Berlin Fashion Film Festival Is Where Films “Flirt with You… Invite You to Dance” | LBBOnline

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Berlin Fashion Film Festival Is Where Films “Flirt with You… Invite You to Dance”
25/09/2026
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25/09/2026
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Philipp Ulita, founder, curator and organiser of BFFF, discusses the medium’s enduring appeal, fashion’s expansion into entertainment, and the impossible task of defining what a fashion film is, writes LBB’s Zhenya Tsenzharyk

Berlin Fashion Film Festival (BFFF), now in its 14th edition, is the premier destination celebrating the art of fashion storytelling. It occupies a unique position in the industry by shining a light on global fashion films, brands, and the creatives behind them. Deliberately scheduled between the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) and Berlin Fashion Week, it is a statement about fashion films’ role in culture and their fluidity between the world of art and commerce. A programme of screenings, stage talks, networking, and awards rounds out the festival to recognise the creativity, craft, and talent while inspiring attendees and pushing the fashion film conversation forward.

The festival’s categories span Luxury, Lifestyle, Experiential, Craft and Rising Star. Last year, in the Luxury category, Best Fashion Film went to ‘You Can’t Stop the Beat’ for Vogue, produced by Anonymous Content, directed by Bardia Zeinali. Other standout work included Gucci’s ‘We Will Always Have London’, directed by Nan Goldin with Benoît Delhomme, as well as ‘Holiday’ for Tiffany & Co, directed by Jonas Lindstroem and Yves Saint Laurent’s ‘Libre, Free At Heart’, directed by Diana Kunst. In Lifestyle, Best Fashion Film was awarded to ‘Better in Denim’ for Gap, directed by Bethany Vargas, with additional recognition for projects such as Reformation’s ‘Followed’, directed by Matthew Frost, and the ASICS SS25 Global Campaign, directed by Liswaya.

Philipp Ulita is the founder, curator and organiser of Berlin Fashion Film Festival and Berlin Commercial Film Festival. With a background in film and philosophy, he relishes the opportunity to discuss what makes fashion film such an interesting medium

What differentiates fashion film from its more direct commercial or artistic siblings? He calls them “little capsules of style” that can be “poetic, quick, experiment with different humour”. There’s no one definition of what fashion film is; by nature, the form is vast and expansive, accommodating and welcoming to a myriad of influences and techniques

“It can be super serious,” Philipp continues, “it can be black and white, it avoids being defined because fashion itself is a creative product.” Creating a fashion film is “putting the jacket of style on something stylish itself. It enhances each other. It is a multiplication of styles.”

The last few years have seen the industry return to the big fashion film like ‘The Tiger’ from Gucci, a 30-minute psychedelic romp featuring a star-studded cast like no other, written and directed by MJZ’s Spike Jonze and Halina Reijn. To Philipp, this doesn’t signal a return of the fashion film’s popularity as much as it signals the expansion of fashion into other categories

“Fashion as an industry is moving into different sectors of our society. Opera, sports, hospitality.” The expansion into entertainment is perhaps the most notable, with Saint Laurent Productions producing David Cronenberg’s ‘The Shrouds’ and outfitting characters in the brand’s clothing; then at Loewe, Jonathan Anderson was behind the costumes for Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Challengers’. Recently, Dior (where Jonathan is now CD) announced a partnership with A24, while Miu Miu has long pioneered cinematic storytelling via ‘Women’s Tales’, the latest of which saw auteur Claire Denis direct Kim Gordon in an 11-minute film, ‘Avec Kim’.

“[Fashion brands] realise that fashion is not just the garment that we put on ourselves. Fashion is entertainment. It’s not product placement anymore, it’s a collab,” Philipp says

On whether AI is likely to make an appearance in the fashion world, Philipp is realistic in his evaluation, calling the use of the tech “shortcuts” that “will happen in more technical circumstances” like product modelling

But fashion films will always rely on and require the human touch, the aura of the model or actor in the campaign, the creativity of everyone behind the scenes working on images that capture imaginations and prove inspirational and aspirational for years to come

“You need the rockstar, you need the model, you need this feeling of something god-like.” Though unattainable, that aura is its own form of authenticity that AI will struggle to capture and recreate

Philipp can see how the form of the fashion film has transformed other forms of advertising for the better. “When we started with fashion films, commercials for other products like cars and so on, were not as stylish,” he comments. “And I think style, in society, grew exponentially, so now car commercials, music videos, and so on are almost fashion films too,” he adds to how the popularity of fashion films has made other ads reach a little higher.

“Commerce is the best when you don’t feel it, and this applies to every product,” he posits, “with fashion films, of course it’s Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci, Prada, they want to sell a product. But they make it so you don’t feel the purpose because they are masters in their field. They convince you. They flirt with you. They invite you to dance. It’s masterfully done.”

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