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.
2019 winner
Bong Joon-ho's darkly comedic 2019 thriller Parasite wasn't just the best-reviewed film of 2019; it was also an Oscar best picture winner—just one of many honors the film received following its historic Cannes win, when it became the first South Korean film to win the Palme d'Or and the second straight Cannes winner (following Shoplifters) to tackle themes of class divisions. Parasite's win was even more impressive given the unusually strong Cannes slate in 2019 that also included Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Atlantics, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Only two other films in history won both the Palme d'Or and the best picture Oscar: 1955's Marty and 1945's The Lost Weekend.
“Few filmmakers can manage such a dizzying blend of tones, but for Bong, one of South Korea’s finest directors, it’s a trademark. With Parasite he’s crafted his best movie yet.” —David Sims, The Atlantic
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