Palme d'Or

The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film. In 1964, the was replaced again by the Grand Prix, before being reintroduced in 1975.

The is widely considered one of the film industry's most prestigious awards.

History

In 1954, the festival decided to present an award annually, titled the Grand Prix of the International Film Festival, with a new design each year from a contemporary artist. The festival's board of directors invited several jewellers to submit designs for a palm, in tribute to the coat of arms of the city of Cannes, evoking the famous legend of Saint Honorat and the palm trees lining the famous Promenade de la Croisette. The original design by Parisian jeweller Lucienne Lazon, inspired by a sketch by director Jean Cocteau, had the bevelled lower extremity of the stem forming a heart, and the pedestal a sculpture in terracotta by the artist Sébastien.

In 1955, the first was awarded to Delbert Mann for his film Marty. From 1964 to 1974, the festival temporarily resumed a Grand Prix. In 1975, the was reintroduced and has since remained the festival's symbol, awarded each year to the director of the winning film, presented in a case of pure red Morocco leather lined with white suede.

Since its reintroduction, the prize has been redesigned several times. At the beginning of the 1980s, the rounded shape of the pedestal, bearing the palm has gradually transformed to become pyramidal in 1984. In 1992, Thierry de Bourqueney redesigned the Palme and its pedestal in hand-cut crystal. In 1997, Caroline Scheufele redesigned the statuette; since then, it has been manufactured by the Swiss jewellery firm Chopard. The palm is made from of 18-carat yellow gold while the branch's base forms a small heart. A single piece of cut crystal forms a cushion for the palm, which is hand-cast into a wax mould and now presented in a case of blue Morocco leather. In 1998, Theo Angelopoulos was the first director to win the as it appears today, for his film Eternity and a Day.

In 2013, when Blue Is the Warmest Color won the , the jury headed by Steven Spielberg awarded it to the film's actresses Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux, as well as the director Abdellatif Kechiche. This remains the only instance where multiple trophies were presented. The jury decided to include the actresses in the recognition due to a Cannes policy that forbids the -winning film from receiving any additional awards. This policy would have prevented the jury from acknowledging the actresses separately. Regarding the unorthodox decision, Spielberg commented, "Had the casting been 3% wrong, [the film] wouldn't have worked like it did for us".(video unavailable) Subsequently, Kechiche auctioned off his trophy to fund his new feature film. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he expressed dissatisfaction with the festival's decision to award multiple trophies, stating that he felt they had "publicly insulted" him. He added, "Liberating myself from this Palme d'Or is a way of washing my hands of this sorry affair".

The 2014 award ceremony which awarded the to Winter Sleep, a Turkish film by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, occurred during the 100th anniversary year of Turkish cinema. On receiving the award, Ceylan dedicated it to the "young people" involved in Turkey's ongoing political unrest, and the workers killed in the Soma mine disaster, which occurred on the day before the commencement of the awards event. In 2017, the award was redesigned to celebrate the festival's 70th anniversary. The diamonds were provided by an ethical supplier certified by the Responsible Jewellery Council.

The 2020 Cannes Film Festival was cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 56 films were announced as official selections by the festival, but no awards were presented for the first time since 1968.

From 2026, the non-English language winners will also be automatically eligible for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

As of 2026, Jane Campion, Julia Ducournau and Justine Triet are the only female directors to have won the prize (for The Piano, Titane, and Anatomy of a Fall, respectively). However, Bodil Ipsen won the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film for The Red Meadows (along with Lau Lauritzen Jr.) as part of an 11-way tie at the inaugural 1946 festival.

Winners

1940s Year English Title Original Title Recipient(s) Production Country 1939 The inaugural Cannes Film Festival was to have been held in 1939, but was cancelled due to the outbreak of the Second World War. 1946 United Kingdom Switzerland United States Mexico Czechoslovakia India France and Denmark Italy Sweden Soviet Union 1947 (Best Psychological & Love Film) France (Best Social Film) United States (Best Animation Design) (Best Adventure & Crime Film) France (Best Musical Comedy) United States 1949 United Kingdom

1950s Year English Title Original Title Recipient(s) Production Country 1951 Italy Sweden 1952 Othello Italy, Morocco, United States Italy 1953 France 1954 Japan 1955 § United States 1956 and France 1957 United States 1958 Soviet Union 1959 § France, Brazil

1960s Year English Title Original Title Recipient(s) Production Country 1960 § Italy 1961 § France § Spain 1962 § Brazil 1963 § Italy 1964 France 1965 United Kingdom 1966 Italy France 1967 United Kingdom 1968 The festival was cancelled midway through to show solidarity with the students and workers who were demonstrating in what became known as the May 68 movement. 1969 United Kingdom

1970s Year English Title Original Title Recipient(s) Production Country 1970 United States 1971 United Kingdom 1972 § Italy § 1973 United Kingdom United States 1974 1975 Algeria 1976 United States 1977 Italy 1978 § 1979 United States West Germany, France

1980s Year English Title Original Title Recipient(s) Production Country 1980 United States Japan 1981 Poland 1982 § Costa-Gavras United States § and Turkey 1983 Japan 1984 § West Germany, France 1985 § Yugoslavia 1986 United Kingdom, United States 1987 § France 1988 Denmark 1989 United States

1990s Year English Title Original Title Recipient(s) Production Country 1990 United States 1991 § 1992 Denmark, Sweden 1993 Hong Kong New Zealand, Australia, France 1994 United States 1995 Underground Yugoslavia 1996 France, United Kingdom 1997 Japan Iran 1998 § Greece 1999 § Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne Belgium

2000s Year English Title Original Title Recipient(s) Production Country 2000 Denmark 2001 Italy 2002 Poland, France, Germany, United Kingdom 2003 United States 2004 2005 Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne Belgium, France 2006 § Ireland, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany 2007 Romania 2008 § France 2009 Germany, Austria, France

2010s Year English Title Original Title Recipient(s) Production Country 2010 Thailand, France, Germany 2011 United States 2012 France, Germany, Austria 2013 § , Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos France, Belgium, Spain 2014 Turkey, France, Germany 2015 France 2016 United Kingdom 2017 Sweden, Germany, France, Denmark 2018 Japan 2019 § South Korea

2020s Year English Title Original Title Recipient(s) Production Country 2020 Festival cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 56 films were announced as official selections by the festival, but no awards were presented. 2021 France, Belgium 2022 Sweden, Germany, France, United Kingdom 2023 France 2024 Anora Sean Baker United States 2025 It Was Just an Accident Jafar Panahi Iran, France, Luxembourg 2026 Fjord Cristian Mungiu Romania, Norway, Denmark, France, Sweden

Notes § Denotes unanimous win

Special Palme d'Or During the 2018 closing ceremony, the jury awarded a "Special Palme d'Or" for the first time ever. Even though the award was not intended to be an Honorary Palme d'Or to Jean-Luc Godard, the move was made as an homage to his career, and as an award to the film itself as well.

Year English Title Original Title Director Production Country Ref. 2018 The Image Book Le Livre d'image Jean-Luc Godard Switzerland, France

Wins by country Country Number of wins 29 22 13 10 5 4 2 1

Multiple winners Ten directors or director duos have won the award twice. Three of them () have won for consecutive films.

Number of wins Directors Nationality Films 2 Alf Sjöberg Sweden Torment (1946), Miss Julie (1951) Francis Ford Coppola United States The Conversation (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979) Bille August Denmark Pelle the Conqueror (1988), The Best Intentions (1992) Emir Kusturica Yugoslavia When Father Was Away on Business (1985), Underground (1995) Shōhei Imamura Japan The Ballad of Narayama (1983), The Eel (1997) Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne Belgium Rosetta (1999), L'Enfant (2005) Michael Haneke Austria The White Ribbon (2009), Amour (2012) Ken Loach United Kingdom The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), I, Daniel Blake (2016) Ruben Östlund Sweden The Square (2017), Triangle of Sadness (2022) Cristian Mungiu Romania 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007), Fjord (2026)

Honorary Palme d'Or

At the 1997 edition by the festival's organizing committee, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Festival as the "Palme des Palmes", a homage to Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman who had never been awarded a competitive Palme.

Since 2002, the festival awards the prize regularly to individuals who have achieved a notable body of work but who had never won a competitive Palme d'Or. In 2024, Studio Ghibli became the first and only studio to date to win it.

Palme d'Or

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