Dance City Festival Detroit (DCF-Detroit), formerly known as Detroit Dance City Festival, is an annual community building event that celebrates dance in its various forms and disciplines. Now in its thirteenth year, DCF-Detroit includes performances, master classes, and networking opportunities all held in the vibrant city of Detroit at the festival’s central venue, the Detroit Institute of Arts. Our mission is to educate diverse audiences about the impact of dance, provide opportunities for artists to share their work, and create an artistic network linking Michigan, the greater US, and the world!

Awards & Prizes

One film from the showcase will be chosen as the 2025 Best Dance On Screen. We will show a second screening of the film at the closing event of the festival.

Rules & Terms

The Dance City Festival Detroit “Dance On Screen” 2nd Edition will take place at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, MI.

Dance On Screen is the newest addition to Dance City Festival Detroit, providing a space for dance filmmakers to present their work. Presented at the majestic Detroit Institute of Arts, Dance On Screen highlights local, national and international dance films in diverse styles of dance.

Dance City Festival Detroit 2025 will be held September 5-7, 2025.

By submitting your film you accept the following terms and conditions:
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– The call is open to local, national and international dance filmmakers, dance companies and collectives.

– The works must be short dance films, whose common language is dance, movement and broadly defined physical expression, with a maximum duration of 10 minutes.

- All genres of films/video, as long as they are largely based on the relationship between the body movement and the tools of cinema as a medium for story-telling.

-Applicants must have authorization from the copyright owners for any copyrighted materials used in the dance film, including but not limited to music. Dance City Festival/ArtLab J will not be held responsible for the unauthorized use of any copyrighted material.

-DCF draws audiences of all ages, so we may request that you slightly alter your submission in order to have your work screened. As an example, we may filmmakers to edit out explicit words from music.

-Only For Selected Films: The filmmakers will be required to submit: Photo of Director; Photo of Choreographer; 4 Film Stills; Poster; Director’s Biography/Filmography; Choreographer’s Biography/Filmography.

-Films should be submitted on digital file (Mov, Mp4) through FilmFreeway. Films entered for consideration should be downloadable from the site or downloaded via Vimeo link. If accepted, the filmmaker permits DDCF to download the film through FilmFreeway and screen it at our live event.

-No feedback on submissions can be given.

-Submission fees are non-refundable.

- Please note: While DCF does not provide funding for transportation and accommodation, past applicants have been successful in using their DCF acceptance to apply for funding or sponsorships through outside sources.