Gillian Armstrong's eagerly awaited documentary about Australia's only triple Oscar winner, the designer Orry-Kelly, will be launched at the Sydney Film Festival in a glamorous event befitting its subject: with a world premiere aboard a cruise liner. Women He's Undressed will screen in the cinema of the Sun Princess on June 10, in what the festival claims is the first premiere ever to take place on a ship in Australia (if there are any yacht-owning filmmakers out there who beg to differ, please drop us a line). "We could not think of anything more appropriate and exciting than to have our premiere on a grand ship on the very harbour young penniless Orry-Kelly sailed from in 1922 with dreams of showbiz success," said Armstrong. "I can't wait to frock up with cocktails at sunset on the deck and toast his extraordinary life and talent."  Orry George Kelly, as he was known away from the limelight, won Oscars for costume design for his work on An American in Paris (1952), Les Girls (1958) and Some Like It Hot (1960), and was also nominated for Gypsy (1963). The Sydney Film Festival runs June 3-14. The film will also screen at ACMI where Orry-Kelly's costumes will be on display. Details: sff.org.au and acmi.net.au

Now Add Honey set for world bow at Geena Davis-founded festival

The Bogans are heading to America. Now Add Honey, the feature film debut from director Wayne Hope and writer Robyn Butler – the husband and wife team behind ABC TV series The Librarians and Upper Middle Bogan – will have its world premiere at the Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas in May. OK, it's not a festival on everyone's radar, but it clearly has ambitions to be. This is the first year of the festival, co-founded by Geena Davis (the actress and activist who also founded and chairs the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media), with an agenda to promote the commercial potential of films that champion "women and diversity", both in front of and behind the camera. Now Add Honey would certainly appear to tick those boxes, with Butler also starring as a middle-aged woman whose life falls apart when her movie-star niece (Lucy Fry) comes to stay after her mother (Portia de Rossi) is sent to rehab. Pronouncing herself "thrilled to bits" at being invited to screen at the festival, Butler said: "I wrote this movie to celebrate women and girls and I cannot think of a better place to kick off our movie than in a festival designed to celebrate women and girls. Also, I hear Bentonville has a lot of pie." The comedy, which also stars Hamish Blake and Angus Sampson, was shot in Melbourne in 2014 and will be distributed locally by Roadshow in November.

Ben Lewin making Percy Grainger biopic

The latest round of funding from Screen Australia comes with a little touch of excitement, as the organisation hails the return of two Hollywood-based Australian filmmakers for local productions. Reese Witherspoon's producing partner Bruna Papandrea – whose recent credits include Warm Bodies, Wild and Gone Girl – will make Addition, based on the novel by Toni Jordan, with Cristina Pozzan co-producing and TV veteran Kate Dennis (Offspring, Party Tricks, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries) making her feature directing debut. Also coming home is Ben Lewin, who will follow his film The Sessions (winner of the audience award at Sundance in 2012, and a nominee for best direction in the international AACTA awards in 2013) with Blue Rose, a biopic of the composer Percy Grainger. Grainger, who lived in Melbourne until his death in 1961 and had rather kinky tastes, was previously portrayed on screen by Richard Roxburgh in Peter Duncan's feature Passion (1999). No cast yet been announced for Lewin's take, but with Bait producers Mark Lazarus and Gary Hamilton on board we'll be disappointed if there are no sharks in it somewhere.

A feast of festivals

Barely a week passes without another film festival competing for our attention; the offerings are rich and varied and for many films this will be your only chance to catch them on a big screen. Next month the Audi Festival of German Films (May 13-31) and the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival (May 7 to June 7) tour the nation, and at ACMI in Melbourne there will be a season of films from Swedish director Lukas Moodysson (May 22-26). More immediately, the Spanish Film Festival (April 21 to May 20, touring nationally) has kicked off in Sydney and Melbourne, with special guest Elena Anaya, star of They're All Dead, appearing at Q&A sessions after the Melbourne screenings on Friday and Saturday. Also in season is the Turkish Film Festival, which opens in Melbourne tonight (April 23) and runs to April 26.

On twitter: @karlkwin