8 Films That Almost Won the Palme d’Or

UPDATE: Reposting this story on Memorial Day.

It’s almost impossible to find info on Cannes jury deliberations. The process is always ultra-secretive and there’s usually a code of honor that comes in being part of a group that decides on the film world’s greatest prize.

Despite all that, leaks have occurred over the years albeit not frequently enough to find more than 8 or so instances when we learned about a film that was very close to winning the Palme. After much research, I found these 10 fascinating stories.

NOTE: As mentioned, it was very hard to gather up these leaks and I’d be curious to learn about more stories like these. Please do share them in the comments section below.

Melancholia (2011)

It wasn’t a surprise when Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life” won the Palme d’Or in 2011. It was a critically praised film, despite some detractors. However, it turns out that Malick’s masterpiece was not the original choice for the big prize. Olivier Assayas recently confirmed long-standing rumors that Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia” was the film that actually won the jury’s hearts. According to Assayas, only Jude Law and himself believed “Tree of Life” should have won the Palme. The majority of the jury members actually wanted “Melancholia” and the only reason why they decided to switch their pick from Von Trier to Malick was due to the infamous “Melancholia” press conference where Von Trier admitted to understanding why Hitler did what he did and could sympathize with the former dictator. Assayas said. “There were consequences on the record, as he was a serious contender for the [Palme d’Or].”

Young Ahmed (2019)

In 2019, the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu-led jury almost rewarded “Young Ahmed” the Palme d;Or; In fact, the Palme was the Dardennes’ to lose. However, with just three days left in the competition, the screening of eventual Palme winner Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” complicated things for Inarritu’s jury and eventually led to their awarding the Korean film the Palme. The Dardennes ended up with the Best Director prize. The Dardennes had already won two Palmes in their career (“Rosetta” and “L’Enfant”), not to mention a Best Screenplay prize (“Lorna’s Silence”), and the 2012 Grand Prix (“The Kid With A Bike”), so one might understand why Inarritu’s jury would decide to reward Bong, who had never won anything at Cannes before that weekend.

Oldboy (2004)

Quentin Tarantino, 2004 Jury President, was so impressed by Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy” that he was seen attending at least three screenings of the film during the festival. What’s more surprising is Tarantino’s jury not rewarding the film the Palme and instead going for a political statement by giving the prize to Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11”. Stories about the jury deliberating for hours about whether to honor Park or Moore are now the stuff of Cannes legend. Twenty years later, they clearly made the wrong pick. “Oldboy” won the Grand Prix, the second-most prestigious prize of the festival, but should have been a Palme winner. “Fahrenheit 9/11” was a spur of the moment win, a way for the jury to come together and make a political statement against the war in Iraq.

BPM (2017)

There was a lot of tension between jury President Pedro Almodóvar and juror Will Smith when the latter blocked the former's favorite — Robin Campillo's gay activism drama “BPM” — from winning the Palme in 2017. Smith’s fellow jurors, including Jessica Chastain and Maren Ade, were also ready to reward Campillo the big prize, but Smith didn’t relent. Oddly enough, Smith’s personal pick was one of the few critical misfires from that year’s competition: Kornél Mundruczó‘s “Jupiter’s Moon.” The jury finally settled on a film, a democratic vote, and gave Ruben Ostlund’s “The Square” the Palme d’Or.

Carol (2015)

The famously outspoken Xavier Dolan was, shall we say, not the most well-liked juror in Cannes history. Dolan got on some of his fellow jurors’ nerves as he lobbied feverishly — and, perhaps, too rudely — for his favorites, and subsequently vetoed what was going to be a near-unanimous Palme d’Or win for Todd Haynes’ “Carol.” Dolan is said to have thrown a tantrum as most of the jury settled on “Carol.” At the jury press conference that followed the awards ceremony, and speaking about his jury duty experience, Dolan said, “I somehow feel like a better person.” Sitting nearby, jury co-president Ethan Coen mumbled, “You’re not.” The result was a questionable Palme d’Or win for Jacques Audiard’s “Dheepan.”

A World Apart (1988)

William Goldman devoted an entire book, “Hype and Glory,” to the year in which he served as a Cannes juror. The jury decision, he revealed, came after Bille August’s “Pelle the Conqueror” won over Chris Menges’ “A World Apart” in a 6-4 vote. Jury president Ettore Scola only got the “World Apart” supporters to stop arguing when he offered to not only give that film the Grand Jury Prize, but also let its lead actresses share the best-actress award, making it the only film to win more than one prize. The worthiest film of that year’s weak competition, Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “A Short Film About Killing,” was given a “Special Jury Prize.”

The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

If Nanni Moretti has always been a much-welcomed name at Cannes, the festival will likely never forget his dramatic stint as juror in 1997. While on the jury, alongside President Isabelle Adjani, the Italian director did everything in his power to have Abbas Kiarostami's “The Taste of Cherry” win the Palme d’Or. Adjani and a slew of other jurors preferred Atom Egoyan’s “The Sweet Hereafter,” but Moretti didn’t relent in his disapproval of the film. Due to Moretti’s incessant whining, the jury finally made a very rare request to the Festival to award two Palme d'or winners that year. But at the very last minute, with Kiarostami already chosen as one of the two winners, Moretti voted for Shohei Imamura‘s “The Eel,” completely shutting out Egoyan’s masterpiece. Moretti would later be called “Machiavelli” by Adjani.

Broken Flowers (2005)

"We had a selection in which I think the average was not very high, but we had three or four movies that whatever we had done (in awarding the prizes) we wouldn't be ashamed," said Jury President Emir Kusturica back in 2005. Those three movies were Michael Haneke’s “Cache/Hidden,” Jim Jarmusch’s “Broken Flowers,” and The Dardennes’ “L’Enfant.” The jury finally decided to give their prize to the latter, but not without Jarmusch’s bittersweet film coming close to winning by a hair. Late great French filmmaker Agnes Varda let a few secrets slip years later, including the fact that Kusturica had not been a fan of her friend Jarmusch's road movie, which ultimately resulted in it winning the consolative Grand Prix.