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.

15 of 36 photo by Merchant Ivory Productions

80 #20 (tie): Eternity and a Day

1998 winner

The fifth and final film screening in competition at Cannes for Greek director Theodoros Angelopoulos, Eternity isn't only the filmmaker's sole Cannes win—it's also the only Greek film in history to win the Palme d'Or. The drama follows a dying author (Bruno Ganz) who twice rescues a young boy on the street and then journeys to bring him home to Albania. The Martin Scorsese-led Cannes jury selected the well-reviewed Eternity over competitors like Hou Hsiao-hsien's Flowers of Shanghai and Thomas Vinterberg's The Celebration.

“Eternity And A Day occasionally lapses into navel-gazing ennui, and Ganz's reluctant kinship with the adorable moppet courts cliché, but Angelopoulos strings together so many haunting, exquisitely choreographed sequences that even his worst ideas are emotionally resonant.” —Scott Tobias, A.V. Club

Where To Watch