Tilda Swinton, Demi Moore and Stella Maxwell: The best closing looks from Cannes Film Festival

By Leah Dolan, CNN

(CNN) — At the 79th Cannes Film Festival, which concluded on Saturday, there was no shortage of interesting, unusual and plainly fabulous fashion.

This year, the storied celebration of film held on the French Riviera looked a little less “Mission: Impossible,” which premiered on the Croisette in 2025, and a lot more international as European and Asian directors such as Pedro Almodóvar, Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryusuke Hamaguchi take center stage. Out of 22 films in competition to win the Palme d’Or, just two were from US auteurs — Ira Sachs’ “The Man I Love,” starring Rami Malek, and James Gray’s “Paper Tiger” with Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Miles Teller. The coveted prize went to Cristian Mungiu’s film “Fjord,” a Norway-set drama about political polarization and the cultural differences within Europe, starring Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan.

Perhaps stars were responding to this shift out on the red carpet, which has at times skewed quirky and distinct instead of traditionally glamorous. One versatile dresser who cut through the noise of figure-hugging gowns and tulle frocks has been Ruth Negga, who wore a varied roster of looks from an haute couture fringed Dior slip dress to an Ami tuxedo suit. Another was “Hamnet” director Chloé Zhao, who if red carpet dressing was an olympic sport would have walked away with gold. Zhao showed up day after day in an impressive selection of off-beat gowns that were tassled, hooded and ruffled. Her best look however was a tailored skirt suit from Schiaparelli’s last couture collection with shoulders covered in organza spikes. The pattern was inspired by the scales of a blowfish.

Headgear of the year came from John Travolta, another standout from the festival. This year, Travolta returned to Cannes as a director with his debut film “Propeller One-Way Night Coach,” and arrived in a variety of berets. After so many years attending red carpets as an actor, he wanted to “play the part of a director,” Travolta told CNN. After some research the Hollywood icon found that “the old-school directors wore berets… And I said, that’s what I’m doing.”

Of course, running parallel to the festival’s activities was the filming of season four of “The White Lotus,” TV writer and actor Mike White’s HBO show satirizing the lives of the uber rich — which this time is set at Cannes Film Festival. According to videos posted on social media, the cast and crew did manage to film on the hallowed red carpet.

Below are the most remarkable looks across the 12-day event.

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