Tomorrow begins the 66th annual (and seemingly endless) Cannes Film Festival, where celebrities have gathered for decades to get louche at yacht parties and glamorous black-tie receptions, then be awarded critical prizes like the Palme d’Or, the festival’s highest honor. It’s one of our favorite places to catch celebs in their finery, in part due to the dual appearance of casual clothing and super-fancy runway looks in broad daylight during the French Riviera’s nicer weather conditions.
This year’s lineup includes new films by Steven Soderbergh (whose Sex, Lies, and Videotape won the Palme d’Or in 1989), Jim Jarmusch, the Coen Brothers, and many other early nineties auteurs. Lately, it does feel like we’re all still living in 1993, so we’ve collected our favorite shots of some of the megastars from twenty years ago. Turns out, it’s pretty fun and unsettling to look at the not-too-distant landcape of celebrity. Click through our slideshow to see a glowingly young Uma Thurman, a blond Marisa Tomei, Kyle MacLachlan in his Linda Evangelista years, Keanu Reeves when he was still hot-ish, Antonio Banderas when he actually was “too sexy,” and more. Don’t miss Nicole Kidman (who will be a juror this year) in the perfect, pre-Botox, pre-TomKat days.