The 20 most influential Palme d'Or Winners of all time

Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 Palme d'Or winner has never felt more relevant than now. The movie, which focuses on a surveillance expert having a moral dilemma over the nature of his job and the possible existential threat it poses to his targets, is considered to be one of the greatest thrillers of the 20th century, and influences movies like "Enemy of the State" and the German film "The Lives of Others," which won the Foreign Oscar in 2007. 

Making "Apocalypse Now" nearly made Francis Ford Coppola (and a lot of his cast and crew) go insane, but the director was vindicated at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival when it shared the Palm D'Or with "The Tin Drum" despite the fact that the version Coppola screened was a work in progress. Since its premiere, it's become the platonic ideal of a war film that shows the evils of combat, and has been imitated and referenced in more ways than we can count.

Quentin Tarantino didn't really become Quentin Tarantino until 1994, when his film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and took home the event's biggest honor. Its influence can be seen in the works of Christopher Nolan ("Memento") and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu ("Amores Perros"), two directors that have become highly influential in their own right.

"Black Orpheus," a modern adaptation of the tragic Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice set in Brazil during Carnival, took home the top award at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival before going on to win the 1960 Oscar for Best Foreign Film. It has influenced a wide array of artists, including Jean-Michel Basquiat and the rock band Arcade Fire.

"Marty" is just one of two movies on this list to have won both the Palm D'Or and the Oscar for Best Picture. (The other is "The Lost Weekend.") This touching tale of awkward romance has been referenced in countless movies, perhaps most famously in Robert Redford's "Quiz Show." 

This Luis Buñuel film was co-awarded the highest honor at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival before it was banned in Spain and condemned as blasphemous by the Pope. "Viridiana," which touches on subjects of religion, incest, and other taboo subjects, wasn't allowed to play in Spain until 1977. It's now considered one of the greatest films of all time. 

Though released in 1966, Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-Up" took home the highest honor at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival. The movie has had a broad cultural influence — Francis Ford Coppola cited it as partial inspiration for "The Conversation," and it's been referenced multiple times in the "Austin Powers" franchise. 

Martin Scorsese not winning an Oscar until 2007 (for "The Departed") is one of the greatest cinematic injustices of all time. Thankfully for Marty, his directorial brilliance was recognized early on by the Cannes crowd, who awarded his film its highest honor. in 1976. 

This Bob Fosse semi-autobiographical musical not only won the Palme d'Or in 1980, it also earned the recognition of being the best movie Stanley Kubrick has ever seen. The movie, which has been preserved and cataloged by the National Film Registry, set the standard for what a musical movie could be. A quick note: though the movie won the award in 1980, it actually premiered in 1979.

Of all the Oscar snubs for Best Director, Robert Altman's is one of the most egregious. The films of this American auteur have inspired countless filmmakers. "M*A*S*H" is easily his most influential work. The 1970 Palme d'Or winner served as the basis for the ultra popular television show of the same name. To this day, the show's finale is the most watched episode in the history of American television — nearly 106 million people tuned in. 

Wim Wender's movie about a man with amnesia reuniting with his son before embarking on a search across the southwest for his wife won the 1984 Palme d'Or. It also, weirdly enough, is a huge reason why the album "Joshua Tree" exists — U2 claims that Wender's movie was a big influence on the iconic record. Other artists that have drawn inspiration to this movie include Elliott Smith, Kurt Cobain and Wes Anderson. 

Soderbergh's directorial debut about a love quadrangle, sexual fetishes, and infidelity was one of studio Miramax's first successes. It won the top honor at Cannes, which played a major role in ushering the indie film wave that came in the early nineties.

People hated "Wild at Heart" when it first came out, which just goes on to show you that the masses need their time to truly appreciate genius works of art. Since its 1990 premiere at Cannes (and subsequent win of the Palm D'Or), this David Lynch movie where Nic Cage and Laura Dern play lovers on the run has since been recognized as one of the best movies of its decade. 

It's kind of crazy to think that a Coen brothers movie about the difficulties of the creative process that won the Palme d'Or at Cannes would bomb miserably at the box office, but that's exactly what happened. Since then, the movie has been vindicated — and is considered to be one of the Coen brothers' best work. 

The controversial documentary was awarded the Palme d'Or at the 2004 festival, and it reportedly had a 20 minute standing ovation after it was screened. Since then, Michel Moore's tome on the Bush administration and the War on Terror has gone on to become the most successful documentary of all time, and has paved the way for other docs (like "An Inconvenient Truth," for example) to have success at the box office.

Just one female director has ever won the highest honor at the Cannes Film Festival: Jane Campion, who's movie "The Piano" took the top prize in 1993. In addition to breaking the gender barrier at the prestigious film festival, the period film was a massive financial success for Miramax. 

Some might argue that it's too early to put Terrance Malick's semi-autobiographical meditation on the meaning of life on a list like this one, but those people are shortsighted. The 2011 Palme d'Or winner isn't just one of Malick's best films, it's also some of cinematographer Emmanuel Luzbeki's best work.

This British noir is easily one of the more influential films on this list. you can see traces of this movie's DNA in other noir classics like Robert Altman's "The Long Goodbye." Its influence transcends the genre — it's referenced in "Brazil" and "Aliens." Clint Eastwood even said that he borrowed much of the lighting technique from "The Third Man" when he made "Unforgiven."

Billy Wilder's "The Lost Weekend" was one of nearly a dozen films that were recognized at the inaugural Cannes Film Festival in 1946. The morality noir — a story about a struggling writer driven to drink because of his own insecurities — also won the Oscar for Best Picture, and was added to the National Film Registry  in 2011.

Along with John Ford's "Stagecoach," Cecil B. DeMille's "Union Pacific" completely transformed the western genre by taking it from B-movie fodder to the subject of big budget productions. This 1939 movie won the top prize at the first ever Cannes Festival, which didn't actually take place because the organizers couldn't get it together in time.