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.

17 of 36 photo by New Yorker Films

81 #19: The Eel

1997 co-winner (tied with Taste of Cherry)

Both 1997 Palme d'Or winners received positive reviews, though The Eel scored one point higher than co-winner Taste of Cherry with our panel of critics. The film is an oddball tale of a man (Shall We Dance's Koji Yakusho) who murders his wife, serves a prison sentence, and then opens a barbershop ... while befriending an eel, who serves as his only companion. Directed by Shohei Imamura, The Eel brought Japan its first Cannes win in 14 years—when another Imamura film, The Ballad of Narayama, also won. The Isabelle Adjani-led jury picked its two 1997 winners over better-reviewed competitors like L.A. Confidential and The Sweet Hereafter.

“The Eel careens all over the stylistic map, from irony to slapstick. But it's chaos in the service of rebirth and redemption, a rich screenful of zigzagging.” —Jay Carr, The Boston Globe

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