The Sutherland Trophy was created in 1958 by the British Film Institute (BFI) as an annual award for "the maker of the most original and imaginative [first or second] feature film introduced at the National Film Theatre during the year".^[1][2]

History

In 1997, the criteria changed to honour the maker of the most original and imaginative first feature screened during the London Film Festival.^[2]

The award is a sculpture in silver by Gerald Benney. It is presented on the closing night of the Festival. The award was named after a patron of the BFI, George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 5th Duke of Sutherland.^[2]

List of winners

Year	Director(s)	Film	Country
1958	Yasujirō Ozu[2]	Tokyo Story	Japan
1959	Satyajit Ray[2]	The World of Apu	India
1960	Michelangelo Antonioni[2]	L'Avventura	Italy
1961	Ermanno Olmi[2]	Il Posto	Italy
1962	Jacques Rivette[2]	Paris Belongs to Us	France
1963	Alain Resnais[2]	Muriel	France
1964	Grigori Kozintsev[2]	Hamlet	Soviet Union
1965	Jean-Luc Godard[2]	Pierrot le Fou	France
1966	André Delvaux[2]	The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short	Belgium
1967	Masaki Kobayashi[2]	Samurai Rebellion	Japan
1968	Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet[2]	The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach	France
1969	Jacques Rivette[2]	L'Amour fou	France
1970	Bernardo Bertolucci[2]	The Conformist	Italy
1971	Robert Bresson[2]	Four Nights of a Dreamer	France
1972	Octavio Getino and Fernando Solanas[2]	The Hour of the Furnaces	Argentina
1973	Giorgi Shengelaia[2]	Pirosmani	Soviet Union
1974	Rainer Werner Fassbinder[2]	Martha	West Germany
1975	Theodoros Angelopoulos[2]	The Travelling Players	Greece
1976	Nagisa Oshima[2]	In the Realm of the Senses	Japan
1977	Hans-Jürgen Syberberg[2]	Hitler: A Film from Germany	West Germany
1978	Mark Rappaport[2]	The Scenic Route	United States
1979	Zeki Ökten[2]	The Herd	Turkey
1980	Peter Greenaway (shared)[2]	The Falls	United Kingdom
	Xie Jin (shared)[2]	Two Stage Sisters	China
1981	Helma Sanders-Brahms[2]	No Mercy, No Future	West Germany
1982	Adoor Gopalakrishnan[2]	Elippathayam	India
1983	Chris Marker[2]	Sans Soleil	France
1984	Lino Brocka[2]	This Is My Country	Philippines
1985	Chen Kaige[2]	Yellow Earth	China
1986	Bill Douglas[2]	Comrades	United Kingdom
1987	Edward Yang (shared)[2]	Terrorizers	Taiwan
	Souleymane Cissé (shared)[2]	Yeelen	Mali
1989	Nils Gaup[2]	Pathfinder	Norway
1990	Steve Kloves[2]	The Fabulous Baker Boys	United States
1991	Elaine Proctor[2]	On the Wire	South Africa
1992	Jocelyn Moorhouse[2]	Proof	Australia
1993	Julio Medem[2]	Vacas	Spain
1994	Tran Anh Hung[2]	The Scent of Green Papaya	Vietnam
1995	Moufida Tlatli[2]	The Silences of the Palace	Tunisia
1996	Jevon O'Neill[2]	Bob's Weekend	United Kingdom
1997	Bruno Dumont[2]	The Life of Jesus	France
1998	Samira Makhmalbaf[2]	The Apple	Iran
1999	Lynne Ramsay[2]	Ratcatcher	United Kingdom
2000	Kenneth Lonergan[2]	You Can Count on Me	United States
2001	Asif Kapadia[2]	The Warrior	United Kingdom
2002	Delphine Gleize[3]	Carnages	France
2003	Siddiq Barmak[2]	Osama	Afghanistan
2004	Jonathan Caouette[4]	Tarnation	United States
2005	Kari Paljakka[5]	For the Living and the Dead	Finland
2006	Andrea Arnold[2]	Red Road	United Kingdom
2007	Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi[6]	Persepolis	France
2008	Sergey Dvortsevoy[2]	Tulpan	Kazakhstan
2009	Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani[2]	Ajami	Palestine
2010	Clio Barnard[7]	The Arbor	United Kingdom
2011	Pablo Giorgelli[8]	Las Acacias	Argentina
2012	Benh Zeitlin[9]	Beasts of the Southern Wild	United States
2013	Anthony Chen[10]	Ilo Ilo	Singapore
2014	Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy[11]	The Tribe	Ukraine
2015	Robert Eggers[12]	The Witch	United States
2016	Julia Ducournau[13]	Raw	France
2017	John Trengove[14]	The Wound	South Africa
2018	Lukas Dhont[15]	Girl	Belgium
2019	Mati Diop[16]	Atlantics	France
2021	Laura Wandel[17]	Playground	Belgium
2022	Manuela Martelli[18]	1976	Chile
2023	Mika Gustafson[19]	Paradise is Burning	Sweden