How Camille Cottin Brought Quintessential French Style to the Stillwater Premiere

Though it premiered out of competition, Stillwater still received a five-minute ovation at Cannes last week. The film stars Matt Damon as an Oklahoman oil worker, whose daughter (Abigail Breslin) is imprisoned in Marseilles, France, for murdering her ex-girlfriend while studying abroad—a crime she says she did not commit. Damon’s character, Bill Baker, becomes close to a single mom played by Camille Cottin, who says she can help him in his quest to prove his daughter’s innocence. Cottin’s Virginie and her daughter, Maya, become Bill’s second family in France, softening his tough exterior. The applause at the showing was no doubt well-deserved, but to paraphrase the immortal words of Cher, let’s have a little commotion for the dress, specifically Cottin’s. 

For the film’s highly anticipated premiere, Cottin chose a classic black Dior gown amped up with a dramatic leg slit, a peplum waist, and a belt which her stylist, Eliott Bliss, tied into a loop. “He is so creative and pushes me to try new things and have fun with expressing myself through fashion,” Cottin says. As her Dior shoes were also black, her pop of color came through the modern Boucheron earrings. The opalescent, green and purple drop earrings played off her dazzling green eyes and smokey plum eye makeup by Christophe Danchaud. Her hair was as effortlessly elegant as the dress itself: loose, wavy, with a deep side part by Adir Abergel. Could you ask for a look more indicative of soigné French style? We think non. 

Posing on the Croisette alongside Damon, Breslin, director Tom McCarthy and Cottin’s on screen daughter, Lilou Siauvaud, made for a striking image ahead of the premiere, which has sparked Academy Awards buzz (for those interested, the film is showing in theaters beginning July 30). “I have been to this festival before, but to all be here celebrating Stillwater, watching the film together and sharing it with a theater full of people was very emotional and incredibly special,” Cottin says. Below, she takes us through her day getting ready for the premiere.