The Cannes Film Festival is wrapping up and over the years, the festival prestigious honors highlight auteurs and new talent, but how often do prize winners from the festival make it all the way through awards season to the Oscars? Here is a look back at festival winners’ road to the Academy Awards from the last 10 years.

The Palme d’Or winners of the last 10 years don’t have the best track record with the Oscars, but there is some overlap. Of the last 10 Palme d’Or winners, four of the winners went on to receive Oscar nominations. Triangle of Sadness, which won last year, received three Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Parastite, the Palme d’Or winner of 2018, went on to win 4 of its 6 Oscar nominations, including wins for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Before that, both The Square (2017 winner) and Shoplifters (2018 winner) were nominated at the Oscars for Best International Feature. 

The Grand Prix prize winners have a similar track record with the Oscars compared to the Palme d’Or. Of the last ten years of Grand Prix winners at the Cannes Film Festival, four films have gone on to be nominated at the Oscars. Most recently, Close from 2022 went on to be nominated for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards. Before that, BlacKkKlansman won the Grand Prix in 2018 and went on to win one Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for another five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Son of Saul, which won the Grand Prix in 2015, was nominated for Best International Feature at the Oscars. The 2013 Grand Prix Winner, Inside Llewyn Davis, was nominated for two Oscars. 

The Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival over the last ten years has very little overlap with the Oscar Best Director nominations. Paweł Pawlikowski, who won at Cannes in 2018, was nominated for his direction on his film Cold War at the Oscars as well. Before that, Bennett Miller won for Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival for Foxcatcher in 2014 and went on to be nominated at the Oscars. All the other Best Director winners at the Cannes Film Festival did not go on to receive coordinating Oscar nominations. 

For the acting prize winners at the festival, there has been some overlap with nominations at the Oscars. Antonio Banderas won for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019 for his performance in Pain and Glory; he later went on to receive an Oscar nomination for the performance. In 2015, Rooney Mara won for Best Actress for her performance in Carol and she was later nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars for the performance. In 2013, Bruce Dern was awarded the Best Actor prize at the festival and received a Lead Actor Oscar nomination that season. The balance of both Best Actor and Best Actress prize winners at the Cannes Film Festival over the last ten years unfortunately did not translate into Oscar nominations. 

The screenplay winners at the Cannes Film Festival over the last ten years have not had the best time translating into Oscar nominated films. Drive My Car, which won the screenplay prize at the festival in 2021, went on to receive one Oscar for Best International Feature and another three Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. The 2016 Screenplay Winner, The Salesman, went on to receive an International Feature Oscar nomination; the film also won the Lead Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival. 

The Jury Prize at the festival somewhat has a decent track record with Oscar nominations. Most recently, in 2022, EO won the Jury Prize at Cannes and went onto receive an Oscar nomination for International Feature. Les Misérables (2019 winner), Capernaum (2018 winner), and Loveless (2017 winner) all went on to receive an International Feature nomination at the Oscars. The Lobster, which won the Jury Prize at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, went on to receive a nomination at the Oscars for Best Original Screenplay. 

While the track record isn’t exactly strong for films that pick-up prizes at the Cannes Film Festival to go onto Oscar nomination (or wins), the festival can certainly get a film the momentum to start off a campaign. Films such as Parasite, Drive My Car, The Worst Person in the World, and many more have started a long run from Cannes prizes to Oscar nominations.