|
| Year |
Film |
Director |
Country |
| 1953 | La Guerra de Dios | Rafael Gil |  Spain* |
| 1954 | Sierra maldita | Antonio del Amo | Spain |
| 1955 | Giorni d'amore | Giuseppe de Santis |  Italy |
| 1956 | Il ferroviere | Pietro Germi | Italy* |
| 1957 | Oh! Sabella
(La nonna Sabella) | Dino Risi | Italy |
| 1958 | Ewa chce spac | Tadeusz Chmielewski |  Poland* |
| 1959 | The Nun's Story | Fred Zinnemann |  United States* |
| 1960 | Romeo, Juliet a Tma | Jiri Weiss |  Czechoslovakia* |
| 1961 | One-Eyed Jacks | Marlon Brando | United States |
| 1962 | Arturo's Island
(L’isola di Arturo) | Damiano Damiani | Italy |
| 1963 | Mafioso | Alberto Lattuada | Italy |
| 1964 | America, America | Elia Kazan | United States |
| 1965 | Golden Queen
(Zlatá reneta)
Mirage (tie) | Otakar Vávra
Edward Dmytryk | Czechoslovakia
United States |
| 1966 | I Was Happy Here | Desmond Davis |  United Kingdom |
| 1967 | Two for the Road | Stanley Donen | United States |
| 1968 | The Long Day’s Dying | Peter Collinson | United Kingdom |
| 1969 | The Rain People | Francis Ford Coppola | United States |
| 1970 | Dead of Summer
(Ondata di calore) | Nelo Risi | Italy |
| 1971 | Claire's Knee
(Le genou de Claire) | Eric Rohmer |  France* |
| 1972 | The Glass House | Tom Gries | United States |
| 1973 | The Spirit of the Beehive
(El espíritu de la colmena) | Víctor Erice | Spain |
| 1974 | Badlands | Terrence Malick | United States |
| 1975 | Poachers
(Furtivos) | José Luis Borau | Spain |
| 1976 | Queen of the Gypsies
(Tabor ujodit v niebo) | Emil Loteanu |  Soviet Union* |
| 1977 | An Unfinished Piece for a Player Piano
(Neokonchennaya pyesa dlya mekhanicheskogo pianino) | Nikita Mikhalkov | Soviet Union |
| 1978 | The Illegal
(Alambrista!) | Robert M. Young | United States |
| 1979 | Autumn Marathon
(Ossenij marafon) | Georgi Daneliya | Soviet Union |
| 1980 | Dyrygent | Andrzej Wajda | Poland |
| 1981 | Storie di ordinaria follia | Marco Ferreri | Italy |
| 1982 | Demons in the Garden
(Demonios en el jardín) | Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón | Spain |
| 1983 | Between Us
(Coup de foudre) | Diane Kurys | France |
| 1984 | Rumble Fish | Francis Ford Coppola | United States |
| 1985 | Yesterday | Radoslaw Piwowarski | Poland |
| 1986 | Half of Heaven
(La mitad del cielo) | Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón | Spain |
| 1987 | Wedding in Galilee
(Urs al-jalil) | Michel Khleifi | .svg.png) Belgium* - France -  Israel* |
| 1988 | On the Black Hill | Andrew Grieve | United Kingdom |
| 1989 | Homer and Eddie
La nación clandestina (tie) | Andrei Konchalovski
Jorge Sanjinés | United States
 Bolivia* |
| 1990 | Letters from Alou
(Las cartas de Alou) | Montxo Armendáriz | Spain |
| 1991 | Butterfly Wings
(Alas de Mariposa) | Juanma Bajo Ulloa | Spain |
| 1992 | A Place in the World
(Un lugar en el mundo) | Adolfo Aristarain |  Argentina* |
| 1993 | The Beginning and the End
(Principio y fin)
Sara | Arturo Ripstein
Dariush Mehrjui |  Mexico*
 Iran* |
| 1994 | Running Out of Time
(Días contados) | Imanol Uribe | Spain |
| 1995 | Margaret's Museum | Mort Ransen |  Canada* - United Kingdom |
| 1996 | Bwana
Trojan Eddie (tie) | Imanol Uribe
Gillies Mackinnon | Spain
 Ireland* |
| 1997 | The Swindle
(Rien ne va plus) | Claude Chabrol | France |
| 1998 | Wind with the Gone
(El viento se llevó lo qué) | Alejandro Agresti | Argentina - France -  Netherlands* - Spain |
| 1999 | What's Life?
(C'est quoi la vie?) | François Dupeyron | France |
| 2000 | The Ruination of Men
(La perdición de los hombres) | Arturo Ripstein | Mexico - Spain |
| 2001 | A Cab for Three
(Taxi para tres) | Orlando Lübbert |  Chile* |
| 2002 | Mondays in the Sun
(Los lunes al sol) | Fernando León de Aranoa | Spain - France - Italy |
| 2003 | Gun-shy
(Schussangst) | Dito Tsintsadze |  Germany* |
| 2004 | Turtles Can Fly
(Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand) | Bahman Ghobadi | Iran -  Iraq* |
| 2005 | Something Like Happiness
(Štěstí) | Bohdan Sláma |  Czech Republic* |
| 2006 | Half Moon
(Niwemang)
Mon fils à moi (tie) | Bahman Ghobadi
Martial Fougeron | Iran
France |
| 2007 | A Thousand Years of Good Prayers | Wayne Wang | United States |
| 2008 | Pandora's Box
(Pandora'nın kutusu) | Yeşim Ustaoğlu |  Turkey* - Belgium - France - Germany |
| 2009 | City of Life and Death
(Nánjīng! Nánjīng!) | Lu Chuan |  China* |
| 2010 | Neds | Peter Mullan | United Kingdom - France - Italy |
| 2011 | Los pasos dobles | Isaki Lacuesta | Spain -  Switzerland |
| 2012 | In the House
(Dans la maison) | François Ozon | France |
| 2013 | Bad Hair
(Pelo Malo) | Mariana Rondón |  Venezuela*- Peru*- Germany |
