Presentation

“Capturing a movement in its fleeting moment to convey its energy, fluidity, power, trajectory, beauty or poetry—with the dual aim of sharing it with one’s contemporaries and preserving its memory for future generations—has been a human obsession since the dawn of time. From the ochre painted on the walls of the Sulawesi cave to Nicéphore Nièpce’s tar-coated silver plates, the technical advances of every period in our history have contributed to this quest. At the very end of the 19th century, an extraordinary invention brought these millennia-long efforts to fruition.

It was in 1896, when cinema was not yet a year old, that the Lumière brothers filmed what is today considered the first dance film ever made. Their choice naturally fell on capturing ‘La danse serpentine’ created by Loïe Fuller, an iconic work of their era and a symbol of innovation and visual enchantment. A muse of Art Nouveau, the American choreographer and dancer had revolutionised the art of dance and choreography by incorporating technological inventions into her creations. And this film, of unparalleled formal beauty, marked the culmination of nearly 70,000 years of scientific and artistic research.

130 years later, in Cannes, a city of arts and culture, MOV’IN Cannes joyfully celebrates the films and artists who bring dancing bodies to the screen, thus following in the footsteps of their glorious predecessors. Buoyed by the public and professional success of its first two editions, the competition is now firmly established on the international scene as an unmissable event showcasing vitality, diversity, youth, inventiveness and commitment in films where the passion for contemporary creation embraces both dance and cinema in a single sweep.

Under the auspicious banner of this anniversary for its 2026 edition, MOV’IN Cannes is delighted to celebrate another concept invented by Loïe Fuller: free dance!”

Didier Deschamps
Eric Oberdorff
Co-Artistic Directors of MOV’IN Cannes