The Golden Bear for the Best Short Film (German: Goldener Bär für den Besten Kurzfilm) is the most important award in the short film competition of the Berlin International Film Festival.
| Year | Film | Director | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950s | |||
| 1956 | Paris la nuit | Jacques Baratier & Jean Valère | France |
| 1957 | Gente lontana | Lionetto Fabbri | Italy |
| 1958 | La lunga raccolta | Lionetto Fabbri | Italy |
| 1959 | Prijs de zee | Herman van der Horst | Netherlands |
| 1960s | |||
| 1960 | Le songe des chevaux sauvages | Denys Colomb de Daunant | France |
| 1961 | Gesicht von der Stange? | Raimund Ruehl | West Germany |
| 1962 | De werkelijkheid van Karel Appel | Jan Vrijman | Netherlands |
| 1963 | Bowspelement | Charles Huguenot van der Linden | Netherlands |
| 1964 | Kirdi | Max Lersch | Austria |
| 1965 | Yeats Country | Patrick Carey | Ireland / UK |
| 1966 | Knud | Jørgen Roos | Denmark |
| 1967 | Through the Eyes of a Painter | M. F. Husain | India |
| 1968 | Portrait: Orson Welles | François Reichenbach & Frédéric Rossif | France |
| 1969 | To See or Not to See | Bretislav Pojar | Canada |
| 1970s | |||
| 1971 | 1501 ½ | Paul B. Price | United States |
| 1972 | Flyaway | Robin Lehman | United Kingdom |
| 1973 | Colter's Hell | Robin Lehman | United Kingdom |
| 1974 | The Concert | Claude Chagrin | United Kingdom |
| 1975 | See | Robin Lehman | United Kingdom |
| 1976 | Horu - munakata shiko no sekai | Takeo Yanagawa | Japan |
| 1977 | Ortsfremd... wohnhaft vormals Mainzerlandstraße | Hedda Rinneberg & Hans Sachs | West Germany |
| 1978 | Co jsme udelali slepicím | Vladimír Jiránek & Josef Hekrdle | Czechoslovakia |
| 1979 | Ubu | Geoff Dunbar | United Kingdom |
| 1980s | |||
| 1980 | Hlavy | Petr Sís | Czechoslovakia |
| 1981 | History of the World in Three Minutes Flat | Michael Mills | Canada |
| 1982 | Loutka, přítel člověka | Ivan Renč | Czechoslovakia |
| 1983 | Možnosti dialogu | Jan Švankmajer | Czechoslovakia |
| 1984 | Cykelsymfonien | Åke Sandgren | Denmark / Sweden |
| 1985 | Nr. 1 - Aus Berichten der Wach- und Patrouillendienste | Helke Sander | West Germany |
| 1986 | Tom Goes to the Bar | Dean Parisot | United States |
| 1987 | Curriculum vitae | Pavel Koutský | Czechoslovakia |
| 1988 | Oblast | Zdravko Barišić | Yugoslavia |
| 1989 | Pas à deux | Monique Renault & Gerrit van Dijk | Netherlands |
| 1990s | |||
| 1990 | Mistertao | Bruno Bozzetto | Italy |
| 1991 | Six Point Nine | Dan Bootzin | United States |
| 1993 | Bolero | Ivan Maximov | Russia |
| 1994 | Hamu | Ferenc Cakó | Hungary |
| 1995 | Repete | Michaela Pavlátová | Czech Republic |
| 1996 | Pribitie poezda | Andrei Zhelezniakov | Russia |
| 1997 | Senaste Nytt | Per Carleson | Sweden |
| 1998 | Ik beweeg, dus ik besta | Gerrit van Dijk | Netherlands |
| 1999 | Faraon / Maski | Sergei Ovcharov / Piotr Karwas | Russia / Germany |
| 2000s | |||
| 2000 | Hommage à Alfred Lepetit | Jean Rousselot | France |
| 2001 | Black Soul (Âme noire) | Martine Chartrand | Canada |
| 2002 | At Dawning | Martin Jones | United Kingdom |
| 2003 | (A)Torzija | Stefan Arsenijević | Slovenia |
| 2004 | Un cartus de kent si un pachet de cafea | Cristi Puiu | Romania |
| 2005 | Milk | Peter Mackie Burns | United Kingdom |
| 2006 | Aldrig som första gången! | Jonas Odell | Sweden |
| 2007 | Raak | Hanro Smitsman | Netherlands |
| 2008 | O zi buna de plaja | Bogdan Mustață | Romania |
| 2009 | Please Say Something | David O'Reilly | Ireland |
| 2010s | |||
| 2010 | Händelse vid bank | Ruben Östlund | Sweden |
| 2011 | Night Fishing | Chan-kyong Park & Chan-wook Park | South Korea |
| 2012 | Rafa | João Salaviza | Portugal |
| 2013 | La fugue | Jean-Bernard Marlin | France |
| 2014 | Tant qu'il nous reste des fusils à pompe | Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel | France |
| 2015 | Ho-san-na | Young-kil Na | South Korea |
| 2016 | Balada de um Batráquio | Leonor Teles | Portugal |
| 2017 | Cidade Pequena | Diogo Costa Amarante | Portugal |
| 2018 | The Men Behind the Wall | Inés Moldavsky | Israel |
| 2019 | Umbra | Florian Fischer & Johannes Krell | Germany |
| 2020s | |||
| 2020 | T | Keisha Rae Witherspoon | United States |
| 2021 | Nanu Tudor | Olga Lucovnicova | Republic of Moldova |
| 2022 | Trap | Anastasia Veber | Russian Federation, Lithuania |
| 2023 | Les Chenilles | Michelle Keserwany, Noel Keserwany | France |
| 2024 | An Odd Turn | Francisco Lezama | Argentina |
