Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver won the Palme d’Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival.
The award recognized the film’s direction and powerful portrait of alienation in New York City. Scorsese directed the film from a screenplay by Paul Schrader, with Robert De Niro playing Travis Bickle and Jodie Foster appearing as Iris.
Taxi Driver premiered at Cannes in May 1976 and became one of Scorsese’s defining films. Its Palme d’Or is sometimes confused with the Academy Award, but Taxi Driver did not win an Oscar. It received four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for De Niro, and Best Supporting Actress for Foster.
The film’s Cannes victory placed Scorsese among the major international directors of the 1970s. Its reputation later grew through repeated critical surveys and preservation by the Library of Congress.