Bucharest Fashion Film Festival, the first festival in Romania that combines fashion with film and advertising, returns this fall with a new edition, held online. The event will take place between November 6-11, both on the festival website and on the TIFF Unlimited platform.

Ioana Diaconu, co-founder of the festival, explained why it has come to this decision: “It’s very important for us to bring in quality content, but at the same time to adapt it in a way that is both enjoyable and accessible to those who follow us. The first step was to develop the festival’s official website, which will include the entire selection of short films and will focus on the community around the event. Then, for feature films, we wanted to work with an existing streaming platform and chose TIFF Unlimited, because we wanted to be flexible about the screening availability.”

The theme of the 4th edition of the Bucharest Fashion Film Festival is Camp, a concept theorized in 1964 by the American critic Susan Sontag. Camp means unusual, stylization, overstatement, the courage to be different, and the festival films fully explore this theme which has a lot to offer.

As every year, the public will have the chance to watch the most daring national and international films, from fiction to documentaries, that focus on the connection between cinema and fashion, or talk about outstanding people in the fashion industry.

The first such film announced in the festival program is Martin Margiela in His Own Words (dir. Reiner Holzemer), a documentary that reveals unknown details about the life and philosophy of the famous designer. Margiela stayed away from celebrity all his life, choosing to remain completely anonymous, but his creations went around the world and changed the face of the fashion industry.

Another film that should be checked out at BFFF is The Disappearance of My Mother (dir. Beniamino Barrese), the story of the top model and radical feminist, Benedetta Barzini, seen through her eyes, as well as her son’s, the director of the documentary.

This year’s edition introduces two new sections:

Dressing the Cinema – which, according to co-founder Madalina Cozmeanu, “will present a selection of classic and cult films, seeking to explore the costume as an instrument used in building the character, and as visual language in presenting the narrative.”

Dressing the Body – a documentary short film program, which “invites to an anthropological exploration of the relation between clothes and identity, the garment as a symbol, the relationship between the body and the item of clothing.”

Other special events prepared for the audience include a podcast that has as its starting point a personal essay, a fictional writing and a soundscape, commissioned by Romanian artists. This will result in a series of anthropological observations, combined with audio installations.

And on November 8, at 4pm, you are invited to attend The Future of Fashion Film, a masterclass held by David McGovern. For two hours, David McGovern will explore the future of fashion film, share from his experience and offer tips on how to make low-budget meaningful films. Participation is free; if you want to sign up, go here for more details.

Bucharest Fashion Film takes place online between November 6-11, on the official website and on TIFF Unlimited. Tickets are available on Eventbook.ro.

Melissa Antonescu

Writer, photographer and videographer. For Films in Frame she writes news about the latest happenings in the film world and brings to the readers' attention the productions that can be seen at the cinema. When she's not writing articles, she's photographing people in a small studio or searching for new cake recipes.