The notable nine: two-time Palme d’or-winning directors

With Apocalypse Now (joint-winner alongside The Tin Drum by Volker Schlöndorff), forty-year-old Francis Ford Coppola became the first director to win the Festival’s greatest accolade twice. The American filmmaker had won the Palme d’Or for the first time in 1974 with The Conversation, back when the award was still called the Grand Prix. In 2001, the master of the big screen was back on the Croisette with Apocalypse Now Redux (Out of Competition), a remastered version of his masterpiece with an extra 49 minutes of runtime.

“I was 26 when I first came to Cannes. Over the years, I’ve been back again and again, and I’ve had some wonderful surprises, such as the Palme d’Or for The Conversation. Coming to Cannes is like coming home.” Francis Ford Coppola

An Un Certain Regard breakthrough in 1983 with his second feature film Zappa, Bille August exploded onto the world stage five years later when he won his first Palme d’Or for Pelle the Conqueror. In 1992, the Danish director scooped the top award again with The Best Intentions, featuring a screenplay by his muse Ingmar Bergman, awarded the Palme des Palmes posthumously for his lifetime achievements in 1997.

First selection at the Festival, first time in Competition, first ever Palme d’Or: it was a big year for Emir Kusturica. In 1985, the 31-year-old swept the board with When Father Was Away on Business. The French-Serbian director who won his second Palme d’Or ten years later for the hard-hitting Underground is a Cannes’ icon, with eight of his films having been screened at the Festival. In 2005, he was appointed President of the Feature Film Jury, awarding the Palme d’Or in turn to the Dardenne brothers for The Child.

It took Japanese filmmaker Shōhei Imamura thirty-five years to become one of the Notable Nine. With a first selection at Cannes as the screenwriter for Cupola back in 1962, it was his The Ballad of Narayama that won him the Palme d’Or in 1983, followed by a second Palme d’Or in 1997 for The Eel, this time shared with Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry.

Having first come to light in 1987 in a section once called Perspectives du Cinéma Français with their first feature film Falsch, the Belgian brothers won their first Palme d’Or in 1999 for Rosetta. Since then, the Festival has awarded them five other prizes, including a second Palme d’Or for The Child in 2005. With 10 of their 12 feature films in Official Selection, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne craft films that serve as social commentary and have been — alongside those of Ken Loach — some of the most popular with selection committees and juries over the course of the Festival’s history.

Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke broke through on the world stage with his no-holds-barred Funny Games, and made a huge impact on the Festival in the 2000s. In 2001, The Piano Teacher won the Grand Prix, in 2005 Hidden was awarded the Best Director Award, and three short years later came his two Palmes d’Or: The White Ribbon in 2009 and Love in 2012.

British director Ken Loach is the Festival de Cannes’ ultimate record-holder. Ever since he first appeared in selection at Un Certain Regard in 1980 with The Gamekeeper, 16 of the director’s feature films have been presented at Cannes. As well as the Palmes he garnered for The Wind That Shakes The Barley (2006) and I, Daniel Blake (2016), the prolific filmmaker and tireless campaigner for social justice was awarded three Jury Prizes, for Hidden Agenda (1990), Raining Stones (1993) and The Angels’ Share (2012).

Last but not least, our final member of the Notable Nine is the poster boy for Cannes’ up-and-coming generation of filmmakers. Swedish director Ruben Östlund shot to fame and succeeded in winning an award while putting a smile on juries’ faces: he won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize in 2014 with the hilarious Snow Therapy, his first Palme d’Or in 2017 for his dark comedy The Square, and then scooped another Palme d’Or from the Jury chaired by Vincent Lindon in 2022 for Triangle of Sadness, a madcap satire on the world of models and influencers.