| Year | Film | Director | Country
|
| 1939 | Union Pacific <ref name=unionpacific>This particular Palme d'Or was awarded in retrospect at the 2002 festival. The festival's debut was to take place in 1939, but it was canceled due to World War II. The organizers of the 2002 festival presented part of the original 1939 selection to a professional jury of six members. The films were: Goodbye Mr. Chips, La piste du nord, Lenin in 1918, The Four Feathers, The Wizard of Oz, Union Pacific and Boefje.</ref> | 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
|
| Lowly City (Neecha Nagar) | Chetan Anand | India
|
| Brief Encounter | David Lean | United Kingdom
|
| Portrait of Maria (María Candelaria) | Emilio Fernández | Mexico
|
| The Turning Point (Великий перелом, Veliky perelom) | Fridrikh Markovitch Ermler | Soviet Union
|
| La symphonie pastorale | Jean Delannoy | France
|
| The Last Chance (Die Letzte Chance) | Leopold Lintberg | Switzerland
|
| Men Without Wings (Muži bez křídel) | František Čáp | Czechoslovakia
|
| 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 (Jigokumon) | Teinosuke Kinugasa | Japan
|
| 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) | Mikheil Kalatozishvili | 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 | Keeper of Promises (O Pagador de Promessas) | Anselmo Duarte | Brazil
|
| 1963 | The Leopard (Il Gattopardo) | Luchino Visconti | Italy
|
| 1964 | The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg) | Jacques Demy | France
|
| 1965 | The Knack...And How to Get It | Richard Lester | United Kingdom
|
| 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 | Blowup | 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 Kingdom
|
| 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
|
| 1975 | Chronicle of the Years of Fire (Chronique des années de braise) | Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina | Algeria
|
| 1976 | Taxi Driver | Martin Scorsese | United States
|
| 1977 | Father and Master (Padre padrone) | Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani | Italy
|
| 1978 | The Tree with the 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
|
| Shadow Warrior (影武者, Kagemusha) | Akira Kurosawa | Japan
|
| 1981 | Man of Iron (Człowiek z żelaza) | Andrzej Wajda | Poland
|
| 1982 | Missing | Costa-Gavras | United States
|
| The Way (Yol) | Yilmaz Güney | 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 Coen 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 | Emir Kusturica | Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
|
| 1996 | Secrets & Lies | Mike Leigh | United Kingdom
|
| 1997 | A Taste of Cherry (Ta'm e guilass) | Abbas Kiarostami | Iran
|
| The Eel (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 Dardenne 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 Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne | Belgium
|
