The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presen ...

. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the highest prize at the festival was the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film. In 1964, The Palme d'Or was replaced again by the Grand Prix, before being reintroduced in 1975. The Palme d'Or is widely considered to be one of the most prestigious awards in the

film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a is . Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, sta ...

History

Blason ville fr Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes)

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 Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm trees, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several Arecaceae#Other plants, other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer ...

, in tribute to the coat of arms of the city of

Cannes Cannes (; , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera The French Riviera (known in French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France France (), officially the French ...

Cannes

evoking the famous legend of

Saint Honorat

and the palm trees lining the famous

Promenade de la Croisette The Promenade de la Croisette (), or Boulevard de la Croisette, is a prominent road in Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera The French Riviera (known in French language, French as the ; oc, Còsta d ...

. The original design by Parisian jeweller Lucienne Lazon, who took inspiration in a sketch done by legendary director

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...

, had the

bevel A bevelled edge (UK) or beveled edge (US) is an edge of a structure that is not perpendicular to the faces of the piece. The words bevel and chamfer A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a ...

led lower extremity of the

stalk Stalk or stalking may refer to: Behaviour * Stalk, the stealthy approach (phase) of a predator towards its prey * Stalking, an act of intrusive behaviour or unwanted attention towards a person * Deer stalking, the pursuit of deer for sport Biology ...

forming a heart, and the pedestal a sculpture in

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; Italian Italian may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Italy ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic ** Italian language, a Romance ...

by the artist Sébastien. In 1955, the first Palme d'Or was awarded to

Delbert Mann Delbert Martin Mann Jr. (January 30, 1920 – November 11, 2007) was an American television and film director. He won the Academy Award for Best Director The Academy Award for Best Director (officially known as the Academy Award of Merit ...

for the film '' Marty''. From 1964 to 1974, the Festival temporarily resumed a Grand Prix. In 1975, the Palme d'Or was reintroduced and has since remained the symbol of the Cannes Film Festival, awarded every year to the director of the winning film, and was then presented in a case of pure red

Morocco leather Morocco leather (also known as Levant, the French Maroquin, or German Saffian from Safi, a Moroccan town famous for leather) is a soft, pliable form of leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning Ta ...

lined with white

suede Suede (pronounced ()) is a type of leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to da ...

. As of 2021,

Jane Campion Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand film director, director, screenwriter, and Film producer, producer. She is the second of seven women ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and the first female ...

and

Julia Ducournau Julia Ducournau (; born 18 November 1983) is a French film director and screenwriter. She made her feature film debut in 2016 with ''Raw (film), Raw''. At the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, she won the Palme d'Or for her film ''Titane (film), Titane'' ...

are the only female directors to have won the Palme d'Or, for their work on ''

The Piano ''The Piano'' is a 1993 period drama film written and directed by Jane Campion Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand film director, director, screenwriter, and Film producer, producer. She is the second of se ...

'' and '' Titane'', respectively. However, in 2013, when '' Blue Is the Warmest Color'' won the Palme d'Or, the

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He began his career in the New Hollywood New Hollywood, sometimes referred to as the American New Wave or the Hollywood Renaissance, r ...

-headed jury awarded it to the film's director

Abdellatif Kechiche Abdellatif Kechiche (; ar, عبد اللطيف كشيش, born 7 December 1960) born in Tunis, Tunisia, is a Tunisian-France, French actor, film director and screenwriter. He made his directorial debut in 2000 with ''La Faute à Voltaire'', which ...

, as well as the film's actresses Adèle Exarchopoulos and

Léa Seydoux Léa Hélène Seydoux-Fornier de Clausonne (; born 1 July 1985) is a French actress. She began her acting career in French cinema, appearing in films such as ''The Last Mistress ''The Last Mistress'' (french: link=no, Une vieille maîtresse, l ...

. This marks the first time multiple Palme d'Or trophies were given out in the festival's history. Palmed'or

The jury decided to award the actresses alongside the director due to a Cannes policy that forbids the Palme d'Or-winning film from receiving any additional awards, thereby preventing the jury from rewarding both the film and the film's actresses separately. Of the unorthodox decision, Spielberg said that "had the casting been 3% wrong, it wouldn't have worked like it did for us". Kechiche later auctioned off his Palme d'Or trophy to fund his new feature film, and expressed dissatisfaction about the festival having given out multiple trophies in an interview with ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine, and website, which focuses on the Hollywood Hollywood is a neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English British English (BrE) is the standard d ...

'', saying that he felt they had "publicly insulted" him by doing it, and that "liberating myself from this Palme d’Or is a way of washing my hands of this sorry affair". 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, gradually transformed to become pyramidal in 1984. In 1992, Thierry de Bourqueney redesigned the Palme and its pedestal in hand-cut

crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid Solid is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid In physics, a fluid is a substance that continually Deformatio ...

crystal

. In 1997,

Caroline Scheufele Caroline Scheufele, born December 14, 1961, in Pforzheim, Germany, is a German business woman. She is the artistic director and co-president of Chopard, the Swiss-based luxury watches and jewellery manufacturer. She is the daughter of Karl and Kar ...

redesigned the statuette and since then, has been manufactured by Swiss jewellery

Chopard Le Petit-Fils de L.-U. Chopard & Cie S.A., commonly known as Chopard, is a Switzerland, Swiss manufacturer and retailer of luxury watches, jewellery and accessories. Founded in 1860 by Louis-Ulysse Chopard in Sonvilier, Sonvilier, Switzerland, Chop ...

. The palm is made from of 18-carat yellow gold while the base of the branch forms a small heart. The Palme d’or rests on a dainty rock crystal cushion shaped like an emerald-cut diamond. A single piece of cut crystal forms a cushion for the palm, which was hand-cast into a wax mould and now presented in a case of blue

. In 1998, Theo Angelopoulos was the first director to win the Palme d'or as we now know it today for his film ''

Eternity and a Day ''Eternity and a Day'' ( el, Μια αιωνιότητα και μια μέρα, ') is a 1998 Greek drama film In film and television show, television, drama is a category of narrative fiction (or docudrama, semi-fiction) intended to be more ...

''. The winner of the 2014 Palme d'Or, '' Winter Sleep''—a Turkish film by

Nuri Bilge Ceylan Nuri Bilge Ceylan (, born 26 January 1959) is a Turkish photographer, cinematographer, screenwriter and actor and film director best known for the Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film ...

—occurred during the same year as the 100th anniversary of Turkish cinema. Upon receiving the award, Ceylan dedicated the prize to both the "young people" involved in the ongoing political unrest in Turkey and the workers who were killed in the Soma mine disaster, which occurred on the day prior to the commencement of the awards event. In 2017, the award was re-designed 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 The 73rd annual Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival A film ...

was cancelled due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing global pandemic A pandemic (from , , "all" and , , "local people" the 'crowd') is an of an that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple or worldwide, affecting a substantial numbe ...

. 56 films were announced as official selections by the festival, but no awards were given this year.

Winners

; Notes : ^# Denotes Ex-aequo win : ^§ Denotes

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win : ^‡ The Palme d'Or for ''

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'' was awarded in retrospect at the 2002 festival. The festival's debut was to take place in 1939, but it was cancelled due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a global war A world war is "a war War is an intense armed conflict between states State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literatur ...

. The organisers of the 2002 festival presented part of the original 1939 selection to a professional jury of six members. The films were: '' Boefje'', ''

The Four Feathers ''The Four Feathers'' is a 1902 adventure novel by British writer A. E. W. Mason that has inspired many films of the same title. In December 1901, ''Cornhill Magazine'' announced the title as one of two new serial stories to be published in th ...

'', '' Goodbye Mr. Chips'', '' Lenin in 1918'', '' La Loi du Nord'', ''

'' & ''

The Wizard of Oz ''The Wizard of Oz'' may refer to: *''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', a 1900 American novel by L. Frank Baum **Wizard of Oz (character), from the Baum novel series The Wizard of Oz may also refer to: Adaptations of the novel Film * The Wonderful ...

''.

Multiple winners

Eight directors or co-directors have won the award twice: *

Alf Sjöberg

(1946 & 1951) *

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment ...

(1974 & 1979) *

Bille August Bille August (born 9 November 1948) is a Danish director, screenwriter, and cinematographer of film and television. In a career spanning over four decades, he has been the recipient of numerous accolades, making him one of the most acclaimed co ...

(1988 & 1992) *//

Emir Kusturica Emir Kusturica ( sr-cyrl, Емир Кустурица; born 24 November 1954) is a Serbian filmmaker, actor and musician. He also has French citizenship. He has been recognized for several internationally acclaimed feature films, as well as his ...

(1985 & 1995) *

Shohei Imamura

(1983 & 1997) * Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne (1999 & 2005) *

Michael Haneke Michael Haneke (; born 23 March 1942) is an Austrian film director A film director controls a 's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the (or script) while guiding the and s in the fulfilment of that . The director has a key role ...

(2009 & 2012) *

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is an English filmmaker. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (''Poor Cow ''Poor Cow'' is a 1967 British kit ...

(2006 & 2016)

Honorary Palme d'Or

In 1997, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Festival, the Cannes jury awarded a "Palme des Palmes" for the first time. In 2002 the festival began to sporadically award a non-competitive Honorary Palme d'Or to directors or actors who had achieved a notable body of work but who had never won a competitive Palme d'Or. In 2018, the Cannes jury also awarded a "Special Palme d'Or" for the first time.

References

External links

''Palme d'Or'' Winners
from 1976 to the present, by gross box-office
Festival-cannes.com

Cannes Film Festival

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