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.
2008 winner
You would think that French filmmakers would have an edge at Cannes, but just three native Frenchmen have collected the Palme d'Or in the past three decades. One of those is Laurent Cantet, who won in 2008 for this drama about a French teacher at a middle school in a working-class, immigrant-filled district, based on the semi-autobiographical novel by François Bégaudeau. Not just the most acclaimed film at Cannes (though Waltz With Bashir came close), The Class was the best-reviewed live-action film to debut in all of 2008 and was nominated for a foreign-language Oscar. It remains Cantent's only film to screen in the main competition at Cannes.
“I would be surprised if this brilliant and touching film didn't become required viewing for teachers all over the United States. Everyone else should see it as well--it's a wonderful movie.” —David Denby, The New Yorker
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