German Film Award for Best Feature Film
The German Film Award for Best Feature Film (German: Bester Spielfilm) is the main award given for best German film at the annual Deutscher Filmpreis awards, the German national film awards. It has been held annually since 1951 in varying formats. As the constitution said the prize was only awarded, if outstanding achievement was given, not every year a film was declared the winner of the prize. For the first three years, the Golden Candlestick was the highest honour for this category. It was then replaced by the Golden Bowl as a Challenge Prize, that would be passed to the winner of the next occasion, however as it was not given out for 17 years, the prize was abandoned for good in 1996. Regular prize winners receive a Film Award in Gold whereas the runners-up receive a silver award. A bronze award for the second runner-up was introduced in 2008. On some occasions, no film received the gold prize and a winner of the Silver Award was declared the best film of the year.
List of winning films
1951–1986
From 1951 to 1986 the prize was awarded by a commission which selected the best German feature film released in the previous 12 months.
| Year | English title | Original title | Director(s) | Trophy received |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | Two Times Lotte | Das doppelte Lottchen | Josef von Báky | Golden Candlestick |
| 1952 | ||||
| 1953 | Nights on the Road aka The Mistress | Nachts auf den Straßen | Rudolf Jugert | Golden Candlestick |
| 1954 | No Way Back | Weg ohne Umkehr | Victor Vicas | Golden Bowl |
| 1955 | Canaris: Master Spy | Canaris | Alfred Weidenmann | |
| 1956 | ||||
| 1957 | The Captain from Köpenick | Der Hauptmann von Köpenick | Helmut Käutner | Golden Bowl |
| 1958 | The Devil Strikes at Night | Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam | Robert Siodmak | |
| 1959 | Arms and the Man | Helden | Franz Peter Wirth | |
| 1960 | The Bridge | Die Brücke | Bernhard Wicki | |
| 1961 | ||||
| 1962 | The Bread of Those Early Years | Das Brot der frühen Jahre | Herbert Vesely | Film Award in Silver |
| 1963 | The Endless Night | Die endlose Nacht | Will Tremper | |
| The Lightship | Das Feuerschiff | Ladislao Vajda | ||
| 1964 | The River Line | Kennwort... Reiher | Rudolf Jugert | Film Award in Gold |
| 1965 | The House in Karp Lane | Das Haus in der Karpfengasse | Kurt Hoffmann | |
| 1966 | Young Törless | Der junge Törless | Volker Schlöndorff | |
| 1967 | Yesterday Girl | Abschied von gestern | Alexander Kluge | |
| 1968 | Tattoo | Tätowierung | Johannes Schaaf | |
| 1969 | Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed | Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos | Alexander Kluge | |
| 1970 | Katzelmacher | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | ||
| Malatesta | Peter Lilienthal | |||
| 1971 | First Love | Maximilian Schell | ||
| Lenz | George Moorse | |||
| 1972 | Trotta | Johannes Schaaf | ||
| Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King | Hans-Jürgen Syberberg | |||
| 1973 | The Experts | Die Sachverständigen | Norbert Kückelmann | Golden Bowl |
| 1974 | The Pedestrian | Der Fußgänger | Maximilian Schell | |
| 1975 | Lina Braake | Bernhard Sinkel | Film Award in Silver | |
| 1976 | Calm Prevails Over the Country | Es herrscht Ruhe im Land | Peter Lilienthal | Golden Bowl |
| 1977 | Heinrich | Helma Sanders-Brahms | ||
| 1978 | The Glass Cell | Die gläserne Zelle | Hans W. Geißendörfer | Film Award in Gold |
| 1979 | The Tin Drum | Die Blechtrommel | Volker Schlöndorff | Golden Bowl |
| 1980 | The Last Years of Childhood | Die letzten Jahre der Kindheit | Norbert Kückelmann | Film Award in Silver |
| 1981 | Jede Menge Kohle | Adolf Winkelmann | Film Award in Gold | |
| 1982 | Marianne and Juliane | Die bleierne Zeit | Margarethe von Trotta | |
| 1983 | The State of Things | Der Stand der Dinge | Wim Wenders | |
| 1984 | Where the Green Ants Dream | Wo die grünen Ameisen träumen | Werner Herzog | |
| 1985 | Colonel Redl | Oberst Redl | István Szabó | |