'' if .... '' won the Palme d'Or at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival . In 1999 , the British Film Institute named it the 12th greatest British film of the 20th Century ; in 2004 , the magazine '' Total Film '' named it the 16th greatest British film of all time . In 2017 a poll of 150 actors , directors , writers , producers and critics for '' Time Out '' magazine ranked it the 9th best British film ever . Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 95 % of 38 critics have given the film a positive review , with a rating average of 7.9 / 10 . According to the site 's critical consensus , " Incendiary , subversive , and darkly humorous , If ... . is a landmark of British countercultural cinema . " The film opens at a traditional British public school in the late 1960s , as the pupils return for a new term . Mick Travis , Wallace , and Johnny are three non-conformist boys in the lower sixth form , their penultimate year . They are watched and persecuted by the " Whips " , upper sixth-formers given authority as prefects over the other boys . The junior boys are made to act as personal servants for the Whips , who discuss them as sex objects
1969 Cannes Film Festival
1969 Cannes Film Festival
If....