Yearly Top 10s: Films

Going by IMDb year

Obviously, the lists below are a work in progress….

Updated 16 April 2024

2024:
1. KIX (documentary) (Bálint Révész & Dávid Mikulán)
2. Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve)
3. Balomania (documentary) (Sissel Dargis Morell)
4. Motherboard (documentary) (Victoria Mapplebeck) 
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 
9. 
10. 

2023:
1. Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster)
2. No Hard Feelings (Gene Stupnitsky)
3. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)
4. The Man Who Stole the Scream (documentary) (Nigel Levy & Sunshine Jackson)
5. The Other Profile (documentary) (Armel Hostiou)
6. Let the River Flow (aka: Ellos eatnu – La elva leve) (Ole Giæver)
7. Barbie (Greta Gerwig)
8. Total Trust (documentary) (Zhang Jialing)
9. Inger & det dårlige selskab (documentary) (Jella Bethmann)
10. No One Will Save You (Brian Duffield)

2022: 
1. Rose (Niels Arden Oplev)
2. Mr. Graversen (documentary) (Michael Graversen)
3. Girl Gang (documentary) (Susanne Regina Meures)
4. Emily the Criminal (John Patton Ford)
5. Subject (documentary) (Jennifer Tiexiera & Camilla Hall)
6. Krigere (aka Fighters) (documentary) (Jon Haukeland)
7. Barbarian (Zach Cregger)
8. The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)
9. Fresh (Mimi Cave)
10. Smile (Parker Finn)

2021:
1. The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion)
2. South Park: Post COVID (Trey Parker)
3. Raising a School Shooter (documentary) (Barkfors)
4. The Lost Sons (documentary) (Ursula Macfarlane)
5. Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson)
6. Bo Burnham: Inside (Bo Burnham)
7. V/H/S/94 (Simon Barrett & Timo Tjahjanto)
8. Spencer (Pablo Larraín)
9. He’s My Brother (documentary) (Cille Hannibal & Christine Hanberg)
10. The Innocents (De uskyldige) (Eskil Vogt)

2020:
1. Hopper/Welles (documentary) (Orson Welles)
2. Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)
3. I Know This Much Is True (TV Mini-series) (Derek Cianfrance)
4. The Metamorphosis of Birds (documentary) (Catarina Vasconcelos)
5. Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness (documentary Mini-series)
6. Run (Aneesh Chaganty)
7. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman)
8. Red, White and Blue (Steve McQueen)
9. Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg)
10. The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell)

2019:
1. 63 Up (TV Movie) (Michael Apted)
2. Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach)
3. I Lost My Body (Jérémy Clapin)
4. Chernobyl (TV Mini-series) (Craig Mazin)
5. Joker (Todd Phillips)
6. Dirty God (Sacha Polak)
7. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma)
8. The Art of Self-Defense (Riley Stearns)
9. Waves (Trey Edward Shults)
10. Toy Story 4 (Josh Cooley)

2018:
1. Lykke-Per (aka A Fortunate Man) (Bille August)
2. Hereditary (Ari Aster)
3. Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham)
4. The Wild Pear Tree (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
5. Burning (Lee Chang-dong)
6. Væbnet med ord & vinger (documentary) (Torben Skjødt Jensen)
7. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie)
8. Minding the Gap (documentary) (Bing Liu)
9. Shirkers (documentary) (Sandi Tan)
10. Mid90s (Jonah Hill)

2017:
1. Paddington 2 (Paul King)
2. Bad Genius (Nattawut Poonpiriya)
3. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)
4. Good Time (Safdie’s)
5. A Horrible Woman (Christian Tafdrup)
6. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh)
7. Beast (Michael Pearce)
8. Oh Lucy! (Atsuko Hirayanagi)
9. The Square (Ruben Östlund)
10. Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan)

2016:
1. I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach)
2. 20th Century Women (Mike Mills)
3. The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn)
4. O.J.: Made in America (TV Mini-series) (Ezra Edelman)
5. Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt)
6. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
7. Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi)
8. The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig)
9. Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie)
10. Fences (Denzel Washington)

2015:
1. World of Tomorrow (short) (Don Hertzfeldt)
2. Inside Out (multiple directors)
3. Amy (documentary) (Asif Kapadia)
4. The Fear of 13 (documentary) (David Sington)
5. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (documentary) (Stanley Nelson)
6. Far from the Madding Crowd (Thomas Vinterberg)
7. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
8. Victoria (Sebastian Schipper)
9. Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams)
10. The Witch (Robert Eggers)

2014:
1. Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund)
2. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)
3. Olive Kitteridge (TV Mini-series) (Lisa Cholodenko)
4. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
5. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
6. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
7. Creep (Patrick Brice)
8. Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
9. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
10. What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi)

2013:
1. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)
2. Queen (Vikas Bahl)
3. The Great Beauty (Paulo Sorrentino)
4. Starred Up (David Mackenzie)
5. The Past (Asghar Farhadi)
6. Blue Is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche)
7. Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve)
8. The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard)
9. Locke (Steven Knight)
10. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)

2012:
1. The Place Beyond The Pines (Derek Cianfrance)
2. Laurence Anyways (Xavier Dolan)
3. The Act of Killing (documentary) (Joshua Oppenheimer)
4. Skyfall (Sam Mendes)
5. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky)
6. It’s Such a Beautiful Day (Don Hertzfeldt)
7. The Hunt (Thomas Vinterberg)
8. The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan)
9. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)
10. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)

2011:
1. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
2. Dreams of a Life (documentary) (Carol Morley)
3. The Story of Film: An Odyssey (documentary) (Mark Cousins)
4. The Intouchables (Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano)
5. Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan)
6. Tyrannosaur (Paddy Considine)
7. The Skin I Live In (Pedro Almodóvar)
8. We Need To Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay)
9. Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn)
10. Detachment (Tony Kaye)

2010:
1. Another Year (Mike Leigh)
2. Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky)
3. The Trip (Michael Winterbottom)
4. Senna (documentary) (Asif Kapadia)
5. Exit Through the Gift Shop (documentary) (Banksy)
6. Inception (Christopher Nolan)
7. Despicable Me (multiple directors)
8. Incendies (Denis Villeneuve)
9. Armadillo (documentary) (Janus Metz Pedersen)
10. Barney’s Version (Richard J. Lewis)

2009:
1. Mother and Child (Rodrigo García)
2. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)
3. Enter The Void (Gaspar Noé)
4. Antichrist (Lars von Trier)
5. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)
6. Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos)
7. Bright Star (Jane Campion)
8. Mary and Max (Adam Elliot)
9. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
10. The Vicious Kind (Lee Toland Krieger)

2008:
1. Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh)
2. Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt)
3. The Reader (Stephen Daldry)
4. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (documentary) (Kurt Kuenne)
5. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)
6. The Stoning of Soraya M. (Cyrus Nowrasteh)
7. The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky)
8. Worlds Apart (Niels Arden Oplev)
9. Troubled Water (Erik Poppe)
10. Henry Poole Is Here (Mark Pellington)

2007:
1. I’m Not There (Todd Haynes)
2. 3:10 to Yuma (James Mangold)
3. Juno (Jason Reitman)
4. You, the Living (Roy Andersson)
5. Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)
6. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
7. Unrelated (Joanna Hogg)
8. Lars and the Real Girl (Craig Gillespie)
9. Into the Wild (Sean Penn)
10. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu)

2006:
1. After the Wedding (Susanne Bier)
2. The Prestige (Christopher Nolan)
3. The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky)
4. Casino Royale (Martin Campbell)
5. Reprise (Joachim Trier)
6. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Tom Tykwer)
7. Tell No One (Guillaume Canet)
8. Notes on a Scandal (Richard Eyre)
9. Paris, je t’aime (multiple directors)
10. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)

2005:
1. Match Point (Woody Allen)
2. Caché (Hidden) (Michael Haneke)
3. V for Vendetta (James McTeigue)
4. The World’s Fastest Indian (Roger Donaldson)
5. New York Doll (documentary) (Greg Whiteley)
6. Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man (documentary) (Lian Lunson)
7. The Devil and Daniel Johnston (documentary) (Jeff Feuerzeig)
8. The Descent (Neil Marshall)
9. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)
10. Chinaman (Henrik Ruben Genz)

2004:
1. Sideways (Alexander Payne)
2. Collateral (Michael Mann)
3. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
4. Super Size Me (documentary) (Morgan Spurlock)
5. Head-On (Fatih Akin)
6. The Machinist (Brad Anderson)
7. 2046 (Wong Kar-Wai)
8. Brothers (Susanne Bier)
9. 3-Iron (Kim Ki-duk)
10. A Love Song for Bobby Long (Shainee Gabel)

2003:
1. My Life Without Me (Isabel Coixet)
2. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
3. Dogville (Lars von Trier)
4. The Matrix Reloaded (Wachowski’s)
5. Big Fish (Tim Burton)
6. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson)
7. Good bye, Lenin! (Wolfgang Becker)
8. Tintin and I (documentary) (Anders Østergaard)
9. A Decade Under the Influence (documentary) (Ted Demme)
10. Coffee and Cigarettes (Jim Jarmusch)

2002:
1. About Schmidt (Alexander Payne)
2. The Hours (Stephen Daldry)
3. 25th Hour (Spike Lee)
4. Roger Dodger (Dylan Kidd)
5. Open Hearts (Susanne Bier)
6. Insomnia (Christopher Nolan)
7. Bus 174 (documentary) (multiple directors)
8. Changing Lanes (Roger Mitchell)
9. The Pianist (Roman Polanski)
10. Minority Report (Steven Spielberg)

2001:
1. Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe)
2. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson)
4. Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff)
5. Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
6. Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (documentary) (Jan Harlan)
7. Truly Human (Åke Sandgren)
8. Tape (Richard Linklater)
9. The Others ( Alejandro Amenábar)
10. Lovely and Amazing (Nicole Holofcener)

2000:
1. Memento (Christopher Nolan)
2. Meet the Parents (Jay Roach)
3. Songs from the Second Floor (Roy Andersson)
4. American Psycho (Mary Harron)
5. The Beach (Danny Boyle)
6. Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky)
7. Unbreakable (M. Night Shyamalan)
8. Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier)
9. High Fidelity (Stephen Frears)
10. Snatch (Guy Ritchie)

1999:
1. Fight Club (David Fincher)
2. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch)
4. The Matrix (Wachowski’s)
5. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)
6. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
7. The Road Home (Zhang Yimou)
8. Election (Alexander Payne)
9. Girl, Interrupted (James Mangold)
10. The Color of Paradise (Majid Majidi)

1998:
1. A Simple Plan (Sam Raimi)
2. Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer)
3. Buffalo ’66 (Vincent Gallo)
4. American History X (Tony Kaye)
5. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg)
6. He Got Game (Spike Lee)
7. The Celebration (Thomas Vinterberg)
8. Following (Christopher Nolan)
9. The Last Days of Disco (Whit Stillman)
10. The Dreamlife of Angels (Erick Zonca)

1997:
1. Titanic (James Cameron)
2. Lost Highway (David Lynch)
3. Good Will Hunting (Gus van Sant)
4. The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan)
5. Gattaca (Andrew Niccol)
6. The Fifth Element (Luc Besson)
7. Career Girls (Mike Leigh)
8. Cube (Vincenzo Natali)
9. Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith)
10. The Spanish Prisoner (David Mamet)

1996:
1. Secrets & Lies (Mike Leigh)
2. Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier)
3. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (documentary) (multiple directors)
4. The English Patient (Anthony Minghella)
5. Sling Blade (Billy Bob Thornton)
6. Hamlet (Kenneth Branagh)
7. Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson)
8. Box of Moonlight (Tom DiCillo)
9. The Cable Guy (Ben Stiller)
10. Things I Never Told You (Isabel Coixet)

1995:
1. Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater)
2. 12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam)
3. Smoke (Wayne Wang)
4. Heat (Michael Mann)
5. Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis)
6. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (Steve Oedekerk)
7. Toy Story (John Lasseter)
8. Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee)
9. La Cérémonie (Claude Chabrol)
10. Se7en (David Fincher)

1994:
1. The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont)
2. Three Colors: White (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
3. Three Colors: Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
4. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)
5. Ed Wood (Tim Burton)
6. The Lion King (Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff)
7. Hoop Dreams (Steve James) (documentary)
8. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai)
9. Exotica (Atom Egoyan)
10. Speed (Jan de Bont)

1993:
1. In the Name of the Father (Jim Sheridan)
2. Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis)
3. Three Colors: Blue (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
4. The Fugitive (Andrew Davis)
5. Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg)
6. Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater)
7. Manhattan Murder Mystery (Woody Allen)
8. Falling Down (Joel Schumacher)
9. Naked (Mike Leigh)
10. Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg)

1992:
1. Scent of a Woman (Martin Brest)
2. Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola)
3. Far and Away (Ron Howard)
4. Malcolm X (Spike Lee)
5. Dead Alive (aka: Braindead) (Peter Jackson)
6. Batman Returns (Tim Burton)
7. Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley)
8. Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara)
9. Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino)
10. Orlando (Sally Potter)

1991:
1. The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
2. Point Break (Kathryn Bigelow)
3. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron)
4. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds)
5. The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)
6. Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott)
7. Slacker (Richard Linklater)
8. The Lovers on the Bridge (Leos Carax)
9. Boyz N the Hood (John Singleton)
10. Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (Peter Hewitt)

1990:
1. Green Card (Peter Weir)
2. Trust (Hal Hartley)
3. Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton)
4. Wild at Heart (David Lynch)
5. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)
6. An Angel at My Table (Jane Campion)
7. Home Alone (Chris Columbus)
8. Back to the Future Part III (Robert Zemeckis)
9. Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven)
10. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami)

1989:
1. The Decalogue (TV Mini-series) (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
2. Batman (Tim Burton)
3. Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Steven Soderbergh)
4. Say Anything (Cameron Crowe)
5. Uncle Buck (John Hughes)
6. The Seventh Continent (Michael Haneke)
7. The Abyss (director’s cut) (James Cameron)
8. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (Joe Johnston)
9. Casualties of War (Brian De Palma)
10. Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir)

1988:
1. Big (Penny Marshall)
2. A Fish Called Wanda (Charles Crichton)
3. Rain Man (Barry Levinson)
4. Coming To America (John Landis)
5. Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore)
6. Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata) 
7. Willow (Ron Howard) 
8. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis)
9. Die Hard (John McTiernan)
10. The Vanishing (George Sluizer)

1987:
1. Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders)
2. Wall Street (Oliver Stone)
3. The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner)
4. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (John Hughes)
5. Raising Arizona (Coen’s)
6. Cry Freedom (Richard Attenborough)
7. Withnail & I (Bruce Robinson)
8. Predator (John McTiernan)
9. Opera (Dario Argento)
10. Angel Heart (Alan Parker)

1986:
1. The Mosquito Coast (Peter Weir)
2. Stand By Me (Rob Reiner)
3. Crocodile Dundee (Peter Faiman)
4. Blue Velvet (David Lynch)
5. Clockwise (Christopher Morahan)
6. Big Trouble in Little China (John Carpenter)
7. Aliens (James Cameron)
8. Betty Blue (Jean-Jacques Beineix)
9. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Leonard Nimoy)
10. Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch)

1985:
1. A View To A Kill (John Glen)
2. The Goonies (Richard Donner)
3. The Breakfast Club (John Hughes)
4. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis)
5. Santa Claus: The Movie (Jeannot Szwarc)
6. Come and See (Elem Klimov)
7. Brazil (Terry Gilliam)
8. Enemy Mine (Wolfgang Petersen)
9. Fletch (Michael Ritchie)
10. Brewster’s Millions (Walter Hill)

1984:
1. The Neverending Story (Wolfgang Petersen)
2. Body Double (Brian De Palma)
3. Starman (John Carpenter)
4. The Terminator (James Cameron)
5. Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman)
6. Gremlins (Joe Dante)
7. Romancing the Stone (Robert Zemeckis)
8. Blood Simple (Coen’s)
9. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone)
10. Beverly Hills Cop (Martin Brest)

1983:
1. Videodrome (David Cronenberg)
2. Octopussy (John Glen)
3. The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)
4. Christine (John Carpenter)
5. Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand)
6. A Christmas Story (Bob Clark)
7. Zappa (Bille August)
8. WarGames (John Badham)
9. Meantime (Mike Leigh)
10. Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola)

1982:
1. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott)
2. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg)
3. Sophie’s Choice (Alan J. Pakula)
4. The Wall (Alan Parker)
5. First Blood (Ted Kotcheff)
6. Moonlighting (Jerzy Skolimowski)
7. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling)
8. Made in Britain (Alan Clarke)
9. Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman)
10. Creepshow (George A. Romero)

1981:
1. Blow Out (Brian De Palma)
2. For Your Eyes Only (John Glen)
3. Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen)
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg)
5. Christiane F (Uli Edel)
6. The French Lieutenant’s Woman (Karel Reisz)
7. Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan)
8. Possession (Andrzej Zulawski)
8. Gregory’s Girl (Bill Forsyth)
10. Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara)

1980:
1. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)
2. The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner)
3. Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges)
4. The Elephant Man (David Lynch)
5. Caddyshack (Harold Ramis)
6. Inferno (Dario Argento)
7. Inside Moves (Richard Donner)
8. Ordinary People (Robert Redford)
9. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese)
10. The Gods Must Be Crazy (Jamie Uys)

1979:
1. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)
2. Being There (Hal Ashby)
3. Alien (Ridley Scott)
4. Ticket of No Return (Ulrike Ottinger)
5. Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog)
6. The Warriors (Walter Hill)
7. The Jerk (Carl Reiner)
8. The Brood (David Cronenberg)
9. All That Jazz (Bob Fosse)
10. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

1978:
1. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino)
2. Autumn Sonata (aka: Höstsonaten) (Ingmar Bergman)
3. The Driver (Walter Hill)
4. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick)
5. Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero)
6. Interiors (Woody Allen)
7. Watership Down (Martin Rosen)
8. Drunken Master (Yuen Woo-ping)
9. Midnight Express (Alan Parker)
10. Halloween (John Carpenter)

1977:
1. Star Wars (George Lucas)
2. Eraserhead (David Lynch)
3. 3 Women (Robert Altman)
4. Sorcerer (William Friedkin)
5. Abigail’s Party (Mike Leigh)
6. The Spy Who Loved Me (Lewis Gilbert)
7. House (Nobuhiko Ôbayashi)
8. Suspiria (Dario Argento)
9. Smokey and the Bandit (Hal Needham)
10. New York, New York (Martin Scorsese)

1976:
1. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese)
2. Mickey and Nicky (Elaine May)
3. The Omen (Richard Donner)
4. Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter)
5. Carrie (Brian De Palma)
6. All the President’s Men (Alan J. Pakula)
7. The Man Who Fell To Earth (Nicolas Roeg)
8. Rocky (John G. Avildsen)
9. Network (Sidney Lumet)
10. The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood)

1975:
1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Milos Forman)
2. Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir)
3. Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky)
4. Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet)
5. Jaws (Steven Spielberg)
6. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones)
7. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick)
8. Deep Red (Dario Argento)
9. Grey Gardens (documentary) (multiple directors)
10. The Man Who Would Be King (John Huston)

1974:
1. The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola)
2. A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes)
3. The Man with the Golden Gun (Guy Hamilton)
4. Rabid Dogs (Mario Bava)
5. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Joseph Sargent) 
6. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (Martin Scorsese)
7. Chinatown (Roman Polanski)
8. The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola)
9. Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks)
10. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper)

1973:
1. The Day of the Jackal (Fred Zinnemann)
2. The Sting (George Roy Hill)
3. Papillon (Franklin J. Schaffner)
4. Paper Moon (Peter Bogdanovich)
5. Holy Mountain (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
6. Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg)
7. The Exorcist (William Friedkin)
8. The Mack (Michael Campus)
9. Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse)
10. American Graffiti (George Lucas)

1972:
1. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola)
2. Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky)
3. The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May)
4. Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
5. Deliverance (John Boorman)
6. What’s Up, Doc? (Peter Bogdanovich)
7. The Way of the Dragon (Bruce Lee)
8. Across 110th Street (Barry Shear)
9. The Last House on the Left (Wes Craven)
10. Jeremiah Johnson (Sydney Pollack)

1971:
1. A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick)
2. Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby)
3. Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff)
4. Den forsvundne fuldmægtig (Gert Fredholm)
5. Minnie and Moskowitz (John Cassavetes)
6. The French Connection (William Friedkin)
7. Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg)
8. Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah)
9. The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich)
10. Dirty Harry (Don Siegel)

1970:
1. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Dario Argento)
2. Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson)
3. A Swedish Love Story (Roy Andersson)
4. Patton (Franklin J. Schaffner)
5. Companeros (Sergio Corbucci)
6. 7 Plus Seven (documentary) (Michael Apted)
7. Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski)
8. Wanda (Barbara Loden)
9. Kelly’s Heroes (Brian G. Hutton)
10. Le Cercle Rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville)

1969:
1. Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper)
2. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah)
3. Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger)
4. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill)
5. The Italian Job (Peter Collinson)
6. Kes (Ken Loach)
7. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Peter R. Hunt)
8. The Cremator (Juraj Herz)
9. This Man Must Die (Claude Chabrol)
10. The Unfaithful Wife (Claude Chabrol)

1968:
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
2. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone)
3. Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner)
4. Where Eagles Dare (Brian G. Hutton)
5. Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski)
6. Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero)
7. The Party (Blake Edwards)
8. Yellow Submarine (George Dunning)
9. Witchfinder General (Michael Reeves)
10. Hour of the Wolf (Ingmar Bergman)

1967:
1. In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison)
2. The Fireman’s Ball (Milos Forman)
3. Cool Hand Luke (Stuart Rosenberg)
4. The Graduate (Mike Nichols)
5. The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman)
6. Mouchette (Robert Bresson)
7. Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville)
8. You Only Live Twice (Lewis Gilbert)
9. Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn)
10. Playtime (Jacques Tati)

1966:
1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone)
2. Hunger (Henning Carlsen)
3. Django (Sergio Corbucci)
4. Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
5. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols)
6. The Face of Another (Hiroshi Teshigahara)
7. Seconds (John Frankenheimer)
8. Daisies (Vera Chytilová)
9. Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky)
10. Cathy Come Home (Ken Loach)

1965:
1. A Patch of Blue (Guy Green)
2. Repulsion (Roman Polanski)
3. The Hill (Sidney Lumet)
4. The Sound of Music (Robert Wise)
5. For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone)
6. Doctor Zhivago (David Lean)
7. Thunderball (Terence Young)
8. Loves of A Blonde (Milos Forman)
9. The Collector (William Wyler)
10. Cat Ballou (Elliot Silverstein)

1964:
1. Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara)
2. I Am Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov)
3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick)
4. The Night of the Iguana (John Huston)
5. Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton)
6. A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone)
7. Seven Up! (documentary) (Michael Apted)
8. A Shot In The Dark (Blake Edwards)
9. Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi)
10. The Masque of the Red Death (Roger Corman)

1963:
1. The Great Escape (John Sturges)
2. The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. The Fire Within (Louis Malle)
4. 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini)
5. Raven’s End (Bo Widerberg)
6. Lilies of the Field (Ralph Nelson)
7. High and Low (Akira Kurosawa)
8. The Silence (Ingmar Bergman)
9. Charade (Stanley Donen)
10. Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman)

1962:
1. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)
2. To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan)
3. Il Sorpasso (Dino Risi)
4. Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah)
5. Dr. No (Terence Young)
6. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford)
7. Days of Wine and Roses (Blake Edwards)
8. Lolita (Stanley Kubrick)
9. Lonely Are the Brave (David Miller)
10. My Life to Live (Jean-Luc Godard)

1961:
1. Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais)
2. The Human Condition III: A Soldier’s Prayer (Masaki Kobayashi)
3. The Innocents (Jack Clayton)
4. The Hustler (Robert Rossen)
5. The Night (Michelangelo Antonioni)
6. Through a Glass Darkly (Ingmar Bergman)
7. Harry and the Butler (Bent Christensen)
8. One Hundred and One Dalmatians (C Geronimi, H Luske & W Reitherman)
9. Divorce Italian Style (Pietro Germi)
10. Pit and the Pendulum (Roger Corman)

1960:
1. La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini)
2. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. Black Sunday (Mario Bava)
4. The Apartment (Billy Wilder)
5. Village of the Damned (Wolf Rilla)
6. Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick)
7. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz)
8. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard)
9. The Time Machine (George Pal)
10. L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni)

1959:
1. Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk)
2. Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder)
3. The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (Masaki Kobayashi)
4. Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger)
5. North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)
6. Look Back in Anger (Tony Richardson)
7. The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (Masaki Kobayashi)
8. Ballad of a Soldier (Grigori Tchoukhrai)
9. Ben-Hur (William Wyler)
10. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks)

1958:
1. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
2. The Defiant Ones (Stanley Kramer)
3. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)
4. Separate Tables (Delbert Mann)
5. Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati)
6. Some Came Running (Vincente Minnelli)
7. Elevator to the Gallows (Louis Malle)
8. Ice Cold In Alex (J. Lee Thompson)
9. The Big Country (William Wyler)
10. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Brooks)

1957:
1. Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman)
2. 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)
3. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick)
4. Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder)
5. The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean)
6. The Tarnished Angels (Douglas Sirk)
7. White Nights (Luchino Visconti)
8. Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini)
9. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman)
10. A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan)

1956:
1. Written On the Wind (Douglas Sirk)
2. A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson)
3. Giant (George Stevens)
4. The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille)
5. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel)
6. Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox)
7. The Searchers (John Ford)
8. Lust for Life (Vincente Minnelli)
9. The Killing (Stanley Kubrick)
10. Bus Stop (Joshua Logan)

1955:
1. Marty (Delbert Mann)
2. Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray)
3. The Man from Laramie (Anthony Mann)
4. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)
5. All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)
6. The Word (Carl Th. Dreyer)
7. East of Eden (Elia Kazan)
8. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich)
9. Rififi (Jules Dassin)
10. Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges)

1954:
1. On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan)
2. Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk)
3. Dial M for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock)
4. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
5. The Road (Federico Fellini)
6. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)
7. White Christmas (Michael Curtiz)
8. Creature from the Black Lagoon (Jack Arnold)
9. Journey to Italy (Roberto Rossellini)
10.

1953:
1. The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann)
2. The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
3. Tokyo Story (Yasujirô Ozu)
4. I Vitelloni (Federico Fellini)
5. Mr. Hulot’s Holiday (Jacques Tati)
6. Roman Holiday (William Wyler)
7. Pickup on South Street (Pickup on South Street)
8. Julius Caesar (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
9. House of Wax (Andre de Toth)
10. Shane (George Stevens)

1952:
1. Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa)
2. Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly)
3. The Bad and the Beautiful (Vincente Minnelli)
4. Umberto D. (Vittorio De Sica)
5. High Noon (Fred Zinnemann)
6. Limelight (Charles Chaplin)
7. Viva Zapata! (Elia Kazan)
8.
9.
10.

1951:
1. A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan)
2. A Place in the Sun (George Stevens)
3. Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder)
4. The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise)
5. The Lavender Hill Mob (Charles Crichton)
6. Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock)
7. Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson)
8. The African Queen (John Huston)
9. Scrooge (Brian Desmond Hurst)
10. Summer Interlude (Ingmar Bergman)

1950:
1. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder)
2. Orpheus (Jean Cocteau)
3. Café Paradis (Bodil Ipsen & Lau Lauritzen)
4. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa)
5. Harvey (Henry Koster)
6. The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston)
7. Winchester ’73 (Anthony Mann)
8. The Gunfighter (Henry King)
9. La Ronde (Max Ophüls)
10. All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)

1949:
1. The Third Man (Carol Reed)
2. Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer)
3. White Heat (Raoul Walsh)
4. The Queen Of Spades (Thorold Dickinson)
5. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (short) (multiple directors)
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1948:
1. Letter From An Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls)
2. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston)
3. Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
4. Key Largo (John Houston)
5. Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterle)
6. Rope (Alfred Hitchcock)
7. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
8. The Boy With the Green Hair (Joseph Losey)
9. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Charles Barton)
10. Fort Apache (John Ford) 

1947:
1. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur)
2. Black Narcissus (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
3. Miracle on 34th Street (George Seaton)
4. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
5. Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin)
6. Brute Force (Jules Dassin)
7. Possessed (Curtis Bernhardt)
8. Soldaten og Jenny (Johan Jacobsen)
9. The Bishop’s Wife (Henry Koster)
10.

1946:
1. It’s A Wonderful Life (Frank Capra)
2. Great Expectations (David Lean)
3. A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
4. Gilda (Charles Vidor)
5. Ditte Menneskebarn (Bjarne Henning-Jensen)
6. The Stranger (Orson Welles)
7. Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau)
8. The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks)
9. The Blue Dahlia (George Marshall)
10. The Yearling (Clarence Brown)

1945:
1. Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang)
2. Brief Encounter (David Lean)
3. Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz)
4. The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise)
5. Dead of Night (multiple directors)
6. I Know Where I’m Going! (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
7. The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)
8. Rome Open City (Roberto Rossellini)
9.
10.

1944:
1. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)
2. Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra)
3. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli)
4. To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks)
5. Lifeboat (Alfred Hitchcock)
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1943:
1. Day of Wrath (Carl Th. Dreyer)
2. The More the Merrier (George Stevens)
3. Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock)
4. I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur)
5. Ossessione (Luchino Visconti)
6. The Ox-Bow Incident (William A. Wellman)
7.
8.
9.
10.

1942:
1. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
2. Random Harvest (Mervyn LeRoy)
3. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)
4. To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch)
5. I Married a Witch (René Clair)
6. This Gun for Hire (Frank Tuttle)
7. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
8. Now Voyager (Irving Rapper)
9. The Glass Key (Stuart Heisler)
10.

1941:
1. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)
2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
3. Meet John Doe (Frank Capra)
4. Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges)
5. The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges)
6. High Sierra (Raoul Walsh)
7. Dumbo (multiple directors)
8. The Wolf Man (George Waggner)
9.
10.

1940:
1. The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford)
2. The Bank Dick (Edward F. Cline)
3. The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin)
4. Pinocchio (multiple directors)
5. Remember the Night (Mitchell Leisen)
6. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock)
7. Waterloo Bridge (Mervyn LeRoy)
8. The Shop Around The Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)
9. The Philidelphia Story (George Cukor)
10.

1939:
1. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming)
2. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra)
3. Wuthering Heights (William Wyler)
4. Gone With The Wind (Victor Fleming)
5. Stagecoach (John Ford)
6. Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch)
7. The Flying Deuces (Edward Sutherland)
8. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir)
9. Dark Victory (Edmund Goulding)
10. You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (George Marshall and Edward F. Cline)

1938:
1. Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks)
2. Port of Shadows (Marcel Carné)
3. The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, William Keighley)
4. The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock)
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1937:
1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (multiple directors)
2. Way Out West (James W. Horne)
3. A Day at the Races (Sam Wood)
4. Lost Horizon (Frank Capra)
5. Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir)
6. Make Way For Tomorrow (Leo McCarey)
7.
8.
9.
10.

1936:
1. Modern Times (Charles Chaplin)
2. My Man Godfrey (Gregory La Cava)
3. Dodsworth (William Wyler)
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1935:
1. The Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale)
2. A Night at the Opera (Marx Brothers)
3. Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo McCarey)
4. Mutiny on the Bounty (Frank Lloyd)
5. Top Hat (Mark Sandrich)
6. The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock)
7. Anna Karenina (Clarence Brown)
8.
9.
10.

1934:
1. It’s a Gift (Norman Z. McLeod)
2. It Happened One Night (Frank Capra)
3. L’Atalante (Jean Vigo)
4. The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer)
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1933:
1. Duck Soup (Leo McCarey)
2. King Kong (Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack)
3. Tillie and Gus (Francis Martin)
4. The Invisible Man (James Whale)
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1932:
1. Freaks (Tod Browning)
2. The Blood of a Poet (Jean Cocteau)
3. Red Dust (Victor Fleming)
4. I Was Born, But… (Yasujirô Ozu)
5. The Old Dark House (James Whale)
6. Horse Feathers (Norman Z. McLeod)
7. Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton)
8. The Mummy (Karl Freund)
9.
10.

1931:
1. City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
2. M (Fritz Lang)
3. Frankenstein (James Whale)
4. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian)
5. Monkey Business (Norman Z. McLeod)
6. Dracula (Tod Browning)
7.
8.
9.
10.

1930:
1. Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman)
2. People on Sunday (Curt Siodmak)
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1929:
1. Un Chien Andalou (short film) (Luis Buñuel)
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1928:
1. The Circus (Charles Chaplin)
2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer)
3. Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Charles Reisner)
4. The Man Who Laughs (Paul Leni)
5. Shiraz: A Romance of India (Franz Osten)
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1927:
1. Metropolis (Fritz Lang)
2. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau)
3. The Unknown (Tod Browning)
4. College (Buster Keaton)
5. The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (Alfred Hitchcock)
6. The Cat and the Canary (Paul Leni)
7.
8.
9.
10.

1926:
1. The General (Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman)
2. Faust (F.W. Murnau)
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1925:
1. The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin)
2. Go West (Buster Keaton)
3. Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
4. Phantom of the Opera (multiple directors)
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1924:
1. Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton)
2. The Navigator (Buster Keaton)
3. The Epic of Everest (J.B.L. Noel)
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1923:
1. Safety Last (Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor)
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1922:
1. Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau)
2. Nanook of the North (documentary) (Robert J. Flaherty)
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1921:
1. The Kid (Charles Chaplin)
2. The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjöström)
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

1920:
1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene)
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.