The Palme d'Or

The Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) is the coveted top prize presented to the director of the best feature film in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Although the Festival de Cannes was first held in 1946, the Palme d'Or was not actually created until a few years later. In the early years of the festival, the top prize was originally called the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film (The Grand Prize of the International Film Festival).

The Palme d'Or was created in 1955 as a tribute to the host city's coat-of-arms, and it became the festival's highest honor until 1964 when legal issues forced the festival's directors to temporarily revert to the original prize. It wasn't until 1975 that the Palme was fully reinstated and it has remained the festival's main prize ever since.

In the 65 years (as of 2012) that the Cannes Film Festival has been held, there have been a few anomalies: the first year saw 11 separate films awarded; there have also been ties on 10 other occasions; plus one winner was awarded retroactively (in 2002 for the cancelled inaugural 1939 festival that had to be  scrapped because of WWII) for a total of 84 winners, of which only 8 of them have been voted on unanimously by the jury. 

Winning films have been selected from 25 different countries. The most successful being the USA with 18 Palme/Grand Prix combined. Followed by Italy with 12, France and the UK each with 9, and Denmark and Japan tied with 4.

Only one female director has ever won the Palme d'Or. New Zealand's Jane Campion for The Piano (1993).

There have also been 7 double award winning directors. Alf Sjöberg (1946, 1951), Francis Ford Coppola (1974, 1979), Bille August (1988, 1992), Emir Kusturica (1985, 1995), Shohei Imamura (1983, 1997), Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (1999, 2005), and most recently Michael Haneke (2009, 2012). So far no director has won the top prize more than twice.

As a new ongoing feature, I will attempt to eventually work my way through the entire list, watching and reviewing each and every one of the winners and keeping track of them all in this post. Even though the award winning films from 1939-1954 and 1964-1974 didn't actually receive a Palme d'Or, I will still include them here for completeness.

The Palme d'Or / Grand Prix du Festival Award Winners:

Union Pacific (1939)
Cecil B. Demille - USA

Iris and the Lieutenant (Iris och löjtnantshjärta) (1946) †
Alf Sjöberg - Sweden

The Lost Weekend (1946) †
Billy Wilder - United States

The Red Meadows (De røde enge) (1946) †
Bodil Ipsen and Lau Lauritzen Jr. - Denmark

Brief Encounter (1946) †
David Lean - United Kingdom

Portrait of Maria (María Candelaria (Xochimilco)) (1946) †
Emilio Fernández - Mexico

Neecha Nagar (नीचा नगर) (1946) †
Chetan Anand - India

The Turning Point (Великий перелом, Velikiy perelom) (1946) †
Fridrikh Ermler - Soviet Union

La symphonie pastorale (1946) †
Jean Delannoy - France

The Last Chance (Die Letzte Chance) (1946) †
Leopold Lindtberg - Austria

Men Without Wings (Muži bez křídel) (1946) †
František Čáp - Czechoslovakia

Rome, Open City (Roma, città aperta) (1946) †
Roberto Rossellini - Italy

The Third Man (1949)
Carol Reed - United Kingdom

Miss Julie (Fröken Julie) (1951) †
Alf Sjöberg - Sweden

Miracle in Milan (Miracolo a Milano) (1951) †
Vittorio De Sica - Italy

The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice (1952) †
Orson Welles - United States

Two Cents Worth of Hope (Due soldi di speranza) (1952) †
Renato Castellani - Italy

The Wages of Fear (Le salaire de la peur) (1953)
Henri-Georges Clouzot - France

Gate of Hell (地獄門, Jigokumon) (1954)
Teinosuke Kinugasa - Japan

Marty (1955)
Delbert Mann - United States

The Silent World (Le monde du silence) (1956)
Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Louis Malle - France

Friendly Persuasion (1957)
William Wyler - United States

The Cranes Are Flying (Летят журавли, Letyat zhuravli) (1958)
Mikhail Kalatozov - Soviet Union

Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro) (1959)
Marcel Camus - France

La Dolce Vita (1960)
Federico Fellini - Italy

The Long Absence (Une aussi longue absence) (1961) †
Henri Colpi - France

Viridiana (1961) †
Luis Buñuel - Mexico

O Pagador de Promessas (1962)
Anselmo Duarte - Brazil

The Leopard (Il gattopardo) (1963)
Luchino Visconti - Italy

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Les parapluies de Cherbourg) (1964)
Jacques Demy - France

The Knack …and How to Get It (1965)
Richard Lester - United Kingdom

A Man and a Woman (Un homme et une femme) (1966) †
Claude Lelouch - France

The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (Signore e signori) (1966) †
Pietro Germi - Italy

Blow-Up (1967)
Michelangelo Antonioni - Italy

if.... (1969)
Lindsay Anderson - United Kingdom

MASH (1970)
Robert Altman - United States

The Go-Between (1971)
Joseph Losey - United Kingdom

The Working Class Goes to Heaven (La classe operaia va in paradiso) (1972) †
Elio Petri - Italy

The Mattei Affair (Il caso Mattei) (1972) †
Francesco Rosi - Italy

The Hireling (1973) †
Alan Bridges - United Kingdom

Scarecrow (1973) †
Jerry Schatzberg - United States

The Conversation (1974)
Francis Ford Coppola - United States

Chronicle of the Years of Fire (Chronique des années de braise) (1975)
Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina - Algeria

Taxi Driver (1976)
Martin Scorsese - United States

Padre Padrone (1977)
Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani - Italy

The Tree of Wooden Clogs (L'albero degli zoccoli) (1978)
Ermanno Olmi - Italy

Apocalypse Now (1979) †
Francis Ford Coppola - United States

The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel) (1979) †
Volker Schlöndorff - West Germany

All That Jazz (1980) †
Bob Fosse - United States

Kagemusha (影武者) (1980) †
Akira Kurosawa - Japan

Man of Iron (Człowiek z żelaza) (1981)
Andrzej Wajda - Poland

Missing (1982) †
Costa-Gavras - Greece

The Way (Yol) (1982) †
Yılmaz Güney and Şerif Gören - Turkey

The Ballad of Narayama (楢山節考 / Narayama bushikō) (1983)
Shohei Imamura - Japan

Paris, Texas (1984) *
Wim Wenders - West Germany

When Father Was Away on Business (Otac na službenom putu) (1985) *
Emir Kusturica - Yugoslavia

The Mission (1986)
Roland Joffé - United Kingdom

Under the Sun of Satan (Sous le soleil de Satan) (1987) *
Maurice Pialat - France

Pelle the Conqueror (Pelle erobreren) (1988)
Bille August - Denmark

Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)
Steven Soderbergh - United States

Wild at Heart (1990)
David Lynch - United States

Barton Fink (1991) *
Joel and Ethan Coen - United States

The Best Intentions (Den goda viljan) (1992)
Bille August - Denmark

Farewell My Concubine (霸王別姬 / Bàwáng bié jī) (1993) †
Chen Kaige - China

The Piano (1993) †
Jane Campion - New Zealand

Pulp Fiction (1994)
Quentin Tarantino - United States

Underground (Подземље, Podzemlje) (1995)
Emir Kusturica - Yugoslavia

Secrets & Lies (1996)
Mike Leigh - United Kingdom

Taste of Cherry (طعم گيلاس / Ta'm-e gīlās) (1997) †
Abbas Kiarostami - Iran

The Eel (うなぎ, Unagi) (1997) †
Shohei Imamura - Japan

Eternity and a Day (Μια αιωνιότητα και μια μέρα / Mia aio̱nióti̱ta kai mia méra) (1998) *
Theo Angelopoulos - Greece

Rosetta (1999) *
Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne - Belgium

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

The Son's Room (La stanza del figlio) (2001)
Nanni Moretti - Italy

The Pianist (Pianista) (2002)
Roman Polanski - Poland

Elephant (2003)
Gus Van Sant - United States

Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
Michael Moore - United States

L'enfant (The Child) (2005)
Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne - Belgium

The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) *
Ken Loach - United Kingdom

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile) (2007)
Cristian Mungiu - Romania

The Class (Entre les murs) (2008) *
Laurent Cantet - France

The White Ribbon (Das weiße Band, Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte) (2009)
Michael Haneke - Austria

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ / Lung Bunmi Raluek Chat) (2010)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul - Thailand

The Tree of Life (2011)
Terrence Malick - United States

Love (Amour) (2012)
Michael Haneke - Austria

Blue is the Warmest Colour (La Vie d'Adèle - Chapitre 1 & 2) (2013)
Abdellatif Kechiche, (Léa Seydoux, Adèle Exarchopoulos) France

* denotes unanimous win
† denotes tie

How many have you seen? Which one should I start with?