Fashion

Chopard and Cannes: Tracing One of Fashion’s Longest Running Partnerships

BYKhaoula Ghanem

May 8, 2026

Since its founding in 1946, the Cannes Film Festival has operated as both a serious cinematic institution and a carefully staged spectacle, where auteur filmmakers, movie stars, photographers, fashion houses, and publicists all orbit around the same stretch of coastline for nearly two weeks every May. For nearly three decades, one jewelry house has been embedded within that mythology more deeply than any other. Since 1998, Swiss luxury Maison Chopard has served as the official partner of the Cannes Film Festival and, more importantly, the creator of the annual gathering of cinema’s most coveted prize, the Palme d’Or.

What many people do not realize is that the trophy itself was redesigned by Caroline Scheufele, Chopard’s co-president and artistic director, after then festival president Pierre Viot invited her to reinterpret the award at the end of the 1990s. Before that collaboration, the Palme d’Or existed primarily as a ceremonial object. Under Scheufele’s direction, it became a piece of high jewelry in its own right.

Polishing separate elements of the Palme d’Or. Supplied

The Palme d’Or, first introduced in 1955, takes its name from the palm trees lining Cannes’ famous Boulevard de la Croisette and from the palm featured on the city’s coat of arms. Chopard’s redesign transformed the trophy into something considerably more sculptural and emotionally charged. The current version features 19 hand-crafted leaves made from 18-carat ethical yellow gold, attached to a gently curved stem whose shape subtly forms a heart, one of Chopard’s longstanding signatures. The palm rests atop a hand-cut cushion of rock crystal, giving the award the appearance of a jewel suspended in glass rather than a conventional trophy. According to Chopard, each Palme d’Or requires more than 70 hours of artisanal labor inside the Maison’s Haute Joaillerie workshops.

Winning the Palme d’Or can permanently alter a filmmaker’s career trajectory, particularly for directors working outside Hollywood’s commercial machinery. Over the years, the prize has been awarded to filmmakers including Francis Ford Coppola, Jane Campion, Bong Joon-ho (the first Korean director to receive the top prize), Ken Loach, Julia Ducournau, and Justine Triet. For international cinema, the award functions almost like a canonization ritual, instantly attaching prestige, critical legitimacy, and historical permanence to a film. Chopard understood early on that the object holding that meaning needed to carry a similar emotional weight.

Bong Joon-ho won the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival for ‘Parasite’

The relationship between cinema and jewelry has always been unusually intimate. Film stars helped shape twentieth-century fantasies around diamonds and precious stones long before influencers and social media existed. Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry collection became nearly as famous as her films, while actresses like Sophia Loren and Catherine Deneuve helped cement European luxury aesthetics during the golden age of Cannes. Chopard’s presence at the festival taps directly into that lineage, although the Maison gradually expanded its role far beyond the Palme d’Or itself.

In 2001, Scheufele launched the Trophée Chopard, an annual prize awarded to one emerging actress and one emerging actor at Cannes. Created to spotlight rising cinematic talent, the award has since developed an unexpectedly accurate reputation for identifying future stars before they fully break into mainstream recognition. Previous recipients include Marion Cotillard, Gael García Bernal, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Jessie Buckley, Joe Alwyn, Naomi Ackie, and Mike Faist. Several past winners eventually returned to Cannes as established stars and even served as mentors or godparents for later editions of the prize, creating a cyclical ecosystem that mirrors the industry’s obsession with legacy and succession. This year, Isabelle Huppert as Godmother will present Marty Supreme actress Odessa A’zion and English actor and model Connor Swindells with the prestigious prizes.

Caroline Scheufele, Hayden Christensen, Ludivine Sagnier, and Paz Vega at the Trophée Chopard ceremony in 2002. Supplied

Still, Chopard’s most visible contribution to Cannes exists outside official ceremonies entirely. Every year, the Maison unveils its Red Carpet Collection, a sprawling Haute Joaillerie presentation designed specifically for the festival. The tradition began in 2007 and has since evolved into one of Cannes’ unofficial highlights, particularly for photographers and stylists tracking the increasingly blurred relationship between fashion, celebrity, and cinema.

The collection changes annually according to a central theme imagined by Scheufele. This year’s edition, titled “Miracles,” draws inspiration from fleeting moments of beauty found in nature, memory, and unexpected encounters. Unlike traditional high jewelry collections rooted primarily in status or spectacle, Chopard frames these creations almost narratively, as objects tied to emotion, imagination, and storytelling. The result often feels closer to costume design or cinematic world-building than straightforward luxury merchandising.

Inside Chopard’s Geneva ateliers, artisans spend months translating those ideas into wearable pieces through gem-setting, lapidary work, metal sculpting, and stone selection. The 2026 collection includes a necklace centered around an 88-carat Royal Blue sapphire surrounded by sapphires, aquamarines, and diamonds intended to evoke the meeting point between earth and sky.

Elsewhere, a phoenix-shaped brooch combines ethical rose gold, titanium, emeralds, and multicolored sapphires to symbolize rebirth, while a butterfly-shaped secret watch conceals its dial beneath jeweled wings.

These are not everyday pieces, nor are they really meant to be. Their purpose is theatrical—they are designed for staircases, premieres, archival photographs, and the strange mythology Cannes continues producing every year.

Part of what makes Chopard’s relationship with Cannes so enduring is that it never positioned itself as external to cinema culture. The Maison integrated itself into the festival’s rituals instead. The Palme d’Or exists at the emotional climax of the closing ceremony; the Trophée Chopard celebrates younger actors before they fully arrive; and the Red Carpet Collection becomes woven into the visual memory of each edition through actresses, models, and filmmakers photographed along the Croisette.

There is also the question of sustainability, which has increasingly become central to Chopard’s identity in recent years. Since 2014, the Palme d’Or has been crafted using ethical gold sourced through the company’s Journey to Sustainable Luxury initiative. In an industry historically associated with opaque sourcing practices and extreme exclusivity, that shift matters, particularly as younger audiences grow more skeptical of glamour detached from accountability.

Today, Cannes remains one of the few places where old Hollywood fantasy still survives relatively intact. Celebrities continue arriving by yacht, photographers still scream names from behind barricades, and directors still walk red carpets in black tuxedos moments before presenting intensely political or emotionally devastating films to international audiences. Within that contradiction, Chopard occupies a strangely fitting role, providing the physical symbols attached to cinematic achievement while simultaneously contributing to the spectacle surrounding it.

Chopard and Cannes: Tracing One of Fashion’s Longest Running Partnerships

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Chopard and Cannes: Tracing One of Fashion’s Longest Running Partnerships

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