Palm Springs Film Festival 2026 Red Carpet: Elle Fanning, Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor & Awards-Season Heat

Stars including Elle Fanning, Chase Infiniti and Teyana Taylor brought high-wattage glamour and early-awards-season buzz to the Palm Springs Film Festival Awards red carpet at the Palm Springs Convention Center, turning the Sonoran Desert into a preview runway for the 2026 Oscars race and a showcase of fashion, performance and industry momentum.

Running from January 2–11, the Palm Springs International Film Festival has become Hollywood’s unofficial New Year reset: a sun-drenched checkpoint where festival darlings, studio contenders and breakout performers test-drive their narratives before the crush of guild awards and the Academy Awards. This year’s film awards gala doubled down on that reputation, with honorees and guests using the carpet to telegraph everything from fashion risk-taking to which movies might actually go the distance.

Stars and photographers on the Palm Springs Film Festival red carpet outside the convention center
The Palm Springs Film Festival Awards red carpet outside the Palm Springs Convention Center. Image: Deadline.

Why the Palm Springs Film Festival Red Carpet Actually Matters

For years, Palm Springs has been one of those insider events that general audiences hear about but don’t always clock as important. But within the industry, the festival’s film awards gala is a strategic stop on the road from fall festivals to the Oscars. The audience is a mix of local film lovers and awards voters weekending in the desert; the vibe is looser than the Golden Globes, but the speeches and optics still get clipped, shared and replayed.

Studios treat it as both a dress rehearsal and a narrative laboratory. Performances that hit at Telluride or Toronto can be reframed for a wider conversation here — is this actor a seasoned veteran overdue for recognition, or a bold new face changing the game? Palm Springs gives publicists and talent a stage to test those angles.

“Awards season isn’t just decided in back rooms or on ballots. It’s shaped in the rooms where audiences and artists meet, and Palm Springs is one of those rooms.”

Factor in the desert setting — less black-tie straitjacket, more “Old Hollywood on vacation” — and you get a carpet that’s often more playful than prestige ceremonies but still loaded with strategic meaning.

Spotlights and cameras focused on a red carpet at a film premiere
Red carpet events like Palm Springs double as fashion showcases and awards-season campaign stages. Image: Pexels.

Elle Fanning: From Fairy-Tale Royalty to Awards-Season Power Player

Elle Fanning has quietly become one of the most consistent presences on festival carpets. Long past her “Maleficent” ingénue era and fresh off her acclaimed run in Hulu’s The Great, she now arrives at events like Palm Springs with a different kind of authority — less prodigy, more fully formed auteur’s muse.

On the Palm Springs red carpet, Fanning leaned into the festival’s mix of elegance and desert ease. Her styling continues a pattern she’s been honing over multiple seasons: romantic silhouettes with modern details, and a color palette that photographs beautifully in both daylight and flash.

  • Soft, architectural lines instead of maximal embellishment
  • A focus on texture and fabric movement for live and video coverage
  • Makeup that nods to classic Hollywood without feeling cosplay

It’s fashion with a long game. Fanning’s choices rarely scream “meme-able,” but they age well in archival galleries and for future retrospectives — exactly what you want if you’re slowly building an auteur-driven career.

Actress posing for photographers on a red carpet in an elegant gown
Elle Fanning’s red carpet strategy often favors timeless silhouettes over trend chasing. Representative image: Pexels.

Chase Infiniti: A Breakout Name on a Big-Stage Red Carpet

Palm Springs is often where rising names shift from “one to watch” to “oh, they’ve arrived.” Chase Infiniti’s presence at the awards gala fits squarely into that tradition. Rather than blending into the background, Infiniti’s styling embraced a bolder, more directional take on red carpet dressing — the kind of look that says, “I plan to be on this circuit for a while.”

The silhouette sat somewhere between classic eveningwear and contemporary street-lux, reflecting a wider trend: younger artists leaning into personal style over heritage “borrowed from the archive” pieces. The result reads less like a costume for the night and more like a statement of identity.

“For newer faces, a red carpet isn’t just about what you’re nominated for — it’s a visual manifesto of the kind of career you’re announcing to the industry.”

It’s a smart move in an era when a single striking image can travel faster than a nuanced performance note. A memorable but coherent look helps cement name recognition before voters even sit down to watch the film.

Actor on a red carpet wearing a sharp black outfit with photographers in the background
Rising talents often use festival carpets to define their visual identity. Representative image: Pexels.

Teyana Taylor: Music, Film and the Art of Controlled Drama

Teyana Taylor is in her cross-media era — musician, actor, director, choreographer, style reference. On a carpet like Palm Springs, that translates to a look that almost inevitably skews more theatrical than her peers, but with a level of craftsmanship that keeps it from feeling like mere spectacle.

Taylor’s red carpet energy leans into what she does best: sharp tailoring, sculpted silhouettes, and a performance-ready presence. There’s usually a hint of androgyny in the mix, nodding to her comfort flipping between music video choreography and more traditional cinema roles.

  • Statement structure instead of heavy embellishment
  • Beauty choices that reference R&B and hip-hop visual culture
  • Styling that feels in conversation with her music videos and stage work

That cross-pollination matters. As more artists transition from musicianship to on-screen storytelling, their carpet appearances do double duty: selling the film and sustaining a music persona that thrives on bold aesthetics.

Teyana Taylor’s reputation for bold performance style naturally carries onto festival carpets. Representative image: Pexels.

Desert Couture: How Palm Springs Red Carpet Style Differs from LA and New York

If the Oscars are about uncompromising glamour and the New York Film Festival leans intellectual-chic, Palm Springs occupies a refreshing middle ground. There’s real fashion here — big houses, emerging designers, carefully orchestrated jewelry loans — but there’s also the climate and setting to contend with. Heavy velvet ball gowns in the Sonoran Desert? Only if you’re dedicated.

That environment encourages three dominant style modes on the carpet:

  1. Sunset Glamour: Warm tones, shimmering fabrics and silhouettes that look as good in twilight as under flash photography.
  2. Modern Resort: Flowy, breathable looks, sometimes with cutouts or asymmetric lines, that nod to vacation style without going full beachwear.
  3. Sharp Minimalism: Sleek tailoring and monochrome palettes that let faces and jewelry carry the drama.

This year’s carpet leaned into that balance. You could see the spectrum: some attendees clearly treating the gala as a full-on awards rehearsal, others opting for something more experimental, maybe saving their safest looks for higher-stakes shows.

Elegant evening gowns displayed under warm lighting, reminiscent of awards season fashion
Palm Springs style usually splits the difference between high-glam and desert-appropriate ease. Representative image: Pexels.

Awards-Season Strategy: What This Carpet Signals for 2026

The Palm Springs red carpet isn’t just aesthetic; it’s tactical. Who shows up — and how they show up — offers clues about how studios and streamers are prioritizing their campaigns. When established names like Elle Fanning are given pride of place next to emerging figures like Chase Infiniti, you can feel publicists seeding the “next wave” conversation.

The festival’s award recipients and presenters often overlap significantly with eventual Oscar nominees, particularly in acting categories. While it’s not a perfect predictor, history shows that those who generate strong buzz here often remain in the conversation deep into February.

That said, the carpet does have its limitations:

  • It skews toward campaigns with the budget to fly talent to the desert and dress them accordingly.
  • International contenders can be under-represented compared to festivals like Cannes or Venice.
  • Social media virality sometimes favors the boldest outfit over the strongest performance.

Still, as a snapshot of who’s ascendant and which films are getting real muscle behind them, Palm Springs remains one of the clearer early signals — especially when you read the carpet, the speeches and the room’s energy together.

Audience seated in a theater watching a film awards presentation
Behind the fashion, Palm Springs is a key stop in the buildup to major film awards. Representative image: Pexels.

Watch, Scroll, Repeat: Experiencing the Red Carpet from Home

For most viewers, the Palm Springs red carpet lives on timelines and highlight clips, not cable broadcasts. Outlets like Deadline, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter post rolling galleries and short interviews, while fan accounts slice those into viral micro-moments — a slow-motion twirl, a quick anecdote, an unexpected pairing on the step-and-repeat.

This social-first reality shifts how talent approaches the carpet. A look has to work from multiple angles:

  • Wide shots for traditional galleries
  • Tight portrait crops for thumbnails and profiles
  • Video-friendly movement for short-form clips and TikToks

If you’re catching up, your best bets are usually:

  • Official festival social channels and YouTube playlists
  • Trade outlets’ “Best Looks” and “Must-See Moments” recap videos
  • Talent’s own Instagram and TikTok accounts for behind-the-scenes angles
Person watching a movie trailer on a smartphone with headphones
For most fans, festival carpets are experienced through phones and social feeds, not live broadcasts. Representative image: Pexels.

The Takeaway: A Desert Forecast for the Rest of Awards Season

The 2026 Palm Springs Film Festival Awards red carpet did what it was supposed to do: it reminded us that awards season is as much about narrative and image as it is about pure merit, and it gave a cross-section of talent — from Elle Fanning’s steady prestige ascent to Chase Infiniti’s emergence and Teyana Taylor’s shape-shifting cross-genre presence — a stage to define how they want to be seen.

In a few weeks, the stakes will rise and the dress codes will tighten. Some of the looks that felt daring in the desert will be refined for major ceremonies; some of tonight’s quieter attendees may turn into the season’s loudest winners. But as a first major checkpoint of 2026, Palm Springs has already done its job: it’s made the conversation more interesting.

Keep an eye on who keeps showing up — on carpets, in panel discussions, in streaming-platform spotlights. The names that felt omnipresent under the Palm Springs sun are likely to be the same ones you’ll be hearing when the biggest envelopes of the year are opened.