Effortless Style Dominates Red and Blue Carpets at 2026 Independent Spirit Awards

Keke Palmer was the night’s standout on the carpet at the Hollywood Palladium, arriving in a vintage butter-yellow Dior halter dress that read simultaneously modern and archival. The 32-year-old actress wore a knee-length, low-cut, backless look paired with matching pointed-toe Christian Louboutin heels, stud earrings, a necklace, bracelets and multiple rings; she styled a golden-highlighted pixie in soft waves and finished with fluttery lashes and pink lipstick on February 15, 2026.

The photographs collected at the Hollywood Palladium show several attendees favoring understated, quietly polished ensembles - minimal tailoring, soft tonal palettes. That restrained thread ran through arrivals from established names to filmmakers, creating a complementary foil for Palmer’s bright, vintage note and for a handful of bolder silhouettes seen elsewhere on the carpet.

Host Ego Nwodim led arrivals coverage for the evening. Rose Byrne appeared in the photo gallery with the parenthetical caption "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You," while Tessa Thompson, Regina King, Wunmi Mosaku, Delroy Lindo and Joel Edgerton were among the actors photographed walking into the ceremony. Kari Fischer and Ben Leonberg arrived with Indy, the star of "Good Boy," adding a lighthearted moment to the lineup of film teams and creatives.

Captions and arrival groupings emphasized film crews as much as performers. Members of the "Train Dreams" team were photographed together, including Will Janowitz, Michael Heimler, Teddy Schwarzman, Clint Bentley, Adolpho Veloso, Ashley Schlaifer, Joel Edgerton and Marissa McMahon, and a separate caption listed members of the "Come See Me in the Good Light" team. Directors and producers such as Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, David Bonnett, Drew Langer, Liz Larsen and Mel Eslyn also posed on the carpet alongside actors including Dylan O’Brien with James Sweeney, Zoey Deutch, Kaia Gerber, Kumail Nanjiani, and Amy Madigan.

Notable editorial discrepancies appeared inside the coverage itself: one photo set paired Kirsten Dunst with Jesse Plemons while another paired Kirsten Dunst with Wagner Moura, and some galleries labeled the arrival line the red carpet while others used the phrase blue carpet. The ceremony was presented as the 41st annual Film Independent Spirit Awards, and arrivals photography and galleries published in the days around the event captured a mix of indie-film teams, veteran actors and breakout talents at the Hollywood Palladium on February 15, 2026.