Frida Kahlo returns to cinemas – with new footage from Tate Modern show
In partnership with Exhibition on Screen
By Dale Fox
A documentary on legendary artist Frida Kahlo is coming to cinemas nationwide this May, as Exhibition on Screen’s film about the artist returns in an expanded cut with new footage drawn from the major Tate Modern exhibition opening in London the following month.
The exhibition, Frida: The Making of an Icon, is currently running at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston before transferring to Tate Modern in June. The film gives audiences a detailed look at some of its most significant works before they reach the gallery – ideal for anyone who can’t make it to London.
Originally released during the pandemic to restricted audiences, this expanded cut of Frida Kahlo – not to be confused with the 2002 Salma Hayek biopic – incorporates new material from the exhibition, making it worth seeing even if you caught the original release.
Directed by Ali Ray and produced by BAFTA winner Phil Grabsky, the film uses high-definition filming to get closer to Kahlo’s work than a gallery visit usually allows – taking in her home, her studio, and key paintings across her career.
Who was Frida Kahlo?
Born in 1907, Kahlo produced around 150 paintings across her lifetime, and her work remained largely unknown outside Mexico until the late 1970s, more than two decades after her death in 1954.
She was openly bisexual, and dressed in what was conventionally considered men’s clothing throughout her life – a photograph taken by her father in 1926 shows her in a full suit, staring directly at the camera. Her self-portraits engaged directly with questions of gender, desire and identity, which is one reason her connection to LGBTQ+ audiences has always gone deeper than the iconography that now surrounds her.
Madonna has long been among her most devoted collectors. She owns several Kahlo works, including My Birth (1932) – one of only five paintings Kahlo made during her time in Detroit – of which Madonna once said in a Vanity Fair interview, “If somebody doesn’t like this painting, then I know they can’t be my friend.”
Becoming a global icon
The film uses letters Kahlo wrote during her lifetime to guide its narrative, allowing her own words to unlock the symbolism threaded through her paintings. It then turns its attention to the second, stranger story: how Kahlo was transformed after her death into a global brand, and what that process involved.
Curators, artists and critics examine how her image was adopted, commercialised and carried forward by successive generations. Artists including photographer Mary McCartney, Amalia Mesa-Bains and Yasumasa Morimura appear to discuss how they have identified with and built on her legacy.
The film also covers the phenomenon of “Fridamania” – the wave of merchandise and commercial production that has grown up around her image – and what it means for an artist who made such fiercely personal work. Her painting El sueño (La cama) recently sold for $54.7 million at auction, breaking the record for the most expensive work by a female artist ever sold.
Where to see Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo is in UK cinemas from 19 May 2026. See online here for Frida Kahlo screening dates.