Golden Lion for Best Film

Leone d'oroThe 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