Golden Lion for Best Film
The list of award winners of the Venice Film Festival Golden Lion boasts illustrious names from cinema history.
With regard to the "holes" in the list, some editions of the festival were not held, for various reasons, while others simply were not competitive and awards were not given out. From 1934 to 1938, the "Mussolini Cup" was awarded to two films: one for Best Italian Film and one for Best Foreign Film as noted next to the title of the film.
You also can view the list of awards for the Golden Lion for Career Achievement.
Award Winners from 1932 to present
| Year | Film | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 1932 | The first edition of the festival was not competitive. | |
| 1934 | Teresa Confalonieri Best Italian Film | Guido Brignone |
| 1934 | The Man of Aran Best Foreign Film | Robert Flaherty |
| 1935 | Casta diva (Chaste Diva)Best Italian Film | Carmine Gallone |
| 1935 | Anna Karenina Best Foreign Film | Clarence Brown |
| 1936 | Squadrone bianco (White Squadron) Best Italian Film | Augusto Genina |
| 1936 | Der Kaiser von Kalifornien (The Emperor of California) Best Foreign Film | Luis Trenker |
| 1937 | Scipione l’Africano (Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal) Best Italian Film | Carmine Gallone |
| 1937 | Un carnet de bal (The Dance Program) Best Foreign Film | Julien Duvivier |
| 1938 | Luciano Serra pilota (Luciano Serra Pilot) Best Italian Film | Goffredo Alessandrini |
| 1938 | Olympia Best Foreign Film | Leni Riefenstahl |
| 1939 | Abuna Messia (Cardinal Messias) | Goffredo Alessandrini |
| From 1940 to 1942 | From 1940 to 1942 the festival was not held in Venice. Acknowledged as "did not take place". | |
| From 1943 to 1945 | The festival was suspended because of the war. | |
| 1946 | The Southerner | Jean Renoir |
| 1947 | Sirena (Siréna) | Karel Steklý |
| 1948 | Hamlet | Laurence Olivier |
| 1949 | Manon | Henri-Georges Clouzot |
| 1950 | Justice est faite (Justice Is Done) | André Cayatte |
| 1951 | Rashômon | Akira Kurosawa |
| 1952 | Jeux interdits (Forbidden Games) | René Clément |
| 1953 | The Golden Lion was not awarded. | |
| 1954 | Romeo and Juliet | Renato Castellani |
| 1955 | Ordet (The Word) | Carl Theodor Dreyer |
| 1956 | The Golden Lion was not awarded. | |
| 1957 | Aparajito (The Unvanquished) | Satyajit Ray |
| 1958 | Muhomatsu No Issho (The Rickshaw Man) | Iroshi Inagaki |
| 1959 | La grande guerra (The Great War) | Mario Monicelli |
| 1959 | Il generale Della Rovere (General della Rovere) | Roberto Rossellini |
| 1960 | Le passage du Rhin (The Crossing of the Rhine) | André Cayatte |
| 1961 | L’année dernière à Marienbad(Last Year at Marienbad) | Alain Resnais |
| 1962 | Cronaca familiare (Family Diary) | Valerio Zurlini |
| 1962 | Ivanovo Detsvo (My Name Is Ivan) | Andrej Tarkovskij |
| 1963 | Le mani sulla città (Hands Over the City) | Francesco Rosi |
| 1964 | Deserto Rosso (Red Desert) | Michelangelo Antonioni |
| 1965 | Vaghe stelle dell’Orsa (Sandra of a Thousand Delights) | Luchino Visconti |
| 1966 | La battaglia di Algeri The Battle of Algiers | Gillo Pontecorvo |
| 1967 | Belle de jour | Luis Buñuel |
| 1968 | Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos (Artists under the Big Top: Perplexed) | Alexander Kluge |
| From 1969 to 1979 | The festival was not competitive | |
| In 1973, 1977 and 1978 | The festival was not held due to various problems. | |
| 1980 | Atlantic City | Louis Malle |
| 1980 | Gloria | John Cassavetes |
| 1981 | Die bleierne Zeit (Marianne and Juliane) | Margarethe von Trotta |
| 1982 | Der Stand der Dinge (The State of Things) | Wim Wenders |
| 1983 | Prénom Carmen (First Name: Carmen) | Jean-Luc Godard |
| 1984 | Rok Spokojnego Slona (The Year of the Quiet Sun) | Krystof Zanussi |
| 1985 | Sans toit ni loi(Vagabond) | Agnès Varda |
| 1986 | Le rayon vert (Summer) | Eric Rohmer |
| 1987 | Au revoir les enfants (Goodbye, Children) | Louis Malle |
| 1988 | La Leggenda del santo bevitore(The Legend of the Holy Drinker) | Ermano Olmi |
| 1989 | Beiqing chengshi (A City of Sadness) | Hou Hsiao-Hsien |
| 1990 | Rosenkrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead | Tom Stoppard |
| 1991 | Urga (Close to Eden) | Nikita Mikhalhov |
| 1992 | Qui Ju da guansi (Qiu Ju Goes to Court) | Zhang Yimou |
| 1993 | Short Cuts | Robert Altman |
| 1993 | Trois couleurs: Bleu (Three Colors: Blue) | Krzysztof Kieslowski |
| 1994 | Alqing Wansui (Vive L’Amour) | Tsai Ming-Liang |
| 1994 | Pred dozhdot (Before the Rain) | Milcho Manchewski |
| 1995 | Xich-lo (Cyclo) | Tran Anh Hung |
| 1996 | Michael Collins | Neil Jordan |
| 1997 | Hana-bi (Fireworks) | Takeshi Kitano |
| 1998 | Così ridevano (The Way We Laughed) | Gianni Amelio |
| 1999 | Yi ge dou bu neng shao (Not One Less) | Zhang Yimou |
| 2000 | Dayereh (The Circle) | Jafar Panahi |
| 2001 | Monsoon Wedding | Mira Nair |
| 2002 | The Magdalene Sisters | Peter Mullan |
| 2003 | Vozvrashcheniye (The Return) | Andrey Zvyaguintsev |
| 2004 | Vera Drake | Mike Leigh |
| 2005 | Brokeback Mountain | Ang Lee |
| 2006 | Still Life(Sanxia haoren) | Jia Zhang-ke |
| 2007 | Lussuria – Seduzione e tradimento (Se, jie) | Ang Lee |
| 2008 | The Wrestler | Darren Aronofsky |
| 2009 | Lebanon | Samuel Maoz |
| 2010 | Somewhere | Sofia Coppola |
| 2011 | Faust | Aleksandr Sokurov |
| 2012 | Pietà | Kim Ki-duk |
