First Look At Chopard’s 2023 High Jewels To Be Unveiled At Cannes Film Festival

Chopard provided a peek at several of its high jewelry pieces that will grace the red carpet during the 12-day Cannes Film Festival, May 16 – 27. Chopard first became a major sponsor of the event in 1998 and since then it has created a high jewelry piece for each year of the film festival’s existence. This is the 76th edition of the famed film festival so this means Chopard created 76 high jewels for its “Red Carpet Collection,” which is always a major highlight of the international and influential Cannes red carpet parade.

All the pieces are designed by Caroline Scheufele, Chopard’s co-president and artistic director, chose “art” as the theme for this year’s Red Carpet Collection. It is also the theme of the luxury brand’s annual “grande soirée” Chopard hosts each year at the festival.

Her inspiration comes from architecture, museums, galleries, conversations, nature and other patterns of the life she experiences each day. The highly evocative pieces are produced at Chopard’s workshops in Switzerland combining old world craftsmanship with new technological innovations.

It’s a challenging undertaking each year and it’s more daunting as the number of high jewelry pieces continue to grow as the festival celebrates another year. The high jewels this year range from pure sparkling diamond earrings and necklaces to bold pieces featuring a variety of colored gems. Metals range from Fairmined certified 18k gold to titanium, known for its strength and lightness.

As already mentioned, Chopard became the official partner of the Cannes Film Festival in 1998. The reason is because the luxury brand was commissioned to create a new Palme d’Or trophy, the top prize of the festival. The look of the Palme d’Or has remained consistent over the years, using 18k yellow gold and rock crystal. In terms of design, the luxury brand instills volume and movement into the 19 leaves of the ‘divine’ golden palm branch that appears to be undulating in a sea breeze, while the stem is tipped with a heart, the signature of the Geneva-based luxury brand. The Palme d’Or rests on a block of rock crystal in the form of an emerald-cut diamond, whose natural inclusions render each piece unique.

The one major change to the trophy was in 2014 when it was first crafted out of Fairmined certified gold, reinforcing Chopard’s commitment to sustainability. The trophy is crafted in Chopard’s artisan’s workshop, the same one used for producing the jewels, taking approximately 70 hours to craft the trophy.

Over the years, Chopard has expanded the number of trophies it produces. This year, it created eight other awards for the closing ceremony: the Best Actress Award, the Best Actor Award, the Grand Prix, the Best Director Award, the Screenplay Award, the Jury Prize, the Short Film Palme d’Or and the Caméra d’Or.

There’s one other trophy presented at the film festival: The Trophée Chopard, an award handed out since 2001 to persons at the start of their acting career. Award-winning actress, Natalie Portman, was chosen as the “godmother” of the trophy, meaning she will be handing the trophy to the two 2023 winners.