| Year | Actor | Role | Film | Nationality of actor |
|---|
| 1950s |
| 1956 | Burt Lancaster | Mike Ribble | Trapeze | United States |
| 1957 | Pedro Infante | Tizoc | Tizoc | Mexico |
| 1958 | Sidney Poitier | Noah Cullen | The Defiant Ones | USA / Bahamas |
| 1959 | Jean Gabin | Joseph Hughes Guillamume Boutier-Blainville / Archimède | Archimède le clochard | France |
| 1960s |
| 1960 | Fredric March | Matthew Harrison Brady | Inherit The Wind | United States |
| 1961 | Peter Finch | Johnnie Byrne | No Love for Johnnie | United Kingdom |
| 1962 | James Stewart | Roger Hobbs | Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation | United States |
| 1963 | Sidney Poitier | Homer Smith | Lilies of the Field | USA / Bahamas |
| 1964 | Rod Steiger | Sol Nazerman | The Pawnbroker | United States |
| 1965 | Lee Marvin | Kid Shellen / Tim Strawn | Cat Ballou | United States |
| 1966 | Jean-Pierre Léaud | Paul | Masculin Féminin | France |
| 1967 | Michel Simon | Pépé | The Two of Us | Switzerland |
| 1968 | Jean-Louis Trintignant | Jan Robin / Boris Varissa | The Man Who Lies | France |
| 1969 | No Award |
| 1970s |
| 1970 | No Award |
| 1971 | Jean Gabin | Julien Bouin | Le Chat | France |
| 1972 | Alberto Sordi | Giusseppe Di Noi | In Prison Awaiting Trial | Italy |
| 1973 | No Award |
| 1974 | No Award |
| 1975 | Vlastimil Brodský | Jakob Heym | Jacob the Liar | Czechoslovakia |
| 1976 | Gerhard Olschewski | Cioska | A Lost Life | West Germany |
| 1977 | Fernando Fernán Gómez | Fernando | The Anchorite | Spain |
| 1978 | Craig Russell | Robin Turner | Outrageous! | Canada |
| 1979 | Michele Placido | The Man | Ernesto | Italy |
| 1980s |
| 1980 | Andrzej Seweryn | Adam Pietryk | The Orchestra Conductor | Poland / France |
| 1981 | Anatoly Solonitsyn | Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky | Twenty Six Days from the Life of Dostoyevsky | Soviet Union |
| Jack Lemmon | Scottie Templeton | Tribute | United States |
| 1982 | Stellan Skarsgård (Tie) | Sven | The Simple-Minded Murder | Sweden |
| Michel Piccoli (Tie) | Bertrand Malair | Strange Affair | France |
| 1983 | Bruce Dern | George Sitkowski | That Championship Season | United States |
| 1984 | Albert Finney | Sir | The Dresser | United Kingdom |
| 1985 | Fernando Fernán Gómez | Don Leopoldo Contreras de Tejada | Stico | Spain |
| 1986 | Tuncel Kurtiz | Hilmi | The Smile of the Lamb | Turkey |
| 1987 | Gian Maria Volontè | Aldo Moro | The Moro Affair | Italy |
| 1988 | Jörg Pose (Tie) | Josef Heiliger | Bear Ye One Another's Burden | East Germany |
| Manfred Möck (Tie) | Hubertus Koschenz |
| 1989 | Gene Hackman | Rupert Anderson | Mississippi Burning | United States |
| 1990s |
| 1990 | Iain Glen | Larry Winters | Silent Scream | United Kingdom |
| 1991 | Maynard Eziashi | Mister Johnson | Mister Johnson | United Kingdom |
| 1992 | Armin Mueller-Stahl | Baron Kaspar Joachim von Utz | Utz | Germany |
| 1993 | Denzel Washington | Malcolm X | Malcolm X | United States |
| 1994 | Tom Hanks | Andrew Beckett | Philadelphia | United States |
| 1995 | Paul Newman | Donald Sullivan | Nobody's Fool | United States |
| 1996 | Sean Penn | Matthew Poncelet | Dead Man Walking | United States |
| 1997 | Leonardo DiCaprio | Romeo Montague | Romeo + Juliet | United States |
| 1998 | Samuel L. Jackson | Ordell Robbie | Jackie Brown | United States |
| 1999 | Michael Gwisdek | Peschke | Nightshapes | Germany |
| 2000s |
| 2000 | Denzel Washington | Rubin "Hurricane" Carter | The Hurricane | United States |
| 2001 | Benicio del Toro | Javier Rodriguez | Traffic | Puerto Rico |
| 2002 | Jacques Gamblin | Jean-Devaivre | Safe Conduct | France |
| 2003 | Sam Rockwell | Chuck Barris | Confessions of a Dangerous Mind | United States |
| 2004 | Daniel Hendler | Ariel Makaroff | Lost Embrace | Uruguay |
| 2005 | Lou Taylor Pucci | Justin Cobb | Thumbsucker | United States |
| 2006 | Moritz Bleibtreu | Bruno | Atomised | Germany |
| 2007 | Julio Chávez | Juan Desouza | El Otro | Argentina |
| 2008 | Reza Naji | Karim | The Song of Sparrows | Iran |
| 2009 | Sotigui Kouyaté | Ousmane | London River | Burkina Faso |
| 2010s |
| 2010 | Grigoriy Dobrygin (Tie) | Pavel Danilov | How I Ended This Summer | Russia |
| Sergei Puskepalis (Tie) | Sergei Gulybin |
| 2011 | Peyman Moaadi (Tie) | Nader | A Separation | Iran |
| Shahab Hosseini (Tie) | Hodjat |
| Ali-Asghar Shahbazi (Tie) | Nader's Father |
| Babak Karimi (Tie) | Judge |
| 2012 | Mikkel Følsgaard | Christian VII of Denmark | A Royal Affair | Denmark |
| 2013 | Nazif Mujić | Nazif | An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| 2014 | Liao Fan | Zhang Zili | Black Coal, Thin Ice | China |
| 2015 | Tom Courtenay | Geoff Mercer | 45 Years | United Kingdom |
| 2016 | Majd Mastoura | Hedi | Hedi | Tunisia |
| 2017 | Georg Friedrich | Michael | Bright Nights | Germany |
| 2018 | Anthony Bajon | Thomas | The Prayer | France |
| 2019 | Wang Jingchun | Liu Yaojun | So Long, My Son | China |