Every Cannes Palme d'Or Winner Since 1990, Ranked
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.
2015 winner
The only Cannes Palme d'Or win to date for noted French filmmaker Jacques Audiard came for this drama that follows a former Tamil Tiger who flees Sri Lanka's civil war along with two strangers and, posing as a family, seeks asylum in Paris. Audiard actually received far better reviews for 2009's A Prophet, but that film left Cannes in 2nd place (with the Grand Prix trophy). And Dheepan won the award despite widespread acclaim for several other Cannes entries including Holocaust drama Son of Saul and Todd Haynes' career-best Carol.
“This may not be the director’s most immediately electrifying film, but in its understated way, it’s an immensely powerful work.” —Andrew Pulver, The Guardian
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