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The 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival brought A-list glamour, big surprises, viral moments, and a highly controversial new dress code. Here are all of the moments you might have missed
Stars defied the dress code
On the eve of the festival, the plans of attendees and their stylists were thrown into turmoil with the introduction of new red carpet regulations. Long the glittering home of scandalous, ostentatious, naked dressing, the updated Cannes dress code declared that, “for decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet,” as well as “voluminous outfits, in particular those with a large train, that hinder the proper flow of traffic of guests and complicate seating in the theatre.” It added that “the festival welcoming teams will be obligated to prohibit red carpet access to anyone not respecting these rules.”
Did they, in reality? Of course not. Granted, there were probably fewer visible nipples this year than is de rigueur at Cannes, but it was proof that these arcane rules are and always have been guidelines, designed to be applied selectively to mere mortals and largely ignored by celebrities. (See also: the Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning crew freely taking a selfie on the red carpet, a practice which is also technically banned.)
Rihanna stole the show as only she can
The dash of inclement weather at Cannes this year couldn’t dent the festival’s starriest moment: the presence of Rihanna, nailing pregnancy dressing once again, at the premiere of Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, which stars Denzel Washington and A$AP Rocky. For all of the next morning, as rain swept the Croisette, you could hear “Umbrella” blasting from the speakers near the red carpet.
Denzel got his due
The way Denzel Washington handled that situation at #cannes is how everyone in the film community should moving forward deal with ppl who come at us trashing our favorite movies and or actors. Telling us our opinions are wrong if we like a movie or not. Enough is enough! pic.twitter.com/6BSztZlabx
— The Patric (@ThePatricIsReal) May 19, 2025
The double Oscar winner made headlines for his heated exchange with a red carpet photographer who was being strangely handsy, but also for the moment that followed, in which his career was celebrated by friend and frequent collaborator Spike Lee. The Hollywood stalwart was then awarded a surprise honorary Palme d’Or for lifetime achievement, and looked both totally floored and genuinely moved.
Spike Lee gives Denzel Washington the Palme d’Or D’ honneur #Cannes2025 pic.twitter.com/C2jZOW04z3
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) May 19, 2025
The hunks were out in force
Alongside Denzel and A$AP, there was Eddington’s Pedro Pascal, in bicep-baring Calvin Klein; Pillion’s Alexander Skarsgård, in leather trousers and fetish boots; History of Sound’s dapper Paul Mescal; Urchin’s ever-dashing Harris Dickinson; Die My Love’s Robert Pattinson; My Father’s Shadow’s debut director Akinola Davies Jr. and his leading man, Sope Dirisu; and Austin Butler—to name but a few—who all turned up the heat on the French Riviera. (Pascal and Skarsgård’s smooch, following the latter’s screening, made us all swoon, too.)
Alexander Skarsgård embracing Pedro Pascal at the end of the PILLION screening!#Cannes2025 pic.twitter.com/27QZaGVfaE
— FilmLand Empire (@FilmLandEmpire) May 18, 2025
A special mention should also go to Cannes jury member Jeremy Strong, who was as playful as ever in a rainbow of ice cream-hued suiting and bucket hats.
Elle Fanning heralded the start of Joachim Trier summer
Fanning, one of the stars of Sentimental Value, Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s masterful new family drama (which also happened to be the best film at the festival this year), declared her allegiance for all to see—and I, for one, need this piece of merch, stat.
Emma Stone got photobombed
And by a bee, no less. The Eddington star’s response to the unwelcome red-carpet intruder was pretty priceless.
As always, women over 50 had the most fun
From a 95-year-old June Squibb taking center stage in Scarlett Johansson’s Eleanor the Great and the 61-year-old, dressed-to-the-nines Juliette Binoche taking the reins as jury president, to the likes of Andie MacDowell, Halle Berry, Carla Bruni, Naomi Campbell, Jodie Foster, and Isabelle Huppert, Cannes was dominated by women over 50 who are at the top of their game.
It got political
The aforementioned Harris Dickinson made his impressive directorial debut with Urchin, the story of a homeless Londoner battling to survive, and sent a direct message to British MP Suella Braverman while promoting it, with a T-shirt that read: “Living on the streets is not a lifestyle choice Suella. It’s a sign of failed government policy.”
Elsewhere, while marking the release of The Six Billion Dollar Man, a new documentary about his life and work, Julian Assange wore a T-shirt printed with the names of thousands of Palestinian children killed in Gaza, while his wife, Stella, chose a Vivienne Westwood gown for the red carpet, to which was pinned a portrait of the designer herself, bearing the words “Stop Killing.”
Angelina Jolie, too, made a point of mentioning the war in Gaza while presenting the Trophée Chopard, paying tribute to artists who have lost their lives and others who lack the freedom and security to tell their stories; as did Binoche, who honored the photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, the subject of Cannes documentary Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, who was killed just last month. “On April 16, at dawn in Gaza, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna and 10 relatives were killed by a missile that hit their home,” Binoche said at the opening ceremony. “The day before she had learned that the film she features in had been selected for Cannes. She should have been here tonight with us.”
Beyond that, there was much Trump tariff talk, and the war in Ukraine wasn’t forgotten, either, with Cannes’s opening day featuring three special screenings commemorating three years of that conflict. Collectively, all of this was a crucial reminder that, despite all the eye-popping glamour, Cannes remains a powerful place and platform on which to make a political statement which quickly goes global.
There was a tumultuous, blockbuster ending
The festival’s final day kicked off with a mass power outage across the region, which brought most things to a standstill for around five hours. Inside Cannes’s Palais des Festivals, though, a generator allowed screenings and press conferences to continue, and the lights came back on across the city just before the closing ceremony. There, the drama continued. The Secret Agent’s Wagner Moura fought off high-profile competition from the likes of Sentimental Value’s Stellan Skarsgård, Alpha’s Tahar Rahim, The Mastermind’s Josh O’Connor, and The History of Sound’s Paul Mescal to take the best-actor prize, while Die My Love’s Jennifer Lawrence, the perceived best-actress frontrunner, lost out to rising star Nadia Melliti for The Little Sister.
The Palme d’Or, too, was widely expected to go to Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value, but the auteur left with the second-place Grand Prix instead. The top prize went to Jafar Panahi for It Was Just an Accident, a surreal comedy inspired by the Iranian dissident director’s recent imprisonment for “propaganda against the system”—a very worthy winner, which marked an emotional conclusion to a highly unpredictable Cannes.
This article was originally published on Vogue.com.
