A 50 Year History of Graphic Tees at the Cannes Film Festival

Jordan Firstman promoted his directorial debut, Club Kid, one of the buzziest films at Cannes this year, with an array of NSFW, Internet-brained T-shirts, with jokes seemingly referencing the movie, which was acquired by A24.

French-Canadian actor Niels Schneider attended the photocall for his film, The Unknown, wearing a shirt featuring a sketch of Bob Dylan and the singer’s legal last name, Zimmerman. But Schneider wasn’t simply showing his support for Dylan; he was likely also referencing The Unknown, in which he plays a character named David Zimmerman.

Not all T-shirts make it to the red carpet. French actress Adèle Exarchopoulos arrived at Nice Airport ahead of the festival this year in a shirt featuring her Blue Is the Warmest Color co-star Léa Seydoux and the phrase “Léa Forever.” The tribute nodded to the pair’s shared Cannes history: in 2013, the jury made the unprecedented decision to award the Palme d’Or not only to the film’s director, Abdellatif Kechiche, but also to Exarchopoulos and Seydoux.

While 2024 was Brat Summer, Charli xcx predicted 2025 would be “Joachim Trier Summer” during her Coachella set that year. Elle Fanning was inspired by the announcement, tapping the 12-year-old son of her stylist, Samantha McMillen, who has his own brand called Dylan’s T-Shirt Club, to put the phrase on a top for her to wear to the photocall of her film, Sentimental Value, directed by Trier.

During his first major public appearance following his release from prison, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange attended the 2025 photocall for the documentary about his life, The Six Billion Dollar Man. He did so in a white tee featuring the names of 4,986 Palestinian children under the age of five killed in Gaza since 2023.

Spike Lee wore a shirt and hat from the collab between his apparel line, 40 Acres and Supreme to the photocall for his 2025 film, High 2 Lowest. The two specific pieces he chose for the French Riviera-set event featured the logo from his 1992 film, Malcolm X.

Alexander Skarsgård really embraced the theme of his biker BDSM film, Pillion, while attending the festival in support of it in 2025. At the Pillion photocall, he paired tight leather pants with a T-shirt from the South London store Jerks, featuring an illustration of a man licking a leather boot.

Then-Vice President—and recently appointed President—of Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli, Kenichi Yoda, showed off a t-shirt from the 2023 Studio Ghibli film The Boy and the Heron. He was attending the festival that year in order to accept the Palme d'Or on behalf of the studio.

Josh O’Connor wore a pink graphic tee under a blazer at the photocall for La Chimera in 2023.

Ukrainian model Alina Baikova only had a brief moment to show off her shirt disparaging Russian president Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine before she was removed from the red carpet by security.

While promoting Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch at the 2021 festival, Timothée Chalamet donned a pink tee featuring Richard Pryor as God in the 1980 comedy In God We Trust.

While Lee wore a graphic Air Jordan shirt to the jury photocall in 2021, it was his hat that made more of a statement. The director’s cap is from a collaboration between 40 Acres and Mitchell & Ness. The year on it, 1619, refers to the first arrival of enslaved Africans to Jamestown, Virginia, over 400 years ago.

British comedian and filmmaker Terry Gilliam paid homage to his sketch comedy roots when he attended The Man Who Killed Don Quixote photocall in 2018, wearing a shirt featuring Mr. Bill from Saturday Night Live.

Jessica Chastain arrived to the Cannes Film Festival in 2017 wearing the graphic tee of the moment. Her shirt, which read “We Should All Be Feminists,” came from Maria Grazia Chiuri’s debut collection for Dior. The show featured many politically adjacent slogan shirts, but it was this phrase that really seemed to strike a nerve, with the shirt being spotted on several stars including Rihanna.

British costume designer Sandy Powell attended the How to Talk to Girls at Parties during its Cannes premiere in 2017 in a Sex Pistols T-shirt. The choice was likely made to pay homage to the film she costumed, which takes place in the punk rock world of 1970s London.

Japanese director Takashi Miike posed for a photocall for his 2017 film, Blade of the Immortal, wearing a T-shirt featuring artwork by Katsuhiro Otomo, the son of Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo, along with his signature 57577, the title of Otomo’s 2014 book.

Captain Fantastic has often been described as a fictional manifestation of left-wing idealism, and the film’s cast doubled down on this idea at the 2016 Cannes photocall. There, Viggo Mortensen and his co-stars broadcast their support for Bernie Sanders in the lead-up to the U.S. Presidential election.

No, Maïwenn’s shirt doesn’t say “Beverly Hills,” it actually says Belleville Hills. The French director shouted out Paris’s hilltop artistic community while promoting her film, My King, in 2015.

Ever the joker, Jack Black posed with Angelina Jolie wearing a shirt bearing John Lennon’s face and the name “Juan” at the photocall for Kung Fu Panda 2 in 2011.

In 2006, Lee took the opportunity to show his support for Barack Obama ahead of his first election that fall.

In 2008, Jury member Natalie Portman showed her love for Neil Young in a magenta tee by illustrator Jess Rotter of Rotter and Friends. Rotter started her company in 2007 and has been popular for her illustration of world-famous musicians ever since.

In 2007, director Gus Van Sant, who lives primarily in Portland, Oregon, attended the Paranoid Park photocall in a tee from the local restaurant, Bluehour—one of his go-to spots before it closed in 2020.

Korean director Kim Ki-Duk celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival with a T-shirt marking the occasion.

Michael Pitt wasn’t promoting the 1983 film Sudden Impact at Cannes, but he did wear a shirt bearing Clint Eastwood’s famous quote from the movie, “Go ahead, make my day.”

Penélope Cruz arrived to the festival in 2004 wearing a bedazzled Dolce & Gabbana Mickey Mouse tee.

In 2001, Cannes jury member and Monty Pyton and the Holy Grail director Terry Gilliam joked that he could be bribed by producers to award their films. “I’m willing to take large sums of money to vote for your film,” he said on opening day. “I will choose the film whose producer gives me the largest amount of money.”

A lifelong Knicks fan, Lee repped his favorite team as well as his production company 40 Acres and a Mule at the Girl 6 photocall in 1996.

Neil Young, Jim Jarmusch, and Johnny Depp made quite the trio in their T-shirts at the photocall for Dead Man in 1995. Young supported the movie he composed music for in a Fishbone band tee, while director Jarmusch opted for a top emblazoned with the road known as the “Devil’s Highway”, Route 666.

In case you were curious what movie Kenneth Branagh was promoting alongside Emma Thompson and Denzel Washington at the festival in 1993, just look at his shirt, and you’ll see the trio starred in Much Ado About Nothing.

Three years before he released Malcolm X, Spike Lee hit the South of France to promote Do the Right Thing wearing a “No Sell Out” Malcolm X tee. The slogan, which the civil rights leader frequently used in his speeches, was sampled on Keith LeBlanc’s 1983 hip-hop single of the same name.

Derek Jarman dressed up his T-shirt with a striped suit, but he made sure the top, which bore the name of his film, Aria, could still be clearly seen. Jarman was one of ten filmmakers including Robert Altman and Jean-Luc Goddard who participated in the anthology film project, with each one directing a segment that interpreted an opera aria. Jarman’s was set to Gustave Charpentier's “Depuis le jour.”

Dennis Hopper attended the Cannes Film Festival in 1976 to promote his film Tracks. He was very casual at the event, attending in a cowboy hat, jean jacket, and a tee featuring Napoleon on the front.