Missing Cannes This Year? Here Are 10 Palme d’Or Winners to Watch Instead.

6. Kagemusha (1980)

In 16th-century Japan, the death of a feudal lord is covered up through the use of a double, a petty thief who bears an uncanny resemblance to him. Both characters are played with relish by Tatsuya Nakadai, in his penultimate collaboration with legendary director Akira Kurosawa. It’s a samurai epic that weaves together Shakespearean court intrigue and explosive battles, culminating in a heart-stopping scene in which the impostor finally lets his hubris get the better of him.

7. Paris, Texas (1984)

The vast landscapes of the American southwest provide a lyrical backdrop for Wim Wenders’ wistful road movie. It begins with a drifter (Harry Dean Stanton) walking alone through the desert. After a mysterious four-year absence, he is discovered by his brother (Dean Stockwell) and sets out to find his long-lost wife (Nastassja Kinski). It’s worth watching for the latter’s moving, measured performance, not to mention the blunt bob and pink mohair jumper that made her a style icon.

The PianoJan Chapman Prods/Miramax/Kobal/Shutterstock

8. The Piano (1993)

With this ravishing period drama, Jane Campion became the first, and still the only, female director to win the top prize at Cannes. It features two poignant, Oscar-winning turns: Holly Hunter as a mute Scottish widow and Anna Paquin as her precocious young daughter. They are shipped off to New Zealand after the former is promised in marriage to a landowner, but tragedy looms when she agrees to give piano lessons to a crude forester (Harvey Keitel), with whom she falls in love.

9. Shoplifters (2018)

An unconventional family unit is at the heart of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s delicate study of poverty in modern-day Tokyo. A gang composed of an elderly matriarch, a couple, a young woman and a boy, they make ends meet by stealing from supermarkets. Soon, they also take in a child (Miyu Sasaki) who they suspect is being abused by her parents. Has she been kidnapped or rescued? The film offers few answers but captivates with its warmth, compassion and clear-eyed view of the world.

10. Parasite (2019)

As the first release to win both the Palme d’Or and the Oscar for Best Picture since 1955’s Marty, Bong Joon-ho’s audacious satire has cemented its place in film history. It’s a rip-roaring romp that combines black comedy with Hitchcockian horror and social realism — a fable about two clans, one destitute but ambitious and the other naive and wealthy, whose lives become intertwined. The sets are pristine, the dialogue biting and the overwhelming sense of foreboding undeniable.