Palme d'Or


The Palme d'Or 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 Palme d'Or was replaced again by the Grand Prix, before being reintroduced in 1975.
The Palme d'Or 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 Palme d'Or was awarded to Delbert Mann for his 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 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.File:Palmed'or.jpg|thumb|upright=1.05|Palme d'Or awarded to Apocalypse Now at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival
As of 2023, Jane Campion, Julia Ducournau, and Justine Triet are the only female directors to have won the Palme d'Or. However, Bodil Ipsen won the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film for The Red Meadows as part of an 11-way tie at the inaugural 1946 festival.
Additionally, in 2013, when Blue Is the Warmest Color won the Palme d'Or, 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 Palme d'Or trophies were presented. The jury decided to include the actresses in the recognition due to a Cannes policy that forbids the Palme d'Or-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, wouldn't have worked like it did for us". Subsequently, Kechiche auctioned off his Palme d'Or 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".
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. The Palme d'or rests on a dainty crystal cushion shaped like an emerald-cut diamond. 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 Palme d'or as it appears today, for his film Eternity and a Day.
The presentation of the 2014 Palme d'Or 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.

Winners

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

; Notes

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.
YearEnglish TitleOriginal TitleDirectorProduction CountryRef.
2018The Image BookLe Livre d'imageJean-Luc GodardSwitzerland, France

Wins by country

Multiple winners

Nine directors or director duos have won the award twice. Three of them have won for consecutive films.
Number of WinsDirectorsNationalityFilms
2Alf SjöbergSwedenTorment,
Miss Julie
2Francis Ford CoppolaUnited StatesThe Conversation,
Apocalypse Now
2Bille August DenmarkPelle the Conqueror,
The Best Intentions
2Emir KusturicaYugoslaviaWhen Father Was Away on Business,
Underground
2Shōhei ImamuraJapanThe Ballad of Narayama,
The Eel
2Jean-Pierre & Luc DardenneBelgiumRosetta,
L'Enfant
2Michael Haneke AustriaThe White Ribbon,
Amour
2Ken LoachUnited KingdomThe Wind That Shakes the Barley,
I, Daniel Blake
2Ruben Östlund SwedenThe Square,
Triangle of Sadness
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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.
YearRecipientProfessionNationality of Recipient
1997Ingmar BergmanFilmmakerSweden

Since 2002 the festival began to 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.
YearRecipientProfessionNationality of RecipientRef.
2002Woody AllenFilmmaker and actorUnited States
2003Jeanne MoreauActressFrance
2005Catherine DeneuveActressFrance
2007Jane FondaActress and producerUnited States
2008Manoel de OliveiraFilmmakerPortugal
2009Clint EastwoodActor and filmmakerUnited States
2011Jean-Paul BelmondoActorFrance
2011Bernardo BertolucciFilmmakerItaly
2015Agnès VardaFilmmakerFrance
2016Jean-Pierre LéaudActorFrance
2017Jeffrey KatzenbergProducerUnited States
2019Alain DelonActorFrance
2021Marco BellocchioFilmmakerItaly
2021Jodie FosterActress and filmmakerUnited States
2022Forest WhitakerActor and producerUnited States
2022Tom CruiseActor and producerUnited States
2023Michael DouglasActor and producerUnited States
2023Harrison FordActor and producerUnited States
2024Meryl StreepActressUnited States
2024George LucasFilmmaker and producerUnited States
2024Studio GhibliAnimation studioJapan
2025Robert De NiroActor and producerUnited States
2025Denzel WashingtonActor, director, and producerUnited States