Inside W and Saint Laurent’s Directors Dinner in Los Angeles

Some of the year’s most acclaimed filmmakers and creatives from the worlds of fashion, film and television gathered last night in Los Angeles for an intimate directors dinner celebrating the culmination of awards season and another stellar year in cinema. Hosted by W Editor in Chief Sara Moonves and Saint Laurent Creative Director Anthony Vaccarello, the event took place at a private residence with breathtaking views of the Hollywood Hills. The partnership between W and Saint Laurent is a natural one, but especially so at this moment as the magazine recently launched its fifth annual Directors Issue—to much fanfare on Twitter—while Vaccarello’s current spring 2023 campaign is a celebration of veteran filmmakers including Jim Jarmusch and Abel Ferrara.

Early in the evening, guests including Oscar nominees and W contributors Daniel Kwan and Todd Field, as well as their fellow Best Director nominee Ruben Östlund, gathered in a candlelit courtyard for cocktails, where they were greeted by W Editor at Large Lynn Hirschberg and the aforementioned campaign stars Jarmusch and Ferrara. The latter two arrived together, followed closely behind by Vincent Gallo and Saint Laurent collaborator Gaspar Noé—the foursome spent much of the night swapping stories and laughs from their combined decades of movie-making.

Jennifer Coolidge, the star of Kwan and his directing partner Daniel Scheinert’s epic W cover story was unsurprisingly one of the night’s centers of attention, looking the picture of old Hollywood glamour with bombshell hair and a fitted dress accessorized with sheer gloves and a heart-shaped Saint Laurent bag. She and Kwan reminisced about their free spirited photo shoot and Coolidge thanked him for seeing her in an unexpected way that she had never thought of to see herself.

Olivia Wilde attended with her friend the musician Santigold, and introduced her to Salma Hayek. Father-daughter pair Lenny Kravitz and Zoë Kravitz coordinated in all-black looks. Supermodels Amber Valletta, Anja Rubik and Abbey Lee Kershaw mingled with a young Hollywood crowd that included Jamie Campbell Bower, Dominic Fike, and Percy Hynes White of Wednesday fame.

Before heading inside for dinner, guests were treated to an intimate set of songs by the indie pop artist Feist, hot off a string of critically lauded singles from her forthcoming album Multitudes. After a multi-course meal by chef Yann Nury, the crowd made their way back outside where they cozied up to small wood-burning fires and gazed upon the panoramic view of the city. Here, a look inside the star-studded affair.