1953
La Guerra de Dios by Rafael Gil
Spain

1954
Sierra maldita by Antonio del Amo
Spain

1955
Giorni d'amore by Giuseppe de Santis
Italy

1956
Il ferroviere by Pietro Germi
Italy

1957
Oh! Sabella (La nonna Sabella) by Dino Risi
Italy

1958
Le coeur au poing by Charles Binamé
France

1959
The Nun's Story by Fred Zinnemann
United States

1960
Romeo, Juliet a Tma by Jiri Weiss
Czechoslovakia

1961
One-Eyed Jacks by Marlon Brando
United States

1962
Arturo's Island (L’isola di Arturo) by Damiano Damiani
Italy

1963
Mafioso by Alberto Lattuada
Italy

1964
America, America by Elia Kazan
United States

1965
Mirage by Edward Dmytryk
United States
Golden Queen (Zlatá reneta)
by Otakar Vávra
Czechoslovakia

1966
I Was Happy Here by Desmond Davis
United Kingdom

1967
Two for the Road byStanley Donen
United States

1968
The Long Day’s Dying by Peter Collinson
United Kingdom

1969
The Rain People by Francis Ford Coppola
United States

1970
Dead of Summer (Ondata di calore) by Nelo Risi
Italy

1971
Claire's Knee (Le genou de Claire) by Eric Rohmer
France

1972
The Glass House by Tom Gries
United States

1973
The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena) by Víctor Erice
Spain

1974
Badlands by Terrence Malick
United States

1975
Poachers (Furtivos) by José Luis Borau
Spain

1976
Queen of the Gypsies (Tabor ujodit v niebo) by Emil Loteanu
USSR

1977
An Unfinished Piece for a Player Piano (Neokonchennaya pyesa dlya mekhanicheskogo pianino) by Nikita Mikhalkov
USSR

1978
The Illegal (Alambrista!) by Robert M. Young
United States

1979
Autumn Marathon (Ossenij marafon) by Georgi Daneliya
USSR

1980
Dyrygent by Andrzej Wajda
Poland

1981
Storie di ordinaria follia by Marco Ferreri
Italy

1982
Demons in the Garden (Demonios en el jardín) by Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón
Spain

1983
Between Us (Coup de foudre) by Diane Kurys
France

1984
Rumble Fish by
Francis Ford Coppola
United States

1985
Yesterday by Radoslaw Piwowarski
Poland

1986
Half of Heaven (La mitad del cielo) by Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón
Spain

1987
Wedding in Galilee (Urs al-jalil) by Michel Khleifi
Palestine-France-Belgium

1988
On the Black Hill by Andrew Grieve
United Kingdom

1989
Homer and Eddie by Andrei Konchalovski
United States
La nación clandestina (ex aequo) by Jorge Sanjinés
Bolivia

1990
Letters from Alou (Las cartas de Alou) by Montxo Armendáriz
Spain

1991
Butterfly Wings (Alas de Mariposa) by Juanma Bajo Ulloa
Spain

1992
A Place in the World (Un lugar en el mundo) by Adolfo Aristarain
Argentina

1993
The Beginning and the End (Principio y fin) by Arturo Ripstein
Mexico
Sara by Dariush Mehrjui
Iran

1994
Running Out of Time (Días contados)
Imanol Uribe
Spain

1995
Margaret's Museum by Mort Ransen
Canada-United Kingdom

1996
Bwana by Imanol Uribe
Spain
Trojan Eddie (ex aequo) by Gillies Mackinnon
Ireland

1997
The Swindle (Rien ne va plus) by Claude Chabrol
France

1998
Wind with the Gone (El viento se llevó lo qué) by Alejandro Agresti
Argentina-Netherlands-Spain-France

1999
What's Life? (C'est quoi la vie?) by François Dupeyron
France

2000
The Ruination of Men (La perdición de los hombres) by Arturo Ripstein
Mexico-Spain

2001
A Cab for Three (Taxi para tres) by Orlando Lübbert
Chile

2002
Mondays in the Sun (Los lunes al sol) by Fernando León de Aranoa
Spain-France-Italy

2003
Gun-shy (Schussangst) by Dito Tsintsadze
Germany

2004
Turtles Can Fly (Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand) by Bahman Ghobadi
Iran-Irak

2005
Something Like Happiness (Štěstí) by Bohdan Sláma
Czech Republic

2006
Half Moon (Niwemang) by Bahman Ghobadi
Iran
Mon fils à moi (ex aequo) by Martial Fougeron
France

2007
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Wayne Wang
United States

2008
Pandora's Box (Pandoranin kutusu) by Yesim Ustaoglu
Turkey-France-Germany-Belgium

2009
City of Life and Death (Nánjīng! Nánjīng!) by Lu Chuan
China