The Cannes Film Festival is one of the most entertaining red carpets to watch. Set against the French Riviera’s swaying palms, bustling waterfront Croisette strip and sparkling Mediterranean Sea dotted with producers’ megayachts, it’s like film festival meets super-glamorous Euro vacation. Its storied history gives it a culturally important sheen—it was founded in 1946, and film stars through the ages have flocked there to promote their projects—and its location means its carpets are full of European movie stars who may not be instantly recognizable to North Americans but whose fashion choices are always worth seeing. Plus, its megawatt glamour means brands from Bulgari to Dior to Chopard to L’Oréal Paris use the festival as an opportunity to parade their celeb ambassadors at various premieres in enormous jewels and the latest beauty looks.
This year, the festival kicked off with the premiere of Top Gun: Maverick, the revival of the 1986 classic, complete with a fighter jet display, fireworks and a five-minute ovation for enduring icon Tom Cruise, looking fresh and floppy-haired as ever. And that festive atmosphere carried through into the red carpet fashion, from Elle Fanning frolicking about in the fluffiest sculptural tulle gown to Anne Hathaway having a ball at her afternoon photo call in a retro mini dress and terrific two-tone sunglasses.
Scroll on for all the best dressed celebs at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
Who’s having more fun at Cannes than Sharon Stone? On the Elvis red carpet, the star, 64, exuded cool in a fiery Dolce & Gabbana dress paired with sunglasses. Iconic.
If anyone is going turn a red carpet into a runway, it’s Naomi Campbell. The supermodel wowed the crowd at the premiere of Decision to Leave—the hotly anticipated film from South Korean auteur Park Chan-Wook—in a sublime feathery creation from Valentino’s spring-summer 2022 haute couture collection.
It’s custom Louis Vuitton, and it’s magnificent. Léa Seydoux embodied seductive glamour—complete with a vinyl bodice—at the premiere of L’Innocent, a French romantic thriller from Louis Garrel. Seydoux is at the 2022 festival repping two films: Mia Hansen-Love’s One Fine Morning, and Crimes of the Future by Canadian legend David Cronenberg.
The stunning star wore a custom Gaurav Gupta gown, modelled on the birth of Venus. Gupta explained his design vision on Instagram, “Inspired by the birth of Venus, the goddess of beauty and love, rising from the scalloped shell; she transitions from the infinite, pure as a pearl.” That about sums it up.
The model wore a custom Celine halter gown in red, a nod to her mother, Cindy Crawford—red is apparently Cindy’s favourite colour, which makes sense for those of who remember her exercise video wardrobe. Gerber is at the festival primarily to support her boyfriend, Austin Butler, the titular star of Elvis, which received a 12-minute standing ovation and brought Priscilla Presley to tears.
Model Elsa Hosk has been all over Cannes 2022. At the amfAR gala, she channelled ’90s supermodel Nadja Auermann in a micro-mini Valentino dress paired with gloves and pointy-toe platforms.
Statement of fact: Jennifer Connelly just keeps getting more beautiful all the time. She’s 51; imagine her elegance at 80! Can’t wait. At the Top Gun premiere, in which she stars as Cruise’s love interest and Kelly McGillis successor Penny, who owns a bar frequented by the Air Force, Connelly wore a Louis Vuitton off-the-shoulder gown and an exquisitely sleek bun—both serving to frame her exquisite face (no, we will not stop) plus statement rings on each hand.
At the photo call, Connelly wore Louis Vuitton again (as she often does, as one of Nicolas Ghesquiere’s longtime muses/ambassadors). The pinafore, frilly collared blouse and knee-high red boots are the kind of combo that shouldn’t work as well as they do on her.
Hathaway brought her excellent curtain bangs and big movie star energy to the premiere of her movie Armageddon Time, which isn’t a Deep Space Impact 9–type sci-fi but a coming of age story set in 1980s Queens, and co-starring Jeremy Strong and Anthony Hopkins. Here, she’s shining in a custom Armani Privé dress embellished with white sequins and a Bulgari necklace loaded up with a rare 107,15-carat Sri Lankan sapphire and (almost certainly) its own security guard.
The ’60s-tastic Gucci minidress! The amazing cat-eye sunnies! The fact that she’s clearly having a ball at her photo call! So fun.
Elle Fanning is not actually in the new Top Gun movie, but here she is at its premiere in a wondrous baby pink Giorgio Armani gown with sequin bodice and flowing tulle skirt. (She’s there this year as one of beauty giant and longtime festival sponsor L’Oréal Paris’s ambassadors.)
And here she is the next day in the most perfect south-of-France vacation outfit—a flowy white caftan paired with a poppy red Gucci bag.
Two incredible looks are better than one! These two are on the Cannes jury this year and made a splash on their first carpet. Bollywood star Deepika is wearing a glimmering Sabyasachi saree and Rebecca is in a fuchsia and red lace Gucci gown.
Julia Roberts always makes a red carpet feel extra legit. She brought that A-list energy in a custom Louis Vuitton black jumpsuit with navy satin lapels, plus a Chopard necklace featuring a whopping yellow diamond weighing more than 100 carats.
Viola Davis, another L’Oréal luminary at the Top Gun premiere, positively glowed in this daffodil-hued Alexander McQueen off-the-shoulder gown and floral hair pin, with her husband, actor Julius Tennon.
We’re always excited to see what Tilda Swinton is wearing at Cannes—remember last year’s viral French Dispatch photo call with her super-sharp bright blue Haider Ackermann suit, a T-shirted Timothée Chalamet, cream-suited Wes Anderson and bedraggled Bill Murray? This dress, for the premiere of her film Three Thousand Years of Longing (director George Miller’s much-anticipated follow-up to Mad Max: Fury Road) is more understated, but the jewelled neckline and fluffy pompadour give it the signature Swinton flair.
Julianne Moore, a plunging black Bottega Veneta ball gown and a Bulgari emerald collar necklace—what could be more elegant?
Eva Longoria must have been throwing blinding reflections around the carpet in this sleek mirrored Cristina Ottaviano gown.
“Baby’s first Cannes” wrote Bond star Lashana Lynch on Instagram, to caption this excellent look—an ivory jacquard Fendi Couture dress with ribbon detailing and rather spectacular emerald and diamond earrings by (hashtag ad) Chopard.
We’ll always think of her as the troubled teen in 13 Reasons Why, but Katherine Langford is now a L’Oréal lady who has emerged as a red carpet force at Cannes in this spectacular silver sequinned Prada gown made for an over-the-shoulder pose with its futuristic backpack-esque bow and train and Piaget pendant necklace worn backwards.
In her capacity as Rémy Martin cognac ambassador (told you the brands love Cannes!), actor and skincare brand founder Lori Harvey channelled Disney heroine Belle in a sunny yellow ruffled Alexandre Vauthier Couture ball gown with jewels by Messika.
Rihanna made the bare baby bump a thing, and supermodel Adriana Lima continues the streak in a cut-out Balmain gown with flowing sleeves.
During her wildly successful modelling career, Ashley Graham has made all manner of tiny garments look gloriously steamy. There was the teeny white bikini on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 2016; lacy, strappy lingerie on the runway for her own brand that same year; a liquid metal strapless gown with plunging neckline and slit to the high heavens at the Vanity Fair Oscar party in 2018.
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