The festival return for its 20th anniversary edition from the 28th November until the 6th December.
It has been confirmed that 20 Years of Fashion in Film Festival: ‘The Party and the Guests’ will take places in venues across London including the Barbican Centre, Ciné Lumière, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and Rio Cinema.
This newly announced season is dedicated to costume designer and Festival co-founder Roger K. Burton founder of The Horse Hospital and The Contemporary Wardrobe), who passed away in 2025.
The festival is set to include rare screenings, live music, new sound commissions, discussions and participatory events across London this autumn. Meanwhile, guest artists, curators, writers and musicians – including Jarvis Cocker, John Maybury and Vivienne Dick – join the anniversary season to offer new perspectives on the films’ historical significance and contemporary resonance.
Film Festival: ‘The Party and the Guests’ has been curated by research-led arts organisation based at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London and is covering themes that have shaped the festival – archives, bodies, surfaces, disguise, designers, models, artists and spaces.
Among the highlights are:
- A live-music event accompanying film pioneer Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset’s early detective serial Protéa (1913), with musical interventions by Cocker and collaborators.
- A post-punk trio presented by curator and writer Inga Fraser with filmmakers Martine Thoquenne and Vivienne Dick.
- Curator Karen Alexander introduces Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Summer of Soul (2021).
- Curator Mariana Cunha explores artist films dealing with weaving and embodiment as part of Rio Cinema’s reduced-price ‘Bargain Mondays” strand.
Meanwhile, a newly commissioned short film, ‘The Party and the Guests’ by artist Alex Schady will premiere before select screenings throughout the season.
Marketa Uhlirova, Fashion in Film Festival co-founder and director said: “It is immensely gratifying to mark twenty years of Fashion in Film Festival. From the beginning, the festival has been a fundamentally collaborative endeavour, and this season celebrates some of the key contributors who have shaped it over the years – hence the ‘guests’ in our title.
To have sustained an independent festival for two decades amid an increasingly challenging arts funding landscape is an achievement we do not take for granted. It has been possible thanks to the commitment and generosity of our guest curators, artists, musicians, writers, scholars and archivists, as well as our venues, funders and audiences. Together, we have unearthed rarely seen moving-image works, while inviting new ideas and unexpected perspectives that have continually reshaped how we curate and engage with audiences.”
To find out more visit: https://www.fashioninfilm.com/