At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the buzz extended well beyond the big screen.

Aside from the 22 movies in competition this edition, which ran from May 12 to 23, sectors such as jewelry, wellness, and tech expanded their presence along the Croisette. As for fashion, luxury houses continued to play to their strengths, through red carpet dressing and longstanding partnerships.

While this year’s Cannes Film Festival felt noticeably more subdued ahead of next year’s 80th-anniversary edition, Hollywood’s film presence was lighter than usual, giving a nice play to both auteurs and international cinema. Though a number of Hollywood stars still turned out. Demi Moore, one of this year’s jury members, wore standout looks from Gucci, Jacquemus, and Matières Fécales, all curated by her stylist Brad Goreski. “It was Demi’s festival,” one Cannes-goer noted.

Elsewhere, food and beverage brands got in on the action. Ice cream brand Magnum put on a runway show with celebrity stylist Law Roach, who selected emerging labels like Weinsanto to create looks inspired by the sweet treats, while Nespresso hosted a party with its new global ambassador Dua Lipa at the brand’s beachside activation.

As L’Oréal Paris global president Laetitia Toupet put it: “The Cannes Film Festival has an audience with as much impact and visibility as major sporting events like the Super Bowl or the Olympics.”

Here are the key takeaways from the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.

Fashion focused on existing partnerships

Fashion brands began doubling down on their presence at Cannes post-pandemic, capitalizing on its cultural cachet and global visibility. But as growth across the luxury sector slowed, houses zeroed in on their existing partnerships with film, rather than launching entirely new initiatives.

This year, Kering continued to reaffirm its commitment to cinema through its Women in Motion initiative. Launched in 2015, the program highlights women’s contributions to the film industry to help advance gender parity. Kering moved its talk and cocktail events from Le Majestic to the Carlton this edition, one of Cannes’s most iconic hotels. Group chair François-Henri Pinault honored actor Julianne Moore with the 2026 Women in Motion Award at a dinner on Sunday night, which was also attended by Kering CEO Luca de Meo. It was de Meo’s first Cannes Film Festival since stepping into the role.

While Saint Laurent Productions, the film production subsidiary of Kering-owned Saint Laurent, did not have a film at Cannes this year, it co-produced Claire Denis’s The Fence. This follows on from the sweeping success of Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez in 2024.

Chanel, too, has an enduring relationship with cinema, and this year supported two films: Roma Elastica, starring house ambassador Marion Cotillard, and Adieu Monde Cruel.

For a second year, Ami Paris was the main partner of Cannes Critics’ Week. As part of the tie-up, the French brand co-hosted a lunch at seafood restaurant Fred l’Écailler in Cannes’s Palm Beach area, alongside Critics’ Week artistic director Ava Cahen. A-list attendees — Moore, Stellan Skarsgård, Ruth Negga, Alexander Ludwig, and more — as well as a crowd of young French actors including Félix Lefebvre, Anja Verderosa, and Victor Bonnel mingled over fish and rosé. “I like it this way, with no fuss,” Mattiussi said.

Vilebrequin, the luxury swimwear brand owned by G-III Apparel Group, hosted a launch party for its collaboration with Paris-based fashion label 3.Paradis. The event took place at the Vilebrequin beach in Cannes, during the festival.

Beyond the Côte d’Azur, at Dior’s resort show in Los Angeles, which coincided with the Cannes festival, creative director Jonathan Anderson teased upcoming projects that extend the house’s relationship with cinema. “What you’re seeing here is part of a kind of broader picture of what we will do over the next 12 months in cinema. We’re in Hollywood, and we’re starting something, but it will be a larger picture thing that we will do with franchises, with film, with other things,” Anderson said.

The red carpet ruled

For brands and attendees, the Cannes red carpet remains a spectacle of glamour and global reach.

Jewelry brands are long-term fixtures on the carpet. After wearing an oversized emerald last year, Chopard global ambassador Bella Hadid made a splash this edition in a white gold high jewelry set from the maison’s new Miracles collection. Chopard, one of the last independent watch and jewelry houses, has been an official sponsor of the festival for 29 years.

As the jewelry supercycle rages on, the category is increasingly showing up on the Cannes carpet. At Boucheron, for example, celebrity jewelry placements have increased year after year. “We’re starting to reach a point where we can influence the overall look — where stylists begin to think in terms of jewelry. Whereas before, it was all about the outfits, with jewelry coming in at the end,” Boucheron CEO Hélène Poulit-Duquesne says. “It’s the result of years of work building relationships with stylists.” Pomellato, Fred, Chaumet, and Messika were also spotted on stars including Jane Fonda, Juliette Binoche, Simone Ashley, and Laetitia Casta, respectively.

As the festival increasingly becomes a powerful clienteling opportunity, brands benefit from access to red carpets and star-studded events, which they can then extend to VICs. “When we bring clients to Cannes, one of the most special moments is being able to offer them the opportunity to walk the red carpet,” Poulit-Duquesne says. “And we like to make that moment even more special by creating a journey around it, often beginning in Paris with a dinner in our private apartment at 26 Place Vendôme. In Cannes, we also invited them to Kering’s Women in Motion dinner, where Boucheron hosts its own table.”

Wellness and hospitality’s power play

Los Angeles-based activewear and wellness brand Alo delivered some of the most talked-about brand activations at Cannes this season, spanning yoga classes on the Hôtel Martinez pier and an invite-only Alo Wellness Club located on a superyacht, offering reformer Pilates classes, EMS training, IV therapy, lymphatic drainage, chiropractic care, intuitive reading, and more. An Alo-branded tender brought guests on-deck.

Amid luxury weakness, hospitality remains a bright spot for the industry. In 2025, spending on luxury cruises and hospitality is estimated to have grown 12% and 5%, respectively, compared with flat growth in personal luxury goods, according to Bain & Co. And wellness and hospitality certainly dominated the conversation at Cannes. In addition to the Alo yacht — which coincided with the opening of stores in Cannes and St. Tropez — the brand-new Orient Express Corinthian, the world’s largest sailing yacht, was in Cannes to offer first looks. For the duration of the festival, the 120-meter-long sailing yacht — featuring 54 cabins, a Guerlain spa, and a movie theater — was anchored in the bay of Cannes.

After Cannes, both the Orient Express Corinthian and the Alo yacht are set to anchor in Monaco for the Formula One Grand Prix. “Bringing studio to sea during Europe’s most influential cultural moments, including the Cannes Film Festival and the Monaco Grand Prix, Alo brings its ethos to life through a curated program of bespoke wellness experiences,” Alo said in a press release.

Big Tech landed in Cannes

After the Met Gala, tech moguls headed to Cannes. Meta became an official partner of the festival this year through a new multi-year agreement. It invited content creators, including fashion creator Lyas, to document the week using its Ray-Ban Meta glasses, and set up a Meta House at Le Majestic hotel, where guests could try on the wearables and experience their features firsthand.

Dario Amodei, CEO of Claude AI maker Anthropic, reportedly co-hosted a party with Graydon Carter, while Charles Porch, who recently joined OpenAI as VP of global creative partnerships following a long career at Instagram, took part in the Women in Motion dinner. “We’re spending time with the industry to listen, learn, and better understand how artists and creators want to use this technology to shape the next era of entertainment,” Porch tells Vogue Business.