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.
2012 winner
Michael Haneke picked up the Palme d'Or for the second time in four years with this drama about an elderly married couple (Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva) dealing with the repercussions of a devastating stroke. One of the best-reviewed releases of all of 2012 (trailing only Zero Dark Thirty), Amour would later go on to win a foreign-language Oscar (and receive four additional Academy Award nominations, including best picture and one for Haneke as director).
“Small, sure and stunningly acted, this is a picture of exacting control.” —Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
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