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.
2001 winner
The first Italian film to take home the Palme d'Or since 1978, Nanni Moretti's The Son's Room finds a psychoanalyst (played by the director himself) and his wife dealing with the sudden accidental death of their teenage son. Some critics found the result overly sentimental, but more were moved by the drama. Still, there were a handful of better-reviewed films screening in competition in 2001, including future Oscar winner No Man's Land, Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher and David Lynch's Mulholland Drive.
“A deceivingly simple film, one that grows in power in retrospect, as the cumulative impact of so many quiet moments makes itself felt.” —Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post
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