This is the list of all the major winners (in different years: «Golden Lion», «Golden Lion of Saint Mark», «Grand International Prize of Venice», «Mussolini Cup», «Audience Award») of the Venice International Film Festival since 1932. In the notes: information about the number of the festival, the year of the event and the country of production of the winner.
Unrewarded Years due to canceled, or noncompetitive, or failed competitive festival issue:
• 1953, 14th Venice – Failed Competitive (no award because the jury was unable to decide the winner)
• 1956, 17th Venice – Failed Competitive (no award because there was a tie and the international jury was unable to decide the winner)
• 1969-1972, 30th-33rd Venice – Noncompetitive (no award because of consequences of social and political problems of the late sixties)
• 1973-1974 – Canceled (festival was not organized)
• 1975-1976, 34th-35th Venice – Noncompetitive (during these years, a cinema section within the Biennale was organized with "proposals for new films", tributes, retrospectives, and conventions, including some screenings)
• 1977-1978 – Canceled (festival was not organized)
• 1979, 36th Venice – Noncompetitive (no award because of consequences of social and political problems of the late sixties)
Multiple Winners:
• André Cayatte (1950, 1960) – France
• Louis Malle (1980, 1987) – France
• Zhang Yimou (1992, 1999) – China
• Ang Lee (2005, 2007) – Taiwan (+ Berlinale double winner)
Winners by Country:
Italy - 21: (1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1954, 1959 (1/2), 1960, 1961, 1962 (1/2), 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1988, 1998, 2013)
France - 17: (1937, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1959 (2x), 1960, 1961, 1967, 1980 (1/2), 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1993 (1/2), 1995)
United States - 14: (1935, 1946, 1980 (1/2), 1990, 1993 (1/2), 1996, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023)
Germany - 9: (1936, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1968, 1981, 1982, 1987)
United Kingdom - 8: (1934, 1948, 1954, 1990, 1996, 2002, 2004, 2023)
China - 4: (1992, 1999, 2006, 2007)
Russia/Soviet Union - 4: (1962 (1/2), 1991, 2003, 2011)
Ireland - 4: (1934, 1996, 2002, 2023)
Japan - 3: (1951, 1958, 1997)
Taiwan - 3: (1989, 1994 (1/2), 2007)
India - 2: (1957, 2001)
Poland - 2: (1984, 1993 (1/2)
Austria: 1940
Czech Republic: 1947
Denmark: 1955
Algeria: 1966
Canada: 1980 (1/2)
Macedonia: 1994 (1/2)
Vietnam: 1995
Iran: 2000
Israel: 2009
South Korea: 2012
Sweden: 2014
Venezuela: 2015
Philippines: 2016
Mexico: 2018
Spain: 2024
Golden Lion Honorary Award:
1969: Luis Buñuel
1970: Orson Welles
1971: John Ford, Ingmar Bergman, Marcel Carné
1972: Billy Wilder, Charlie Chaplin, Anatoli Golovnya
1982: Frank Capra, George Cukor, Michael Powell, King Vidor, Jean-Luc Godard, Luis Buñuel, Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Alexander Kluge, Alessandro Blasetti, Sergei Yutkevich, Cesare Zavattini
1983: Michelangelo Antonioni
1985: Federico Fellini
1986: Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani
1987: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Luigi Comencini
1988: Joris Ivens
1989: Robert Bresson
1990: Miklós Jancsó, Marcello Mastroianni
1991: Mario Monicelli, Gian Maria Volonté
1992: Francis Ford Coppola, Jeanne Moreau, Paolo Villaggio
1993: Steven Spielberg, Roman Polanski, Robert De Niro, Claudia Cardinale
1994: Ken Loach, Al Pacino, Suso Cecchi d'Amico
1995: Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Alain Resnais, Giuseppe De Santis, Alberto Sordi, Monica Vitti, Ennio Morricone, Goffredo Lombardo
1996: Robert Altman, Dustin Hoffman, Michèle Morgan, Vittorio Gassman
1997: Stanley Kubrick, Gérard Depardieu, Alida Valli
1998: Andrzej Wajda, Warren Beatty, Sophia Loren
1999: Jerry Lewis
2000: Clint Eastwood
2001: Éric Rohmer
2002: Dino Risi
2003: Omar Sharif, Dino De Laurentiis
2004: Stanley Donen, Manoel de Oliveira
2005: Hayao Miyazaki, Stefania Sandrelli
2006: David Lynch
2007: Bernardo Bertolucci, Tim Burton
2008: Ermanno Olmi
2009: John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich
2010: John Woo
2011: Marco Bellocchio
2012: Francesco Rosi
2013: William Friedkin
2014: Frederick Wiseman, Thelma Schoonmaker
2015: Bertrand Tavernier
2016: Jerzy Skolimowski, Jean-Paul Belmondo
2017: Robert Redford, Jane Fonda
2018: David Cronenberg, Vanessa Redgrave
2019: Pedro Almodóvar, Julie Andrews
2020: Ann Hui, Tilda Swinton
2021: Roberto Benigni, Jamie Lee Curtis
2022: Paul Schrader, Catherine Deneuve
2023: Liliana Cavani, Tony Leung Chiu-wai
The Golden Lion (Leone d'Oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes. In 1970, a second Golden Lion was introduced; this is an honorary award for people who have made an important contribution to cinema.
The prize was introduced in 1949 as the Golden Lion of Saint Mark (the winged lion which had appeared on the flag of the Republic of Venice). In 1954, the prize was permanently named Golden Lion. Previously, the equivalent prize was the Gran Premio Internazionale di Venezia (Grand International Prize of Venice), awarded in 1947 and 1948. Before that, from 1934 until 1942, the highest awards were the Coppa Mussolini (Mussolini Cup) for Best Italian Film and Best Foreign Film.
My Letterboxd lists of Venice and Others Festival Winners:
• 80th Venice (2023)
• 79th Venice (2022)
• 78th Venice (2021)
• 77th Venice (2020)
• 76th Venice (2019)
• Golden Palm | Winners of Cannes (since 1946)
• Golden Lion | Winners of Venice (since 1932)
• Golden Bear | Winners of Berlinale (since 1951)
• Tiger Award | Winners of Rotterdam (since 1995)
• Golden Leopard | Winners of Locarno (since 1946)
• Golden Shell | Winners of San Sebastian (since 1953)
• Crystal Globe | Winners of Karlovy Vary (since 1948)
• Grand Prix | Winners of Warsaw (since 1987)
• Golden Wolf | Winners of Tallinn Black Nights (since 2004)
• Sundance | Winners (since 1984)
• SXSW | Winners (since 1995)
• Tribeca | Winners (since 2002)
• Slamdance | Winners (since 1996)
• TIFF | Winners (since 1978)
www.labiennale.org/en