Cinema: these 8 directors who received two Palmes d’Or at Cannes

If some directors have never managed to win the precious sesame that is the Palme d’Or at Cannes, for others it is almost a formality. Since the creation of the Cannes Film Festival in 1939, eight of them have managed to walk away twice with the most prestigious awards from the biggest film festival in the world. Here they are, and among them is a newcomer, crowned last May.

Ruben Östlund: The Square (2017) and Without Filter (2022)

He is the last to join the ranks of directors with two Palmes D’Or. The Swedish director first sparked the jury’s enthusiasm in 2017 with “The Square”, a confusing film that criticizes the art world and cases of good conscience.

This year, it’s the no less infuriating “Sans Filtre” that allowed the director to join the very exclusive club of webbed doubles. Along with a memorable dining scene, the film delivers a scathing critique of the upper classes and the entertainment society.

Michael Haneke: The White Ribbon (2009) and Love (2012)

Another recurring personality on the red carpets of the Croisette, the Austrian Michael Haneke has long since established himself as one of the institution’s favorite directors. A union that is confirmed when “The White Ribbon” is celebrated by the festival. The film which immerses us in the First World War allows Haneke to obtain his first palm in 2009.

Thereafter, he offers thanks to “Amour”, which will earn him a second palm in 2012, one of his most beautiful roles to Jean-Louis Trintignant in the skin of an old man who has to face the irruption sickness and death in her marriage.

Ken Loach: The Wind Rises (2006) and I, Daniel Blake (2016)

An eminently political director, Ken Loach has succeeded in seducing the public and the jury of the Cannes Film Festival twice with his socially committed films. In 2006, he won a first prize thanks to “The Wind Rises”, a bloody and moving story about the conflict between the Irish and the English soldiers in the heart of the war of independence.

A decade later, the poignant feature film on the condition of the working classes in Great Britain and the absurdity of the organization of social services, “Me, Daniel Blake” confirms the status of the filmmaker with a second palm.

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne: Rosetta (1999) and The Child (2005)

To say that the filmmaking duo are regulars on the Croisette is an understatement. All their films were presented in competition and won a prize, to the point that in 2022 everyone wondered if the Dardenne brothers were not going to create a precedent in the history of the festival and walk away with a third prize for their movie “Tori and Lakita”.

Despite the excitement generated by the feature film, nothing came of it. But never mind, the filmmakers can count on their two Cannes Palmes d’Or. The first, “Rosetta” dates from 1999 and chronicles the social misery and survival of a young woman barely out of adolescence.

Still on this theme dear to the two brothers, “The Child”, produced in 2005, shows another facet of poverty when a couple played by Jérémie Renier and Déborah François seeks to get out of poverty by offering the baby whose is pregnant the young woman to people looking for children.

Bille August: Pelle the Conqueror (1988) and The Best Intentions (1992)

Despite two palms, it is perhaps the least appreciated director of this group of multi-awarded. In 1988, his film “Shovel the Conqueror” nevertheless broaches a topic that is still topical: that of the emigration of a father and his son from Sweden to Denmark. It also won the Oscar for best foreign film, highlighting the rise of Nordic film productions.

The Danish filmmaker repeated the feat with his next feature film entitled “The Best Intentions” in 1992. Partly autobiographical, it was made from a screenplay written by none other than Ingmar Bergman. Solid, this collaboration guarantees significant visibility for the film. Unfortunately its atypical four-part format, first broadcast on television in Sweden before its theatrical release in a shortened version, prevents it from competing for the Oscars.

Emir Kutsurica: Dad’s on a Business Trip (1985) and Underground (1995)

A controversial figure today for his position on the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the Serbian filmmaker has in the past succeeded in attracting the attention of the juries of the Cannes institution on two occasions. “Dad is on a business trip” in 1985, which tells the story of a family torn apart by Tito’s regime is sacred, but Emir Kutsurica does not come to seek his palm. Overwhelmed by the pressure of such international recognition, the filmmaker will even launch into music and take a step back before getting back to it and producing his two non-webbed masterpieces, Le temps des gypsies and Arizona Dream. .

His second palmated film in 1995, “Underground”, caused controversy the day after the announcement of the winners. Accused of being a pro-Serbian propaganda feature film, this project is a long historical, dramatic and exuberant fresco which takes as its backdrop the war in the former Yugoslavia. Badly received in France by the critics, the filmmaker must defend himself from all fascism and announces that he will stop the cinema. A decision that he does not take since he will realize three years later “Chat noir, chat blanc”.

Shohei Imamura: The Ballad of Narayama (1983) and The Eel (1997)

Rebellious director and essential figure of Japanese cinema, Shohei Imamura is an iconoclast and his films caused a stir on the Croisette. With his anthropological gaze, he depicts the lowest classes of society and their particularly sexual impulses. A radical personality, the filmmaker also rises up against Western oppression.

The magnificent and moving “Walk of Narayama” explores the practice of pilgrimage made in Japan by the ancients towards death. After this first success which made him go from provocative filmmaker to director of international auteur films, “L’anguille”, which deals with the reintegration of a murderer who now only speaks to his eel, earned him a second price in Cannes.

Francis Ford Coppola: Secret Conversation (1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979)

First double palmed director in the history of the Cannes Film Festival, Francis Ford Coppola won his first supreme prize with “Secret Conversation”. In 1974, the Palme d’Or was not even designated by this name yet, but it was indeed with the Grand Prix that Coppola set off again, thus marking the beginning of a prestigious history.

“Apocalypse Now”, which has become a classic of the 7th art, is on the other hand only a “half-palm”. Indeed, in 1979, the jury had chosen to reward not only the American filmmaker but also “The Drum” by Volker Schlöndorff. A shared prize that takes nothing away from Coppola’s genius regarding this titanic film about the Vietnam War.