1952
One Summer of Happiness (Hon dansade en sommar) by Arne Mattsson
Sweden

1953
The Wages of Fear (Le salaire de la peur) by Henri-Georges Clouzot
France/Italy

1954
Hobson's Choice by David Lean
United Kingdom

1955
The Rats (Die Ratten) by Robert Siodmak
Federal Republic of Germany

1956
Invitation to the Dance by Gene Kelly
United States

1957
12 Angry Men by Sidney Lumet
United States

1958
Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället) by Ingmar Bergman
Sweden

1959
The Cousins (Les cousins) by Claude Chabrol
France

1960
El Lazarillo de Tormes by César Ardavin
Spain

1961
The Night (La notte) by Michelangelo Antonioni
Italy/France

1962
A Kind of Loving by John Schlesinger
United Kingdom

1963
The Devil (Il diavolo) by Gian Luigi Polidoro
Italy

1964
Reflections (Susuz yaz) by Metin Erksan
Turkey

1965
Alphaville by Jean-Luc Godard
France/Italy

1966
Cul-de-Sac by Roman Polanski
United Kingdom

1967
Le départ by Jerzy Skolimowski
Belgium

1968
Who Saw Him Die? (Ole dole doff) by Jan Troell
Sweden

1969
Early Works (Rani radovi) by Želimir Žilnik
Yugoslavia

1971
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini) by Vittorio De Sica
Italy/W. Germany

1972
The Canterbury Tales (I Racconti di Canterbury) by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Italy

1973
Distant Thunder (Ashani Sanket) by Satyajit Ray
India

1974
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Ted Kotcheff
Canada

1975
Adoption (Örökbefogadás) by Márta Mészáros
Hungary

1976
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson by Robert Altman
United States

1977
The Ascent (Voskhozhdeniye) by Larisa Shepitko
Soviet Union

1978
Trout (Las truchas) by José Luis García Sánchez
Spain

Ascensor by Tomas Munoz
Spain

The Words of Max (Las palabras de Max) by Emilio Martínez Lázaro
Spain

1979
David by Peter Lilienthal
West Germany

1980
Heartland by Richard Pearce
United States

Palermo or Wolfsburg (Palermo oder Wolfsburg) by Werner Schroeter
West Germany

1981
Hurry, Hurry! (Deprisa, deprisa) by Carlos Saura
Spain ( with France)

1982
Veronika Voss (Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
West Germany

1983
Ascendancy by Edward Bennett
United Kingdom

The Beehive (La colmena) by Mario Camus
Spain

1984
Love Streams by John Cassavetes
United States

1985
Die Frau und der Fremde by Rainer Simon
East Germany

Wetherby by David Hare
United Kingdom

1986
Stammheim by Reinhard Hauff
West Germany

1987
The Theme (Tema) by Gleb Panfilov
Soviet Union

1988
Red Sorghum (Hong gao liang) by Zhang Yimou
China

1989
Rain Man by Barry Levinson
United States

1990
Music Box by Costa-Gavras
United States

Larks on a String (Skrivánci na niti) by Jiri Menzel
Czechoslovakia

1991
The House of Smiles (La casa del sorriso) by Marco Ferreri
Italy

1992
Grand Canyon by Lawrence Kasdan
United States

1993
Woman Sesame Oil Maker (Xiang hun nu) by Xie Fei
China

The Wedding Banquet (Xi yan) by Ang Lee
Taiwan/United States

1994
In the Name of the Father by Jim Sheridan
UK/Ireland

1995
The Bait (L'appât) by Bertrand Tavernier
France

1996
Sense and Sensibility by Ang Lee
United States/United Kingdom

1997
The People vs. Larry Flynt by Miloš Forman
United States

1998
Central Station (Central do Brasil) by Walter Salles
Brazil (with France)

1999
The Thin Red Line by Terrence Malick
United States

2000
Magnolia by Paul Thomas Anderson
United States

2001
Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau
UK (with France, Germany, Spain)

2002
Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi) by Hayao Miyazaki
Japan

Bloody Sunday by Paul Greengrass
UK/Ireland

2003
In This World by Michael Winterbottom
United Kingdom

2004
Head-On (Gegen die Wand) by Fatih Akin
Germany/Turkey

2005
U-Carmen eKhayelitsha by Mark Dornford-May
South Africa

2006
Grbavica by Jasmila Žbanić
Bosnia and Herzegovina (with Austria, Germany, Croatia)

2007
Tuya's Marriage (Tuya de hun shi) by Wang Quan'an
China

2008
The Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite) by José Padilha
Brazil

2009
The Milk of Sorrow (La teta asustada) by Claudia Llosa
Peru