15 Greatest Palme d’Or Winners In Cannes Film Festival History

15. The Tin Drum (Volker Schlöndorff, 1979) - Germany

The story, described as a surrealist black comedy, touches on how the strains of war can affect family life but also through controversial means involving adultery, obscenity and death. Both The Tin Drum and Apocalypse Now have the framework of slow and absolute reaches of war and how surreal and dark those reaches can be.

14. The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993) - New Zealand

A haunting love story anchored by a powerful Oscar-winning performance from Holly Hunter (along with another award winner in Anna Paquin’s first role, and supported by Harvey Keitel and Sam Neill), Louis Malle’s jury to tap both of these films for the top prize speaks to the diversity that one can find at the festival.

13. The Class (Laurent Cantet, 2008) - France

While it may not be a masterpiece, it’s a fine piece of filmmaking that manages to capture different social classes and an extremely diverse crowd without ever making it seem artificial or resulting to cheap cliches. Initially, “The Class” was criticized for being boring or not having much a satisfying storyline, but that is exactly its strength – Cantet was able to capture the mood and feel of a classroom without pretending that there’s a unifying narrative behind everything that happens.

12. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011) - USA

Terrence Malick’s epic poem about we our place is in life, whether it be within the confines of family, of community, of time, of space, of love, of essence, of nature and nurture, of rage and beauty, of being, of what does our place mean in this reality of where we are now.

11. Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh, 1996) - UK

There is not a more personal and tailor-made style to one director than Mike Leigh, who has fashioned himself not only a master of kitchen-sink, working class drama focusing on the particulars of the lives of others, but is also a Cannes mainstay within his own right. This comes to the forefront with none other than his ensemble drama of Secrets and Lies.

10. The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002) - Poland 

In this adaptation of the autobiography "The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945," Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jewish radio station pianist, sees Warsaw change gradually as World War II begins. Szpilman is forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, but is later separated from his family during Operation Reinhard. From this time until the concentration camp prisoners are released, Szpilman hides in various locations among the ruins of Warsaw.

9. The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963) - Italy

Luchino Visconti and his star, Burt Lancaster, have made from Giuseppe di Lampedusa's fine novel "The Leopard" is a stunning visualization of a mood of melancholy and nostalgia at the passing of an age. Sentiment and sadness whisper through it like the soft Mediterranean breeze that flutters the curtains in the windows of the palace in the stark Sicilian hills, on the outskirts of Palermo, as the unhurried story begins. They waft through the slow and stately tableaux of incidents in the stilted, baroque life of a noble Sicilian family in the mid-19th century.

8. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994) - USA

It’s fitting that it was 20 years ago now that Tarantino’s sprawling and chaotic masterpiece not only won the Palme d’Or, but is also screened at on the beaches of the festival in remembrance accordingly. The French and Tarantino have always had a fortuitous relationship; Tarantino credits them for discovering him and they are in love with his love letters to the mediums with references as wide-ranging to B-movies, martial arts pictures and spaghetti Westerns.

7. Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984) - Germany

It may not evoke much of the most well known Paris, or even filmed in the actual Paris, Texas in the title, and resemble more of an odd space landscape at times, but Wenders’ meditation of family coming together and apart is harrowing. How does the connection of a fractured family, father and son and husband and wife, even begin to come together again after so much time apart? The film tackles that incredulous question almost in parts by finding these lost characters (played with such emotion by Harry Dean Stanton, Hunter Carson, Dean Stockwell and Nastassja Kinski) in Jury president’s Dirk Bogarde’s choice for the festival’s top prize.

6. La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960) - Italy

That one co-writer of Robert Rossellini’s Rome, Open City that was mentioned before? Turns out he became a very good filmmaker in his own right, and his film in 1960 managed to show that to the entire international filmmaking community. Among inspiring the term that is commonly used now as ‘paparazzi,’ La Dolce Vita plays around with everything that it can with its scope and its structure while exploring themes of religion, narrative, love and others that have made the film a cornerstone of not only the festival, but in film general all over.

5. If… (Lindsay Anderson, 1968) - UK

Released in 1968, Anderson’s energetically turbulent film spoke to a number of cases that were happening around the world at the time; from the May students riots in France, to the riots in the United States and the assassinations of both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy to the counterculture at its apex in general. If… was just the film to come right around the perfect moment in time. Looking at the posh British school system with a very sarcastic and dark eye, students Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell, warming up for A Clockwork Orange) and his pals Wallace and Johnny rebel against the older students that supervise, and lord, over them and against the Headmasters and the overall establishment. Going through the school’s ceremonies, customs and traditions, Mick encounters The Girl and later on, having enough of authorities and their battles against them, spur on a brutal shooting spree on the rooftops to everyone in the school.


4. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976) - USA

 “God’s lonely man.” Has there been a more exacting portrayal of loneliness that explodes outward than Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver? Following the depressive nature of Travis Bickle and even more so of New York City’s descent in the ‘70s, Taxi Driver is a raw and angry look into what makes a person who feels like an outsider, an outcast, and how that anger can manifest in so many different ways. Utilizing a creative mix of gritty and also highly stylized violence (the ending shootout is reminiscent of older Japanese samurai films), Scorsese in his usual manner lets the audience decide what is real or not; what is it worth to be recognized by society. What can be done to wash the supposed filth away?

3. Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945) - UK

This film is anything but simple; co-written by acclaimed playwright Noël Coward, the story focuses on Laura Jesson and her marriage to husband Fred which appears to be a comfortable but dull marriage. It’s until she is on her weekly errands of shopping and going to the movies that she runs into a cataclysm that up ends her entire world – the affection of gentle doctor Alec Harvey. The film takes a nuanced approach in the couple’s final departure; instead of a drawn out and emotional goodbye, Laura and Alec barely get time by themselves and the anguish of that missed opportunity is felt instead. The final scene puts a timeless stamp on the film, in where Laura comes back home to Fred who simply thanks her for coming back home to him.

2. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) - USA

The crowning definition of brilliant insanity, or insane brilliance – the 1970s ended for the towering auteur of Francis Ford Coppola in a maelstrom of heart attacks, suicide, setbacks due to weather, war, drugs and Marlon Brando. Based off Joseph Conrad’s novella, ‘Heart of Darkness,’ Coppola’s effort changes the landscape from the heart of Africa to the heart of Vietnam and how the machinations of modern warfare can change us all. In the film, Captain Willard is charged to go down the Nung River into the deepest of jungle, find the rogue Colonel Kurtz and eliminate him ‘with extreme prejudice’. Despite it all, Brando tailored an incredible and mythological performance, the film breathed the epic scope of it’s aims and Jury president Françoise Sagan made the film the co-recipient of the Palme d’Or along with…

1. Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1945) - Italy

Along with Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, when you hear the acclaimed term ‘Italian neorealism’, Rossellini’s harrowing drama is exactly the kind of film the definition applies to. Co-written by Sergio Amidei and some fellow by the name of Federico Fellini, Rossellini takes a very stripped down and documented approach in crafting the setting of Italy’s world after Benito Mussolini’s fascist reign, after the end of the European theatre in World War II and an overall portrayal of a ravaged continent and where it can go from there. Combined with the idea of wanting to showcase the history of the people of Rome under Nazi Germany’s occupation, Rossellini crafts a tale of a resistance fighter fleeing from the Gestapo, the efforts of a caring priest (based off a real priest, Don Pieto Morosini, who helped the resistance movement and was captured, executed by the Germans accordingly) and various other characters who try to make the best of their situation in a seemingly bleak and oppressive new world.
True to neorealism fashion, Rossellini peppered the cast with non-professional actors and professional actors such as Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani and Marcello Pagliero, shooting with borrowed and discarded film stock and ending the film on the bleak note of death to the priest at the last second. At the time, it was a bleak world and what more powerful message is there for a film to portray than a reflection of real life?

10 Best European Film Award Winners

10. Riff-Raff (Ken Loach, 1991) - UK

Loach lightens up for this documentary-style comedy about the scams, laughs, dangers and camaraderie of work on a London building site. Newcomer Carlyle plays Stevie, a Scottish ex-con teenager who gets a job tearing the guts out of a closed-down hospital. His workmates are a mixed bunch: Irishmen, West Indians and Scousers with a healthy disrespect for their idle ganger, a talent for ducking and diving, and a keen eye for the main chance. The company's cavalier disrespect for basic safety standards eventually brings tensions on the site to a head. Bill Jesse's pointedly funny script skilfully evokes the texture of working life; Loach's handling of Stevie's tentative romance with would-be singer Susan (McCourt), on the other hand, wavers between the touchingly simple and curiously off-key. There are times, too, when the lively spontaneity of the improvised scenes slips into inaudible chaos. Sadly, Bill Jesse died without seeing the finished film, but this is as good an epitaph as he could have hoped for.

9. All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999) - Spain

Considered to be one of the finest works of Almodóvar, ‘All About My Mother’ focuses on the life of a single mother and her quest to find the transvestite father of her son, who died in a tragic car crash. The narrative weaves itself around complex themes such as homosexuality, transvestism, nihilism, loneliness and death. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2000.

8. The Stolen Children (Gianni Amelio,1992) - Italy

Gianni Amelio’s “The Stolen Children” is a powerful vision of a humanly rich but socially impoverished country, likely to earn a special niche in Italian film history. This small gem of a picture has a capacity to communicate profoundly, without cliches, to selected audiences; in its exclusive engagement in Rome, pic has attracted steady interest, and may do even better abroad.

7. Talk to Her (Pedro Almodóvar, 2002) - Spain

Perhaps the best movie made by Almodóvar and one of the finest to have ever been made, ‘Talk to Her’ is a moving tale of an unusual relationship that develops between two men while caring for two women, both of whom are in comas. The movie makes a definite attempt at dealing with a number of complicated themes including loneliness, communication, love and humane instincts. Almodóvar clinched the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for this film in 2003.

6. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006) - Germany

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Das leben der anderen (The Lives of Others) is a sleek and often times muted film that economizes its time and visuals in order to speak volumes. With a masterful performance by Ulrich Mühe, the film chronicles the covert espionage and surveillance of oppressive regimes in East Germany.

5. Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet 2001) - France

Amelie Poulain is a curious girl with her own fantastic impressions about life and a deep love towards people. Her passion to help those around herself allows the viewer to meet the little people of Paris and, wrapped up in Amelie’s intense creative imagination, to go on a special walking tour around Montmartre.
Instead of the main touristic highlights, Amelie guides the viewer into the heart of the city, showing less renowned landmarks but more authentic scenes. This is in line with the main character’s idea that the beauty of life lies within the simplest, tiny little knick-knacks that one can only find when looking very close.

4. Lamerica (Gianni Amelio, 1994) - Italy

Two tough Italian con artists come face to face with the nightmarish despair of post-Communist Albania in “Lamerica,” a hard-hitting, often moving film by top Italo helmer Gianni Amelio. Pic’s uncompromising scorn for the two exploiters is matched by its hellish vision of a starving nation desperately searching for an escape hatch. Much tougher than Amelio’s previous “The Stolen Children,” pic could encounter resistance from more delicate filmgoers. But its evangelical sincerity and the sweeping emotion of its finale could win the director new admirers abroad with well-targeted handling.

3. Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, 2000) - Denmark

Dancer in the Dark is von Trier’s ironic and sadistic take on the musical genre in his true heart-wrenching melodramatic style. Impoverished single mother and Czech immigrant, Selma Ježková, (Björk), works two jobs in order to afford an operation for her son that will prevent his vision from deteriorating – a condition that she also suffers from. When her landlord tries to steal her money, a tragedy unfolds leading to heartbreaking consequences culminating in one of the most hard-hitting final scenes in cinema.

2. The Full Monty (Peter Cattaneo, 1997) - UK

Bright and sassy, “The Full Monty” is a treat. Backed by inventive marketing, this small but muscular British pic about a bunch of gawky unemployeds launching a striptease act could turn into a winner for Fox Searchlight in the right locations, and looks set for solid business in other territories. Apart from Robert Carlyle, it’s a no-name cast, so word of mouth and the off-the-wall concept will play a large role in selling the movie.

1. Life Is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni, 1997) - Italy

“This is a simple story, but not an easy one to tell”. Describing this intimate story taken from his own family history, Roberto Benigni mixes unremitting drama with comedy, creating a delicate and unique balance in this memorable film.