The Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Documentary Film is one of the annual film awards given by the Boston Society of Film Critics.
| Year | Winner | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Charleen or How Long Has This Been Going On? | Ross McElwee |
| 1981 | Diaries | |
| 1982 | The Atomic Cafe | Jayne Loader and Kevin Rafferty |
| 1983 | Say Amen, Somebody | George T. Nierenberg |
| 1984 | The Times of Harvey Milk | Rob Epstein |
| 1985 | Shoah | Claude Lanzmann |
| 1986 | Mother Teresa | Ann Petrie and Jeanette Petrie |
| 1987 | Marlene | Maximilian Schell |
| 1988 | The Thin Blue Line | Errol Morris |
| 1989 | Let's Get Lost | Bruce Weber |
| Year | Winner | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | No information | |
| 1991 | Paris Is Burning | Jennie Livingston |
| 1992 | No information | |
| 1993 | Visions of Light | Arnold Glassman and Todd McCarthy |
| 1994 | Hoop Dreams | Steve James |
| 1995 | Crumb | Terry Zwigoff |
| 1996 | Anne Frank Remembered | Jon Blair |
| 1997 | Fast, Cheap & Out of Control | Errol Morris |
| 1998 | The Big One | Michael Moore |
| 1999 | Hands on a Hard Body: The Documentary | S.R. Bindler |
| Year | Winner | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | The Eyes of Tammy Faye | Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato |
| 2001 | The Gleaners and I (Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse) | Agnès Varda |
| 2002 | The Kid Stays in the Picture | Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen |
| 2003 | Capturing the Friedmans | Andrew Jarecki |
| 2004 | Control Room [2] | Jehane Noujaim |
| 2005 | Murderball | Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro |
| 2006 | Deliver Us from Evil | Amy Berg |
| Shut Up & Sing | Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck | |
| 2007 | Crazy Love | Dan Klores and Fisher Stevens |
| 2008 | Man on Wire | James Marsh |
| 2009 | The Cove | Louie Psihoyos |
| Year | Winner | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Marwencol | Jeff Malmberg |
| 2011 | Project Nim [3] | James Marsh |
| 2012 | How to Survive a Plague | David France |
| 2013 | The Act of Killing | Joshua Oppenheimer |
| 2014 | Citizenfour | Laura Poitras |
| 2015 | Amy [4] | Asif Kapadia |
| 2016 | O.J.: Made in America | Ezra Edelman |
| 2017 | Dawson City: Frozen Time | Bill Morrison |
| 2018 | Won't You Be My Neighbor? | Morgan Neville |
| 2019 | Honeyland | Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov |
| Year | Winner | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Collective [5] | Alexander Nanau |
| 2021 | Summer of Soul [6] | Questlove |
| 2022 | All the Beauty and the Bloodshed | Laura Poitras |