Bucharest International Dance Film Festival (BIDFF), scheduled to take place between September 5 and September 8, will encompass more than 30 events, meant to allow the public to (re)discover dance film, the organizers announced.

The festival includes feature-length and short-film dance films, VR exhibitions, performances, guided tours, and dedicated workshops.

The theme of this edition is Mapping Bodies, which starts from a "vital mapping to understand where we are exactly and where we are going. A map of the body", Carmen Coțofană, the new artistic director of the festival, explains.

This year is an anniversary one for BIDFF and the event plans to celebrate its ten editions with special events, which will take place in several locations in Bucharest. The program is structured into five sections, with the highlight being BIDFF Films, which includes four premiere films, emphasizing the sensitivity and complexity of the human experience and challenging the norms of society in one way or another.

The festival's International Short Film Competition has seen more than 200 registrations this year. The screenings will take place at Elvire Popesco Cinema, Grădina cu Filme - Cinema and More, Roaba de Cultură, MASCA Theatre, Apollo 111 and Muzeulțăranului Cinema.

BIDFF VR is a section dedicated to new forms of media that intersect with art and technology. During the festival, a VR exhibition will open at @SAC/Malmaison, bringing together works signed by artists present at famous festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival. The exhibition "proposes an interactive journey through the various layers of reality, from cosmic or shamanic stories to those inspired by real life."

In the BIDFF Expand section, choreographer Lucie Eidenbenz will present, for the first time in Romania, the performance Les Vagues, inspired by Virginia Woolf's The Waves. The performance will take place at the Bucharest National Dance Center on the last day of the festival. The public is also invited to the performance Cosmic Chronicles: Body and Genre Mythology made by the artistic team of ADAM/ Ada Musat, Andre Rădulescu, Andrei Dudău, Andy Andreea, Aron Madon, Ioana Chițu, Ion Cotenescu/ cote.ggml, Oana Micu, Paula Dunker, RAJ. Also at CNDB, dancer and choreographer Andreea Nova will coordinate a special event, in partnership with the CNDB archive, dedicated to the personality and activity of Adina Cezar.

Meanwhile, BIDFF Exchange stands for "Dance, Cinema, Intersections, Juxtapositions," a forum to discuss the current state of dance film in Europe. Samuel Retortillo, Lucia Carolina De Rienzo, Sarah Moller, Jessie Keenan are the guests of the talk, moderated by Simona Deaconescu. The event takes place at Modul Cărturesti.

As part of the BIDFF Community section, two guided tours open to the general public are organized on September 5 and September 6, coordinated by dancer and choreographer Andreea Novac. The public is invited to follow in the footsteps of choreographer Adina Cezar, through the places in Bucharest that marked her choreographic course.

The anniversary edition of the festival, founded by choreographer Simona Deaconescu and film producer Anamaria Antoci, also brings a new artistic director, Carmen Coțofană.

(Photo: the organizers)

simona@romania-insider.com