At Cannes, a paler red carpet, a sharper frame
What the low-key vibe this year ensured was a renewed focus on the core purpose of the festival
The high point was perhaps Tom Cruise’s appearance at the 2022 edition with Top Gun: Maverick, when the French Air Force’s aerobatic team Patrouille de France painted the sky with red, white and blue smoke trails.
If the last great year of cinema on the Croisette was 1994, when the triumph of Pulp Fiction reoriented Hollywood’s attention towards European cinematic prestige, could the near-total absence of the American film industry from this year’s edition indicate a much-needed redirection? The low wattage of the red on the red carpet at the 2026 Cannes International Film Festival was not incidental: Hollywood’s anxiety over early negative reviews in a time of industry churn — thanks to streaming services and AI-related disruptions — ensured that the splashiest moment this year was John Travolta’s appearance in a beret.
It is certainly true that in the 30-odd years since Quentin Tarantino’s feature debut won the Palme d’Or, the festival has had the world’s attention thanks to Los Angeles’s brightest stars bringing their charisma to the event. The high point was perhaps Tom Cruise’s appearance at the 2022 edition with Top Gun: Maverick, when the French Air Force’s aerobatic team Patrouille de France painted the sky with red, white and blue smoke trails.
What the low-key vibe this year ensured, however, was a renewed focus on the core purpose of the festival. With works by returning auteurs such as Pawel Pawlikowski (who won the Best Director award for Fatherland), Cristian Mungiu (who won his second Palme d’Or for Fjord) and Andrei Zvyagintsev (whose Minotaur won the Grand Prix), Cannes became a celebration of the art of cinema, not just an affirmation of its glamour.
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