| Year | Film | Producer | |
|---|
| 2009 | Smile Pinki | Megan Mylan | |
| 2008 | Freeheld | Cynthia Wade | |
| 2007 | The Blood of Yingzhou District | Thomas F. Lennon | |
| 2006 | A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin | Eric Simonson | |
| 2005 | Mighty Times: The Children's March | Robert Hudson and Bobby Houston | |
| 2004 | Chernobyl Heart | Maryann DeLeo | |
| 2003 | Twin Towers | Bill Guttentag, Robert David Port, Robert Port directors | |
| 2002 | Thoth | Sarah Kernochan and Lynn Appelle | |
| 2001 | Big Mama | Tracy Seretean | |
| 2000 | King Gimp | Susan Hannah Hadary and William A. Whiteford | |
| 1999 | The Personals: Improvisations on Romance in the Golden Years | Keiko Ibi | |
| 1998 | A Story of Healing | Donna Dewey and Carol Pasternak | |
| 1997 | Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien | Jessica Yu | |
| 1996 | One Survivor Remembers | Kary Antholis | |
| 1995 | A Time for Justice | Charles Guggenheim | |
| 1994 | Defending Our Lives | Margaret Lazarus and Renner Wunderlich | |
| 1993 | Educating Peter | Thomas C. Goodwin and Gerardine Wurzburg | |
| 1992 | Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment | Debra Chasnoff | |
| 1991 | Days of Waiting | Steven Okazaki | |
| 1990 | The Johnstown Flood | Charles Guggenheim | |
| 1989 | You Don't Have to Die | William Guttentag and Malcolm Clarke | |
| 1988 | Young at Heart | Sue Marx and Pamela Conn | |
| 1987 | Women--for America, for the World | Vivienne Verdon-Roe | |
| 1986 | Witness to War: Dr. Charlie Clements | David Goodman | |
| 1985 | The Stone Carvers | Marjorie Hunt and Paul Wagner | |
| 1984 | Flamenco at 5:15 | Cynthia Scott and Adam Symansky | |
| 1983 | If You Love This Planet | Edward Le Lorrain and Terri Nash | |
| 1982 | Close Harmony | Nigel Noble | |
| 1981 | Karl Hess: Toward Liberty | Roland Halleand Peter W. Ladue | |
| 1980 | Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist | Saul J. Turell | |
| 1979 | The Flight of the Gossamer Condor | Jacqueline Phillips Shedd and Ben Shedd | |
| 1978 | Gravity Is My Enemy | John Joseph and Jan Stussy | |
| 1977 | Number Our Days | Lynne Littman and Barbara Myerhoff | |
| 1976 | The End of the Game | Claire Wilbur and Robin Lehman | |
| 1975 | Don't | Robin Lehman | |
| 1974 | Princeton: A Search for Answers | Julian Krainin and DeWitt L. Sage, Jr. | |
| 1973 | This Tiny World | Charles Huguenot van der Linden and Martina Huguenot van der Linden | |
| 1972 | Sentinels of Silence | Manuel Arango and Robert Amram | |
| 1971 | Interviews with My Lai Veterans | Joseph Strick | |
| 1970 | Czechoslovakia 1968 | Denis Sanders and Robert M. Fresco | |
| 1969 | Why Man Creates | Saul Bass | |
| 1968 | The Redwoods | Mark Harris and Trevor Greenwood | |
| 1967 | A Year Toward Tomorrow | Edmond Lévy | |
| 1966 | To Be Alive! | Francis Thompson | |
| 1965 | Nine from Little Rock | Charles Guggenheim | |
| 1964 | Chagall | Simon Schiffrin | |
| 1963 | Dylan Thomas | Jack Howells | |
| 1962 | Project Hope | Frank P. Bibas | |
| 1961 | Giuseppina | James Hill | |
| 1960 | Glass | Bert Haanstra | |
| 1959 | Ama Girls | Ben Sharpsteen | |
| 1958 | No Award Given | - | |
| 1957 | The True Story of the Civil War | Louis Clyde Stoumen | |
| 1956 | Men against the Arctic | Walt Disney | |
| 1955 | Thursday's Children | World Wide Pictures and Morse Films | |
| 1954 | The Alaskan Eskimo | Walt Disney | |
| 1953 | Neighbours | Norman McLaren and Producer | |
| 1952 | Benjy | Fred Zinnemann and Paramount Pictures Corporation | |
| 1951 | Why Korea? | Edmund Reek | |
| 1950 | A Chance To Live | Richard de Rochemont | |
| 1950 | So Much for So Little | Edward Selzer | |
| 1949 | Toward Independence | United States Army | |
| 1948 | First Steps | United Nations Division of Films and Visual Information | |
| 1947 | Seeds of Destiny | United States Department of War | |
| 1946 | Hitler Lives | Gordon Hollingshead, Producer | |
| 1945 | With the Marines at Tarawa | United States Marine Corps | |
| 1944 | December 7th | United States Navy | |
| 1943 | No Award Given | - | |
| 1942 | Churchill's Island | Stuart Legg | |