Prada Turns to Yorgos Lanthimos for a Surreal Spot With Scarlett Johansson

Prada’s latest handbag campaign does more than sell leather. 

The Italian fashion house has released "Ritual Identities," a one-minute short film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Scarlett Johansson, to spotlight its iconic Galleria bag.

The surreal piece imagines Johansson cloning herself by gathering elements like rainwater, ashes, and blood, all stored inside the bag before she emerges multiplied.

The project continues Prada’s tradition of enlisting top filmmakers to reinterpret the Galleria, with last year’s installment directed by Jonathan Glazer and also starring Johansson.

This time, Lanthimos brings his signature surrealist tone to a story that straddles the ordinary and the mystical.

Produced by Partner Films with Superprime Films, the spot was creatively led by Ferdinando Verderi of Art Partner.

In a statement, Prada framed the bag as more than an accessory.

It's an "amulet central to the ritual and the everyday performance of life itself, a vessel for magical change."

Johansson’s transformation, both eerie and glamorous, reflects the constant reinvention the Galleria represents.

Lanthimos, who recently collaborated with Emma Stone on “Poor Things,” uses his trademark tension and slow build to heighten the narrative.

“This film is an investigation of the fluidity of persona – first of Johansson, then of Prada,” the company added.

A New Scarlett Is Born

The nearly two-minute short film starts with the "Black Widow" actress informing one of her clones of the hyper-specific objects she needs to collect in her bag.

These include the morning breeze between five in the morning and 12 noon, a whisper of all her dead loved ones' names, six large black stones, and more. 

Viewers then see Johansson doing her tasks and performing these strange rituals in everyday settings, before a glowing orb reveals a new and third Johansson clone. 

The film comes as part of a wider campaign to reinforce the Galleria as a timeless cornerstone of Prada’s product line.

Beyond the hero film, the brand is activating the work across digital channels, social platforms, and global retail environments where short clips will play in-store.

While many luxury branding campaigns lean on glossy perfection, Prada’s willingness to let Lanthimos explore darker, stranger themes is a signal of confidence in its audience.

In essence, "Ritual Identities" feels more like an art installation than a commercial.

Other brands have experimented with similar strategies, using creative risk-taking to distinguish their core products.

Gucci, for example, has collaborated with directors like Harmony Korine to break out of traditional ad formats.

More recently, Gucci also opted to create a 30-second short film instead of a traditional runway event, debuting "The Tiger" in this year's Milan Fashion Week. 

Overall, it's campaigns like these that show how marketing for luxury goods increasingly mirrors cultural production.

Last year, Prada reported an estimated $5.7 billion in revenue, outperforming its previous year.

What Brands and Agencies Can Learn from Prada's Film

For marketers, Prada’s Galleria push shows the power of using filmmaking to deepen product identity.

Key takeaways include:

• Collaborating with directors with distinct voices can transform a campaign to be more than mere advertising.
• Using narrative tension and surreal visuals helps reposition heritage products as contemporary without erasing legacy value.
• Running a campaign across social, in-store, and digital ensures cinematic creative reaches audiences in multiple contexts.

Prada seems committed to building annual traditions around auteur collaborations.

Now, the real test will be whether audiences see the Galleria as more than just a bag but as a symbol of the brand's evolving identity.

Our Take: Can Surrealism Sell Luxury?

Watching Johansson multiply under Lanthimos’ gaze is strange, even unsettling.

Yet, that’s the point.

In my view, it’s exactly this discomfort that makes the campaign memorable.

Too often, fashion ads look interchangeable, but here Prada has taken a risk that mirrors the unpredictability of the bag’s supposed magic.

In the film, the Galleria becomes both a handbag and a narrative device worth arguing about, analyzing, and remembering.

In other news, St-Germain tapped Sophie Turner to star in a campaign highlighting the "Hugo Spritz."