Sofia Coppola’s Doco Debut, Vampire Chic, World Premieres: The 2026 Sydney Film Festival Is Here

The Sydney Film Festival has announced that a major arm of its programming for this year will focus on all things fashion. Sartorial: Fashion on Film is a seven-film series exploring the way clothing reflects and shapes society. (Cut to the cerulean scene in The Devil Wears Prada.)

The centrepiece of the program is the Australian premiere of Marc by Sofia, the debut documentary from Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides). It focuses on the legacy of her longtime friend, designer Marc Jacobs.

The festival will also host the world premiere of French Girls, a feature from Australian director Hyun Lee. It follows a construction worker who’s scouted to be a model and the glamour and grunge that comes with that life.

The remaining five films capture various elements of the industry and provide sartorial snapshots of the time each was made. Frederick Wiseman’s Model – which was released in 1981 – presents a pared-back look at a modelling agency. In Jane B. par Agnès V filmmaker Agnès Varda presents an unconventional and unpredictable look at her friend Jane Birkin. Wim Wenders’s film Notebook on Cities and Clothes follows designer Yohji Yamamoto.

Moving into the ’90s, the festival will screen satire Prêt-à-Porter, which was filmed during Paris Fashion Week and stars Julia Roberts, Tim Robbins, Kim Basinger and Lauren Bacall, as well as fashion icons Jean-Paul Gaultier, Issey Miyake, Helena Christensen and Claudia Schiffer.

Jia Zhangke’s 2007 documentary Useless traces our clothes from the rack back to their original source, while examining the human cost of industrial production in China’s garment industry.

Other festival films were announced on April 1.

They include Silenced, directed by Selina Miles, which explores defamation in the wake of the Me Too movement, following lawyer Jennifer Robinson and survivors Brittany Higgins and Amber Heard.

Performances to look out for include Aussie Dacre Montgomery, who stars alongside Bill Skårsgard and Al Pacino in Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire; Charli xcx pops her acting hat on in Erupcja; and Isabelle Huppert brings unmatched glamour to the vampire genre in The Blood Countess.

Festival darlings like Silent Friend, Yellow Letters, Filipiñana, Memory of Princess Mumbai and Past Future Continuous also feature.

The full line-up and tickets are available online. The Sydney Film Festival runs from June 3 to 14.

www.sff.org.au/

@sydfilmfest