The strictest dress code in cinema is not unwritten: per the Festival de Cannes' official FAQ, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet "for decency reasons," alongside gowns with imposing volumes and long trains — rules introduced ahead of the 78th festival in May 2025 and carried in the festival's published guidance ahead of the 79th edition this May. Welcoming teams, the document notes, are "obligated to prohibit Red Carpet access to anyone not respecting these rules."
This desk reports the rules as published, not the arrivals as photographed; the carpet's enforcement belongs to the festival's own teams.
What exactly did Cannes change, and when?
The amendments appeared in the festival's charter and FAQ before the 78th edition, which ran in May 2025. Three prohibitions were made explicit: nudity, in any area of the festival; "imposing volumes," the architectural gowns that consume a staircase and everyone's sightlines; and long trains, which complicate the climb of the twenty-four steps that is the festival's most rehearsed gesture. Per the festival's published rules, the measures were framed as decency and logistics in equal measure.
The headline the rules generated was less about what was banned than what was not: heels. The festival clarified that elegant shoes are accepted with or without heels — flat formal footwear is welcome, a correction to decades of assumption on the steps of the Palais.
Who enforces the dress code, and how?
Per the FAQ, the festival's welcoming teams at the carpet itself, not a separate style police. The mechanism is access: guests not complying with the published rules can be prohibited from stepping onto the red carpet at all. The enforcement point is the top of the arrivals process, which is precisely why the rules matter to stylists — a look that fails at the door fails after months of preparation.
The dress-code tiering remains in place beneath the prohibitions. For gala screenings, the festival asks for full evening dress — tuxedo, dark suit with bow tie, or long gown. For other screenings, elegant but less formal dress is the standard, with a dark pantsuit or dressy top with trousers explicitly acceptable per the festival's guidance.
Why the rules matter before a single gown is chosen
The 79th edition arrives in May, and the published rules function as the season's earliest brief: trains engineered away, volumes disciplined, and the staircase reclaiming its twenty-four steps for shoes of any heel height. For the party circuit around the Croisette, the same logic cascades — a guest barred from a premiere carpet is unlikely to brighten the dinner after it.
- Prohibited per the official FAQ: nudity, gowns with imposing volumes, long trains — carried over from the rules introduced before the 78th festival in May 2025.
- Enforcement: festival welcoming teams may prohibit red carpet access for non-compliance, per the FAQ.
- Not required: heels; elegant flat shoes are accepted, per the festival's clarification.
- Standards: full evening dress for gala screenings; elegant less formal dress for other screenings.
A festival that once governed by etiquette now governs by charter — and the charter, for once, is a better read than the photographs.
For more context, read Who Gets Up the Steps: Carpets, Access, and the Long Walk.
For more context, read met gala 2026 amount raised.
For more context, read fashion trade fair calendar.