German Film Award / Best Director

Wim Wenders

Winner and nominee of the German Film Award in the category Best Director . Since 1999 the winner has been honored with the " Lola " prize statuette. The gold film tape had previously been awarded.

The most successful in this category was Bernhard Wicki , who won the award four times. Volker Schlöndorff , Werner Schroeter , Wim Wenders and Andreas Dresen were successful three times each , followed by Fatih Akın , Helmut Dietl , Rainer Werner Fassbinder , Helmut Käutner , Peter Lilienthal , Johannes Schaaf and Tom Tykwer with two wins each.

In 1980, Heidi Genée ( 1 + 1 = 3 ) was the first female filmmaker to prevail. She was followed in 1985 by Maria Knilli ( Lieber Karl ), 1987 Verena Rudolph ( Francesca ), 2001 Esther Gronenborn ( alaska.de ), 2002 Caroline Link ( Nirgendwo in Afrika ), 2017 Maren Ade ( Toni Erdmann ), 2018 Emily Atef ( 3 days in Quiberon ) and 2020 Nora Fingscheidt ( Systemsprenger ).

Laureate from 1951–1994

year	Award winners	Movie title
1951	Josef von Báky	The double lottery
1952	Prize not awarded
1953	Rudolf Jugert	On the streets at night
1954	Helmut Käutner	The last bridge
1955	Alfred Weidenmann	Canaris
1956	Prize not awarded
1957	Helmut Käutner	The captain of Koepenick
1958	Robert Siodmak	At night when the devil came
1959	Frank Wisbar	Dogs, do you want to live forever
1960	Bernhard Wicki	The bridge
1961	Peter Gorski	fist
1962	Prize not awarded
1963	Hugo Niebeling	Alvorada - New beginnings in Brazil
1964	Gert Abelbeck	Nisshin Geppo - Japan, a great sporting country
1965	Kurt Hoffmann	The house on Karpfengasse
1966	Ulrich Schamoni	It
	Volker Schlöndorff	The young Törless
1967	Alexander Kluge	Goodbye to yesterday
1968	Johannes Schaaf	tattoo
1969	Peter Zadek	I am an elephant, madame
1970	Prize not awarded
1971	Michael Fengler Rainer Werner Fassbinder	Why is Mr. R. running amok?
	Volker Schlöndorff	The sudden wealth of the poor people of Kombach
1972	Johannes Schaaf	Trotta
	Bernhard Wicki	The wrong weight
1973	Prize not awarded
1974	Roland click	Supermarket
1975	Wim Wenders	Wrong move
1976	Prize not awarded
1977	Volker Schlöndorff	The catch shot
	Hans-Christof Stenzel 1	C'est la vie Rrose
1978	Rainer Werner Fassbinder	Despair - A journey into light
	Wim Wenders	The American friend
1979	Werner Schroeter	Neapolitan stories
1980	Heidi Genée 2	1 + 1 = 3
1981	Walter Bockmayer Rolf Bührmann	Looping - the long dream of short happiness
1982	Werner Schroeter	Day of Idiots
1983	Peter Lilienthal	Dear Mr. Wonderful
	Lutz Konermann	On the wall
1984	Josef Rusnak	Cold fever
	Uwe Schrader	Kanakerbraut
1985	Maria Knilli	Dear Karl
	Bernhard Wicki	The green stone variant
1986	Prize not awarded
1987	Peter Lilienthal	The poet's silence
	Verena Rudolph 3	Francesca
1988	Dominik Graf	The cat
1989	Prize not awarded
1990	Uli Edel	Brooklyn last exit
	Bernhard Wicki	The spider web
1991	Werner Schroeter	Malina
1992	Helmut Dietl	Schtonk!
1993	Adolf Winkelmann	North curve
1994	Peter Very	Kaspar Hauser

¹ In 1977 Hans-Christof Stenzel received an award for directing as well as for the script and the musical dramaturgy.

² In 1980 Heidi Genée received awards for both directing and writing.

³ In 1987 Verena Rudolph received awards for both directing and scripting.

Award winners and nominees from 1995

1995

Sönke Wortmann - The man in motion

• Doris Dörrie - Nobody loves me
• Dominik Graf - The winners

1996

Romuald Karmakar - The Dead Maker

• Rainer Kaufmann - talk of the town
• Dani Levy - Silent Night - A celebration of love

1997

Helmut Dietl - Rossini - or the murderous question of who slept with whom

• Caroline Link - Beyond Silence
• Roland Suso Richter - 14 days life sentence

1998

Wim Wenders - At the end of violence

• Tom Tykwer - winter sleeper
• Joseph Vilsmaier - Comedian Harmonists

1999

Tom Tykwer - Lola is running

• Fatih Akin - Short and Painless
• Andreas Dresen - Night Figures

2000s

2000

Pepe Danquart - home game

• Veit Helmer - Tuvalu
• Wim Wenders - The Million Dollar Hotel

2001

Esther Gronenborn - alaska.de

• Christian Petzold - Internal Security
• Tom Tykwer - The Warrior and the Empress

2002

Caroline Link - Nowhere in Africa

• Andreas Dresen - Half stairs
• Dominik Graf - The rock

2003

Wolfgang Becker - Good Bye, Lenin!

• Hans-Christian Schmid - Lights
• Tomy Wigand - The flying classroom

2004

Fatih Akin - Against the Wall

• Christian Petzold - Wolfsburg
• Sönke Wortmann - The miracle of Bern

2005

Dani Levy - Everything on sugar!

• Hans Weingartner - The fat years are over
• Volker Schlöndorff - The ninth day

2006

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck - The Lives of Others

• Andreas Dresen - summer in front of the balcony
• Hans-Christian Schmid - Requiem

2007

Marcus H. Rosenmüller - Those who die earlier are dead longer

• Matthias Glasner - Free will
• Chris Kraus - four minutes
• Tom Tykwer - Perfume - The story of a murderer

2008

Fatih Akin - On the other hand

• Doris Dörrie - Cherry Blossoms - Hanami
• Christian Petzold - Yella

2009

Andreas Dresen - Cloud 9

• Uli Edel - The Baader Meinhof Complex
• Florian Gallenberger - John Rabe
• Christian Petzold - Jerichow

2010s

2010

Michael Haneke - The White Ribbon - A German Children's Story

• Maren Ade - Everyone else
• Feo Aladag - The Stranger
• Hans-Christian Schmid - Storm

2011

Tom Tykwer - Three

• Florian Cossen - The song in me
• Wim Wenders - Pina

2012

Andreas Dresen - stop on the open road

• Christian Petzold - Barbara
• Hans Weingartner - The sum of my individual parts

2013

Jan-Ole Gerster - Oh boy

• Margarethe von Trotta - Hannah Arendt
• Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer - Cloud Atlas

2014

Edgar Reitz - The other home - Chronicle of a longing

• Katrin Gebbe - Tore dances
• Andreas Prochaska - The dark valley

2015

Sebastian Schipper - Victoria

• Edward Berger - Jack
• Dominik Graf - The beloved sisters
• Johannes Naber - Time of the cannibals

2016

Lars Kraume - The state against Fritz Bauer

• Maria Schrader - Before the Dawn
• David Wnendt - He's back

2017

Maren Ade - Toni Erdmann

• Anne Zohra Berrached - 24 weeks
• Chris Kraus - Yesterday's flowers
• Nicolette Krebitz - Wild

2018

Emily Atef - 3 days in Quiberon

• Fatih Akin - Out of nowhere
• Valeska Grisebach - Western

2019

Andreas Dresen - Gundermann

• Wolfgang Fischer - Styx
• Caroline Link - The boy needs some fresh air

2020s

2020

Nora Fingscheidt - system sprinkler

• Ilker Çatak - The spoken word counts
• Burhan Qurbani - Berlin Alexanderplatz

Individual evidence

1. ^ German Film Prize . In: The Hollywood Reporter , April 25, 1995 (accessed via LexisNexis Business ).
2. ^ Kirschbaum, Erik: Germany UPS Film Prize . In: Daily Variety , March 28, 1996, p. 33.