Cannes 2015: Who Really Should Have Won?

By Alex Leadbeater / May 24, 2015

There's no bigger award in filmmaking than the Palme d'Or. Cannes highest honour, it's confirms a director as a master of the medium and, importantly, carries much less of the baggage than other high profile prizes. The Oscars are highly political, voted for by people who don't know what they're on about or too disinterested to actually watch the films, and are thus all too often dictated by the press. The Golden Palm, on the other hand, is built around art; it's picked by a Jury of ten people who decide a winner based purely on their own personal and professional interpretations of what the festival represents. This year's winners, chosen by the likes of the Coen brothers, Guillermo del Toro and Jake Gyllenhaal, have just been announced and, almost proving the lack of press input, they're incredibly surprising. What follows is a rundown of who's won in each of the main competition categories and, in most cases (they're pretty out-there choices), who would have been a more deserving winner. One of the strictest rules of the awards is that a film can only win in one award category. This makes coming up with a slate that feels legitimate pretty tricky, but is nevertheless reflected in our alternative picks. For reviews of all the films discussed here (and more), make sure you head to WhatCulture's Cannes 2015 page.