For its 10-year partnership with Cannes, Kering pulled out all the stops. The luxury group, which launched its Women in Motion programme in 2015 to highlight women’s contribution to cinema as part of its commitment to advance gender parity, this year honoured Nicole Kidman at a star-studded dinner on Sunday in Cannes.
Headliner aside, Kering invested a record sum in its 10th edition, which is telling considering the wider challenges the group is facing. “Women and sustainability are pillars of Kering. It’s not because of the challenging context that we’ll stop what we do on these two fronts — it’s the DNA of the group,” Kering chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault tells me during the Women in Motion cocktail event held on Saturday in the Kering suite at Hôtel Majestic. (Pinault reiterated Kering’s commitment to sustainability during the group’s annual general meeting in April.)
“I have seen the power of a stage like this one when it’s used to amplify what matters, and this is why we have decided to continue the journey with the festival and to renew and even deepen our commitment to women in cinema,” Pinault said during his speech at the award ceremony on Sunday night. The group doesn’t reveal how long its contract as official partner of the Cannes festival lasts. In any case, it’s a strategic move. By doing so, Kering keeps competitors from jumping in. And it’s not only in Cannes: the group works with other film festivals such as Tokyo, Shanghai and Palm Springs.
Pinault went on to call Kidman “a leading light of this movement” before presenting her with the 2025 Women In Motion Award. Kidman has pledged to work with female directors every 18 months. “I subsequently have been able to do so much more than that because there are so many extraordinary women out there,” she said. During the evening, the emerging talent award, which includes a grant of €50,000 to support the creation of the honouree’s second feature project, went to Brazilian filmmaker Marianna Brennand.
To mark the 10th year of the programme, Kering also commissioned Stacy Smith, a professor at the University of Southern California, to create a study on the evolution of the place of women in cinema. (The share of female directors in the top 100 box office films in the US rose from 7 per cent to 14 per cent between 2015 and 2024, the study revealed.) The Women In Motion programme involves a series of talks, as well as the awards ceremony and concrete support like the €50,000 grant for emerging talent. “We walk the talk,” says Kering chief brand officer Laurent Claquin. This year, Kering has also ramped up its number of activations at the festival, such as the cocktail event plus a Women in Motion creators cocktail, featuring a performance by Canadian singer Charlotte Cardin. Finally, when strolling along La Croisette, it’s hard to miss the giant Kering Women in Motion billboard.
The Cannes partnership (initially five years long) was announced in late 2014, a year and a half after the group changed its name from PPR to Kering to reflect a corporate transformation (having left the distribution sector completely to focus on luxury). “It helped for the communication of the group, but it was not intended for this reason. It’s for the group and all of its houses. For us, it is a platform of visibility, of engagements with our stakeholders, including celebrities and clients. It’s a 360-degree approach,” says Claquin.
Now that the group’s identity as a luxury player is beyond question, the link to cinema nicely dovetails with its focus on creativity. At the corporate level, Kering increasingly uses the tagline: “Creativity is our legacy”.
Each Kering house builds its own strategy within the partnership. Juliette Binoche, Halle Berry, Dakota Johnson and Paul Mescal all wore Gucci to the Women in Motion dinner. After its phenomenal success with Emilia Pérez, which premiered at Cannes in 2024, Saint Laurent Productions may not have a film in competition this year, but it has projects in the pipeline. In the meantime, Charli XCX made waves in a sheer Saint Laurent dress on Sunday evening; Kidman and Isabelle Huppert shone in Balenciaga. For Bottega Veneta, it was the opportunity to unveil the first designs of its new creative director, Louise Trotter. Julianne Moore stepped out in a custom one-shoulder dress at the premiere of Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, before changing into a custom suit paired with the original 1977 Lauren bag worn by Lauren Hutton in American Gigolo. It was a nice teaser ahead of Trotter’s debut at Milan Fashion Week in September.
Houses also invited a record number of clients this year, offering them privileged access to red carpets, screenings and events. “There are many benefits of the partnership with Cannes for the group and its houses, including in terms of visibility and clienteling,” Kering deputy CEO Francesca Bellettini tells me at the cocktail event. She notes that fashion is not separate from the other arts, like cinema. “In fact, there are many similarities. It’s sometimes harder for a young designer to make a second or third collection. Same holds true for young filmmakers,” she says, referring to the emerging talent award.
Still, these days, it’s more about keeping costs under control. During Kering’s first-quarter earnings, Bellettini stressed a focus on return on investment (ROI) when it comes to marketing and communications. “The areas that we tend to touch last are all the areas that are related to consumer experience, consumer activation and building an immediate return for the brand, and at the same time something that is going to be valuable for the future,” she said on the call. “Everything else that is not necessary — and everybody has a ‘nice to have’ — is of course carefully monitored and cut.” By being a remarkable clienteling opportunity and a cornerstone initiative, the festival meets these criteria. And for Kering, it’s not just ‘a nice to have’.
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