Every Cannes Palme d'Or Winner Since 1990, Ranked

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – July 14, 2021

Updated May 27, 2023 with the 2023 Palme d'Or winner, Anatomy of a Fall.

A best picture Oscar may be film's peak honor, but a Cannes Palme d'Or win isn't far behind. Though it didn't adopt its current name (which translates to "Golden Palm" in English) on a permanent basis until 1975, the top award at the globe's most prestigious film festival has been handed out in nearly every year since 1946, with occasional interruptions (most recently in 2020, when the festival was canceled during the COVID pandemic).

Is the latest Palme d'Or winner a favorite with critics as well? Not every Palme d'Or recipient is, as Cannes juries (typically composed of actors and directors, and different every year) don't always have the same tastes as reviewers. In the gallery on this page, we rank all of the Cannes winners since 1990. They are arranged from worst to best by Metascore, which reflects the consensus of professional critics for each film.

1 of 36 photo by Samuel Goldwyn Company

52 #35: Wild at Heart

1990 winner

David Lynch's only Cannes win came, ironically, for one of his few films without great reviews. A cult classic nevertheless, the twisted and violent road trip dramedy Wild at Heart arrived on the Croisette in 1990 just over a month after the debut of his TV phenomenon Twin Peaks while Lynch was at peak fame, and edged out films by the likes of Zhang Yimou, Ken Loach, Jean-Luc Godard, and Clint Eastwood (though it wasn't a memorably notable competition slate). Lynch would later have three additional films screen in competition at Cannes, but not even Mulholland Drive could pull off a Palme d'Or win.

“The movie's initial intensity is so great, it consumes itself. By the time we reach the final scene, which is clearly supposed to exude glorious rapture between offbeat lovers Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, it has all the warming effect of cold ash.” —Desson Thomson, The Washington Post

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