Saint Laurent is Making a Big Move Into Filmmaking

Imagine traveling back in time to the Oscars 20 years ago and declaring that Apple and Amazon would soon become destinations for prestigious films. The boundaries of what is and is not a film studio in 2023 are rapidly changing — and the recent announcement that Saint Laurent is starting a standalone film division is the latest example of this phenomenon.

The announcement comes via The Hollywood Reporter, in an article that notes that this new division had a hand in the production of Strange Way of Life, a forthcoming short film from director Pedro Almodóvar. As per the announcement, the company’s creative director, Anthony Vaccarello, will be the one running Saint Laurent Productions.

While this division is new, Saint Laurent has worked with prominent filmmakers before, including multiple projects directed by Gaspar Noé. One of them, Lux Æterna, played at the Cannes Film Fesitval in 2019 and had a theatrical run in the United States last year, followed by a blu-ray release.

It’s worth mentioning that Vaccarello was involved with this film as well. In an interview with Dazed in 2019, Vaccarello discussed the process of working with Noé. “We talked about experimental movies from the 60s and 70s, especially the ones from Kenneth Anger,” Vaccarello said. “The only thing I asked him was to improvise a story.”

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The Hollywood Reporter named two other filmmakers whom Vaccarello mentioned working with in this new venture: David Cronenberg and Paolo Sorrentino. If Vaccarello has the ear of some other filmmakers he’s worked with over the years, that could mean that the likes of Wong Kar-wai and Jim Jarmusch are also in the mix. What’s less clear is whether or not Saint Laurent’s film work will be feature-length or short films — though, as the release of Lux Æterna demonstrates, those lines are increasingly blurry.