Dances with Films

Dances With Films is an independent film festival in Los Angeles built around a “no stars” rule: its competition sections take only work without known directors, actors, producers or financiers, while the non-competitive Unleashed section admits projects with name talent. A group of filmmakers led by Michael Trent and Leslee Scallon founded it in 1998, naming it as a send-up of the “dance” festivals of the time such as Slamdance. Since 2012 the Los Angeles edition, DWF:LA, runs for about eleven days each June at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood, with narrative and documentary features, shorts, television pilots, music videos and Midnight, Downbeat and Kidz sections.

In 2022 the festival added a New York edition, DWF:NY, at Regal Union Square. The dates for the 29th Los Angeles edition are 18–28 June 2026, and for the fifth New York edition 7–10 January 2027.