European Film Award for Best Documentary

The European Film Award for Best Documentary or Prix Arte has been awarded annually since 1989 by the European Film Academy. Special Mentions were presented alongside the winner of the award until 1993, since 1999 a set of nominees are presented out of which a winner is chosen.

European Film Award Prix Arte
Awarded for	Best Documentary
Presented by	European Film Academy
First award	1989 (to Recsk 1950-1953: The Story Of A Secret Concentration Camp In Communist Hungary)
Currently held by	No Other Land (2024)
Website	www.europeanfilmawards.eu

Criteria

Documentary films taken into consideration must have a minimum length of 70 minutes. They must have either had a theatrical release in at least one European country, at a European competitive feature film festival accredited by FIAPF or been screened at one of the following documentary festivals:^{[citation needed]}

• Cinéma du Réel (France)
• Copenhagen International Documentary Festival (Denmark)
• Doclisboa (Portugal)
• Dok Leipzig (Germany)
• International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
• Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival (Czech Republic)
• Kraków Film Festival (Poland)
• Sheffield Doc/Fest (UK)
• Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (Greece)
• Visions du Réel (Switzerland)

Winners and nominees

The winners are in a yellow background and in bold.

1980s

Year	English title	Original title	Director(s)	Country
1989 (2nd)
	Recsk 1950-1953: The Story Of A Secret Concentration Camp In Communist Hungary	Recsk 1950–1953, egy titkos kényszermunkatábor története	Géza Böszörményi, Lívia Gyarmathy	Hungary
	A Story of the Wind [J]	Een verhaal van de wind	Joris Ivens & Marceline Loridan	Netherlands
	The Road to God Knows Where [S]		Alan Gilsenan	Ireland
	Pictures of the Old World [S]	Obrazy starého sveta	Dušan Hanák	Czechoslovakia

1990s

Year	English title	Original title	Director(s)	Country
1990 (3rd)
	The Crossroad	Šķērsiela	Ivars Seleckis	Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic
	Step Across the Border [S]		Nicholas Humbert & Werner Penzel	Switzerland
1991 (4th)
	Hear My Cry	Usłyszcie mój krzyk	Maciej Drygas	Poland
	Crimes and passions - the scar [S]	Crimes et passions - la cicatrice	Mireille Dumas	France
	The Wall [S]	Die Mauer	Jürgen Böttcher	Germany
1992 (5th)
	Earth of the Blind	Neregiu zeme	Audrius Stonys	Czech Republic
	Dostoyevsky’s Travels [S]		Paweł Pawlikowski	United Kingdom
	Lovers on Trial [S]	Les amants d'assises	Manu Bonmariage	Belgium
1993 (6th)
	Misfits To Yuppies	Det sociala arvet	Stefan Jarl	Sweden
	The Man Who Loves Gary Lineker [S]		Ylli Hasani, Steve Sklair	United Kingdom
	89mm from Europe [S]	89 mm od Europy	Marcel Łoziński	Poland
1994 (7th)
	Angels of Sarajevo	Anđeli u Sarajevu	Saga-Group Sarajevo	Bosnia and Herzegovina
1995 (8th)
	Viva Stalin		Jens Meurer	Germany
1996 (9th)
	Vendetta - Blood Revenge in Albania	Vendetta - Blutrache in Albanien	Jerzy Sladkowski, Stanislav Krzeminski	Germany
1997 (10th)
	Gigi, Monica... and Bianca	Gigi, Monica... et Bianca	Yasmina Abdellaoui, Benoît Dervaux	Belgium, Romania
1998 (11th)
	Painting with Falls	Tableau avec chutes	Claudio Pazienza	Belgium, France
1999 (12th)
	Buena Vista Social Club[1]		Wim Wenders	Germany, United States, United Kingdom, Cuba, France
	Mr Zwilling und Mrs Zuckermann	Herr Zwilling und Frau Zuckermann	Volker Koepp	Germany
	My Best Fiend	Mein liebster Feind - Klaus Kinski	Werner Herzog
	Bach in Auschwitz	La chaconne d'Auschwitz	Michel Daeron	France
	The Truth Commission	La commission de la vérité	André van In	Belgium
	Mobutu, king of Zaire	Mobutu, roi du Zaïre	Thierry Michel
	Pripyat		Nikolaus Geyrhalter	Austria

^{^[J]} Jury Special Award

^{^[S]} Special Mention

2000s

Year	English title	Original title	Director(s)	Country
2000 (12th) [2]
	The Gleaners and I[3]	Les glaneurs et la glaneuse	Agnès Varda	France
	Calle 54		Fernando Trueba	Spain
	Gulag	Goulag	Iossif Pasternak, Hélène Châtelain	France
	Working Women of the World	Ouvrières du monde	Marie-France Collard
	Home Game	Heimspiel	Pepe Danquart	Germany
	One Day in September		Kevin Macdonald	United Kingdom
2001 (13th)[4]
	Black Box BRD		Andres Veiel	Germany
2002 (14th)[5]
	To Be and to Have	Être et avoir	Nicolas Philibert	France
2003 (16th) [6]
	S21: The Khmer Rouge Death Machine	S-21, la machine de mort Khmère rouge	Rithy Panh	France, Cambodia
	The Five Obstructions	De fem benspænd	Lars Von Trier, Jørgen Leth	Denmark, Belgium,  Switzerland, France
	Whose Is This Song?	Chia e tazi pesen?	Adela Peeva	Bulgaria, Belgium
	Eat, Sleep, No Women	Essen, schlafen, keine Frauen	Heiner Stadler [de]	Germany
	A Species' Odyssey	L'odyssée de l'espèce	Jacques Malaterre, Javier G. Salanova	France, Canada, Italy,  Switzerland, Belgium
	The Day I Will Never Forget		Kim Longinotto	United Kingdom
	The Story of the Weeping Camel	Die Geschichte vom weinenden Kamel	Byambasuren Davaa, Luigi Falorni	Germany, Mongolia
	Hush!	Tishe!	Viktor Kossakovsky	Russia
2004 (17th) [7]
	Darwin's Nightmare[8]		Hubert Sauper	Austria, France, Belgium
	Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer		Nick Broomfield, Joan Churchill	United Kingdom
	Addicted to Acting	Die Spielwütigen	Andres Veiel	Germany
	Basque Ball, Skin Against Stone	La pelota vasca, la piel contra la piedra	Julio Medem	Spain
	The World According to Bush	Le monde selon Bush	William Karel	France
	Checkpoint	Mahssomim	Yoav Shamir	Israel
	The Last Victory		John Appel	Netherlands
	Touch the Sound		Thomas Riedelsheimer	Germany, United Kingdom, Finland
2005 (18th) [9]
	The Pipeline Next Door	Un dragon dans les eaux	Nino Kirtadzé	France
	Stroke	Am seidenen Faden	Katarina Peters	Germany
	The Devil's Miner	Berg des Teufels	Richard Ladkani, Kief Davidson
	Dreamland	Leiputrija	Laila Pakalnina	Latvia, Germany
	Raw Youth	Ungdommens råskap	Margreth Olin	Norway, Denmark
	Melodias		François Bovy	Switzerland
	Before Flying Back to the Earth	Pries parskrendant i zeme	Arunas Matelis	Lithuania, Germany
	Workingman's Death		Michael Glawogger	Austria, Germany
	Rehearsals	Repetitioner	Michal Leszczylowsky, Gunnar Källström	Sweden
	The Swenkas		Jeppe Rønde	Denmark, Sweden
	Viva Zapatero!		Sabina Guzzanti	Italy, Denmark
2006 (19th) [10]
	Into Great Silence	Die Grosse Stile	Philip Gröning	Germany
	37 Uses for a Dead Sheep		Ben Hopkins	United Kingdom
	Dreaming by Numbers		Anna Bucchetti	Netherlands
	Grandmother's House	La casa de mi abuela	Adán Aliaga	Spain
	Maradona, the Golden Kid	Maradona, un gamin en or	Jean-Christophe Rosé	France
	The Cemetery Club	Moadon beit hakvarot	Tali Shemesh	Israel
	The Fisherman and the Dancing Girl	Rybak i tantsovshitsa	Valeriy Solomin	Russia
	Our Daily Bread	Unser täglich Brot	Nikolaus Geyrhalter	Austria
2007 (20th) [11]
	Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers	Le papier ne peut pas envelopper la braise	Rithy Panh	France
	To the Limit	Am Limit	Pepe Danquart	Germany, Austria
	Belarusian Waltz		Andrzej Fidyk	Norway
	Forever		Heddy Honigmann	Netherlands
	Echoes of Home	Heimatklänge	Stefan Schwietert	Switzerland, Germany
	9 Star Hotel	Malon 9 Kochavim	Ido Haar	Israel
	The Monastery		Pernille Rose Grønkjær	Denmark
	Divorce Albanian Style	Razvod Po Albanski	Adela Peeva	Bulgaria
	The Champagne Spy	Meragel Hashampaniya	Nadav Schirman	Israel, Germany
	Where is the Love in the Palmgrove?	Où est l'amour dans la palmeraie?	Jérôme Le Maire	Belgium
2008 (21st) [12]
	René		Helena Trestikova	Czech Republic
	Durakovo – Village of Fools	Durakovo – Le village des fous	Nino Kirtadzé	France
	Fados		Carlos Saura	Portugal, Spain
	Children. As Time Flies.	Kinder. Wie Zeit vergeht.	Thomas Heise	Germany
	The Mother	La mère	Antoine Cattin, Pavel Kostomarov	Switzerland
	Man on Wire		James Marsh	United Kingdom, United States
	Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains	Naufragés des Andes	Gonzalo Arijón	France
	Citizen Havel	Obcan Václav Havel	Pavel Koutecký, Miroslav Janek	Czech Republic
	Shadow of the Holy Book	Pyhän kirjan varjo	Arto Halonen	Finland
	The Dictator Hunter		Klaartje Quirijns	Netherlands
2009 (22nd) [13]
	The Sound of Insects – Records of a Mummy	Das Summen der Insekten – Bericht einer Mumie	Peter Liechti	Switzerland
	Cooking History	Ako sa varia dejiny	Peter Kerekes	Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic
	Pianomania		Lilian Franck, Robert Cibis	Germany, Austria
	Below Sea Level		Gianfranco Rosi	Italy, United States
	Burma VJ		Anders Østergaard	Denmark
	The Heart of Jenin	Das Herz von Jenin	Leon Geller, Marcus Vetter	Germany
	The Damned of the Sea	Les damnes de la mer	Jawad Rhalib	Belgium
	Defamation		Yoav Shamir	Denmark, Austria, Israel, United States
	The Woman with the 5 Elephants	Die Frau mit den 5 Elefanten	Vadim Jendreyko	Switzerland, Germany
	The Beaches of Agnès	Les plages d'Agnès	Agnès Varda	France

2010s

Year	English title	Original title	Director(s)	Country
2010 (23rd) [14]
	Nostalgia for the Light	Nostalgia de la luz	Patricio Guzmán	France, Germany, Chile
	Armadillo		Janus Metz	Denmark, Sweden
	Steam of Life	Miesten vuoro	Joonas Berghäll, Mika Hotakainen	Finland, Sweden
2011 (24th) [15]
	Pina		Wim Wenders	Germany
	Position Among the Stars	Stand van de sterren	Leonard Retel Helmrich	Netherlands
	¡Vivan las Antipodas!		Viktor Kossakovsky	Germany, Netherlands, Argentina, Chile
2012 (25th) [16]
	Winter Nomad	Hiver Nomade	Manuel von Stürler	Switzerland
	London – The Modern Babylon		Julien Temple	United Kingdom
	Tea or Electricity	Le thé ou l'électricité	Jerome Lemaire	Belgium, France, Morocco
2013 (26th) [17]
	The Act of Killing	Jagal	Joshua Oppenheimer	Denmark, Norway, United Kingdom
	Stop-Over	L'escale	Kaveh Bakhtiari	Switzerland, France
	The Missing Picture	L'image manquante	Rithy Panh	France, Cambodia
2014 (27th) [18][19]
	Master of the Universe		Marc Bauder	Germany, Austria
	Just the Right Amount of Violence		Jon Bang Carlsen	Denmark
	Of Men and War	Des hommes et de la guerre	Laurent Bécue-Renard	France,  Switzerland
	Sacro GRA		Gianfranco Rosi	Italy, France
	Waiting For August		Teodora Ana Mihai	Belgium, Romania
	We Come as Friends		Hubert Sauper	Austria, France
2015 (28th) [20][21]
	Amy		Asif Kapadia	United Kingdom
	Dancing with Maria		Ivan Gergolet	Italy, Argentina, Slovenia
	A Syrian Love Story		Sean McAllister	United Kingdom, France
	The Look of Silence	Senyap	Joshua Oppenheimer	Denmark, Finland, Indonesia, Norway, United Kingdom
	Toto and His Sisters		Alexander Nanau	Romania
2016 (29th) [22]
	Fire at Sea[23]	Fuocoammare	Gianfranco Rosi	Italy, France
	21 x New York	21 x Nowy Jork	Piotr Stasik	Poland
	A Family Affair		Tom Fassaertr	Netherlands, Belgium
	Mr. Gaga		Tomer Heymann	Israel, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands
	S Is for Stanley	Trent'anni dietro al volante per Stanley Kubrick	Alex Infascelli	Italy
	The Land of the Enlightened		Pieter-Jan De Pue	Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany
2017 (30th) [24]
	Communion	Komunia	Anna Zamecka	Poland
	Austerlitz		Sergei Loznitsa	Germany
	La Chana		Lucija Stojevic	Spain, Iceland, United States
	Stranger in Paradise		Guido Hendrikx	Netherlands
	The Good Postman	Hyvä postimies	Tonislav Hristov	Finland, Bulgaria
2018 (31st) [25]
	Bergman: A Year in a Life[26]	Bergman - ett år, ett liv	Jane Magnusson	Sweden, Norway
	A Woman Captured	Egy nő fogságban	Tuza-Ritter	Romania, Germany
	The Distant Barking of Dogs		Simon Lering Wilmont	Denmark, Finland, Sweden
	Of Fathers and Sons	Kinder des Kalifats	Talal Derki	Germany, Syria, Lebanon, Qatar
	The Silence of Others	El silencio de otros	Almudena Carracedo & Robert Bahar	Spain, United States
2019 (32nd) [27][28]
	For Sama		Waad al-Kateab, Edward Wat	United Kingdom, United States
	Honeyland	Медена земја	Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska	North Macedonia
	Selfie		Agostino Ferrente	France, Italy
	Putin's Witnesses		Vitaly Mansky	Latvia,  Switzerland, Czech Republic
	The Disappearance of my Mother		Beniamino Barrese	Italy, United States

2020s

Year	English title	Original title	Director(s)	Country
2020 (33rd) [29][30]
	Collective	Colectiv	Alexander Nanau	Romania, Luxembourg
	Acasă, My Home	Acasă	Radu Ciorniciuc	Romania, Germany, Finland
	The Cave		Feras Fayyad	Syria, Denmark
	Gunda		Viktor Kossakovsky	Norway, Russia
	Little Girl	Petite fille	Sébastien Lifshitz	France
	Saudi Runaway		Susanne Regina Meures	Switzerland
2021 (34th) [31][32]
	Flee	Flugt	Jonas Poher Rasmussen	Denmark, France, Sweden, Norway
	Babi Yar. Context		Sergei Loznitsa	Netherlands, Ukraine
	Mr Bachmann and His Class	Herr Bachmann und Seine Klasse	Maria Speth	Germany
	Taming the Garden		Salomé Jashi	Switzerland, Germany, Georgia
	The Most Beautiful Boy in the World		Kristina Lindström and Kristian Petri	Sweden
2023 (36th) [33]
	Smoke Sauna Sisterhood	Savvusanna sõsarad	Anna Hints	Estonia
	Apolonia, Apolonia		Lea Glob	Denmark
	Four Daughters	Les Filles d'Olfa	Kaouther Ben Hania	Tunisia
	Motherland		Alexander Mihalkovich	Belarus Hanna Badziaka  Belarus
	On the Adamant	Sur l’Adamant	Nicolas Philibert	France
2024 (37th) [34]	No Other Land		Yuval Abraham Rachel Szor Basel Adra Hamdan Ballal	Palestine, Norway
	Bye Bye Tiberias	باي باي طبريا	Lina Soualem	France, Belgium, Palestine, Qatar
	Dahomey		Mati Diop	France, Senegal
	In Limbo	W zawieszeniu	Alina Maksimenko	Poland
	Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat		Johan Grimonprez	France, Belgium, Netherlands