Cannes 2023: Does winning a Palme d'Or guarantee an Oscar?

The 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival is underway. Filmmakers and celebrities throng to the French Riviera for an annual celebration of films and fashion. Movies enter both in the competitive and non-competitive categories at Cannes, with a jury presiding over that announces the winner of the prestigious Palme d'Or, the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival.

The  Palme d'Or is not just coveted within the Cannes circuit, but is widely considered one of the film industry's most prestigious awards. Cinema buffs even point out that winning a Palme d’Or paves way for an Oscar nomination in the Best Film category, while positioning the title and the filmmaker as a strong contender for a win in Hollywood. But does a Palme d’Or actually guarantee an Oscar win? Here's what the statistics say.

Palme d’Or winners in the last decade that won an Oscar

Since the very first edition of the Cannes Film Festival in 1946, only 17 films have won both a Palme d’Or and an Oscar. Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund was the Palme d’Or winner in the year 2022. Later, at the Oscar 2023, the film was nominated under Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and the Best Director categories. However, it lost in all three categories to Everything Everywhere All at Once. 

Bong Joon Ho's Parasite creates history

Palme d’Or recipient in 2021, Titane from writer-director Julia Ducournau was selected at Oscars for Best International Film from France. However, it was not shortlisted by The Academy. Bong Joon Ho's Parasite (2019) was the only film in the last decade to have not only won the Palme d’Or but also the Oscar for Best Picture. It also won the Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Production Design, Best Film Editing and Best Foreign Film at Oscars 2020. The director said, “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”

1946 to 2012: Palme d'Or and Oscar recipients 

Before Parasite's historic win, Amour (2012) by Michael Haneke won both Palme d'Or and Oscar. The film received five nominations at the Academy Awards and won the Best Foreign Language Film honour. Before this, in 2002, The Pianist, again a Palme d'Or winner starring Adrien Brody and directed by Roman Polanski scored three wins in the Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director categories at the Oscars while being nominated in a total of 7 categories. 

From the very first edition of the Cannes Film Festival in 1946 to the end of the 90s, out of the several Palme d’Or winning films at Cannes such as Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994), The Piano (1993), The Mission (1986), Apocalypse Now (1979) and others, only one film won the Best Picture accolade at the Academy Awards. Marty (1955) by Delbert Mann was the first Palme d’Or film to have won the Best Picture award while breaking into the Oscars circuit. However, from 1946 to 1994, during the 48-year-long period, a total 14 of Palme d’Or winners went on to win an Oscar. 

All dual winners of Palme d'Or and Oscar 

The 50s marked the first time when a title won both Palme d'Or and Oscar honour-- Marty (1955)-- followed by The Silent World (1956) and Black Orpheus (1959). The 60s saw just two films winning at both Cannes and Oscars, with La Dolce Vita (1960) and A Man and a Woman (1966) winning big. The 70s saw three entrants in the league, and in a rare instance, the joint Palme d'Or winners of the same year, Apocalypse Now (1979) and The Tin Drum (1979), went on to score win at the Oscars. All That Jazz (1980), Missing (1982), The Mission (1986) and Pelle the Conqueror (1987) won the honours in the 80s, while The Piano (1993), and Pulp Fiction (1994) were the winners in the 90s. The Pianist (2002), Amour (2012) and Parasite (2019) were the only films since the 2000s which won an Oscar.