Portland Dance Film Fest

Portland Dance Film Fest Portland Dance Film Fest is an adjudicated film festival bringing dance films from around the world to the greater Portland, OR area.

Portland Dance Film Fest is about supporting and sharing what we think is the increasingly important work of dance for film. It is no secret that the current technology age has changed, and is continually changing, the way we go thru life. Who and what we are aware of and privy to is infinite and what this means for us a society and as a global people can feel like a rope slipping thru our fingers

as we try and understand the implications and impact. Our shifting realities of self are mirrored back at us from the wormhole of the web, and in some ways is adding to our discontent and disconnection to ourselves and our communities. And, as with everything, there is a brilliant side. The beauty of technology is endless as well. We are dancers in Portland Dance Film Fest so naturally we are excited to uplift and bare witness to one of the most ancient and sacred art forms while utilizing the brilliance of technology by providing a screen and an audience for artists who are making dance for film. As Portland is a hub for creation and the spirit of Yes we are inspired by our local dancemakers, musicians, and filmmakers and keen on showcasing them alongside their peers from all over the globe. In the terms of technology’s progression, Film is not a new form so much, but we have watched dance for film have more and more of an audience over the last several years. When words feel limiting, we can find recognition of ourselves or something bigger than ourselves in the visual and audio arts.

Tomorrow is the FINAL day to submit!! 🎉🎉🎉
05/09/2026

Tomorrow is the FINAL day to submit!! 🎉🎉🎉

03/15/2026

🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬 submit on filmfreeway!

Clip from 2025 PDFF Pick The Joy and Sorrow of Time

Today is the EARLYBIRD Deadline! 🐦🦜🐓🦃🦆🦉🪿Still from PDFF Pick Directions To The Other Side Of The World
02/15/2026

Today is the EARLYBIRD Deadline! 🐦🦜🐓🦃🦆🦉🪿

Still from PDFF Pick Directions To The Other Side Of The World

Year 10 is here! Submissions are open! 💥💥💥Still from 2025 Pick SEASONS.
01/25/2026

Year 10 is here! Submissions are open! 💥💥💥

Still from 2025 Pick SEASONS.

10/08/2025

🏆 AWARD WINNER 🏆 Congrats to Directions to the Other Side of the World, winner of the 2025 Jury Award & the Picks 3 Audience Award!
Directed by Derrick Belcham
Dancer/Choreography by Kiley Doloway

Winners receive a $100 prize for each award 🎈

Thank you for your work 🙏

🗺️

10/08/2025

🏆 AWARD WINNER 🏆 Congrats to i am woman, winner of the 2025 Picks 2 Audience Award!
Directed/Choreographed/Edited/Danced by Kailee McMurran

Winners receive a $100 prize 🎈

Thank you for your work 🙏

♀️

10/07/2025

🏆 AWARD WINNER 🏆 Congrats to Spoken Movement Family Honour, winner of the 2025 Picks 1 Audience Award!
Directed by Daniel Gurton
Choreographed by Kwame Asafo-Adjei

Winners receive a $100 prize 🎈

Thank you for your work 🙏

⚔️

10/07/2025

🏆 AWARD WINNER 🏆 Congrats to MALDONNE, winner of Best Long for our 2025 festival!
Directed by Leïla Ka & Josselin Carré
Choreographed by Leïla Ka

Winners are awarded a $100 prize 🎈

🌼

10/06/2025

🏆 AWARD WINNER! 🏆 Congrats to Hip Hop Purée, winner of Best Mini for our 2025 Festival! Directed by Ryan Renshaw | Choreographed by Jack Lister .

Winners are awarded a $100 prize!

🎀

09/19/2025

See you this evening for the Opening Night of PDFF 2025. Picks 1 begins at 7 pm at the Tomorrow Theater.

🪩 🎬 🪩

♦️🟡 Picks 3 🟡♦️ We end our 2025 festival moving in elemental currents. We open with Breathless (United Kingdom), a st...
09/18/2025

♦️🟡 Picks 3 🟡♦️ We end our 2025 festival moving in elemental currents. We open with Breathless (United Kingdom), a study in balance and power performed within an enclosed circular space, the dancers caught in an infinity loop of relationship. Santa Bárbara (Spain) follows with the stark beauty of snow, ash, a red hat, and one singular figure pressing into the landscape.

In A Mother’s Odyssey (Netherlands), the primal bond between mother and child plays out in gestures of routine and of two bodies reaching for something to hold, and in dust (USA/Oregon) the theme of caretaking continues on, refined by the coastal wilds of Oregon into a shifting landscape of legacy and the rhythm of ushering each other in and out of life.

The second half begins with Somber Tides (Canada), a duet of birdlike figures in an eco-dance of survival and bone deep chill. In Adam (United Kingdom), a dancer generously offers a solo very near the death of her father, a longtime collaborator of Pina Bausch in an intimate choreography of feathers and tears.

your love: “walking” beside me (USA) evokes tenderness through the grainy Super 8 film and is a gentle honoring of love past that somehow still walks beside us. We close the night and our 2025 festival with Directions to the Other Side of the World (Ireland), in which one woman traverses the far reaches of rural Ireland to make peace with the darker edges of her spirit.

8 Films | Run Time w/Intermission: ~1 hour 20 minutes
Sunday, September 21st @ 7pm | 's Tomorrow Theater

Address

Portland, OR
97214

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Portland Dance Film Fest posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Portland Dance Film Fest:

Shortcuts

Share

Category