| Mystic River | Clint Eastwood | United States, Australia |
| Natural City | Byung-chun Min | South Korea |
| Destination Moscow | Runar Hodne, Jo Strømgren | Norway |
| Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself | Lone Scherfig | France, United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark |
| Zatōichi | Takeshi Kitano | Japan |
| The Middle of the World | Vicente Amorim | Brazil |
| Love Impossible | Jeong Cho-sin | South Korea |
| Seawards Journey | Guillermo Casanova | Uruguay |
| Poor Poor Paul | Vitali Melnikov | Russia |
| Swept Away | Guy Ritchie | United Kingdom, United States, Italy |
| Hero | Zhang Yimou | People's Republic of China |
| Rabbit-Proof Fence | Phillip Noyce | Australia |
| A Letter from Mars | Kim Jung-kwon | South Korea |
| Lilya 4-ever | Lukas Moodysson | Estonia, Sweden, Denmark |
| Confessions of a Dangerous Mind | George Clooney | Canada, Germany, United States |
| The Man Without a Past | Aki Kaurismäki | France, Germany, Finland |
| Parinamam | P. Venu | India |
| The Hours | Stephen Daldry | United Kingdom, United States |
| The Life of David Gale | Alan Parker | United Kingdom, Germany, United States |
| Chicago | Rob Marshall | Canada, Germany, United States |
| Lucía, Lucía | Antonio Serrano | Spain, Mexico |
| Gangs of New York | Martin Scorsese | United Kingdom, Germany, United States, Italy, Netherlands |
| Open Hearts | Susanne Bier | Denmark |
| The Quiet American | Phillip Noyce | France, United Kingdom, Germany, United States, Australia, Vietnam |
| The Pornographer | Bertrand Bonello | France, Canada |
| Punch-Drunk Love | Paul Thomas Anderson | United States |
| Pretty Big Feet | Yang Yazhou | People's Republic of China |
| Story of a Kiss | José Luis Garci | Spain |
| High Crimes | Carl Franklin | United States |
| C.E.O. | Wu Tianming | People's Republic of China |
| All or Nothing | Mike Leigh | France, United Kingdom |
| Una de dos | Marcel Sisniega Campbell | Mexico |
| Dirty Pretty Things | Stephen Frears | United Kingdom |
| K-19: The Widowmaker | Kathryn Bigelow | United Kingdom, Russia, Canada, Germany, United States |
| The Luzhin Defence | Marleen Gorris | France, United Kingdom |
| Birthday Girl | Jez Butterworth | United Kingdom, United States |
| Ali | — | United States |
| Joint Security Area | Park Chan-wook | South Korea |
| A Father with His Twenty-five Children | Huang Hong | People's Republic of China |
| Little Big Girl | Morten Køhlert | Sweden, Denmark |
| John Q | Nick Cassavetes | United States |
| City of God | Kátia Lund, Fernando Meirelles | France, Brazil |
| Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron | Kelly Asbury, Lorna Cook | United States |
| Spider-Man | Sam Raimi | United States |
| Memento Mori | Kim Tae-yong, Min Kyu-dong | South Korea |
| In the Bedroom | Todd Field | United States |
| The Golden Bowl | James Ivory | France, United Kingdom, United States, Italy |
| Warriors | Daniel Calparsoro | Spain |