London: 20 May – 1 June 2025
UK-Wide: September – October 2025
Fashion in Film Festival’s 8th edition, GROUNDED, takes cinema as a lens through which to consider the complex entanglements between fashion and nature. Spanning cinema's history from the early 20th century up to the present moment – an era marked by escalating ecological crises – the season reveals fashion as both a barrier and a connecting tissue between humans and the natural world. In the Western psyche, humanity and nature are often perceived as distinct entities, with phenomena such as landscapes, oceans, flora, and fauna frequently regarded as passive resources, picturesque mise-en-scenes or, worse, dumping grounds for human activity. Pulling at the threads of conflicting and overlapping viewpoints, GROUNDED seeks to illuminate and renegotiate such an anthropocentric worldview.
The imaginative and sensory world of cinema is our way towards an expanded understanding of themes including production and disposal, hybridity and interdependence, migration, social justice and environmental harm. Taking a decentred perspective, GROUNDED features over 80 films from around the world including many rarely-screened works. Hosted across 16 venues in London, South West England and Scotland, the programme boasts several UK premieres and new archival restorations, as well as talks, introductions, Q&As and ciné concerts. Festival highlights include a musical commission by experimental choir Musarc and films by artists, filmmakers, animators and image-makers such as Ulrike Ottinger, Brothers Quay, Kôsai Sekine, Rosine Mbakam, Wang Bing, Věra Chytilová, Cecilia Vicuña, Alexandra Gulea, John Akomfrah, Juliana Curi, Segundo de Chomón, Rocio Mesa, Shireen Seno, Suzan Pitt, Janie Geiser, Seba Calfuqueo, Jan Švankmajer, Osbert Parker and Jack Davison – among others.
Through five distinct but overlapping strands – From the Ground Up, Uncommon Ground, Otherground, Shaky Ground and Ancestral Ground – the season attempts to ‘re-ground’ the concept of fashion within a nature that has its own agency and affects. It presents rich narratives spotlighting not only ecological and geopolitical concerns but also imaginative spaces of poetry, comedy, beauty, joy, horror, violence, and transgression.
Programme Curators: Marketa Uhlirova and Dal Chodha
Guest Curators: Christel Tsilibaris, Ray Sims, Cyana Madsen, Isabella Coraça, Elif Kaynaci-Rongen, Mariana Cunha (CREAM), Sarah Cooper, Karen Alexander, Margarita Louca, Susie Evans and Becca Voelcker
Curatorial Assistant: Bambi Harlow
Season Graphic Design: Kia Tasbihgou
Environmental Consultant: George Barker
Interns: Atlanta Anley, Mamady Diana, and Luke Hawthorn
The festival is proud to partner with the following venues:
LONDON BARBICAN CENTRE, CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS, GENESIS CINEMA, RIO CINEMA, THE HORSE HOSPITAL, GARDEN CINEMA, LONDON COLLEGE OF FASHION & REGENT STREET CINEMA
SOUTH WEST ENGLAND WATERSHED BRISTOL, PHOENIX EXETER, PLYMOUTH ARTS CINEMA PLYMOUTH
SCOTLAND GLASGOW FILM THEATRE and GARNETHILL MULTICULTURAL CENTRE GLASGOW and EDEN COURT INVERNESS
Fashion in Film Festival is based at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. GROUNDED: Fashion’s Entanglements with Nature is organised with the support of the BFI, awarding funds from the National Lottery. Additional support is provided by Central Saint Martins, Dana and Michal Malý, Margaret (Katy Louis and Emma Pettit), Czech Centre London and Ian Butler.
With special thanks to EYE Filmmuseum Amsterdam, BFI Archive, Národní filmový archiv, Les Archives françaises du film (CNC), FPA Classics Paris, Cinematek Brussels, Gaumont-Pathé Archives, Filmoteca de Catalunya, Filmoteca Española, Deutsche Kinemathek, The Japan Foundation, The Library of Congress, Creative Access, Tamara Anderson, Molly Cowderoy, Abla Kandalaft, James Hayes, Elza Rauza, Ranjit Ruprai, Rosie Greatorex, Peter Howden, Agnès Bertola, Caroline Patte, Regina De Martelaere, Arianna Turci, Tereza Sklenářová, Zuzana Štefunková, Josie Walters-Johnston, Naoki Watanabe and Phuong Le.
The programme wouldn’t have been possible without the precious advice, support and creative input from Danielle Knight, May Adadol Ingawanij, Paul Șoptirean, Sam Mitchell, Phoebe Davies, John McKnight, Maddy Probst, Tom Gunning, Daniel Morgan, Tracey Whittingham, Ben McLaughlin, Reiki Zhang, Laurenz Brunner, Ivana Nohel, Sarah-Jane Meredith, Hywel Davies, Helen Brooks, Matt Malpass, Caterina Albano, Lucy Bolland, Renata Clark, Markus Nornes, Ruth Stella Lingford, Juliana Neufeld, Celia Kent and Tamsin Blanchard.
Big thanks also to Ashitey Akomfrah, Reinhild Feldhaus, Jonathan Gleneadie, Carsten Zimmer, Monica Hundal, Heidi Hammond, Melanie Ashley, Alistair o’Neill, Adam Murray, Olivia Oben, Willy Ndatira, Lindsay Pentelow, Josep Calle Buendía, Aide Fernandez, Anke Hahn, Darla Jane Gilroy, Kate Pelen and Esther Lucas.
This strand explores nature as fashion’s raw material and casualty. Featuring documentary films that foreground the process of textile making, it recalls current debates around the precariousness of natural resources.
Here we speak about fashion’s effect on the world, but what about the impact on its inhabitants? Labour, historical injustice and coloniality are perceived in nuanced and plural perspectives, reminding us of our own humanity, and complexity.
This strand explores how fashion and nature interact within imaginative worlds conjured by the moving image in its varying materialities. Metamorphoses, fantasy, camouflage and digital shapeshifting blur the binaries between human bodies and nature.
Here we reveal the ecological and societal impact of the global fashion industry. It accentuates how the poetic and philosophical power of cinema can act as a corrective to narratives around human labour and climate change.
This final strand uncovers themes of spiritual slumber and erratic ecstasy, recasting the fashion-human-nature connection as sensuous and deeply inter-relational. Fashion and costume here become a clarion call for a re-enchantment of the world.
| Tuesday 20 May 2025 |
Dust to Dust (2024) + Panel 18:30, Central Saint Martins |
| Wednesday 21 May 2025 |
The Nettle Dress (2023) + Youth Panel 18:15, Genesis Cinema |
| Wednesday 21 May 2025 |
Mambar Pierrette (2023) 20:30, Genesis Cinema |
| Thursday 22 May 2025 |
Weaving Rituals, Unravelling Cosmovisions 16:00, Regent Street Cinema |
| Thursday 22 May 2025 |
Uýra – The Rising Forest (2022) 18:30, Regent Street Cinema |
| Thursday 22 May 2025 |
Artist films: Colonial Threads 19:00, Barbican, Cinema 2 |
| Friday 23 May 2025 |
The Toll of the Sea (1922) 18:30, Garden Cinema, Screen 1 |
| Saturday 24 May 2025 |
Family Film Club: Nature’s Resources + Kids Clothing Swap Shop 11:00, Barbican, Cinema 2 |
| Saturday 24 May 2025 |
Veruschka: Poetry of a Woman (1971) 19:00, The Horse Hospital |
| Sunday 25 May 2025 |
Youth (Spring) (2023) 14:00, Garden Cinema, Screen 3 |
| Sunday 25 May 2025 |
Animal Matters 18:30, Garden Cinema, Screen 3 |
| Sunday 25 May 2025 |
Utama (2022) 20:00, Garden Cinema, Screen 3 |
| Tuesday 27 May 2025 |
Under Snow (Unter Schnee) (2011) 20:00, Garden Cinema, Screen 2 |
| Wednesday 28 May 2025 |
Double bill: Nanook of the North (1922) & Angry Inuk (2016) 17:00, London College of Fashion |
| Wednesday 28 May 2025 |
The Magino Village Story: Raising Silkworms (1977) 20:45, Barbican, Cinema 2 |
| Thursday 29 May 2025 |
Maia – Portrait with Hands (2024) + Artist Q&A 18:15, Genesis Cinema |
| Thursday 29 May 2025 |
Midsommar (2019) 20:30, Genesis Cinema |
| Friday 30 May 2025 |
Into the Garden of Chimerical Delights + Panel 10:00, Barbican, Cinema 1 |
| Saturday 31 May 2025 |
Animation shorts: States of Emergence 15:00, Rio Cinema |
| Sunday 1 June 2025 |
Donkey Skin (Peau d’Âne) (1970) 15:00, Rio Cinema |
