The annual Palm Springs International Film Festival officially began on Thursday. Celebrities convened in Palm Springs to pick up random awards and glad-hand with desert-dwelling Oscar voters. Seriously, the Palm Springs festival is just an event for Oscar-campaigners, which is why they schedule it at the start of the awards season. Even Cillian Murphy came out, because the studio made him fly out for the Golden Globes on Sunday. He looks like he’s being held against his will, which probably isn’t far from the truth.

I’m mostly including the fashion girls in this post, although a surprising number of potentially Oscar nominated men came out to Palm Springs as well, including Leo DiCaprio, Robert DeNiro, Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Defoe. Sidenote: I really do think RDJ might be the frontrunner for Best Supporting Actor (for his role in Oppenheimer), but I’m also curious to see if anyone puts any money behind a late campaign for Milo Machado Graner, the kid in Anatomy of a Fall, because he was amazing.

Fashion notes: Emma Stone was predictably in Louis Vuitton, as she’s an LV brand ambassador. I’m not head over heels with this look, but it’s one of the more interesting LV ensembles for Emma. Margot Robbie wore a Barbie-inspired polka-dotted Balmain dress, which is very cute and on-theme, but I do wonder if she’s going to do Barbie-theme throughout the awards season? Carey Mulligan also wore Balmain (a terrible look, tbh) and she posed with Meryl Streep on the carpet. Lily Gladstone wore a custom Rodarte in a beautiful shade of green. She paired her dress with jewelry made by Native American designers. Taraji P. Henson wore Alexandre Vauthier – another great green, but the deep-V is not flattering (her girls look lopsided!). Billie Eilish wore a Gucci scarf and carried a Playboy purse, yuck. Last thing: I love that Da’Vine Joy Randolph is getting couture for all of her events.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.