Miu Miu and Janicza Bravo Celebrate the Latest Installment of their Film Series with a Starry Screening Party

Miu Miu girls were out in force last night to celebrate the latest installment in the brand’s Women’s Tales series, which highlights the voices of female filmmakers. A suitably dressed crowd gathered at NeueHouse in Hollywood to fête the debut of No. 23 in the series: House Comes With a Bird, a short film directed by Janicza Bravo and starring Kelsey Lu, Natasha Lyonne, Pedro Pascal, Katherine Waterston, and Poorna Jagannathan.

Launched in 2011, Women’s Tales has commissioned distinctive female filmmakers including Ava DuVernay, So Yong Kim, Miranda July, and Zoe Cassavetes to explore the many complexities and contradictions that make up women’s experiences today along, of course, with their love of Miu Miu.

Among those who came out for the screening were Vanessa Hudgens, Hunter Schafer, Lashana Lynch, Maude Apatow, Taylour Paige, and Rowan Blanchard—all sporting the Miu Miu spring collectsion. Guests were served Champagne and popcorn before taking their seats to watch the short: a dreamlike snapshot of a day in the life of a fledgling realtor, played by Lu, tasked with showing a house (complete with a macaw in a cage) to a series of potential buyers.

Following the screening, Bravo and her cast took to the stage for a Q&A led by Alia Shawkat, the star of the 17th commission of the Women’s Tales series, Shako Mako directed by Hailey Gates. “I approached the film as a puzzle,” Bravo said of the project. “Who’s in L.A. and who do I want to play with? And here we are.” Top of her list was singer and cellist Lu, who makes her acting debut in the short and plays an original composition on the cello and sings a haunting rendition of Gus Kahn’s “It Had to Be You.” “It was a lifelong dream of mine,” said Lu of the project. “But Janicza could have asked me anything and I would have said yes.” It was a sentiment that was echoed by her co-stars Waterston and Lyonne. “When you are told ‘I wrote this part for you, I want to make something with you,’ it’s very moving,” said fellow director, writer and actor Lyonne. “It’s like a love letter to each other.”

While Los Angeles–based Bravo is perhaps best known for her feature films Lemon, which premiered at Sundance in 2017, and 2021’s Zola, the absurdist road trip movie based on A’Ziah “Zola” Wells’s viral Twitter thread, her favored oeuvre is the short. “Before my first feature film I had made seven or eight short films and I feel like that is my sweet spot,” she said after the discussion. “If I was a writer I would be an Alice Munro, that’s where I classify myself in the film sense. I love the art of short film making—it’s totally an opportunity to play.” So when she was approached by Women’s Tales producer Max Brun she said, it was a “no brainer.”

“To be honest I was sort of jealous I hadn’t been asked before,” said Bravo who worked as a wardrobe stylist before moving into writing and directing films. “Clothing is an instrumental part of my storytelling, and so I have wanted to work in the fashion space for quite some time. For me clothing is a part of the story because it telegraphs who the characters are and gives you a sense of their history and where they are going before they even speak.” Given free rein to cast the production from top to bottom, one her first calls was to wardrobe stylist Shirley Kurata. “I’ve been wanting to work with Shirley since I’ve been in L.A., for over 12 years. I’ve asked her before but she’s said no to me a lot, so when she said yes I couldn’t believe it because I’ve wanted it for so long,” Bravo said. “She’s very sexy, her mind is so juicy. I trusted her so much I was really able to let go but she also included me in everything.” The result sees Lu, the aspiring novice, in a school-girlish button down shirt, cardigan and box-pleat skirt combo while Lyonne, the seasoned deal broker, sports an embellished silk suit and accessories galore, all the better to explain the hierarchy at play.

After the Q&A, guests including stylist Lotta Volkova in this season’s break out Miu Miu micro miniskirt, Daisy Edgar Jones in an embroidered satin minidress, and Diana Silvers in a smocked, gingham skirt set, were shuttled to the nearby Cara Hotel in Los Feliz for dinner and dancing. “Women’s Tales is a project that is dear to the whole company,” said Verde Visconti, who oversees the Tales project, as the night drew to a close. “Mrs. Prada is really behind it and adores the fact that we can give space and creative freedom to all these amazing women. Janicza has been top of our list for a while so we were excited when she said she was in. She’s incredible, like a force of nature.”