César / Best Documentary
The winners and nominees of the French César film award in the Best Documentary category (Meilleur film documentaire) since it was first awarded in 2007 are listed here.
The films listed below are given with their German distribution title (if this can be determined), followed by the original title in the respective national language and the name of the director in brackets in italics. The original title is not mentioned if the German and original film titles are identical. The winners are highlighted first.
2000s
Dans la peau de Jacques Chirac - Directors: Karl Zéro and Michel Royer
- La fille du juge - Director: William Karel
- Ici Najac, à vous la Terre - Director: Jean-Henri Meunier
- Là-bas - Director: Chantal Akerman
- Zidane, un portrait du XXIe siècle - Directed by Philippe Parreno and Douglas Gordon
On behalf of terror (L'Avocat de la terreur) - Director: Barbet Schroeder
- Animals in Love (Les Animaux amoureux) - Director: Laurent Charbonnier
- Les Lip, l'imagination au pouvoir - Director: Christian Rouaud
- Le premier cri - Director: Gilles de Maistre
- Return to Normandy (Retour en Normandie) - Director: Nicolas Philibert
The Beaches of Agnès (Les plages d'Agnès) - Director: Agnès Varda
- Her name is Sabine (Elle s'appelle Sabine) - Director: Sandrine Bonnaire
- J'irai dormir à Hollywood - Director: Antoine de Maximy
- Tabarly - Director: Pierre Marcel
- New Times (La vie modern) - Director: Raymond Depardon
2010s
The Hell by Henri-Georges Clouzot (L'enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot) - directed by Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea
- La danse - Director: Frederick Wiseman
- Himalaya - Close to Heaven (Himalaya, le chemin du ciel) - Director: Marianne Chaud
- Home - Director: Yann-Arthus Bertrand
- Ne me libérez pas je m'en charge - Director: Fabienne Godet
Our Oceans (Océans) - Director: Jacques Perrin
- Benda Bilili! - Director: Florent de La Tullaye
- Cleveland vs. Wall Street - Director: Jean-Stéphane Bron
- Entre nos mains - Director: Marianne Otero
- Yves St Laurent Pierre Bergé, l'amour fou - Director: Pierre Thoretton
Tous au Larzac - Director: Christian Rouaud
- Le bal des menteurs - Director: Daniel Leconte
- Crazy Horse - Director: Frederick Wiseman
- Ici on noie les Algériens - Director: Yasmina Adi
- Michel Petrucciani - Life Against Time (Michel Petrucciani) - Director: Michael Radford
Les invisibles - Director: Sébastien Lifshitz
- Bovines ou la vraie vie des vaches - Director: Emmanuel Gras
- Duch, le maître des forges de l'enfer - Director: Rithy Panh
- Journal de France - directed by Claudine Nougaret and Raymond Depardon
- Les nouveaux chiens de garde - directed by Gilles Balbastre and Yannick Kergoat
On the way to school (Sur le chemin de l'école) - Director: Pascal Plisson
- Comment j'ai détesté les maths - Director: Olivier Peyon
- Le dernier des injustes - Director: Claude Lanzmann
- The Secret of the Trees (Il était une forêt) - Director: Luc Jacquet
- La maison de la radio - Director: Nicolas Philibert
Das Salz der Erde (The Salt of the Earth) - directed by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
- Caricaturistes, fantassins de la démocratie - Director: Stéphanie Valloatto
- Les chèvres de ma mère - Director: Sophie Audier
- La cour de Babel - Director: Julie Bertuccelli
- National Gallery - Director: Frederick Wiseman
Demain - Director: Cyril Dion , Mélanie Laurent
- Le bouton de nacre - Director: Patricio Guzmán
- Cavanna jusqu'à l'ultime seconde, j'écrirai - directed by Denis Robert and Nina Robert
- L'image manquante - Director: Rithy Panh
- Une jeunesse allemande - Director: Jean-Gabriel Périot
Merci patron! - Directed by François Ruffin
- Dernières nouvelles du cosmos - Director: Julie Bertuccelli
- Sea Fire (Fuocoammare) - Director: Gianfranco Rosi
- Swagger - Director: Olivier Babinet
- Voyage à travers le cinéma français - Director: Bertrand Tavernier
I Am Not Your Negro - Director: Raoul Peck
- 12 jours - Director: Raymond Depardon
- Moments: Faces of a Journey (Visages, Villages) - Directed by Agnès Varda and JR
- Carré 35 - Directed by Éric Caravaca
- À voix haute - La force de la parole - Director: Stéphane de Freitas
So Help Me God (Ni juge, ni soumise) - Directors: Jean Libon and Yves Hinant
- America - Director: Claus Drexel
- De chaque instant - Director: Nicolas Philibert
- Le Grand Bal - The great dance festival (Le grand bal) - Director: Laetitia Carton
- Le procès contre Mandela et les autres - Directed by Nicolas Champeaux and Gilles Porte
2020s
M - Director: Yolande Zauberman
- 68, mon père et les clous - Director: Samuel Bigiaoui
- La cordillère des songes - Director: Patricio Guzmán
- Lourdes - directed by Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai
- Wonderboy (Wonder Boy, Olivier Rousteing, né sous X) - Director: Anissa Bonnefont