The best and worst ever films at Cannes
As the weather cools and the faces become ever more haggard, it's clear that we're past the midpoint of the Cannes Film Festival. The reviews are in for about half of the selected 'In Competition' films at Cannes and speculation is rife about who will win the coveted Palme d'Or.
To mark this moment, I have looked back at what film audiences and critics made of past nominees and winners. In summary;
Pulp Fiction is the highest scoring film with audiences to ever have played in Cannes
Pan's Labyrinth is the best reviewed Cannes-nominated film ever.
The worst Cannes nominated film, according to audiences, was Utomlyonnye solntsem 2: Predstoyanie
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me received an average Metascore of just 28 out of 100
The film with the lowest critics' rating to win a Palme d'Or was Wild At Heart (dir. David Lynch)
Mr Turner has the biggest difference between the views of film critics and audiences
The audience's favorite films at Cannes
I have used the IMDb user scores as a proxy for audience opinion (see here for a breakdown of IMDb voters). Pulp Fiction is the highest scoring film to ever have played 'In competition' in Cannes.
Six of the top 20 Cannes-nominated films won a Palme d'Or. As some films at Cannes on this list were shortlisted in the same year, the maximum number that could have won is 16.
Cannes nominated films with the highest IMDb user ratings (out of 10)
[table id=71 /]
Film critics' favorite films at Cannes
95% of film critics gave Pan's Labyrinth a positive write-up (a Metascore of 98), making it the best reviewed Cannes-nominated film ever.
However, it was beaten to the 1996 Palme d'Or by The Wind That Shakes The Barley, which received a Metascore of 82.
Cannes nominated films with the highest Metascore (out of 100)
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Audience turkeys
IMDb users really dislike Utomlyonnye solntsem 2: Predstoyanie (aka "Burnt By The Sun 2"), awarding it just 4.1 out of 10. It's impossible to know for sure why it was shortlisted in Cannes at all, but it may have something to do with the fact that it was the sequel to the 1994 Cannes Grand Prize winner, Utomlyonnye solntsem. The Grand Prize is often seen as the second place award in Cannes, after the Palme d'Or, and was only one of a number of awards the original film won, including Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
The sequel was hugely anticipated and had the largest production budget ever for a Russian film ($55 million). Despite this, it became Russia's biggest box office flop, receiving negative reviews from critics both in Russia and abroad.
Cannes nominated films with the lowest IMDb user ratings (out of 10)
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The films the critics hated
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me received an average Metascore of just 28 out of 100 and only 62% of critics gave it a positive review (for context, last year's derided Cannes flop Lost River (dir. Ryan Gosling) received a score of 42). Of Twin Peaks film the New York Times said "The film appears to be an undifferentiated mess of story lines and hallucinations. There's no reason to care which is which. Even Mr. Lynch's eccentric touches become boring. The jokes are stillborn".
The film with the lowest critics' rating to win a Palme d'Or was the 1990 Nicolas Cage classic Wild At Heart (dir. David Lynch), which received 52 out of 100 from critics.
Cannes nominated films with the lowest Metascore (out of 100)
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When critics and audiences disagree
In the past, I've measured the similarities and differences between how film audiences and critics judge the films at Cannes (stephenfollows.com/do-film-critics-and-audiences-agree). The average IMDb user score was 7.07 and the Metascore average was 72.9 out of 100.
The Cannes films audiences loved but critics loathed
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The Cannes films critics loved but audiences loathed
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Notes
Data for today's research came from the official Cannes festival site, IMDb and Metascore.
When reading today's research, please consider the following notes...
Cannes changes - In this article I have used the shorthand of referring to all films winning the main prize at Cannes Film Festival as having won the Palme d'Or. In fact, the official name of the top prize in Cannes has changed over the years...
1939 to 1954 - Grand Prix du Festival International du Film
1995 to 1963 - Palme d'Or
1964 to 1973 - Grand Prix du Festival
1974 to date - Palme d'Or
Coping with few user ratings - For the research referencing IMDb user ratings, I excluded films at Cannes with fewer than 300 user ratings so that a small number of votes wouldn't skew the results. This number is somewhat arbitrary as there is no objective measure of 'enough' votes. This criteria did not affect any films on the 'highest scoring' films table, but did exclude a number of films on the 'lowest scoring' table. All of these excluded films were released before the year 2000.
Missing Metascores - Not all films at Cannes have been reviewed by modern critics and therefore included in the Metascore. Looking back to all Cannes-nominated films since 1939, only 23% have a Metascore, however that number rises to 78% for films in Cannes between 2000-15 and 100% for films in Cannes in 2014.
Epilogue
The more I look into the films that have been nominated in Cannes, the more it brings home how political major film awards are. My research earlier this year into the Oscars showed just how much time, effort and (most importantly) money hollywood ploughs into award season. Cannes may have a more sophisticated air than the Oscars, but behind the scenes it's all just politics.
