The Silver Bear for the Best Short Film is the second place in the short film competition at the Berlin International Film Festival.
| Year | Film | Director | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950s | |||
| 1956 | Rythmetic | Norman McLaren | Canada |
| 1957 | Plitvicka jezera | Dragoslav Holub | Yugoslavia |
| 1958 | Glas | Bert Haanstra | Netherlands |
| 1959 | Das Knalleidoskop | Herbert Hunger | West Germany |
| 1960s | |||
| 1960 | Diario | Juan Berend | Argentina |
| 1961 | Chimichimito | José Martín | Venezuela |
| 1962 | Le grand Magal de Touba | Blaise Senghor | Senegal |
| 1963 | Tori | Erkko Kivikoski | Finland |
| 1964 | Sunday Lark | Sanford Semel | United States |
| 1965 | Een zondag op het eiland van de Grande Jatte | Frans Weisz | Netherlands |
| 1966 | Rosalie | Walerian Borowczyk | France |
| 1967 | Fleá Ceoil | Louis Marcus | Ireland |
| 1968 | Krek | Borivoj Dovniković-Bordo | Yugoslavia |
| 1969 | Presadjivanje osecanja | Dejan Djurković | Yugoslavia |
| 1970s | |||
| 1971 | Il continuo | Vlatko Gilić | Yugoslavia |
| 1972 | The Selfish Giant | Peter Sander | Canada |
| 1973 | 1501 1/2 | Paul B. Price | United States |
| 1975 | SSS | Václav Bedřich | Czechoslovakia |
| 1976 | Trains | Caleb Deschanel | United States |
| 1977 | Etuda o zkousce | Evald Schorm | Czechoslovakia |
| 1978 | Une vieille soupière | Michel Longuet | France |
| 1979 | Phantom | René Perraudin and Uwe Schrader | West Germany |
| 1980s | |||
| 1980 | Rod Gröth | Jörg Moser-Metius | West Germany |
| 1981 | Ter land, ter zee en in de lucht | Paul Driessen | Netherlands |
| 1982 | San ge heshang | A Da (Xu Jingda) | China |
| 1983 | Was das Leben so verspricht | Egon Haase | West Germany |
| 1984 | Yu bang xiang zheng | Hu Jinqing | China |
| 1985 | Paradise | Ishu Patel | Canada |
| 1986 | Auguszta etet | Csaba Varga | Hungary |
| 1987 | Luxo Jr. | John Lasseter | United States |
| 1988 | Láska na první pohled | Pavel Koutský | Czechoslovakia |
| 1989 | Údel | Jaroslava Havettová | Czechoslovakia |
| 1990s | |||
| 1990 | Ilha das Flores | Jorge Furtado | Brazil |
| 1991 | Posledních 100 let Marx-Leninismu v Cechách | Pavel Koutský | Czechoslovakia |
| 1993 | At zije mys! | Pavel Koutský | Czech Republic |
| 1994 | Balthazar | Christophe Fraipont | France |
| 1996 | Maalaislääkäri | Katariina Lillqvist | Finland |
| 1997 | Late at Night | Stefanie Jordan, Stefanie Saghri and Claudia Zoller | Germany |
| 1998 | Cinema Alcázar | Florence Jaugey | Nicaragua |
| 1999 | Desserts | Jeff Stark | England |
| 2000s | |||
| 2000 | Média | Pavel Koutský | Czech Republic |
| 2001 | Jungle Jazz: Public Enemy #1 | Frank Fitzpatrick | United States |
| 2002 | Bror min | Jens Jonsson | Sweden |
| 2003 | En ausencia | Lucía Cedrón | Argentina |
| 2004 | Vet! | Karin Junger and Brigit Hillenius | Netherlands |
| 2005 | Jam Session | Izabela Plucinska | Germany |
| 2006 | Gratte-papier | Guillaume Martinez | France |
| 2007 | Mei | Arvin Chen | Taiwan |
| 2008 | Udedh Bun | Siddharth Sinha | India |
| 2009 | Jade | Daniel Elliott | United Kingdom |
| 2010s | |||
| 2010 | Hayerida | Shai Miedzinski | Israel |
| 2011 | Pu-seo-jin bam | Hyo-joo Yang | South Korea |
| 2012 | Gurêto rabitto | Atsushi Wada | Japan |
| 2013 | Die Ruhe bleibt | Stefan Kriekhaus | Germany |
| 2014 | Laborat | Guillaume Cailleau | Germany |
| 2015 | Bad at Dancing | Joanna Arnow | United States |
| 2016 | A Man Returned | Mahdi Fleifel | Denmark |
| 2017 | Ensueño en la Pradera | Esteban Arrangoiz Julien | Mexico |
| 2018 | Imfura | Samuel Ishimwe | Rwanda |
| 2019 | Blue Boy | Manuel Abramovich | Argentina |
| 2020 | Filipiñana | Rafael Manuel | Philippines |
| 2021 | Xia Wu Guo Qu Le Yi Ban | Zhang Dalei | China |
| 2022 | Manhã der Domingo | Bruno Ribeiro | Brazil |
| 2023 | Dipped in Black | Matthew Thorne and Derik Lynch | Germany; Australia |
