Sadler’s Wells presents inaugural film festival Dance Digital, showcasing extraordinary breadth of films that celebrate dance on screen

Sadler’s Wells today reveals the lineup for the first edition of its brand-new dance film festival Dance Digital, which takes place in the Lilian Baylis Studio from Friday 5–Sunday 7 June 2026. 

The weekend celebrates the best of dance in digital formats through feature length releases, a curated selection of dance on screen short films, and documentaries. Following an open call, 415 films were submitted for inclusion from 55 different countries from Senegal to Syria, Peru to Indonesia. An awards ceremony on the Saturday night will celebrate the best films across six categories. Mentoring and networking events across the Festival will connect dance artists, filmmakers and experts across the sector to help develop their respective practices.

Five feature films explore the transformative power of dance, through stories of discovery, resilience, and euphoria. Rojo Clavel (Red Carnation) from Spain tells the story of virtuosic dancer Manuel Liñan as he chooses a life of Flamenco over bullfighting; Drenched (Australia) by Douglas Reddan and Caetyln Watson from follows ten characters’ psychedelic journey at a house party; Réka Szabó’s award-winning The Euphoria of Being (Hungary) explores life after Auschwitz; four elite female breakdancers battle each other over a two-year journey culminating at the Paris Olympics in Breaking (United Kingdom), while Damien Jalet and Erna Omardottir’s DuEls (France/Belgium/Iceland) is staged in the Vigeland Museum in Belgium to an eclectic soundtrack.

Curated programmes of shorts will showcase different themes including monochrome films, films that respond to the theme of ritual and films created by artists and filmmakers under the age of 21. 

Two VR installations – Collective Body by Sarah Silverblatt-Buser and Rebecca Evans’ Hinterland – will be presented across the weekend allowing audiences to participate in mixed reality worlds.

The films selected across the festival demonstrate the extraordinary breadth of dance styles with hip hop, contemporary, ballet, flamenco, Bharatanatyam, breaking, voguing and more featured.

Bia Oliveira, Director of Digital Stage and Studio, said:
“Dance has always lived on screen, from film musicals to music videos, and now the endless scroll of social media where a single clip can travel the world in hours. There is something uniquely powerful about the way a camera can inhabit a dancer's body, getting closer than any audience seat ever could, showing dance in entirely new angles and transforming it in the process. When we opened our call for submissions, we were frankly astonished by the response; the breadth of voices, styles and stories that came to us from across the globe told us everything: this festival is not just timely, it is necessary. We cannot wait to share what we have in store.”

Tickets for Dance Digital are on-sale now.