DUBAI: Arab designers put on a show on the red carpet at the closing ceremony of the 76th Cannes Film Festival in France on Saturday, with a number of stars stepping out in gowns from the region.
Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing showed off a creation by Lebanese designer Georges Chakra from his Spring/Summer 2023 Couture collection, complete with ombre feather detailing on the ballgown skirt and a sweetheart neckline.
South African actress Thuso Mbedu opted for a heavily beaded gown by Lebanon’s Elie Saab. The Spring/Summer 2023 Couture look featured petal appliques on the short train and came in a white-to-pink ombre hue. Meanwhile, US actress Eva Longoria walked the red carpet in a hot red number by Lebanese Italian designer Tony Ward — the custom-made, figure-hugging look boasted a dramatic train with petal-like 3-D details.
The closing ceremony saw director Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” win the Palme d’Or, The Associated Press reported.
“Anatomy of a Fall,” which stars Sandra Hüller as a writer trying to prove her innocence in her husband’s death, is only the third film directed by a woman to win the Palme d’Or. One of the two previous winners, Julia Ducournau, was on this year’s jury.
Cannes’ Grand Prix, its second prize, went to Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest,” a chilling Martin Amis adaptation about a German family living next door to Auschwitz. Hüller also stars in that film.
The awards were decided by a jury presided over by two-time Palme winner Ruben Östlund, the Swedish director who won the prize last year for “Triangle of Sadness.” The ceremony preceded the festival’s closing night film, the Pixar animation “Elemental.”
Remarkably, the award for “Anatomy of a Fall” gives the indie distributor Neon its fourth straight Palme winners. Neon, which acquired the film after its premiere in Cannes, also backed “Triangle of Sadness,”Ducournau’s “Titane” and Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite,” which it steered to a best picture win at the Academy Awards.
Triet was presented the Palme by Jane Fonda, who recalled coming to Cannes in 1963 when, she said, there were no female filmmakers competing “and it never even occurred to us that there was something wrong with that.” This year, a record seven out of the 21 films in competition at Cannes were directed by women.