As a juror at this year's Cannes Film Festival, Kate Beckinsale has wowed the paparazzi on a nightly basis in a string of glamorous gowns.

But arriving for last night's closing ceremony in a relatively muted black mermaid gown, the English star, 36, found herself being outshone on the red carpet by Mexican actress Salma Hayek.

Attending with her French husband François-Henri Pinault, the Frida star, 43, sizzled in a figure-hugging blush pink and gold gown and a wavy bobbed hairstyle.

 

Also on the red carpet was German actress Diane Kruger in a billowing black and pink number, Kirsten Dunst in a cornflower blue vintage-style gown and Italian actress Asia Argenot in a frilly black chiffon creation.

This year's festival ended with a whimper as far as British films were concerned although there was star power in the acting categories.

Spaniard Javier Bardem collected the Best Actor trophy for his soulful performance of a father-of-two who is dying in Biutiful, directed by Spanish film-maker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

 

Bardem won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for No Country For Old Men two years ago.

The acting prize in Cannes was a tie. Elio Germano won for Oitalian film La Nostra Vita, about a man who loses his wife after she gives birth to their third child.

French star Juliette Binoche took the Best Actress award for her role as an art gallery owner in love in the film Certified Copy. Some found the picture rather dull.

Top prize, the Palme d'Or went to the Thai film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, a movie which clearly excited jury members, although few other people, except the film-makers, of course, cared that much for it.

However, because of the unrest in Thailand, the award may have been made for political reasons although the picture itself is hardly political.

Kristin Scott Thomas wearing a couture one-shoulder bright green dress was the mistress of the closing night ceremony of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

The jury led by Tim Burton and included Beckinsale, Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro, Italian actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Indian director and actor Shekhar Kapur, Spanish director Victor Erice, Head of Italy's national film museum Alberto Barbera, French director Emmanuel Carrere and French composer Alexandre Desplat.

The two British films in competition, Mike Leigh's Another Year and Ken Loach's Route Irish went away empty handed.

Critics at the festival raved about Leigh's movie and it had been hotly tipped as a prize-winner.