The European Film Award for Best Documentary or Prix Arte has been awarded annually since 1989 by the European Film Academy.
Special Mentions were presented alongside the winner of the award until 1993, since 1999 a set of nominees are presented out of which a winner is chosen.
Documentary films taken into consideration must have a minimum length of 70 minutes.
They must have either had a theatrical release in at least one European country, at a European competitive feature film festival accredited by FIAPF or been screened at one of the following documentary festivals:[citation needed] The winners are in a yellow background and in bold.