Cannes past winners
| Award winners | |||
| Grand Prix du Festival International du Film (1939-54) | |||
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of Director |
| (at time of film's release) | |||
| 1939 | Union Pacific[4] | Cecil B. DeMille | United States |
| 1946 | Torment (Hets) | Alf Sjöberg | Sweden |
| The Lost Weekend | Billy Wilder | United States | |
| Red Meadows (De røde enge) | Bodil Ipsen and Lau Lauritzen | Denmark | |
| Brief Encounter | David Lean | United Kingdom | |
| Portrait of Maria (María Candelaria) | Emilio Fernández | Mexico | |
| Neecha Nagar | Chetan Anand | India | |
| The Turning Point (Великий перелом, Velikiy perelom) | Fridrikh Markovitch Ermler | Soviet Union | |
| La symphonie pastorale | Jean Delannoy | France | |
| The Last Chance (Die Letzte Chance) | Leopold Lintberg | Austria | |
| Men Without Wings (Muži bez křídel) | František Čáp | Czechoslovakia | |
| Rome, Open City (Roma, città aperta) | Roberto Rossellini | Italy | |
| 1947 | not awarded | ||
| 1948 | not held | ||
| 1949 | The Third Man | Carol Reed | United Kingdom |
| 1950 | not held | ||
| 1951 | Miss Julie (Fröken Julie) | Alf Sjöberg | Sweden |
| Miracle in Milan (Miracolo a Milano) | Vittorio De Sica | Italy | |
| 1952 | The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice | Orson Welles | United States |
| Two Cents Worth of Hope (Due soldi di speranza) | Renato Castellani | Italy | |
| 1953 | The Wages of Fear (Le salaire de la peur) | Henri-Georges Clouzot | France |
| 1954 | Gate of Hell (地獄門, Jigokumon) | Teinosuke Kinugasa | Japan |
| Palme d'Or (1955-1963) | |||
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of Director |
| (at time of film's release) | |||
| 1955 | Marty | Delbert Mann | United States |
| 1956 | The Silent World (Le monde du silence) | Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Louis Malle | France |
| 1957 | Friendly Persuasion | William Wyler | United States |
| 1958 | The Cranes Are Flying (Летят журавли, Letyat zhuravli) | Mikhail Kalatozov | Soviet Union |
| 1959 | Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro) | Marcel Camus | France |
| 1960 | La dolce vita | Federico Fellini | Italy |
| 1961 | The Long Absence (Une aussi longue absence) | Henri Colpi | France |
| Viridiana | Luis Buñuel | Spain | |
| 1962 | O Pagador de Promessas | Anselmo Duarte | Brazil |
| 1963 | The Leopard (Il gattopardo) | Luchino Visconti | Italy |
| Grand Prix du Festival International du Film (1964-1974) | |||
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of Director |
| (at time of film's release) | |||
| 1964 | The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Les parapluies de Cherbourg) | Jacques Demy | France |
| 1965 | The Knack …and How to Get It | Richard Lester | United States |
| 1966 | A Man and a Woman (Un homme et une femme) | Claude Lelouch | France |
| The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (Signore and signori) | Pietro Germi | Italy | |
| 1967 | Blow-Up | Michelangelo Antonioni | Italy |
| 1968 | canceled due to events of May 1968 | ||
| 1969 | if.... | Lindsay Anderson | United Kingdom |
| 1970 | MASH | Robert Altman | United States |
| 1971 | The Go-Between | Joseph Losey | United States |
| 1972 | The Working Class Goes to Heaven (La classe operaia va in paradiso) | Elio Petri | Italy |
| The Mattei Affair (Il caso Mattei) | Francesco Rosi | Italy | |
| 1973 | The Hireling | Alan Bridges | United Kingdom |
| Scarecrow | Jerry Schatzberg | United States | |
| 1974 | The Conversation | Francis Ford Coppola | United States |
| Palme d'Or (1975-present) | |||
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of Director |
| (at time of film's release) | |||
| 1975 | Chronicle of the Years of Fire (Chronique des années de braise) | Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina | Algeria |
| 1976 | Taxi Driver | Martin Scorsese | United States |
| 1977 | Padre Padrone | Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani | Italy |
| 1978 | The Tree of Wooden Clogs (L'albero degli zoccoli) | Ermanno Olmi | Italy |
| 1979 | Apocalypse Now | Francis Ford Coppola | United States |
| The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel) | Volker Schlöndorff | West Germany | |
| 1980 | All That Jazz | Bob Fosse | United States |
| Kagemusha (影武者) | Akira Kurosawa | Japan | |
| 1981 | Man of Iron (Człowiek z żelaza) | Andrzej Wajda | Poland |
| 1982 | Missing | Costa-Gavras | Greece |
| The Way (Yol) | Yılmaz Güney and Şerif Gören | Turkey | |
| 1983 | The Ballad of Narayama (楢山節考, Narayama bushiko) | Shohei Imamura | Japan |
| 1984 | Paris, Texas | Wim Wenders | West Germany |
| 1985 | When Father Was Away on Business (Otac na službenom putu) | Emir Kusturica | Yugoslavia |
| 1986 | The Mission | Roland Joffé | United Kingdom |
| 1987 | Under the Sun of Satan (Sous le soleil de Satan) | Maurice Pialat | France |
| 1988 | Pelle the Conqueror (Pelle erobreren) | Bille August | Denmark |
| 1989 | sex, lies, and videotape | Steven Soderbergh | United States |
| 1990 | Wild at Heart | David Lynch | United States |
| 1991 | Barton Fink | Joel and Ethan Coen | United States |
| 1992 | The Best Intentions (Den goda viljan) | Bille August | Denmark |
| 1993 | Farewell My Concubine (霸王別姬, Bàwáng bié jī) | Chen Kaige | China |
| The Piano | Jane Campion | New Zealand | |
| 1994 | Pulp Fiction | Quentin Tarantino | United States |
| 1995 | Underground (Подземље, Podzemlje) | Emir Kusturica | FR Yugoslavia |
| 1996 | Secrets & Lies | Mike Leigh | United Kingdom |
| 1997 | Taste of Cherry (طعم گيلاس, Ta'm-e gīlās) | Abbas Kiarostami | Iran |
| The Eel (''うなぎ, Unagi) | Shohei Imamura | Japan | |
| 1998 | Eternity and a Day (Μια αιωνιότητα και μια μέρα, Mia aioniotita kai mia mera) | Theo Angelopoulos | Greece |
| 1999 | Rosetta | Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne | Belgium |
| 2000 | Dancer in the Dark | Lars von Trier | Denmark |
| 2001 | The Son's Room (La stanza del figlio) | Nanni Moretti | Italy |
| 2002 | The Pianist | Roman Polanski | Poland |
| 2003 | Elephant | Gus Van Sant | United States |
| 2004 | Fahrenheit 9/11 | Michael Moore | United States |
| 2005 | The Child (L'enfant) | Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne | Belgium |
| 2006 | The Wind That Shakes the Barley | Ken Loach | United Kingdom |
| 2007 | 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile) | Cristian Mungiu | Romania |
| 2008 | The Class (Entre les murs) | Laurent Cantet | France |
6 directors have received two Golden Palms so far, including the Dardenne brothers who came that close to breaking history.
Alf Sjöberg (1946, 1951)
Francis Ford Coppola (1974, 1979)
Shohei Imamura (1983, 1997)
Emir Kusturica (1985, 1995)
Bille August (1988, 1992)
Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (1999, 2005)
