Golden Lion
14 French films have been awarded the Golden Lion, more than that of any other nation. Of note is that Golden Lion awards tend to be presented to European men: 33 of the 54 winners were European men (including Soviet/Russian winners). However most of this bias is from before 1980: before this year only 3 of 21 winners were non-European. Since 1949 only a few women have ever won the Golden Lion for directing, Indian-born Mira Nair, U.S. born Sofia Coppola, German Margarethe von Trotta and Belgium's Agnès Varda, who both won more than two decades ago. Although numerous Americans have won honorary awards at the festival, Americans have only won the Golden Lion four times, with awards for John Cassavetes and Robert Altman (both times the awards were shared with other winners who tied), as well as Darren Aronofsky (the first sole American to win the award) and Sofia Coppola (the first American female to win the award).
| Year | Title | Director | Country of origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | Manon | Henri-Georges Clouzot | * France |
| 1950 | Justice Is Done (Justice est faite) | André Cayatte | France |
| 1951 | Rashōmon | Akira Kurosawa | * Japan |
| 1952 | Forbidden Games (Jeux interdits) | René Clément | France |
| 1953 | No award | ||
| 1954 | Romeo and Juliet | Renato Castellani | * Italy |
| 1955 | The Word (Ordet) | Carl Theodor Dreyer | * Denmark |
| 1956 | No award | ||
| 1957 | The Unvanquished (Aparajito) | Satyajit Ray | * India |
| 1958 | Rickshaw Man (Muhomatsu no issho) | Hiroshi Inagaki | Japan |
| 1959 | General della Rovere (Il generale della Rovere) (tie) The Great War (La grande guerra) (tie) |
Roberto Rossellini Mario Monicelli |
Italy Italy |
| 1960 | The Crossing of the Rhine (Le passage du Rhin) | André Cayatte | France |
| 1961 | Last Year in Marienbad (L'année dernière à Marienbad) | Alain Resnais | France |
| 1962 | Family Diary (Cronaca familiare) (tie) Ivan's Childhood (Ivanovo detstvo) (tie) |
Valerio Zurlini Andrei Tarkovsky |
Italy * Soviet Union |
| 1963 | Hands Over the City (Le mani sulla città) | Francesco Rosi | Italy |
| 1964 | Red Desert (Il deserto rosso) | Michelangelo Antonioni | Italy |
| 1965 | Sandra of a Thousand Delights (Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa) | Luchino Visconti | Italy |
| 1966 | The Battle of Algiers (La battaglia di Algeri) | Gillo Pontecorvo | Italy |
| 1967 | Beauty of the Day (Belle de jour) | Luis Buñuel | France |
| 1968 | Artists under the Big Top: Perplexed (Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos) | Alexander Kluge | * West Germany |
| 1969-79 | No award | ||
| 1980 | Atlantic City (tie) Gloria (tie) |
Louis Malle John Cassavetes |
* Canada/ France * United States |
| 1981 | Marianne and Juliane (Die Bleierne Zeit) | Margarethe von Trotta | West Germany |
| 1982 | The State of Things (Der Stand der Dinge) | Wim Wenders | West Germany |
| 1983 | First Name: Carmen (Prénom Carmen) | Jean-Luc Godard | France |
| 1984 | The Year of the Quiet Sun (Rok spokojnego slonca) | Krzysztof Zanussi | * Poland |
| 1985 | Vagabond (Sans toit ni loi) | Agnès Varda | France |
| 1986 | The Green Ray (Le rayon vert) | Éric Rohmer | France |
| 1987 | Au revoir, les enfants | Louis Malle | France |
| 1988 | The Legend of the Holy Drinker (La leggenda del santo bevitore) | Ermanno Olmi | Italy |
| 1989 | A City of Sadness (Bei qing cheng shi) | Hou Hsiao-Hsien | * Taiwan |
| 1990 | Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead | Tom Stoppard | * United Kingdom/ United States |
| 1991 | Urga | Nikita Mikhalkov | Soviet Union |
| 1992 | The Story of Qiu Ju (Qiu Ju da guan si) | Zhang Yimou | * China |
| 1993 | Short Cuts (tie) Three Colours: Blue (Trois couleurs: Bleu) (tie) |
Robert Altman Krzysztof Kieślowski |
United States France/ Poland |
| 1994 | Vive L'Amour (Ai qing wan sui) (tie) Before the Rain (tie) |
Tsai Ming-liang Milčo Mančevski |
Taiwan * Republic of Macedonia |
| 1995 | Cyclo (Xich lo) | Anh Hung Tran | France/* Vietnam |
| 1996 | Michael Collins | Neil Jordan | * Ireland |
| 1997 | Fireworks (Hana-bi) | Takeshi Kitano | Japan |
| 1998 | The Way We Laughed (Così ridevano) | Gianni Amelio | Italy |
| 1999 | Not One Less (Yi ge dou bu neng shao) | Zhang Yimou | China |
| 2000 | The Circle (Dayereh) | Jafar Panahi | * Iran |
| 2001 | Monsoon Wedding | Mira Nair | India/ United States/ Italy/ France/* Germany |
| 2002 | The Magdalene Sisters | Peter Mullan | Ireland |
| 2003 | The Return (Vozvrashcheniye) | Andrey Zvyagintsev | * Russia |
| 2004 | Vera Drake | Mike Leigh | United Kingdom |
| 2005 | Brokeback Mountain | Ang Lee | United States |
| 2006 | Still Life (Sanxia haoren) | Jia Zhangke | China |
| 2007 | Lust, Caution (Se, jie) | Ang Lee | United States/ China/ Taiwan |
| 2008 | The Wrestler | Darren Aronofsky | United States |
| 2009 | Lebanon | Samuel Maoz | * Israel |
| 2010 | Somewhere | Sofia Coppola | United States |
| 2011 | Faust | Alexander Sokurov | Russia |
| 2012 | Pietà | Kim Ki-duk | * South Korea |
*denotes first win
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