Chanel & Louis Vuitton Dominate Early Festival Lineup

PARIS – The Cannes Film Festival’s early lineup promises a runway for French luxury houses, with Chanel and Louis Vuitton looking to have major positioning.

Chanel ambassador Kristen Stewart will make her return to the Croisette in Quentin Dupieux’s “Full Phil,” co-starring Charlotte Le Bon and Woody Harrelson, while fellow Chanel ambassador Marion Cotillard will hit the red carpet for Guillaume Canet’s “Karma,” co-starring Anne Le Forestier.

Antonin Baudry’s “The Age of Iron,” starring longtime Chanel ambassador Anamaria Vartolomei and Mathieu Kassovitz, will also make its world premiere during the festival’s fortnight.

Louis Vuitton is also set to have an outsized presence, first with Na Hong-jin’s “Hope,” which stars brand ambassadors Alicia Vikander and Jung Ho-yeon alongside Vikander’s husband Michael Fassbender.

Marie Kreutzer’s “Gentle Monster” features another Louis Vuitton ambassador in Léa Seydoux, alongside Catherine Deneuve.

Deneuve will also star in Asghar Farhadi’s “Parallel Tales,” alongside Balenciaga brand ambassador Isabelle Huppert and Virginie Efira, Pierre Niney and Vincent Cassel. Niney is a brand ambassador for Dior, Lacoste and Boucheron.

Andy Garcia’s “Diamond” features Vicky Krieps, who was a longtime Chanel ambassador but more recently has collaborated with Bottega Veneta; Rosemarie DeWitt; Oscar winners Brendan Fraser and Dustin Hoffman, as well as Garcia’s daughter Daniella Garcia.

John Travolta’s directorial debut, “Propeller: One-Way Night Coach,” stars his daughter Ella Bleu Travolta. The younger Travolta is not signed to any house but recently wore a high-necked black Blumarine dress on the Fashion Trust red carpet in Los Angeles.

Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Her Private Hell” stars Sophie Thatcher, who recently attended the Miu Miu show during Paris Fashion Week and gave a “Get Ready With Me” preview to WWD, alongside Kristine Froseff, Havana Rose Liu, Charles Melton, who is a regular at Valentino front rows, and “Deadpool” star Shioli Kutsuna. The Australian-Japanese actress has worn Thom Browne to recent red carpets, and is styled by Christina Ehrlich.

Ira Sachs’ “The Man I Love” brings together Rami Malek and Rebecca Hall. Hall is known for her wide fashion reach, including Ludovic de Saint Sernin, Courrèges, Fendi, and Ferragamo on her recent press tour. She is styled by Bailey Moon.

Jane Schoenbrun’s “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” is likely to bring Miu Miu to the red carpet, with Gillian Anderson, who recently walked the Miu Miu runway, alongside fashion maverick Jasmin Savoy Brown, who modled on the same catwalk in 2024. The film also stars Jack Haven, Amanda Fix, and Hannah Einbinder.

Jordan Firstman’s “Club Kid” stars Cara Delevingne, a L’Oréal face who regularly surprises on the Cannes red carpet, along with Alaina Surgena and Paris Petitjean.

Pierre Salvadori’s “The Electric Kiss” stars Anaïs Demoustier, who has long had a partnership with Prada, and Vimala Pons.

Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s “A Woman’s Life” stars French favorites Léa Drucker and Mélanie Thierry.

Jeanne Herry’s “Garance” stars Palme d’Or winner Adèle Exarchopoulos, a global ambassador for Lacoste who has also collaborated with Louis Vuitton.

Belgian director Lucas Dhont, who has often worn Chanel, completes the early selection with his newly finished World War I drama “Coward,” a film that Frémaux said was completed Wednesday and slid into a last-minute slot.

Festival artistic director Thierry Frémaux said that 2,541 feature films were submitted this year, nearly 1,000 more than a decade ago. “When I talk about vitality, it’s also in terms of quantity,” Frémaux said. “Coming from 141 countries, we are getting very close to Olympic figures.”

Not quite in terms of Media Impact Value, as measured by Launchmetrics, which calculated the 2024 Paris Games at $12.9 billion in reach for fashion brands.

Still, the Cannes Film Festival still outpaces other events such as Paris Fashion Week, generating $1.1 billion in MIV in 2025.

Despite the record film submissions, no blockbusters have yet been announced. “There will be American movies. The United States will be present, but studios less so,” Frémaux said, pointing to previous world premieres of “Top Gun” and “Mission Impossible” in recent years, suggesting that studios are holding back their major releases. However he did leave a bit of mystery, noting that additional films will be revealed in the coming weeks.

As previously announced, Park Chan-wook will preside over the jury, while Peter Jackson and Barbra Streisand are set to receive the honorary Palme d’Or.