All the moments you might have missed from Cannes 2026

Diamonds and ballgowns at 10am, those famous red steps, blazing sunshine, palm trees and the premieres of some of the best movies of the year – it can only be the Cannes Film Festival. With the 79th edition of the venerated South of France showcase now done and dusted, here are all of the moments you might have missed, from teary speeches and powerful political statements to show–stopping red-carpet appearances.

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A previous Palme d’Or winner for his 2007 abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, the Romanian auteur took Cannes’s top prize for a second time with his searing family saga, Fjord, starring Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan. Mungiu became only the 10th director in history to secure the Palme twice, following the likes of Francis Ford Coppola (for The Conversation and Apocalypse Now), Ken Loach (The Wind That Shakes the Barley and I, Daniel Blake), Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon and Amour) and Ruben Östlund (The Square and Triangle of Sadness).

Related: 2026 Palme d’Or winner 'Fjord' is a gripping, urgent watch

Meanwhile, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s acclaimed Russian thriller Minotaur took the second-place Grand Prix; the third-place Jury Prize went to Valeska Grisebach’s The Dreamed Adventure; A Man of His Time’s Emmanuel Marre took Best Screenplay; and Fatherland’s Paweł Pawlikowski and The Black Ball’s Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi shared the Best Director award. On the acting front, Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto from Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden also shared the Best Actress prize, while Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne from Lukas Dhont’s Coward shared the Best Actor award. All in all, excellent choices from the jury led by President Park Chan-wook.

Though the practice is technically prohibited on the Cannes red carpet, that didn’t stop the likes of Daisy Edgar-Jones (in Balenciaga), Riley Keough (in Chanel couture) and Helena Christensen (in Roberto Cavalli). J’adore.

Meanwhile, the queen of (naked dressing at) Cannes nodded to the trend with her tribute to the Riviera’s ultimate style icon. Bella is always at her best on the Croisette, and this year was no different.

Also banned on the Cannes red carpet? Flats, naturellement. Full Phil star Kristen Stewart, who previously ignored this rule back in 2018, when she removed her heels and walked barefoot at the premiere of BlacKkKlansman, continued to rebel this year, choosing to pair black Converse with her Chanel ballgown. Meanwhile, for her daytime photocall, she opted for Nikes with yet more Chanel.

You couldn’t have Demi Moore, Ruth Negga and Chloé Zhao on the Cannes competition jury and not expect them to bring the drama. Cue giant bows, endless fringe, opera gloves and intricately embroidered couture.

A 92-year-old Joan Collins in sculptural ruffles, an 88-year-old Jane Fonda in sequins, the always fabulous, 73-year-old Isabelle Huppert, and a 68-year-old Andie MacDowell showing off her silver locks – it wasn’t just the 20-somethings who took the Croisette by storm.

If you can’t share the news that you’re expecting at a) the Oscars or b) the Super Bowl halftime show, then the next best venue is, probably, the Cannes Film Festival red carpet. Such was the case for Barbara Palvin and Dylan Sprouse, with the former debuting her bump on that iconic red staircase. The pair tied the knot back in 2023 and this will be their first child together.

Mike White’s HBO hit is currently shooting in Cannes, which meant that it was basically impossible to attend a Riviera party over the festival period which did not feature at least one member of the show’s new cast, from Laura Dern to Vincent Cassel (who also has a film in competition, Parallel Tales). This next season can’t come soon enough.

The Hollywood legend, who premiered his directorial debut Propeller One-Way Night Coach at Cannes, and received a surprise honorary Palme d’Or on the night, generated as many headlines for his beret as he did for his teary acceptance speech. “I can’t believe this,” he told the crowd. “This is the last thing I expected. This is a humbling moment. This is beyond the Oscar.”

Paper Tiger star Scarlett Johansson was not present at the film’s premiere, prompting its director, James Gray, to call her during the post-screening standing ovation. Sadly, he went straight to voicemail and had to shrug it off, in one of the funniest moments of this year’s festival. “I want to be fair to Scarlett, I didn’t tell her I was going to FaceTime her!” Gray clarified at the press conference the next day. “I thought I’d get lucky, but she’s working in New York.” There was another awkward moment at that event when Adam Driver was asked to respond to the claims made in Lena Dunham’s memoir, Famesick, about his volatile behaviour on the set of Girls. Driver replied, “I have no comment on any of that. I’m saving it all for my book.”

In a quieter year which also featured more divisive movies than usual, one of the few films everyone could agree on was Jordan Firstman’s raucous directorial debut, Club Kid, the tale of a 30-something party boy whose life is upturned by the arrival of the son he never knew he had. Firstman made the most of his moment, delivered one of the festival’s most memorable after-parties, and left with a $17 million deal when A24 acquired the film for distribution following a heated bidding war. Bravo.

Cannes generally keeps politics at bay, but there were a few poignant moments where it bubbled up to the surface. One involved the ever-outspoken Javier Bardem, the star of the tense family drama The Beloved, who at the film’s press conference was asked if he feared a Hollywood backlash as a result of him denouncing the war in Gaza. “The fear does exist, but one has to do things even if you feel a bit scared,” the Oscar winner told the audience. “You have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror, look at yourself in the eyes, and that was my case. My mother taught me to be the way I am. There is no Plan B. This entails consequences, which I am fully ready to shoulder.”

He added that he’s been receiving many offers of work, which makes him believe that “things are changing. Everyone is beginning to realise – thanks to the younger generation who are more aware of situations we’re experiencing quite directly on our phones – this is unacceptable. It cannot be justified. And there can be no reason, no explanation for this genocide. Therefore, I think what is happening is quite the contrary. I believe that those who are drawing up the so-called blacklists will actually be exposed, and they will be the ones suffering the so-called consequences, at least on a public and social level. And this is a major change.”

Also unafraid of making his voice heard was Bardem’s fellow Spaniard Pedro Almodóvar – who wore a “Free Palestine” pin at the photocall for his new film, Bitter Christmas – as well as Cate Blanchett and Hannah Einbinder, who addressed the same issue at press conferences and in interviews.

At Kering’s Women in Motion dinner, the Oscar winner gave an unexpectedly fiery speech about the state of women in film. “This is something that makes me crazy,” she told the audience upon accepting an award for her career and advocacy for gender representation in movies. “There’s a cultural assumption, particularly in the United States, that women’s stories are less interesting or smaller, or that if we’re at the centre of a narrative we need to be stronger or accomplishing something great or doing something particularly male if we want men to watch us. And I think that’s untrue, because I think, ‘What about the female audience? What do they want to watch?’ I fucking love actresses. I love to look at them. I love to identify with them. I choose a lot of what I watch based on who I’m going to look at for two hours. We need more female voices in our industry, more writers, more directors, more actresses to carry that vision of what we see.” Loud applause followed.