European Film Award / Best Director
Winner and nominee of the European Film Award in the category Best Director (European Director) since it was first awarded in 1988.
The most frequently awarded directors' prize, with three victories so far, went to the Austrian Michael Haneke and Spanish directors. With Wim Wenders (1988) and Maren Ade (2016) two other German-speaking filmmakers were successful. As the first and only other director besides Ade, the Danish Susanne Bier ( In a Better World ) was honored in 2011 .
| Statistics (without audience award) | Movie | number | year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most frequent awards | Michael Haneke | 3 | 2005 , 2009 , 2012 |
| Most frequent nominations (* = victory) |
Pedro Almodovar | 6th | 2002 *, 2004 , 2006 *, 2009, 2016, 2019 |
| Most frequent nominations without a win | Nuri Bilge Ceylan | 3 | 2003, 2012, 2014 |
The films listed below are given with their German distribution title (if identifiable), followed by the original title in brackets in italics. The original title is not mentioned if the German and foreign-language film titles are identical. The winners are highlighted first.
1980s
1988
Wim Wenders - The sky over Berlin
- Terence Davies - Distant Voices - Still Life ( Distant Voices, Still Lives )
- Louis Malle - Goodbye, Children ( Au revoir les enfants )
- Manoel de Oliveira - The Cannibals ( Os Canibais )
- Sergei Parajanov - Kerib, the minstrel ( Ашик-кериб )
1989
- Theo Angelopoulos - Landscape in the Fog ( Τοπίο στην ομίχλη )
- Maciej Dejczer - 300 miles to heaven ( 300 mil do nieba )
- Wassili Pitschul - Little Vera ( Malenkaja Vera )
- Jim Sheridan - My Left Foot ( My Left Foot )
1990s
1990-1999
Prize not awarded
2000s
2000
Prize not awarded
2001
Jean-Pierre Jeunet - The Fabulous World of Amélie ( Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain )
- José Luis Garci - You're the one ( Una historia de entonces )
- Péter Gothár - Paszport
- Ermanno Olmi - The Medici Warrior ( Il mestiere delle armi )
- François Ozon - Under the Sand ( Sous le sable )
- Éric Rohmer - The Lady and the Duke ( L'anglaise et le duc )
2002
Pedro Almodóvar - Talk to her ( Hable con ella )
- Marco Bellocchio - L'ora di religione
- Andreas Dresen - Half stairs
- Aki Kaurismäki - The Man Without a Past ( Mies vailla menneisyyttä )
- Mike Leigh - All or Nothing
- Ken Loach - Sweet Sixteen
- Roman Polański - The Pianist ( The Pianist )
- Alexander Sokurow - Russian Ark ( Русский ковчег )
2003
- Wolfgang Becker - Good Bye, Lenin!
- Nuri Bilge Ceylan - Uzak - Far ( Uzak )
- Isabel Coixet - My Life Without Me ( My Life Without Me )
- Marco Tullio Giordana - The best years ( La meglio gioventù )
- Michael Winterbottom - In This World - Departure into the Unknown ( In This World )
Alejandro Amenábar - The Sea Within Me ( Mar adentro )
- Fatih Akin - Against the Wall
- Pedro Almodóvar - La mala educación - Bad education ( La mala educación )
- Theo Angelopoulos - Trilogy I - The earth weeps ( Trilogia - To livadi pou dakrizi )
- Nimród Antal - control
- Agnès Jaoui - Look at me! ( Comme une image )
- Susanne Bier - Brothers - Between brothers ( Brødre )
- Roberto Faenza - Alla luce del sole
- Álex de la Iglesia - Crimen ferpecto ( Crimen ferpecto )
- Paweł Pawlikowski - My Summer of Love
- Cristi Puiu - The Death of Lord Lazarescu ( Moartea domnului Lăzărescu )
- Wim Wenders - Don't Come Knocking
Pedro Almodóvar - Volver - Returning ( Volver )
- Susanne Bier - After the Wedding ( Efter brylluppet )
- Emanuele Crialese - Golden Door ( Nuovomondo )
- Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck - The Lives of Others
- Ken Loach - The Wind That Shakes the Barley
- Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross - The Road to Guantanamo
Cristian Mungiu - 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days (4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile)
- Fatih Akin - On the other hand
- Roy Andersson - The Recent Thunderstorm (Du levande)
- Stephen Frears - The Queen (The Queen)
- Kevin Macdonald - The Last King of Scotland - In the clutches of power (The Last King of Scotland)
- Giuseppe Tornatore - The Unknown ( La sconosciuta )
Matteo Garrone - Gomorrah - Journey into the realm of Camorra ( Gomorrah )
- Laurent Cantet - The Class ( Entre les murs )
- Andreas Dresen - cloud nine
- Ari Folman - Waltz with Bashir ( ואלס עם באשיר )
- Steve McQueen - Hungry
- Paolo Sorrentino - Il Divo
Michael Haneke - The White Ribbon - A German Children's Story
- Pedro Almodóvar - Broken Hugs ( Los abrazos rotos )
- Andrea Arnold - Fish Tank
- Jacques Audiard - A Prophet ( Un prophète )
- Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire ( Slumdog Millionaire )
- Lars von Trier - Antichrist
2010s
Roman Polanski - The Ghost Writer ( The Ghost Writer )
- Olivier Assayas - Carlos - The Jackal ( Carlos )
- Semih Kaplanoğlu - Bal - Honey ( Bal )
- Samuel Maoz - Lebanon ( לבנון )
- Paolo Virzì - La prima cosa bella
Susanne Bier - In a Better World (Hævnen)
- Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne - The Boy with a Bicycle ( Le Gamin au vélo )
- Aki Kaurismäki - Le Havre
- Béla Tarr - The Turin Horse ( A Torinói ló )
- Lars von Trier - Melancholia
Michael Haneke - Love ( Amour )
- Nuri Bilge Ceylan - Once Upon a Time in Anatolia ( Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da )
- Steve McQueen - Shame
- Paolo and Vittorio Taviani - Caesar must die ( Cesare deve the )
- Thomas Vinterberg - The Hunt ( hunts )
Paolo Sorrentino - La Grande Bellezza - The Great Beauty ( La grande bellezza )
- Pablo Berger - Blancanieves - A fairy tale of black and white ( Blancanieves )
- Abdellatif Kechiche - Blue is a warm color ( La Vie d'Adèle - Chapitre 1 & 2 )
- François Ozon - In her house ( Dans la maison )
- Giuseppe Tornatore - The Best Offer - The highest bid ( La migliore offerta )
- Felix Van Groeningen - The Broken Circle ( The Broken Circle Breakdown )
- Nuri Bilge Ceylan - Winter Sleep ( Kış Uykusu )
- Steven Knight - No Turning Back (Locke)
- Ruben Östlund - Force Majeure ( Turist )
- Andrei Svyagintsev - Leviathan (Левиафан)
- Paolo Virzì - Human Capital ( Il capitale umano )
Paolo Sorrentino - Eternal Youth (Youth)
- Roy Andersson - A pigeon sits on a branch and thinks about life (En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron)
- Yorgos Lanthimos - The Lobster
- Nanni Moretti - Mia Madre ( Mia madre )
- Sebastian Schipper - Victoria
- Małgorzata Szumowska - Body (Ciało)
- Pedro Almodóvar - Julieta
- Ken Loach - Me, Daniel Blake (I, Daniel Blake)
- Cristian Mungiu - Bacalaureate
- Paul Verhoeven - Elle
- Ildikó Enyedi - body and soul (Testről és lélekről)
- Aki Kaurismäki - The Other Side of Hope (Toivon tuolla puolen)
- Yorgos Lanthimos - The Killing of a Sacred Deer
- Andrei Svyagintsev - Loveless (Нелюбовь)
Paweł Pawlikowski - Cold War - The latitude of love (Zimna wojna)
- Ali Abbasi - Border (Gräns)
- Matteo Garrone - Dogman
- Samuel Maoz - Foxtrot (פוֹקְסטְרוֹט)
- Alice Rohrwacher - Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro felice)
Giorgos Lanthimos - The Favorite - Intrigue and madness (The Favorite)
- Pedro Almodóvar - Sorrow and Glory (Dolor y Gloria)
- Marco Bellocchio - The Traitor (Il traditore)
- Roman Polański - Intrigue (J'accuse)
- Celine Sciamma - Portrait of a Young Woman on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu)