This June, the Sydney Film Festival will spotlight the relationship between fashion and cinema in a curated film program, dubbed Sartorial: Fashion on Film.
This is the first announced curated strand for the upcoming festival, with Fashion on Film comprising multiple feature debuts, as well as screenings of classic cinema and documentaries.
Fashion on Film at SFF – quick links
New film premieres
The centrepiece of the Fashion on Film showcase will be Marc by Sofia, Sofia Coppola’s debut documentary on her long-time friend, designer Marc Jacobs. The documentary offers an intimate look at Jacobs’ work and artistic process.
Another major highlight is the world premiere of Australian short film French Girls (directed by Hyun Lee), which follows ‘a young woman drawn into Sydney’s modelling industry after being scouted, as she begins to navigate its shifting expectations and pressures’.
Elsewhere in the lineup, audiences will find films that ‘trace how clothing reflects and shapes the societies that produce it,’ festival organisers say.
ScreenHub: Sydney Film Festival 2026: Silenced, The Valley, and more films revealed
The full Fashion on Film line-up
Alongside debut features, Sydney Film Festival 2026 attendees can also discover the following classic documentaries and films screening during the event:
- Model, directed Frederick Wiseman – A documentary offering a ‘landmark depiction of a New York modelling agency, observing castings, shoots and the relentless demands of image-making’.
- Useless, directed by Jia Zhangke – A documentary tracing ‘the human cost of industrial production across China’s garment industry, from factory floors to haute couture runways’.
- Jane B. par Agnès V., directed by Agnès Varda – A documentary offering a ‘playful and unconventional portrait’ of actress, designer and singer Jane Birkin.
- Notebook on Cities and Clothes, directed by Wim Wenders – A documentary exploring the ‘creativity and authorship’ of designer Yohji Yamamoto, as well as the parallels between filmmaking and fashion.
- Prêt-à-Porter, directed by Robert Altman – A comedy film set during Paris Fashion Week that satirises the fashion world.
‘The relationship between fashion and film extends far beyond the traditional fashion documentaries we know and love,’ SFF Senior Programmer Jessica Moraza says of the upcoming showcase.
‘In this special series, we wanted to highlight instances where some of cinema’s most distinctive directors have brought their singular perspective to the fashion world.’
