Leeds Screendance Competition

Surface Tension

This film explores Nina’s journey from childhood accident and coma into selective mutism, isolation, and eventual recovery. Learning to crawl, walk, run then dance, she adopts movement to speak for her when words fail. Ben Wright | UK | 2026 | 4 mins | English

My name is the sound I use to introduce myself

A group of young men seek intimacy and human contact in a competitive waltz. An allegory of growing up and the absurd rules we enforce without question, we witness the willing participants contort themselves in their efforts to conform to the pointless, durational game. UK Premiere | Albert Rask | Netherlands | 2025 | 10 mins | No Dialogue

Twist Again

Four blindfolded dancers perform the twist, impenetrable against change. This experimental dance short proposes a visual representation of hauntology and the persistence of the past. Surreal and uncanny, the film captures the eeriness of a culture that is stuck in a recycled present. World Premiere | Kelia Ideishi | UK | 2026 | 3 mins | English

Life/Time

Life-Time is an experimental dance film, exploring the theme of ageing. Through the effective use of image layering, we see a woman at three different stages of her life, as she confronts some of the challenges involved in getting older. UK Premiere | Terence White | Ireland | 2026 | 10 mins | No Dialogue

Weeyagale

A magical-realist drama about a young British-Ugandan girl whose classroom show-and-tell unlocks a dreamlike journey into her heritage. The film explores how identity can feel fragile in one space and powerful in another - and how ancestry can become a source of joy rather than something to conceal. Yorkshire Premiere | Ainslie Senfuka | UK | 2025 | 6 mins | English, Ganda

A Moment of Reverance

What remains of dance when it is no longer seen? In a single take, we witness a blind woman listening to a live performance unfolding out of frame. Carried by audio description and music, the choreography is encountered through sound and imagination, reframing dance as something not only seen but felt. Yorkshire Premiere | Olivia West Alvarez | UK | 2026 | 4 mins | English

Abjad Hawaz

Abjad Ḥawaz takes its name from the ancient ordering of the Arabic alphabet. Through the body of Salma Zahore, each letter is danced and embodied, reclaiming a language often feared and misunderstood, turning it into a celebration of identity, resilience, and artistic freedom. Yorkshire Premiere | Hadi Moussally | Lebanon | 2025 | 5 mins | Arabic

Organising Principles of Experience

An AI model, tuned to the writings and sensibilities of Maya Deren, collaborates with the filmmaker to imagine new films. Exploring memory, possession, and the digital afterlife, this experimental short questions what remains when the past becomes data and how an artist might lay claim to her absent hero. Yorkshire Premiere | Gabriela Tropia | Brazil | 2025 | 13 mins | English

Dikra

A young dancer, crosses the sea, fleeing the shifting winds of a France that’s closing in on itself. There, the sun feels familiar, but the walls speak another language. How does one find a place to call home? Between two shores and an intimate journey through invisible borders lies his deep longing to belong. European Premiere | Pierre-Loys Joubert | France, Morocco | 2025 | 9 mins | Arabic, French