List of awards and honors bestowed upon Akira Kurosawa
# List of awards and honors bestowed upon Akira Kurosawa

The following table is a selected list of awards and honors given to the Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa.

## Categories

The list represents three categories of film awards or honors:

* Best Film awards given to a Kurosawa-directed film, whether Kurosawa directly received the award or not (including "Foreign Film" awards);
* Best Director or Best Screenplay awards to Kurosawa for a Kurosawa-directed film;
* Career achievement awards.

For reasons of space, two categories of awards have been excluded from the table below:

* Nominations for awards given to either Kurosawa himself or to films he directed which he or the film did not subsequently win (e.g., the nomination of Throne of Blood for the Venice Film Festival Golden Lion award in 1957; his own nomination for Best Director for Ran at the 58th Academy Awards);
* Awards given to cast members of Kurosawa-directed films, or to crew members other than Kurosawa (e.g., Toshiro Mifune’s Best Actor prize for Yojimbo at the 1961 Venice Film Festival; Emi Wada’s Oscar for Ran at the 1985 Academy Awards).

## Data

The information in the table is derived from the IMDb Akira Kurosawa awards page and the IMDb awards pages for the individual films, supplemented by the filmography by Kurosawa’s biographer, Stuart Galbraith IV, unless otherwise noted.

Key: (NK) = Not known; (P) = Posthumous award

## Table

### Film Awards

| Year of Award or Honor (if known) | Name of Award or Honor | Awarding Organization (if known) | Country of Origin | Given for... | Film Title (if applicable) |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| (NK) | Sadao Yamanaka Prize | (NK) | Japan | Film | Sanshiro Sugata (1943) |
| (NK) | The National Incentive Film Prize [Shared with Torii Kyouemon] | (NK) | Japan | Film | Sanshiro Sugata |
| 1948 | Mainichi Film Concours | Mainichi Shimbun (newspaper) | Japan | Directing | One Wonderful Sunday (1947) |
| 1949 | Kinema Jumpo Award (Critics' Award) | Kinema Jumpo magazine | Japan | Film | Drunken Angel (1948) |
| 1949 | Mainichi Film Concours | Mainichi Shimbun | Japan | Film | Drunken Angel |
| (NK) | Geijutsusai (Arts Festival) Grand Prize | Ministry of Education | Japan | Film | Stray Dog (1949) |
| 1951 | Blue Ribbon Award | The Association of Tokyo Film Journalists | Japan | Screenplay (with Shinobu Hashimoto) | Rashomon (1950) |
| 1951 | Golden Lion (First prize) | Venice Film Festival | Italy | Film | Rashomon |
| 1951 | NBR Award | National Board of Review | USA | Film, Directing | Rashomon |
| 1952 | Honorary Award - Outstanding Foreign Language Film | AMPAS (Academy Award) | USA | Film | Rashomon |
| 1953 | Kinema Jumpo Award | Kinema Jumpo magazine | Japan | Film | Ikiru (1952) |
| 1953 | Mainichi Film Concours | Mainichi Shimbun | Japan | Film, Screenplay (with Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni) | Ikiru |
| (NK) | Arts Festival | Ministry of Education | Japan | Film | Ikiru |
| 1954 | Special Prize of the Senate of Berlin | Berlin Film Festival | West Germany | Film | Ikiru |
| 1954 | Silver Lion of St. Mark (Second Prize) | Venice Film Festival | Italy | Film | Seven Samurai (1954) |
| 1959 | Diploma of Merit | Jussi Award | Finland | Directing | Seven Samurai |
| 1959 | Blue Ribbon Award | The Association of Tokyo Film Journalists | Japan | Film | The Hidden Fortress (1958) |
| 1959 | Silver Berlin Bear | Berlin Film Festival | West Germany | Directing | The Hidden Fortress |
| 1959 | FIPRESCI Prize | The International Federation of Film Critics (Berlin Film Festival) | West Germany | Film | The Hidden Fortress |
| 1961 | Golden Laurel Award | David O. Selznick | USA | Film | Ikiru |
| 1964 | Mainichi Film Concours | Mainichi Shimbun | Japan | Film, Screenplay (with Ryuzo Kikushima, Eijiro Hisaita and Hideo Oguni) | High and Low (1963) |
| 1964 | Golden Laurel Award | David O. Selznick | USA | Film | High and Low |
| 1965 | Asahi Culture Prize | Asahi Shimbun | Japan | Film | Red Beard (1965) |
| 1965 | Foreign Honorary Member | American Academy of Arts and Sciences | USA | Career | |
| 1965 | Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts | Ramon Magsaysay Award | Philippines | Career | |
| 1965 | OCIC Award | OCIC (later Signis) (Venice Film Festival) | Italy | Directing | Red Beard |
| (NK) | Soviet Filmmakers' Association Prize | Moscow Film Festival | USSR | Film | Red Beard |
| (NK) | Million Pearl Award | Tokyo Roei | Japan | Film | Red Beard |
| (NK) | NHK Award | NHK (broadcaster) | Japan | Film | Red Beard |
| 1966 | Blue Ribbon Award | The Association of Tokyo Film Journalists | Japan | Film | Red Beard |
| 1966 | Mainichi Film Concours | Mainichi Shimbun | Japan | Film | Red Beard |
| 1966 | Kinema Jumpo Award | Kinema Jumpo magazine | Japan | Film Directing | Red Beard |
| (NK) | Geijutsusai (Arts Festival) Prize for Excellence | Ministry of Education | Japan | Film | Dodesukaden (aka, Dodeskaden) (1970) |
| 1975 | Golden Prize | 9th Moscow International Film Festival | USSR | Film | Dersu Uzala (1975) |
| 1975 | FIPRESCI Prize | The International Federation of Film Critics (Moscow Film Festival) | USSR | Film | Dersu Uzala |
| 1976 | Best Foreign Language Film | AMPAS (Academy Awards) | USA | Film | Dersu Uzala |
| 1977 | David | David di Donatello Awards | Italy | Directing | Dersu Uzala |
| 1977 | Silver Ribbon | Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists | Italy | Film | Dersu Uzala |
| 1978 | Prix Léon Moussinac | Syndicate of French Film Critics | France | Film | Dersu Uzala |
| 1978 | Golden Halo | Southern California Motion Picture Council | USA | Film | Dersu Uzala |
| 1979 | Honorary Prize | 11th Moscow International Film Festival | USSR | Career | - |
| 1980 | Palme d'Or (First Prize) | Cannes Film Festival | France | Film | Kagemusha (1980) |
| 1980 | Hochi Film Award | Hochi Shimbun (newspaper) | Japan | Film | Kagemusha |
| 1981 | Blue Ribbon Award | The Association of Tokyo Film Journalists | Japan | Film | Kagemusha |
| 1981 | Mainichi Film Concours | Mainichi Shimbun | Japan | Film, Directing | Kagemusha |
| 1981 | Reader's Choice Award | Mainichi Shimbun | Japan | Film | Kagemusha |
| 1981 | César | César Awards | France | Film | Kagemusha |
| 1981 | David | David di Donatello Awards | Italy | Directing | Kagemusha |
| 1981 | BAFTA Film Award | BAFTA | UK | Directing | Kagemusha |
| 1981 | Silver Ribbon | Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists | Italy | Directing | Kagemusha |
| 1982 | Career Golden Lion | Venice Film Festival | Italy | Career | - |
| 1985 | LAFCA Award | Los Angeles Film Critics Association | USA | Film, Career | Ran (1985) |
| 1985 | NBR Award | National Board of Review | USA | Film, Directing | Ran |
| 1985 | OCIC Award | OCIC (later Signis) (San Sebastián Film Festival) | Spain | Film | Ran |
| 1985 | BSFC Award | Boston Society of Film Critics | USA | Film | Ran |
| 1985 | NFCC Award | New York Film Critics Circle | USA | Film | Ran |
| 1986 | NSFC Award | National Society of Film Critics | USA | Film | Ran |
| 1986 | Amanda Award | Norwegian International Film Festival | Norway | Film | Ran |
| 1986 | Blue Ribbon Award | The Association of Tokyo Film Journalists | Japan | Film | Ran |
| 1986 | Bodil | Bodil Awards | Denmark | Film | Ran |
| 1986 | David | David di Donatello Awards | Italy | directing | Ran |
| 1986 | Mainichi Film Concours | Mainichi Shimbun | Japan | Film, Directing | Ran |
| 1986 | Golden Jubilee Award | Directors Guild of America | USA | Career | - |
| 1986 | Akira Kurosawa Award | San Francisco International Film Festival | USA | Career | - |
| 1987 | BAFTA Film Award | BAFTA | UK | Film | Ran |
| 1987 | ALFS Award | London Film Critics' Circle | UK | Film, Directing | Ran |
| 1989 | Lifetime Achievement Award | AMPAS (Academy Awards) | USA | Career | |
| 1990 | Special Prize | Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize | Japan | Career | |
| 1992 | Lifetime Achievement Award | Directors Guild of America | USA | Career | |
| 1994 | Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy | Inamori Foundation | Japan | Career | |
| 1998 | Special Award (for his work) (P) | Nikkan Sports Film Award | Japan | Career | - |
| 1999 | Lifetime Achievement Award (P) | Awards of the Japanese Academy | Japan | Career | - |
| 1999 | Blue Ribbon Award Special Award (for his work) (P) | The Association of Tokyo Film Journalists | Japan | Career | - |
| 1999 | Mainichi Film Concours Special Award (for his work) (P) | Mainichi Shimbun | Japan | Career | - |
| 1999 | Asian of the Century Award (Arts, Literature and Culture) (P) | CNN AsianWeek (US) | USA | Career | - |

### State and National Awards

| Year of Award | Name of Award | Native Name | Country | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1976 | Person of Cultural Merit | 文化功労者 | Japan | |
| 1981 | Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic | Grande Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana | Italy | |
| 1984 | Officer of the Legion of Honour | Officier du Légion d'honneur | France | |
| 1985 | Order of Culture | 文化勲章 | Japan | |
| 1985 | Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters | Commandeur du Ordre des Arts et des Lettres | France | |
| 1986 | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic | Cavaliere di Gran Croce Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana | Italy | |
| 1992 | Praemium Imperiale | 高松宮殿下記念世界文化賞 | Japan | |
| 1998 | People's Honour Award | 国民栄誉賞 | Japan | (P) |
| 1998 | Junior Third Rank | 従三位 | Japan | (P) |
