The Cannes dress code polices bodies. Why doesn't the festival protect them?

Yahoo

21-05-2025

CANNES, France — Attending a premiere at the Cannes Film Festival is one of the most prestigious things a filmmaker or star can do. Audience members are asked to dress in evening wear as a sign of respect to those who worked hard on the movie that's screening for the first time.
Days before the event began this year, organizers revealed new rules: 'For decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as in any other area of the festival,' Cannes' charter stated. It also bans 'voluminous outfits … that hinder the proper flow of traffic of guests and complicate seating in the theater.'
Halle Berry, a member of the festival's prestigious jury this year, said at a press conference that she had to ditch her original outfit plans for the red carpet because her gown violated the dress code. She wore it to a gala a few days later. Bella Hadid, who frequently attends Cannes and makes headlines with her daring fashion, kept things covered up this year.
On the ground in France and online, I witnessed discussions of people turned away from the festival or panicking about what they'd be able to wear into the hallowed Grand Auditorium Lumière. Naked dresses are a popular trend, and pantsless outfits made headlines weeks earlier at the Met Gala.
The strict dress code has also raised concerns about what kind of behavior is barred from the festival. And dress code rules weren't the only headline-making trend on the red carpet at Cannes. Certain attendees turned heads too.
Ezra Miller swiftly and surprisingly walked down the red carpet at the May 17 premiere of Lynne Ramsay's Die, My Love. The nonbinary actor starred in the director's 2011 movie We Need to Talk About Kevin, which also premiered at Cannes, and was presumably there to support her. Miller had been keeping a low profile in recent years following a spate of incidents. In April 2020, they were filmed appearing to choke a woman in Iceland and were arrested several times in 2022 for apparent erratic behavior.
Miller did not stop for photos or speak to the press.
Shia LaBeouf appeared at the May 18 premiere of Leo Lewis O'Neill's Slauson Rec, a documentary about LaBeouf's experimental theater company that Variety described as 'a descent into ego-driven insanity, complete with physical violence and harrowing screaming matches.' He is shown berating members of the company, and nearly 30 theatergoers walked out of the screening.
A month after the acting troupe disbanded, LaBeouf was sued by his ex-girlfriend FKA Twigs for sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress. He is scheduled to stand trial in September.
'I gave Leo this camera and encouraged him to share his vision and his personal experience without edit. I am aware of the doc and fully support the release of the film. While my teaching methods may be unconventional for some, I am proud of the incredible accomplishments that these kids achieved,' LaBeouf told Vanity Fair in a statement.
James Franco shocked attendees by walking the May 20 red carpet at the premiere of Rebecca Zlotowski's new film, Vie Privée. His career was derailed by sexual misconduct allegations that began to surface in 2018. He posed for photos but did not speak with the press.
Kevin Spacey accepted an award and gave a speech at a May 20 gala in Cannes hosted by the Better World Fund, which is not officially sanctioned by the festival. His attendance was orchestrated by the producers of the film The Awakening, in which he stars. Spacey has not attended Cannes since allegations of sexual misconduct against him from dozens of men surfaced in 2017.
X users were quick to call out the apparent disconnect between how the festival provided rules for what people could wear on the carpet, but not for those who could attend Cannes events.
'Abusers are welcomed with open arms but god forbid a woman wears a 'distracting' dress,' one X user wrote. 'Kevin Spacey, Ezra Miller, Shia LaBeouf and every other Hollywood abuser known to mankind prancing around Cannes but somehow nude and voluminous dresses were the real problem,' another said.
Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, a professor at Case Western Reserve University who specializes in history and fashion, told Yahoo Entertainment that 'France has this reputation of saying … 'We're not like those American prudes,' but the reputation is also a myth.'
Rabinovitch-Fox said that France 'has not really confronted issues like #MeToo,' but fashion can help start those conversations.
'This is how French people act. I don't know if Cannes is really doing something unusual here. The story of policing women's bodies while letting men do whatever they want is as old as time,' she said. 'In 2025, I am happy to see that people are like, 'Maybe we should revisit this narrative!''
Claire Sisco King, a communications professor at Vanderbilt University, told Yahoo Entertainment that 'Western culture is still governed by patriarchal expectations about women, which often manifests in efforts to regulate their appearance, bodies, sexuality, etc.'
'The policies at Cannes, which regulate how much women can expose their bodies (the no 'naked' dress rule) and how much space they can take up (the no long trains rule), illustrate how normalized it is for institutions to manage and discipline how women appear and occupy space,' she explained. 'That such regulations exist alongside the lack of prohibitions against men who have been accused of abuses against women might feel shocking in some ways, but that juxtaposition is hardly surprising.'
King said both tendencies arise from 'the same patriarchal norms that cast women as objects or even possessions and that position men as sovereign subjects who are allowed to do as they please.'
Cannes banned Théo Navarro-Mussy, who was accused of rape, from walking the red carpet for the movie Case 137, which he stars in. He denies wrongdoing. The film's director, Dominik Moll, told the Associated Press he supported the decision to ban Navarro-Mussy.
Festival director Thierry Frémaux, who banned Navarro-Mussy, defended Roman Polanski for many years despite his guilty plea in the U.S. for sex with a 13-year-old. According to Variety, this is the first time in the festival's 78-year history that a ban like that of Navarro-Mussy has been put into place.
'Can a country that celebrates seduction and irreverence finally hold its male icons to account?' wrote Thomas Adamson of AP. Still, those four American actors — Miller, LaBeouf, Franco and Spacey — had their moment to shine during the festival.
Rabinovitch-Fox told Yahoo Entertainment that the dress code issue and the discussion about which people are allowed to walk red carpets might be two separate conversations, but it wouldn't be bad if people started thinking about 'who's being forgiven and who's not being forgiven.'
As for Spacey, he told the crowd, 'it's very nice to be back.'