10 Films Booed At Cannes That Went On To Win Many Awards

There is a pattern it seems here. Awarding great directors the Palme d’Or - who have made a couple of well received small films already - when they come to Cannes with their first big film. And then booing them.

Luckily for Scorsese – or maybe he did not care either way – he missed out on Cannes that year, preferring to stay in New York to work. Ah, if only creative people were not expected to do all that cloying press that they have do now.

For Tarantino Pulp Fiction was his first huge success. Reservoir Dogs just told people what he was about. For the mighty Scorsese, Taxi Driver was his first huge success. Mean Streets was Scorsese’s first film where people started to take notice of him. It did the same for De Niro as well.

Taxi Driver’s themes of narcissism, and the violent tendencies of a Vietnam vet with a rough and tumble New York backdrop were too much for some people to get behind. It was their loss really.

Notable Accolades:

Four Oscar nominations and 2 Golden Globe noms, but no wins; the only major awards were BAFTAs for Jodie Foster and Bernard Herrmann for the score. It got a healthy number of other accolades, but perhaps the greatest mark of approval of all came when Taxi Driver was admitted to the National Film registry. Boo that!