, art just needs to make you feel good.

Join us for our annual “Spotlight Shorts,” an eclectic blend of whimsy, longing, and humor, showcasing the very best of the festival’s creative range, including “It’s Not That Serious” from director and choreographer Ricky Ubeda.

🎬 Screening at Brava Theater: this Saturday, November 7 at 8:30PM
Followed by a reception in the lobby with music from @djglitterfox

This program is sponsored by Brava Theater and Red Curtain Addict. by @sfdancefilmfest

How can a centuries-old art form remain relevant in a contemporary world, and who will define its next chapter?

SFDFF presents “Make Work,” a documentary taking us inside the studios and stages of @nycballet and its experimental hub, the New York Choreographic Institute, following four contemporary choreographers as they create new work on NYCB’s dancers.

🎬 WORLD PREMIERE at Brava Theater on Sunday, November 8, 4:30pm
+ Live Q&A with directors Linda Marie Saffire and Adam Lloyd Schlesinger, moderated by Amy Seiwert (Artistic Director, Smuin Ballet)

Clip features choreographer Christopher Wheeldon

Co-Presented by Smuin Ballet, and sponsored by Brava Theater. by @sfdancefilmfest

“He inspired a generation with his art.”

From his 1970s interpretations of “a person being a robot” to routines that inspired Poppin’ John and Madd Chadd, “Robert Shields: My Life as a Robot” traces the extraordinary impact performance artist Robert Shields has had on the world.

🎬 Screening at Brava Theater: Friday, November 6 at 8:00PM
🕺Live performance by Poppin’ John
+ Live Q&A with Robert Shields, director Mark Bonn, producer Christine Seibert Bonn, & Poppin’ John

This program is sponsored by Brava Theater. by @sfdancefilmfest

Hate to bug you on a holiday...🪳

SFDFF’s “In Other Words” program brings together five story-driven films where feeling takes physical form. Inspired by The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, “Boys a Bug” directed by Laurie Lynch and choreographed by Fraser Roach explores the grotesque transformation of a man into an insect through ballet. Tracing his struggle with fear and confusion, he confronts — and ultimately loses — his sense of self.

🎬 Screening on Friday, November 6 at 6:00PM at the Brava Theater.

This program is sponsored by the Brava Theater.

Clip features Jakub Rasek by @sfdancefilmfest

“Barefoot Boy” traces the extraordinary life of Bill Evans, a trailblazing choreographer who transformed early adversity into a lifetime of dance innovation. Directed by Stéphane Glynn, the film is a story of resilience, reckoning, and what it costs, and finally gains, to live an authentic life in the open.

🎬Saturday, November 7 at 3:00PM at the Brava Theater. Followed by a live Q&A with Bill Evans and director Stéphane Glynn, moderated by Ellen Bromberg.

This program is sponsored by the Brava Theater. by @sfdancefilmfest

Global voices turn pain into power and adversity into art in “Dance Heals”

As part of SFDFF’s ongoing Raising Voices series, “Dance Heals” gathers eight films that meet some of life’s hardest realities and answer them with movement. Featured in the program is “Until Then” directed by Antwan Williams, a short experimental film that examines how the healthcare, carceral, and educational systems operate through similar forms of control, centering on three women representing each institution.

🎬Screening on Wednesday, November 4, 7PM at BOXBLUR at Catharine Clark Gallery with a performance by dazaun.dance preceding the films by @sfdancefilmfest

“As I saw the younger ones, I could see myself as a child.”

“My Benjamin” renders the private world of ballet intimate and immediate, following Benjamin Pech’s daily routine with rare access and tenderness. As he prepares for his farewell performance as an Étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet, he reflects on his journey from ballet school to the hip injury that threatens to end his career.

🎬Screening on Thursday, October 29 at 7:00PM at Delancey Street Theater
+ a live Q&A with director Victoria Clay Mendoza, moderated by @mercisf’s Sabrina Bot

This program is sponsored by San Francisco Ballet and Villa Albertine. by @sfdancefilmfest

Does your Wednesday night need some balance?

Join us this Wednesday for an exciting DOUBLE-FEATURE offer at Delancey Street Theater. Purchase a ticket for “The People’s Palace” and you’re automatically invited to stay for the “China Moves” program on us. One ticket, good for two programs!

6:30PM — First up is “The People’s Palace” directed by Bryan Gibel & Joanna Haigood, a breathtaking filmic reinterpretation of the acclaimed performance of the same name at San Francisco City Hall.

8:00PM — Immediately following is the screening of “China Moves”, a program featuring dance shorts from Chinese artists from around the world, including “Entropy” by Zhao Dan which explores the tension between disorder and control through bodies in perpetual negotiation with force, resistance, and surrender.

🎬Two thrilling programs for the price of one this Wednesday, October 28, at the Delancey Street Theater! by @sfdancefilmfest