Year
|
Director
|
Documentary
|
2016
|
Ezra Edelman
|
O.J.: Made in America
|
2015
|
Asif Kapadia
|
Amy
|
2014
|
Laura Poitras
|
Citizenfour
|
2013
|
Morgan Neville
|
20 Feet From Stardom
|
2012
|
Malik Bendjelloul
|
Searching for Sugar Man
|
2011
|
Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin
|
Undefeated
|
2010
|
Charles Ferguson
|
Inside Job
|
2009
|
Louie Psihoyos
|
The Cove
|
2008
|
James Marsh
|
Man on Wire
|
2007
|
Alex Gibney
|
Taxi to the Dark Side
|
2006
|
Davis Guggenheim
|
An Inconvenient Truth
|
2005
|
Luc Jacquet
|
March of the Penguins
|
2004
|
Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman
|
Born into Brothels
|
2003
|
Errol Morris
|
The Fog of War
|
2002
|
Michael Moore
|
Bowling for Columbine
|
2001
|
Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
|
Murder on a Sunday Morning
|
2000
|
Mark Jonathan Harris
|
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
|
1999
|
Kevin Macdonald
|
One Day in September
|
1998
|
James Moll
|
The Last Days
|
1997
|
Mark Jonathan Harris
|
The Long Way Home
|
1996
|
Leon Gast
|
When We Were Kings
|
1995
|
Jon Blair
|
Anne Frank Remembered
|
1994
|
Freida Lee Mock
|
Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision
|
1993
|
Susan Raymond
|
I Am a Promise: The Children of Stanton Elementary School
|
1992
|
Barbara Trent
|
The Panama Deception
|
1991
|
Allie Light and Irving Saraf
|
In the Shadow of the Stars
|
1990
|
Barbara Kopple
|
American Dream
|
1989
|
Rod Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
|
Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt
|
1988
|
Marcel Ophuls
|
Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie
|
1987
|
Aviva Slesin
|
The Ten-Year Lunch
|
1986
|
Brigitte Berman
|
Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got
|
Lee Grant
|
Down and Out in America
|
1985
|
Victoria Mudd
|
Broken Rainbow
|
1984
|
Rod Epstein
|
The Times of Harvey Milk
|
1983
|
Emile Ardolino
|
He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin'
|
1982
|
John Zaritsky
|
Just Another Missing Kid
|
1981
|
Arnold Schwartzman
|
Genocide
|
1980
|
Murray Lerner
|
From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China
|
1979
|
Ira Wohl
|
Best Boy
|
1978
|
Arnold Shapiro
|
Scared Straight!
|
1977
|
John Korty
|
Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?
|
1976
|
Barbara Kopple
|
Harlan County, USA
|
1975
|
Bruce Nyznik and Lawrence Schiller
|
The Man Who Skied Down Everest
|
1974
|
Peter Davis
|
Hearts and Minds
|
1973
|
Kieth Merrill
|
The Great American Cowboy
|
1972
|
Sarah Kernochan and Howard Smith
|
Marjoe
|
1971
|
Ed Spiegel and Walon Green
|
The Hellstrom Chronicle
|
1970
|
Michael Wadleigh
|
Woodstock
|
1969
|
Gérard Patris and Francois Reichenbach
|
Arthur Rubinstein - The Love of Life
|
1968
|
Tom Skinner
|
Journey into Self
|
1967
|
Pierre Schoendoerffer
|
The Anderson Platoon
|
1966
|
Peter Watkins
|
The War Game
|
1965
|
Richard Kaplan
|
The Eleanor Roosevelt Story
|
1964
|
Jacques Cousteau
|
World Without Sun
|
1963
|
Shirley Clarke
|
Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel with the World
|
1962
|
Louis Clyde Stoumen
|
Black Fox: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler
|
1961
|
Pierre-Dominique Gaisseau
|
Sky Above and Mud Beneath
|
1960
|
Larry Lansburgh
|
The Horse with the Flying Tail
|
1959
|
Bernhard Grzimek
|
Serengeti Shall Not Die
|
1958
|
James Algar
|
White Wilderness
|
1957
|
Jerome Hill
|
Albert Schweitzer
|
1956
|
Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle
|
The Silent World
|
1955
|
Nancy Hamilton
|
Helen Keller in Her Story
|
1954
|
James Algar
|
The Vanishing Prairie
|
1953
|
James Algar
|
The Living Desert
|
1952
|
Irwin Allen
|
The Sea Around Us
|
1951
|
Thor Heyerdahl
|
Kon-Tiki
|
1950
|
Robert J. Flaherty, Richard Lyford, and Curt Oertel
|
The Titan: Story of Michelangelo
|
1949
|
Terry Bishop
|
Daybreak in Udi
|
1948
|
Orville O. Dull
|
The Secret Land
|
1947
|
Richard Fleischer
|
Design for Death
|
1946
|
No Award Given.
|
1945
|
Garson Kanin
|
The True Glory
|
1944
|
Edward Steichen
|
The Fighting Lady
|
1943
|
Ray Boulting
|
Desert Victory
|
1942
|
John Ford
|
The Battle of Midway
|
Ken G. Hall
|
Kokoda Front Line!
|
Leonid Varlamov and Ilya Kopalin
|
Moscow Strikes Back
|
Frank Capra
|
Prelude to War
|