1990
- Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)
- Dekalog (Krzysztof Kieślowski)
- Metropolitan (Whit Stillman)
- Miller's Crossing (Joel & Ethan Coen)
- White Hunter, Black Heart (Clint Eastwood)
- Central Park (Frederick Wiseman)
- To Sleep With Anger (Charles Burnett)
- Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Joe Dante)
- Nouvelle Vague (Jean-Luc Godard)
- Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven)
Honorable Mentions: Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton), The Garden (Derek Jarman), Jacob's Ladder (Adrian Lyne), The Killer (John Woo), King of New York (Abel Ferrara), Miami Blues (George Armitage), Pump Up the Volume (Allan Moyle), Santa Sangre (Alejandro Jodorowsky), Trust (Hal Hartley), Wild at Heart (David Lynch)
1991
- Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami)
- A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang)
- My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant)
- The Lovers on the Bridge (Leos Carax)
- Paris Is Burning (Jennie Livingston)
- Barton Fink (Joel & Ethan Coen)
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron)
- La Belle Noiseuse (Jacques Rivette)
- Point Break (Kathryn Bigelow)
- Naked Lunch (David Cronenberg)
Honorable Mention: Chameleon Street (Wendell B. Harris Jr.), Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-wai), The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieślowski), La Femme Nikita (Luc Besson), Hangin' With the Homeboys (Joseph Vasquez), JFK (Oliver Stone), Life Is Sweet (Mike Leigh), Madonna: Truth or Dare (Alek Keshishian), Poison (Todd Haynes), The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)
1992
- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (David Lynch)
- The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies)
- Husbands and Wives (Woody Allen)
- Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara)
- Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)
- Life, and Nothing More (Abbas Kiarostami)
- Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog)
- The Player (Robert Altman)
- Glengarry Glenn Ross (James Foley)
- The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann)
Honorable Mention: Candyman (Bernard Rose), Dead Alive (Peter Jackson), Europa (Lars von Trier), Light Sleeper (Paul Schrader), The Living End (Gregg Araki), The Match Factory Girl (Aki Kaurismäki), One False Move (Carl Franklin), Rebels of the Neon God (Tsai Ming-liang), The Stolen Children (Gianni Amelio), Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America (Craig Baldwin)
1993
- Short Cuts (Robert Altman)
- Naked (Mike Leigh)
- Carlito's Way (Brian De Palma)
- Hard Boiled (John Woo)
- Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis)
- The Puppetmaster (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
- Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater)
- The Last Bolshevik (Chris Marker)
- A Perfect World (Clint Eastwood)
- D'Est (Chantal Akerman)
Honorable Mention: Abraham's Valley (Manoel de Oliveira), The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese), Dangerous Game (Abel Ferrara), Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (Mark Achbar & Peter Wintonick), Three Colors: Blue (Krzysztof Kieślowski), Mercedes (Yousry Nasrallah), The Oak (Lucian Pintilie), Orlando (Sally Potter), The Piano (Jane Campion), Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg)
1994
- Sátántangó (Tarr Béla)
- Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)
- Hoop Dreams (Steve James)
- Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai)
- Bitter Moon (Roman Polanski)
- Three Colors: Red (Krzysztof Kieślowski)
- Calendar (Atom Egoyan)
- Ed Wood (Tim Burton)
- Vanya on 42nd Street (Louis Malle)
- Cronos (Guillermo del Toro)
Honorable Mention: Arizona Dream (Emir Kusturica), Barcelona (Whit Stillman), Bhaji on the Beach (Gurinder Chadha), The Blue Kite (Tian Zhuangzhuang), Casa de Lava (Pedro Costa), A Confucian Confusion (Edward Yang), Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson), Latcho Drom (Tony Gatlif), Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone), What Happened Was... (Tom Noonan)
1995
- Safe (Todd Haynes)
- Underground (Emir Kusturica)
- Showgirls (Paul Verhoeven)
- Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)
- Heat (Michael Mann)
- Through the Olive Trees (Abbas Kiarostami)
- Exotica (Atom Egoyan)
- Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater)
- Seven (David Fincher)
- Crumb (Terry Zwigoff)
Honorable Mention: The Addiction (Abel Ferrara), Clean, Shaven (Lodge Kerrigan), Deseret (James Benning), Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-wai), Guelwaar (Ousmane Sembène), I Can't Sleep (Claire Denis), In the Mouth of Madness (John Carpenter), Kicking and Screaming (Noah Baumbach), The Neon Bible (Terence Davies), Salaam Cinema (Mohsen Makhmalbaf), Spiritual Voices (Alexander Sokurov), Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow), Whisper of the Heart (Kondō Yoshifumi)
1996
- Crash (David Cronenberg)
- Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier)
- A Moment of Innocence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
- Fargo (Joel & Ethan Coen)
- Conspirators of Pleasure (Jan Švankmajer)
- Vive L'Amour (Tsai Ming-liang)
- The White Balloon (Jafar Panahi)
- Goodbye South, Goodbye (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
- La Cérémonie (Claude Chabrol)
- Ashes of Time (Wong Kar-wai)
Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson), Citizen Ruth (Alexander Payne), Flirting With Disaster (David O. Russell), From the Journals of Jean Seberg (Mark Rappaport), The Funeral (Abel Ferrara), Mahjong (Edward Yang), The Man on the Shore (Raoul Peck), Rendezvous in Paris (Éric Rohmer), Portrait of a Lady (Jane Campion), The Cable Guy (Ben Stiller)
1997
- Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)
- Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven)
- Mother and Son (Alexander Sokurov)
- Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino)
- Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson)
- Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas)
- The River (Tsai Ming-liang)
- Lost Highway (David Lynch)
- Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai)
- Cure (Kurosawa Kiyoshi)
Honorable Mention: The Delta (Ira Sachs), Face/Off (John Woo), Family Name (Macky Alston), Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control (Errol Morris), Gabbeh (Mohsen Makhmalbaf), The Game (David Fincher), The Ice Storm (Ang Lee), L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson), Nénette et Boni (Claire Denis), La Promesse (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne), Public Housing (Frederick Wiseman)
1998
- The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick)
- Rushmore (Wes Anderson)
- The Big Lebowski (Joel & Ethan Coen)
- The Last Days of Disco (Whit Stillman)
- Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
- Babe: Pig in the City (George Miller)
- Hana-bi (Kitano Takeshi)
- Drifting Clouds (Aki Kaurismäki)
- The Hole (Tsai Ming-liang)
- Sombre (Philippe Grandrieux)
Bulworth (Warren Beatty), The Eel (Imamura Shōhei), Gadjo Dilo (Tony Gatlif), Genealogies of a Crime (Raúl Ruiz), The General (John Boorman), Henry Fool (Hal Hartley), Happiness (Todd Solondz), Khrustalyov, My Car! (Aleksei German), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (Werner Herzog), Sonatine (Takeshi Kitano)
1999
- Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)
- Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
- Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson)
- Fight Club (David Fincher)
- The Straight Story (David Lynch)
- All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar)
- Three Kings (David O. Russell)
- eXistenZ (David Cronenberg)
- Rosetta (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
- The Iron Giant (Brad Bird)
Honorable Mention: Bringing Out the Dead (Martin Scorsese), The Dreamlife of Angels (Erick Zonca), Genghis Blues (Roko Belic), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch), Late August, Early September (Olivier Assayas), The Limey (Steven Soderbergh), Moloch (Alexander Sokurov), Office Space (Mike Judge), Princess Mononoke (Miyazaki Hayao), Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer)
