Film Fest Gent

Under the name 'Het Eerste Internationaal Filmgebeuren van Gent' (or 'Ghent's First International Film Event'), the very first 'Film Fest Ghent' took place from 25 to 31 January 1974. The driving forces behind the initiative were Ben Ter Elst, manager of the Studio Skoop, and Dirk De Meyer of the Ghent University Film Club. Their aim was to programme films that did not get a chance in the regular cinemas because of their content and style. The first small-scale edition had about twenty titles on the menu and was screened in Studio Skoop and in the Capitool. The programme included Solaris by Andrei Tarkovsky and Winter Wind by Miklós Jancsó, films that provoke, innovate and cast a different light on what cinema can be. This way, the event launched new names and stimulated interest in arthouse cinema. It laid the foundation for a film festival that offers a wide-ranging panorama of world cinema.

In 1978, 'Het Internationaal Filmgebeuren van Gent' grew into a film festival that presented about fifty films in various sections. Gradually, more and more attention was paid to film education and a festival offer that would appeal to various target audiences. During the year of 1978, cinephiles could find something to their liking among author films by, for instance, Luis Buñuel, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Bernardo Bertolucci and Alejandro Jodorowsky. However, due to the exponential growth of the festival, there was a great desire for a clear structure. Even more so, since the international film landscape evolved rapidly at the time, the event encountered several organisational and financial problems despite the success of the initiative. The festival thus needed a fresh and new organisational structure in order to reach international maturity.

Jacques Dubrulle, active in film production and communication, gave a fresh impetus to the suffering festival. He developed a much-needed structure and in 1979 he founded a non-profit organisation that served as the essential backbone of the festival. The creation of this non-profit organisation ensured that the authorities (the city of Ghent, the province of East Flanders, the federal and (later) the Flemish government) would participate and contribute financially. Within this structure, John Bultinck became the very first chairman.

In this period, the festival was booming due to further internationalisation and an impressive guest list. Amongst others, King Hu, Maximillian Schell and Bertrand Tavernier paid a visit to Ghent. In 1981, thanks to the inauguration of the Decascoop complex (today's Kinepolis), Ghent welcomed a new cinema with spacious cinema theatres and state-of-the-art technology. On top of that, the programme expanded to about a hundred films. The modernisation of the festival thus ensured a much broader audience and offer. In 1983, the non-profit organisation changed its name to 'Internationaal Filmgebeuren van Vlaanderen-Gent' (or 'International Film Event of Flanders-Ghent'). The enthusiastic team helped to ensure that the festival figured as a hallmark of high-quality cinema.

The year of 1985 marked the beginning of the mass development of the film festival. Both organisationally and financially, the festival evolved into a cultural event of the first order. The significant growth of the event was enabled by a permanent team working on the festival all year round. Moreover, the team managed to develop a long-term vision for the film festival. In search of an identity and a place of its own in an overcrowded film festival calendar, brainstorming sessions were held together with Festival of Flanders, a festival dedicated to classical music. As a result, film music became an important focus of the film festival. In 1985, the International Film Event of Flanders-Ghent organised an international competition with a jury for the first time. André Delvaux, Michael White, Simon Heyworth, Alain Pierre and Loek Dikker were members of the first jury. The main theme of the competition was 'the impact of music on film', a theme that was not on the agenda of any other film festival in the world.

Besides the competition, the festival also decided to organise silent film screenings with newly composed music that was performed live. One of the highlights was the performance of a new score by Georges Delerue for the Russian Casanova (1927) in 1987. Delerue conducted the work himself in a packed Ghent opera. That same year Ennio Morricone gave a concert in a sold-out Kuipke in Ghent. This way, the film festival became an established name in the film music circuit. Other internationally renowned composers such as Jean-Claude Petit, Nicola Piovani, Peer Raben, Stanley Myers, Carl Davis, Bruce Broughton and Michael Nyman also attended the festival to perform their work.

In 1985, the festival presented its first Joseph Plateau Award during the Night of Film. The prize is named after the professor Joseph Plateau from Ghent and is awarded to Belgian film makers who have made a significant contribution to the Belgian film industry. Later the prize would evolve into the Joseph Plateau Honorary Award, a lifetime achievement award for someone from the international film world. In 1992 Jacques Dubrulle and his team decided to change the name 'Filmgebeuren' into 'Film Festival'. During the 90s the International Film Festival of Flanders-Ghent even received several film titles in European or world premieres and hosted big names such as Willem Dafoe, Samuel Fuller, Terry Gilliam, Anthony Perkins, Charlotte Rampling, Paul Schrader, Frederick Wiseman, Patricia Arquette, Kenneth Branagh, Mel Brooks, Crispin Clover, Paul Cox, Atom Egoyan etc.

In March 1993 the Flemish government declared the International Film Festival of Flanders-Ghent Cultural Ambassador of Flanders. The financial support of the Flemish government resulted in a cash prize for the winner of the international competition. Five years later, the festival was appointed City Ambassador of Ghent. The Ghent-based film festival grew into the biggest film event in Belgium and increasingly attracted more international attention. Famous foreign guests found their way to Ghent. Robert Altman, Elmer Bernstein, Terence Davies, Arthur Penn, James Earl Jones, Guy Pearce, Karl Malden, Danny Glover, Michael Haneke, Irvin Kershner and many others visited Ghent during these years. The focus on film music also continued. A new part of the musical programme was introduced: in 1993 the festival organised a symposium on film music for the first time. Despite the fact that film music did not immediately steal the spotlight in the media, it was an important step for the International Film Festival of Flanders-Ghent to acquire a pilot function. The festival aimed to support young composers and to safeguard the preservation and evolution of film music. The godfather of Belgian film music, Frédéric Devreese, conducted a double concert during the same edition in the then newly reopened Vlaamse Opera Ghent. At this point, film music was firmly anchored in the DNA of the festival.

The International Film Festival of Flanders-Ghent started the new millennium with an increased interest in the short film genre. In 2000, the audience enjoyed the first European short film competition. Later, in 2019, the festival would open the competition to short films from all over the world, giving short films the full attention they deserve.

The festival was the first in the world to emphasise the importance of film music. Over the years it has organised classical concerts, silent film projections with live music, seminars on film music and hosted important composers. The festival continued to play this pioneering role in the 2000s. In 2000, the film composer Hans Zimmer was convinced to come to Ghent for his first-ever live performance of his film scores in the presence of Morgan Freeman and Lisa Gerrard. The need to put all the contacts between composers, musicians and agents who attend the festival each year into a fixed structure grew bigger. This is why the festival (led by Jacques Dubrulle, music projects coordinator Marian Ponnet and Brussels Philharmonic conductor Dirk Brossé) launched the World Soundtrack Academy in 2001. During the 2001 edition, the WSA presented the first World Soundtrack Awards. None other than the legendary John Williams received the first Film Composer of the Year Award. The purpose of the WSA is and remains to form an international community for film composers and professionals who promote the art of film music through a series of activities, such as the annual presentation of the World Soundtrack Awards. In 2002, the WSA decided to organise an annual composition contest for young talents. The participants write a new score to an existing film or TV fragment.

The 2000s also saw many prominent guests at the film festival, including Jean Reno, Juliette Binoche, Jeanne Moreau, Blair Underwood, Maurice Jarre, Paul Verhoeven, Darren Aronofsky, Tom Tykwer and Kathleen Turner.

In September 2007, the American film magazine Variety placed the Ghent-based film festival among the fifty not-to-be-missed festivals in the world.[1] Variety made its choice out of more than a thousand film festivals and selected Ghent because of its unique focus on film music. Moreover, the festival is the only one from the Benelux to appear on the list. The mention shows that the International Film Festival of Flanders-Ghent is on the international map. One year later, the prestigious American newspaper The Wall Street Journal also praised the festival. According to the newspaper the International Film Festival of Flanders-Ghent is among the top five European film festivals with its own character.[2]

During this period, the attention for underexposed themes and audiences in the film industry grew gradually. Specific efforts were made to program LGBTQ-films and film screenings for the blind and visually impaired. Professionals also got more involved by organising 'The Day of the Film Profession' and a physical Press & Industry Office. Meanwhile, film school students could obtain accreditation for the festival, with the aim of stimulating the formation of a new generation of filmmakers.

From 2010 onwards, each edition would feature a curated exhibition around an icon of film history. The first exhibition was dedicated to the French film maker Jacques 'Monsieur Hulot' Tati. The following year, former film journalist Patrick Duynslaegher became the artistic director of the festival. In his first edition, Scandinavia took centre stage and the legendary Ingmar Bergman figured as the subject of a retrospective and the annual exhibition.

Many renowned talents from the film industry visited Ghent during the period of 2007 to 2012: Clint Mansell, Woody Harrelson, Richard Jenkins, Andy Garcia, Kevin Costner, Shigeru Umebayashi, László Nemes, Tim Robbins, Paul Greengrass, Jim Sheridan, François Ozon, Norman Jewison, Seth Rogen, Isabelle Huppert, Ezra Miller, Emmannuelle Riva, Paolo & Vittori Taviani, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne etc.

The 40th edition of the film festival took place in 2013. During this year, the film festival underwent a few changes. Founder Jacques Dubrulle left the organisation and the power within the board was redistributed. The festival underwent a real transformation and celebrated this festive year with a new name: Film Fest Ghent. The very first edition under the new name focused on American Independent Cinema. During the festival Dubrulle received the Joseph Plateau Honorary Award for his years of commitment to the organisation of Film Fest Ghent. From this period onwards, the organisation of Film Fest Ghent decided to support a good cause every edition, with the goal of raising money and bringing films to an audience that cannot always afford to go to the cinema.

The following year, the festival focused on French cinema. Catherine Deneuve (in Belle de jour) was on the official festival poster. The festival also celebrated the centenary of Chaplin's iconic character of the tramp with screenings of The Circus (in Kuipke Ghent with live music) and The Gold Rush (in the Stadshal of Ghent). Erik Van Looy's much hyped film Loft opened the festival and later became one of the greatest Belgian films of all time (in its own country). The annual exhibition was entirely devoted to the oeuvre of Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. To enhance the exhibition, a concert was organised with film music by Nino Rota for Fellini's films.

The following editions paid special attention to British, Nordic, Italian, Hungarian and Spanish cinema. In 2016, Japan took centre stage and Film Fest Ghent welcomed composer Ryuichi Sakamoto to the World Soundtrack Awards Gala where he received the Lifetime Achievement Award. The 2017 edition, with Italy as the central country, promoted itself with Claudia Cardinale on the campaign image. The music section drew attention to the centenary of jazz with a Symphonic Jazz Concert and the laudation of trumpeter and jazz musician Terence Blanchard at the WSA. The 2018 edition of Film Fest Ghent had a Hungarian focus, and a retrospective was organised presenting the films of Miklós Jancsó. That edition kicked off with the premiere of Girl, one of the most lauded Belgian films with, among others, a Caméra d'Or for director Lukas Dhont at the Cannes Film Festival. There also were some new things to discover in terms of music. Vooruit and Film Fest Ghent presented a unique crossover between film and music called 'Videodroom', which became an annual part of the festival. Guest of honour at the WSA was Carter Burwell, mainly known for his collaborations with the Coen brothers. For the very first time, his music was performed live.

In 2019, Wim De Witte, who has been active in the organisation for years, succeeded Patrick Duynslaegher as artistic director.  The film programme included a focus on Spain with a series of contemporary Spanish films and a retrospective of taboo-breaking Spanish filmmakers such as Luis Buñuel, Agustí Villaronga, Victor Erice, Alejandro Amenábar and Pedro Almodóvar. During this year, Film Fest Ghent also decided to endeavour for a revaluation of the short film genre. For the first time, the international short film competition received short films from all over the world and became a more prominent part of the festival programme. In addition, the Belgian student short film competition was already well-established within the festival for years. Marco Beltrami was the guest of honour at the World Soundtrack Awards Gala. At the gala, Film Fest Ghent and the World Soundtrack Academy honoured the renowned Belgian film music composer Frédéric Devreese with a live performance of his music for films such as Un soir, un train and Benvenuta.

During the period of 2013 to 2019, the following guests found their way to Film Fest Ghent: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bret Easton Ellis, Sergei Loznitsa, Yorgos Lanthimos, Colin Farrell, Sir Alan Parker, Michael Nyman, Craig Armstrong, Alan Silvestri, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Kôji Fukada, Terence Davies, Tran Anh Hung, Ken Loach, Olivier Assayas, Derek Cianfrance, Asghar Farhadi, Isabelle Huppert, Leila Hatami, Geraldine Chaplin, Rian Johnson, Thomas Vinterberg, John C. Reilly, Jacques Audiard, Terence Blanchard and Jayro Bustamante.

In 2020, Film Fest Ghent was forced to adapt the festival to a different format, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team opted for a hybrid festival with both physical screenings and screenings on a VOD platform. The programme focused on German cinema, and also included a new section entitled "Official Selection: Masters & New Voices". The retrospective was dedicated to the Neue Deutsche Welle, with films by Fassbinder, Herzog, Wenders, Margarethe von Trotta, Helma Sanders-Brahms and others. The most important international guests were actor-director Viggo Mortensen, who presented his directorial debut Falling and received the Joseph Plateau Honorary Award, the author-director Pedro Costa and the French actress-director Maïwenn.

During this edition, the festival wanted to show solidarity with filmmakers, cinemas and colleagues who had to cancel their festivals due to the health crisis. All participants and audiences wore masks.

The year also marked the 20th anniversary of the World Soundtrack Awards, which took place online and was able to be followed around the world via livestream. Gabriel Yared performed his compositions live, and audiences could see the reactions from composers such as Alexandre Desplat, Hildur Guðnadóttir and Nicholas Britell. For the occasion, Screen magazine published a supplement to the World Soundtrack Awards, highlighting the history of the awards and guests of honour Desplat, Yared and Michael Abels.

The 48th edition of Film Fest Gent takes place from 12 to 23 October and explores the Greek film world, which has been revived internationally since the "Greek Weird Wave". The festival poster depicts Efthymis Filippou, the Greek screenwriter who regularly collaborates with Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, The Lobster). Looking back at a tumultuous past, the 'Classics' are entirely devoted to the oeuvre of Theo Angelopoulos. For the first time ever, his complete oeuvre can be seen in Belgium.

Running from 11 to 22 October 2022. The Georges Delerue Award for Best Music goes to Michael Koch's understated drama Drii Winter with a poetic score composed by Tobias Koch and Jannik Giger.

In the International Short Film Competition, with jury members Bendt Eyckermans, Diana Cam Van Nguyen and Elena Lazic, Douwe Dijkstra's Neighbour Abdi wins the Award for Best International Short. A Special Mention goes to Cherries by Vytautas Katkus. In the Competition for Belgian Student Shorts, Finn's Heel by Cato Kusters receives the Award for Best Belgian Student Short. Special Mentions go to La chute (Sebastian Schaevers) and Merci pour votre patience! (Simon van der Zande). The audience picks the latter as the. winner of the THE PACK Audience Award for Best Belgian Student Short.

In a year in which Belgian cinema manages to score internationally, the opening film - Close by Lukas Dhont - generates a lot of buzz. For the opening night, the red carpet at Kinepolis Gent has been turned into a field flowers. After Girl in 2018, it's the second time Dhont opens the festival. The closing film is Maria Schrader's investigative drama She Said, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York times investigation. Once again, a large number of (inter)national filmmakers attend the festival in person. Among them: Céline Sciamma (director of Portrait de la jeune fille en feu). After a screening of her latest film, Petite Maman, she has an in-depth talk with Lukas Dhont, who later hands her a Joseph Plateau Honorary Award. Belgian animation pioneer Raouls Servais also receives this award, when presenting his new film Der lange Kerl. Other prominent guests include Marie Kreutzer (Corsage), Zar Amir-Ebrahimi & Mehdi Bajestani (Holy Spider), Cristian Mungiu (R.M.N.), Mascha Halberstad (Oink), Albert Serra (Pacifiction), Michael Koch (Drii Winter), Colm Bairéad (The Quiet Girl), Lola Quivoron (Rodeo), Tarik Saleh (Boy from Heaven), Josh Gordon (Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile), Helan Wittmann (Human Flowers of Flesh), David Lowery (a focus on his 'creative partnership' with Daniel Hart), Jakob Bro (Music for Black Pigeons) and Mia Hansen-Løve (Un beau matin).

The Grand Prix is awarded by an international jury and represents a distribution premium of €20,000 and a media campaign worth €27,500.

Year	Winner	Director	Country	Jury
1985	Stop Making Sense	Jonathan Demme	United States	André Delvaux, Michael White, Simon Heyworth, Alain Pierre, Loek Dikker
1986	My First Wife	Paul Cox	Australia	Raoul Servais, Marc Didden, David Mansfield, Gerrard Verhage, Jurre Haanstra
1987	Night Zoo	Jean-Claude Lauzon	Canada	Saul Chaplin, Samuel Fuller, Michael Kidd, Rolan Sergienko, Patrick Conrad
1988	Is-slottet	Per Blom	Norway	Julius Epstein, Henri Colpi, Benoît Lamy, Trevor Jones, Jacques Poitrenaud
1989	Black Rain	Shohei Imamura	Japan	Mary Jane Walsh, Peer Raben, Stanley Myers, Erik van Zuylen, Pierre Drouot
1990	Freeze Die Come to Life	Vitali Kanevsky	Soviet Union	Fons Rademakers, Mike Figgis, Gilles Durieux, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Michel Khleifi
1991	Europa	Lars von Trier	Denmark /  Sweden	Thérèse Liotard, Richard Griffiths, Jo Röpcke, Fred Roos, Luis Megino, Auguste Le Breton, Paul Bartel
1992	A Woman's Tale	Paul Cox	Australia	Nikolaus Glowna, Mrinal Sen, Louise Marleau, Milt Felsen, Alejandro Agresti, Allan Moyle, Aleksandr Askoldov, Gérard Corbiau
1993	Passion Fish	John Sayles	United States	Robert Wise, Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, Willeke van Ammelrooy, Philippe Sarde, Rudolph Thome, Hugo Claus
1994	La partie d'échecs	Yves Hanchar	Belgium /  France /   Switzerland	Robert Ellis Miller, Jan Van Raemdonck, Karl Malden, Renée Soutendijk, David Raskin, Krzysztof Zanussi, Paul Cox
1995	Cyclo	Tran Anh Hung	France /  Vietnam	Elliott Gould, Leonard Rosenman, Gabrielle Claes, Derek de Lint, Yves Boisset
1996	Village of Dreams	Yōichi Higashi	Japan	Howard W. Koch, Terence Davies, Norma Heyman, Frédéric Devreese, Nicola Piovani, Frans Weisz
1997	The Witman Boys	János Szász	Hungary	Thom Hoffman, Giancarlo Esposito, Jean-Pierre De Decker, Gina Lollobrigida, Irvin Kershner
1998	Die Siebtelbauern	Stefan Ruzowitzky	Austria /  Germany	Syd Field, Michael Haneke, Stijn Coninx, André Forcier, Christopher Hampton, Julia Ormond, Edward Shearman, Huub Stapel, Lawrence Turman
1999	Himalaya	Éric Valli	Nepal	Jay L. Cooper, Robert Forster, Christopher Lee, Marion Hänsel, Danièle Heymann, Amanda Plummer, Barrington Pheloung
2000	Amores Perros	Alejandro González Iñárritu	Mexico	Mace Neufeld, Elia Cmíral, Christopher Hampton, Sally Hibbin, Bart Moeyaert, Molly Ringwald, Roland Verhavert, Henny Vrienten
2001	Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner	Zacharias Kunuk	Canada	Pierre-Henri Deleau, Tom Barman, Maria Pia Fusco, Marie Laforêt, Barrington Pheloung, Dirk Roofthooft, Moufida Tlatli
2002	The Man Without a Past	Aki Kaurismäki	Finland	Gerard Mortier, Jocelyn Cammack, Eduardo Antin, Arthur Hamilton, Chris Lomme, Jeff Rona, Adriaan van Dis
2003	In America	Jim Sheridan	Ireland	Jeanne Moreau, Ahmed Imamović, Gaston Kaboré, Daan Stuyven, Stephen Warbeck
2004	Nobody Knows	Hirokazu Koreeda	Japan	Maurice Jarre, Stefan Arsenijević, Shekhar Kapur, John Matshikiza, Colm Meaney, Alain Platel, David Arnold
2005	The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada	Tommy Lee Jones	United States /  France	Brenda Blethyn, Lissy Bellaiche, José Luis Castiñeira De Dios, Dominique Deruddere, Arthur Lappin, Carine Tardieu
2006	Ten Canoes	Rolf de Heer	Australia	Michel Ciment, Jan Harlan, Jan Leyers, Cyril Morin, Miguel Pereira, Ken Wardrop
2007	Die Fälscher	Stefan Ruzowitzky	Austria /  Germany	Kathleen Turner, Alex Heffes, Bálint Kenyeres, Maria Köpf, Adam Nordén
2008	Pazar: Bir Ticaret Masalı	Ben Hopkins	Turkey /  Germany	Vibeke Windeløv, Andreas Dresen, Simon Ellis, Corky Hale, Philippe Rombi, Arne Sierens
2009	Eyes Wide Open	Haim Tabakman	Israel	Wang Quan'an, László Nemes, Filip Peeters, Niki Reiser
2010	Die Fremde	Feo Aladag	Germany	Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Goran Paskaljević, Jan Verheyen, Jean-Paul Wall, Els Dottermans, Ágnes Kocsis
2011	Elena	Andrey Zvyagintsev	Russia	Jessica Woodworth, Nathan Larson, Marion Döring, Eran Riklis, Erik Poppe
2012	Tabu	Miguel Gomes	Portugal	Joan Dupont, Bavo Defurne, Bavo Dhooge, Xiaolu Guo, Abel Korzeniowski
2013	The Selfish Giant	Clio Barnard	United Kingdom	István Szabó, Fien Troch, John Parish, Gustavo Santaolalla, Denis Dercourt
2014	Gente de bien	Franco Lolli	Colombia	Bret Easton Ellis, Héloïse Godet, Patrice Toye, Dana Linssen, Sergei Loznitsa
2015	Ixcanul	Jayro Bustamante	Guatemala /  France	Alan Parker, Marjane Satrapi, Caroline Strubbe, Franco Lolli, Boyd van Hoeij
2016	A Quiet Passion	Terence Davies	United Kingdom /  Belgium	Jeremy Thomas, Jonathan Coe, Lina El Arabi, India Hair, Tran Anh Hung, Maaike Neuville
2017	Zagros	Sahim Omar Kalifa	Belgium	Aurelio Grimaldi, Greta Scacchi, Eytan Fox, Juliane Lorenz, Arnaud Valois, Gust Van den Berghe
2018	Cold War	Pawel Pawlikowski	Poland /  France	Michaël Borremans, Soulwax, Hope Dickson Leach, Mireille Perrier, Alexandre O. Philippe, João Pedro Rodrigues, Nele Wohlatz
2019	Öndög	Wang Quan'an	Mongolia	Joachim Lafosse, Radu Jude, Midge Costin, Guy Lodge, Fiorella Moretti, Dora Bouchoucha
2020	Petite fille	Sebastien Lifshitz	France	Fabrice Du Welz, Benh Zeitlin, Damien Manivel, Natali Broods, Dascha Dauenhauer
2021	Vortex	Gaspar Noé	France /  Belgium /  Monaco	Doreen Boonekamp, Hlynur Pálmason, Florencia Di Concilio, Lucas Belvaux
2022	Saint Omer	Alice Diop	France	Clio Barnard, Welket Bungué, Daniel Hart, Alexandre Koberidze, Nathalie Álvarez Mesén, Nico Leunen
2023	Los delincuentes	Rodrigo Moreno	Argentina /  Brazil /  Chile /  Luxembourg	Sebastien Lifshitz, Colin Stetson, Lukas Dhont, Jacqueline Lentzou, Juanita Onzaga, Anne Dorval, Jessica Kiang

The Georges Delerue Award honours the film with the best soundtrack or sound design. This prize is awarded by an international jury to a film from the international competition. The prize includes a €10,000 distribution premium and a media campaign worth €12,000.

Year	Winner	Director	Country
1985	Détective (Jean-Luc Godard)	Jean-Luc Godard	France
1986	Crossroads (Ry Cooder)	Walter Hill	United States
1987	La vie est belle (Papa Wemba, Klody, Zäiko Langa Langa, Tshala Muana)	Mwezé Ngangura, Benoït Lamy	Zaire /  Belgium /  France
1988	Sur (Astor Piazzola)	Fernando E. Solanas	Argentina /  France
1989	Black Rain (Toru Takemitsu)	Shohei Imamura	Japan
1990	The Krays (Michael Kamen)	Peter Medak	United Kingdom
1991	Cheb (Rachid Bouchareb)	Rachid Bouchareb	Algeria /  France
1992	Bob Roberts (David Robbins)	Tim Robbins	United States /  United Kingdom
1993	The Puppetmaster (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)	Hou Hsiao-Hsien	Taiwan
1994	La partie d'échecs (Frédéric Devreese)	Yves Hanchar	Belgium /  France /   Switzerland
1995	Cyclo (Tôn-Thất Tiết)	Tran Anh Hung	France /  Vietnam
1996	Microcosmos (Bruno Coulais)	Claude Nuridsany / Marie Pérennou	France /   Switzerland /  Italy
1997	Cavafy (Vangelis)	Yannis Smaragdis	Greece
1998	Claire Dolan (Simon Fisher Turner)	Lodge Kerrigan	United States /  France
1999	Ratchatcher (Rachel Portman)	Lynne Ramsay	United Kingdom /  France
2000	Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Tan Dun)	Ang Lee	Taiwan /  Hong Kong /  United States /  China
2001	Landscape (Vladimír Godár)	Martin Šulík	Slovakia /  Czech Republic /  Italy
2002	Spider (Howard Shore)	David Cronenberg	Canada /  United Kingdom /  France
2003	Pornografia (Zygmunt Konieczny)	Jan Jakub Kolski	Poland /  France
2004	Machuca (Miguel Miranda & José Miguel Tobar)	Andrés Wood	Chile /  Spain /  United Kingdom /  France
2005	Proof (Stephen Warbeck)	John Madden	United States
2006	Transylvania (Tony Gatlif)	Tony Gatlif	France
2007	You, the Living (Benny Andersson)	Roy Andersson	Sweden /  Germany /  France /  Denmark /  Norway /  Japan
2008	Two-legged Horse (Tolib Shakhidi)	Samira Makhmalbaf	Iran /  France
2009	A Rational Solution (Nathan Larson)	Jörgen Bergmark	Sweden /  Finland /  Germany /  Italy
2010	The Housemaid (Hong-jip Kim)	Im Sang-soo	South Korea
2011	The Invader (Evgueni & Sacha Galperine)	Nicolas Provost	Belgium
2012	Après mai (Olivier Assayas)	Olivier Assayas	France
2013	A Touch of Sin (Lim Giong)	Jia Zhangke	China /  France /  Japan
2014	Violet (Boris Debackere)	Bas Devos	Belgium /  Netherlands
2015	The Lobster (Johnnie Burn & Yorgos Lanthimos)	Yorgos Lanthimos	Ireland /  United Kingdom /  Greece /  France /  Netherlands /  United States
2016	Home (Johnny Jewel)	Fien Troch	Belgium
2017	A Ciambra (Dan Romer)	Jonas Carpignano	Italy /  Brazil /  Germany /  France /  Sweden /  United States
2018	High Life (Stuart A. Staples)	Claire Denis	France /  United Kingdom /  Germany /  Poland /  United States
2019	Monos (Mica Levi & Lena Esquenazi)	Alejandro Landes	Colombia /  Argentina /  Netherlands /  Germany /  Sweden /  Uruguay /  United States /   Switzerland /  Denmark /  France
2020	Servants (Ivan Ostrochovský)	Ivan Ostrochovský	Slovakia /  Romania /  Czech Republic /  Ireland
2021	Clara Sola (Ruben De Gheselle)	Nathalie Álvarez Mesén	Costa Rica /  Belgium /  Germany /  Sweden
2022	Drii Winter (Tobias Koch & Jannik Giger)	Michael Koch	Germany /   Switzerland