European Film Award for Best Director

The European Film Award for Best Director is an award given out at the annual European Film Awards to recognize a director who has exhibited outstanding directing while working in a film industry. The award is presented by the European Film Academy (EFA) and was first presented in 1988 to German director Wim Wenders for Wings of Desire.

European Film Award for Best Director
The 2024 recipient: Jacques Audiard
Awarded for	Best Achievement in Directing
Presented by	European Film Academy
First award	Wim Wenders Wings of Desire (1988)
Currently held by	Jacques Audiard Emilia Pérez (2024)
Website	europeanfilmacademy.org

Michael Haneke is the director with most wins in the category with three, followed by Pedro Almodóvar, Paolo Sorrentino, Paweł Pawlikowski and Ruben Östlund, with two wins each. Almodovar is the most nominated director with six nominations for the award. Danish director Susanne Bier was the first female director to receive the award, winning for In a Better World in 2011.

Winners and nominees

1980s

Year	Winner and nominees	English title	Original title
1988 (1st)	Wim Wenders	Wings of Desire	Der Himmel über Berlin
	Terence Davies	Distant Voices, Still Lives
	Manoel de Oliveira	The Cannibals	Os Canibais
	Louis Malle	Au revoir, les enfants
	Sergei Parajanov	Ashik Kerib	აშიკ-ქერიბი
1989 (2nd)	Géza Bereményi	Eldorádó
	Theodoros Angelopoulos	Landscape in the Mist	Τοπίο στην ομίχλη
	Maciej Dejczer	300 Miles to Heaven	300 mil do nieba
	Vasili Pichul	Little Vera	Ма́ленькая Ве́ра (Malenkaya Vera)
	Jim Sheridan	My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown

2000s

Year	Winner and nominees	English title	Original title
2000 (13th)	No award given
2001 (14th) [1]	Jean-Pierre Jeunet	Amélie	Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
	José Luis Garci	You're the One	You're the one (una historia de entonces)
	Péter Gothár	Passport	Paszport
	Emanno Olmi	The Profession of Arms	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 (15th) [2]	Pedro Almodóvar	Talk to Her	Hable con ella
	Marco Bellocchio	My Mother's Smile	L'ora di religione (Il sorriso di mia madre)
	Andreas Dresen	Grill Point	Halbe Treppe
	Aki Kaurismäki	The Man Without a Past	Mies vailla menneisyyttä
	Mike Leigh	All or Nothing
	Ken Loach	Sweet Sixteen
	Roman Polański	The Pianist
	Alexander Sokurov	Russian Ark	Русский ковчег (Russkij Kovcheg)
2003 (16th) [3]	Lars von Trier	Dogville
	Wolfgang Becker	Good Bye Lenin!
	Nuri Bilge Ceylan	Distant	Uzak
	Isabel Coixet	My Life Without Me
	Marco Tullio Giordana	The Best of Youth	La meglio gioventù
	Michael Winterbottom	In This World
2004 (17th) [4]	Alejandro Amenábar	The Sea Inside	Mar adentro
	Fatih Akin	Head-On	Gegen die Wand
	Pedro Almodóvar	Bad Education	La mala educación
	Theo Angelopoulos	Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow	Τριλογία: Το λιβάδι που δακρύζει
	Nimród Antal	Kontroll
	Agnès Jaoui	Look at Me	Comme une image
2005 (18th) [5]	Michael Haneke	Caché
	Susanne Bier	Brothers	Brødre
	Roberto Faenza	Come Into the Light	Alla luce del sole
	Álex de la Iglesia	The Perfect Crime	Crimen ferpecto
	Paweł Pawlikowski	My Summer of Love
	Cristi Puiu	The Death of Mr. Lazarescu	Moartea domnului Lăzărescu
	Wim Wenders	Don't Come Knocking
2006 (19th) [6]	Pedro Almodóvar	Volver
	Susanne Bier	After the Wedding	Efter brylluppet
	Emanuele Crialese	The Golden Door	Nuovomondo
	Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck	The Lives of Others	Das Leben der Anderen
	Ken Loach	The Wind That Shakes the Barley
	Michael Winterbottom Mat Whitecross	The Road to Guantanamo
2007 (20th) [7]	Cristian Mungiu	4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days	4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile
	Fatih Akin	The Edge of Heaven	Auf der anderen Seite
	Roy Andersson	You, the Living	Du levande
	Stephen Frears	The Queen
	Kevin Macdonald	The Last King of Scotland
	Giuseppe Tornatore	The Unknown	La sconosciuta
2008 (21st) [8]	Matteo Garrone	Gomorrah	Gomorra
	Laurent Cantet	The Class	Entre les murs
	Andreas Dresen	Cloud 9	Wolke neun
	Ari Folman	Waltz with Bashir	Vals im Bashir
	Steve McQueen	Hunger
	Paolo Sorrentino	Il Divo
2009 (22nd) [9]	Michael Haneke	The White Ribbon	Das weiße Band
	Pedro Almodóvar	Broken Embraces	Los abrazos rotos
	Andrea Arnold	Fish Tank
	Jacques Audiard	A Prophet	Un prophète
	Danny Boyle	Slumdog Millionaire
	Lars von Trier	Antichrist

2010s

Year	Winner and nominees	English title	Original title
2010 (23rd) [10]	Roman Polanski	The Ghost Writer
	Olivier Assayas	Carlos
	Semih Kaplanoğlu	Honey	Bal
	Samuel Maoz	Lebanon
	Paolo Virzì	The First Beautiful Thing	La prima cosa bella
2011 (24th) [11]	Susanne Bier	In a Better World	Hævnen
	Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne	The Kid with a Bike	Le Gamin au vélo
	Aki Kaurismäki	Le Havre
	Béla Tarr	The Turin Horse	A torinói ló
	Lars von Trier	Melancholia
2012 (25th) [12]	Michael Haneke	Amour
	Nuri Bilge Ceylan	Once Upon a Time in Anatolia	Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da
	Steve McQueen	Shame
	Thomas Vinterberg	The Hunt	Jagten
	Paolo and Vittorio Taviani	Caesar Must Die	Cesare deve morire
2013 (26th) [13]	Paolo Sorrentino	The Great Beauty	La grande belleza
	Pablo Berger	Blancanieves
	Felix Van Groeningen	The Broken Circle Breakdown
	Abdellatif Kechiche	Blue Is the Warmest Colour	La Vie d'Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2
	François Ozon	In the House	Dans la maison
	Giuseppe Tornatore	The Best Offer	La migliore offerta
2014 (27th) [14][15]	Paweł Pawlikowski	Ida
	Nuri Bilge Ceylan	Winter Sleep	Kış Uykusu
	Steven Knight	Locke
	Ruben Östlund	Force Majeure	Turist
	Paolo Virzì	Human Capital	Il capitale umano
	Andrey Zvyagintsev	Leviathan	Левиафан (Leviafan)
2015 (28th) [16][17]	Paolo Sorrentino	Youth
	Roy Andersson	A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence	En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron
	Yorgos Lanthimos	The Lobster
	Nanni Moretti	Mia madre
	Sebastian Schipper	Victoria
	Małgorzata Szumowska	Body	Body / Ciało
2016 (29th) [18]	Maren Ade	Toni Erdmann
	Pedro Almodóvar	Julieta
	Ken Loach	I, Daniel Blake
	Cristian Mungiu	Graduation	Bacalaureat
	Paul Verhoeven	Elle
2017 (30th) [19]	Ruben Östlund	The Square
	Ildikó Enyedi	On Body and Soul	Testről és lélekről
	Aki Kaurismäki	The Other Side of Hope	Toivon tuolla puolen
	Yorgos Lanthimos	The Killing of a Sacred Deer
	Andrey Zvyagintsev	Loveless	Нелюбовь (Nelyubov)
2018 (31st) [20]	Paweł Pawlikowski	Cold War	Zimna wojna
	Ali Abbasi	Border	Gräns
	Matteo Garrone	Dogman
	Samuel Maoz	Foxtrot	פוֹקְסטְרוֹט
	Alice Rohrwacher	Happy as Lazzaro	Lazzaro felice
2019 (32nd) [21]	Yorgos Lanthimos	The Favourite
	Pedro Almodóvar	Pain and Glory	Dolor y gloria
	Marco Bellocchio	The Traitor	Il traditore
	Roman Polanski	An Officer and a Spy	J'accuse
	Céline Sciamma	Portrait of a Lady on Fire	Portrait de la jeune fille en feu

2020s

Year	Winner and nominees	English title	Original title
2020 (33rd) [22][23]	Thomas Vinterberg	Another Round	Druk
	Agnieszka Holland	Charlatan	Šarlatán
	Jan Komasa	Corpus Christi	Boże Ciało
	Pietro Marcello	Martin Eden
	François Ozon	Summer of 85	Été 85
	Maria Sødahl	Hope	Håp
2021 (34th)	Jasmila Žbanić	Quo Vadis, Aida?
	Radu Jude	Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn	Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc
	Florian Zeller	The Father
	Paolo Sorrentino	The Hand of God	È stata la mano di Dio
	Julia Ducournau	Titane
2022 (35th) [24]	Ruben Östlund	Triangle of Sadness
	Lukas Dhont	Close
	Marie Kreutzer	Corsage
	Jerzy Skolimowski	Eo
	Ali Abbasi	Holy Spider
	Alice Diop	Saint Omer
2023 (36th)	Justine Triet	Anatomy of a Fall	Anatomie d'une chute
	Aki Kaurismäki	Fallen Leaves	Kuolleet lehdet
	Agnieszka Holland	Green Border	Zielona granica
	Matteo Garrone	Me Captain	Io capitano
	Jonathan Glazer	The Zone of Interest
2024 (37th) [25]	Jacques Audiard	Emilia Pérez
	Andrea Arnold	Bird
	Pedro Almodóvar	The Room Next Door
	Mohammad Rasoulof	The Seed of the Sacred Fig	دانه‌ی انجیر معابد
	Maura Delpero	Vermiglio

Multiple wins and nominations

Multiple wins

Wins	Director
3	Michael Haneke
2	Pedro Almodóvar
	Ruben Östlund
	Paweł Pawlikowski
	Paolo Sorrentino

Most nominations

Nominations	Director
7	Pedro Almodóvar
4	Aki Kaurismäki
	Paolo Sorrentino
3	Susanne Bier
	Nuri Bilge Ceylan
	Matteo Garrone
	Michael Haneke
	Yorgos Lanthimos
	Ken Loach
	Ruben Östlund
	François Ozon
	Paweł Pawlikowski
	Roman Polanski
	Lars Von Trier
2	Ali Abbasi
	Fatih Akın
	Roy Andersson
	Theo Angelopoulos
	Andrea Arnold
	Jacques Audiard
	Marco Bellocchio
	Andreas Dresen
	Agnieszka Holland
	Samuel Maoz
	Steve McQueen
	Cristian Mungiu
	Giuseppe Tornatore
	Thomas Vinterberg
	Paolo Virzì
	Wim Wenders
	Michael Winterbottom
	Andrey Zvyagintsev