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Special Director’s Award

Leone d'argentoThe "Special Director’s Award – Silver Lion" represents the highest award given at the Venice Film Festival exclusively to the director of a film.

Unlike the "Golden Lion", which awards a film as a whole, this prize recognizes the individual, similar to the Volpi Cup, giving acknowledgement to the actors.

List of Awards

  • 1990 Martin Scorsese for "Goodfellas"
  • From 1991 to 1993 this prize was not awarded.
  • 1994 Carlo Mazzacurati per "Il toro" (The Bull)
  • From 1995 to 1997 this prize was not awarded.
  • 1998 Emir Kusturica for "Crna macka, beli macor" (Black Cat, White Cat)
  • 1999 Zhang Yuan for "Guo nian hui jia" (Seventeen Years)
  • 2000 Buddhadeb Dasgupta for "Uttara" (The Wrestlers)
  • 2001 Babak Payami for "Raye Makhfi" (Secret Ballot)
  • 2002 Lee Chang-Dong for "Oasis"
  • 2003 Takeshi Kitano for "Zatôichi"
  • 2004 Kim Ki-duk for "Bin jip" (3-Iron)
  • 2005 Philippe Garrel for "Les amants réguliers"
  • 2006 Alain Resnais for Coeurs (Hearts)
  • 2007 Brian De Palma for Redacted
  • 2008 Aleksey German Jr for Buma?nyj soldat (Paper’s soldiers)
  • 2009 Shirin Neshat for Women Without Men
  • 2010 Alex de la Iglesia for Balada triste de trompeta
  • 2011 Cai Shangjun for Ren shan ren hai
  • 2012 Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master