Elle Fanning stages prom at Cannes Film Festival

Teen actress Elle Fanning had a night to remember at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday (20May16) by staging her prom on the red carpet.

The 18-year-old, who is a senior at a Los Angeles high school, was forced to skip the big weekend bash with her classmates because she was in France promoting her new film The Neon Demon, but rather than miss the coming-of-age event altogether, she hit the premiere of the new thriller with a very special escort - her prom date.

Elle took to Instagram on Monday (23May16) and shared a photo of herself and her male friend Cass standing on a staircase with his arms wrapped around her waist on social media.

The young star even had a bouquet of white flowers to match her flowing Zuhair Murad gown, while her date donned a tuxedo and matching boutonniere.

"Reliving my Senior Prom!," Elle wrote. "Thank you, @basquitwat for flying out since I could not be home and making our prom night one to remember forever!#ProminCannes #PromontheRedCarpet".

Elle is balancing her school studies with a busy acting career - she has five films coming out in 2016 and another four confirmed for next year (17).

In her controversial new movie, The Neon Demon, which also stars Keanu Reeves, Christina Hendricks and Jena Malone, she plays a rising model struggling to fit in to the world of fashion after moving to Los Angeles - a similar feeling Elle had when transitioning from home school to attending a normal school for the first time.

"I was home schooled by my grandma," she recently told Little White Lies magazine. "When I was nine I moved to regular school. When that happened, I technically wasn't alone any more - I was surrounded by people my own age.

"Getting accustomed to that is a very lonesome experience. It was the middle of the school year, too, so I was this new student and I also did movies, so I was an outsider in that sense."