Films considered the greatest ever

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Note: This article does not include films that had the best box office receipts. For this information see: List of highest-grossing films and List of highest-grossing films throughout history.

While it is impossible to objectively determine the greatest film of all time, it is possible to discuss the films considered the greatest ever. The important criterion for inclusion in this article is that the film is the "greatest" by some specific criterion or indicator — be it a critics' poll, popular poll, or awards. Many of these measures focus on American films, but those considered the greatest within their respective countries are included at the end.

[edit] Films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers

Orson Welles' Citizen Kane has been voted number one in the Sight and Sound poll of film critics in each of the last five polls starting with the 1962 poll (the survey is carried out once every ten years). A separate poll of established film directors in the same magazine, held for the first time in 1992, also has placed Citizen Kane at the top. Influential critic Roger Ebert says that "The Sight and Sound poll is generally considered the most authoritative of all 'best film' lists". Perhaps not coincidentally, he considers Citizen Kane the best film ever. The film was also selected as number one in a Village Voice critics' poll, number one in a Time Out critics' poll in 1995 and listed as the greatest American film ever by the American Film Institute in 1998. Citizen Kane, however, did not win the Academy Award for Best Picture, possibly because of extensive pressure exerted by William Randolph Hearst and his associates.^{[citation needed]}
La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game) by director Jean Renoir was named best film by the French film magazine Positif in 1991. It also holds the number two spot in the Village Voice poll. Along with Battleship Potemkin, it is one of only two films to have appeared in every one of Sight and Sound's six decennial polls.
The Searchers is the film most often mentioned in a poll of the favorite films of directors by German language Steadycam magazine. [1]
The Battleship Potemkin was voted best film ever by a panel of experts at the 1958 World's Fair. ^{[citation needed]}
Ladri di Biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) was voted top film in a Sight & Sound magazine poll in 1952. Other than Citizen Kane, The Bicycle Thief is the only film to ever top the Sight and Sound poll.
In the book Halliwell's Top 1000 (ISBN 0-00-774511-7), the #1 film is Tokyo Story. The rest of the top five are La Règle du Jeu (#2), Lawrence of Arabia (#3), The Godfather Trilogy (#4) and The Seven Samurai (#5). Citizen Kane comes in at #6.

[edit] Films acclaimed in audience polls

The Godfather has long stood atop IMDb's list of the top 250 films. It was also voted number one by Entertainment Weekly readers and number one in a Time Out Readers' poll in 1995.
The Godfather Part II, sometimes considered better than the original film, was voted best ever by TV Guide readers in 1998.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy was voted the most popular film of all time by an audience poll for the Australian television special My Favourite Film. Its first film, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), was the pick of readers in a poll by Empire magazine in November 2004. It is the only trilogy to have all 3 pictures in the Top 20 of the IMDb's top 250 films.
Casablanca (1942) is widely cited as the greatest film of all time and was voted as such by readers of the Los Angeles Daily News in 1997. It is also regarded the "best Hollywood movie of all time" by the influential Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide. On April 7, 2006, the Writer's Guild of America declared Casablanca's screenplay the best ever written.
Star Wars (1977) was chosen by readers of Empire magazine in November 2001 and by voters in a Channel 4/FilmFour poll [2].
The Shawshank Redemption is listed as the #2 entry on the IMDb list. This film's popularity among fans is also evidenced by the fact that it is the highest rated film on Yahoo! Movies by Yahoo! users, and furthermore was voted the best film never to have won "Best Picture" in a 2005 BBC poll. [3] In January 2006 Empire magazine readers named it the best film ever.
Goodfellas was voted the greatest film of all time in 2005 by Total Film.
According to the IMDB Top 250, as of November 17, 2006, the top 25 movies are:

Rank	Movie	Year	Rating
1	The Godfather	1972	9.1
2	The Shawshank Redemption	1994	9.1
3	The Godfather: Part II	1974	8.9
4	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	2003	8.8
5	The Good, the Bad and the Ugly	1966	8.8
6	Casablanca	1942	8.8
7	Schindler's List	1993	8.8
8	Pulp Fiction	1994	8.7
9	The Seven Samurai	1954	8.7
10	Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back	1980	8.7
11	Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope	1977	8.7
12	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	1975	8.7
13	Rear Window	1954	8.7
14	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	2001	8.7
15	12 Angry Men	1957	8.6
16	Raiders of the Lost Ark	1981	8.6
17	The Usual Suspects	1995	8.6
18	City of God	2002	8.6
19	Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb	1964	8.6
20	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	2002	8.6
21	Goodfellas	1990	8.6
22	Psycho	1960	8.6
23	Citizen Kane	1941	8.6
24	Once Upon a Time in the West	1968	8.6
25	North by Northwest	1959	8.6

[edit] Films that have received the most Academy Awards

Ever since their inception in 1928, the Academy Awards (the "Oscars") have been seen as the most significant of the film award ceremonies. The first film to dominate an Oscars ceremony was Frank Capra's It Happened One Night in 1935. It was the first film to win five awards. Moreover it won the "Oscar grand slam" by winning Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay—a feat that has been repeated only twice more, by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1976 and by Silence of the Lambs in 1992.

In 1939, Gone with the Wind was nominated for 13 awards and two special citations. It won eight of the Awards to beat It Happened One Night's record. All About Eve (1950) broke the nominations record with 14, and won in six categories.

Gigi was the film to break Gone with the Wind's record, winning in all nine of its nominated categories at the ceremony for films made in 1958. However, its moment at the top was short-lived, as the epic Ben-Hur went on to win 11 Oscars from 12 nominations the following year.

Ben-Hur's eleven Oscars remains the record. This achievement in turn has been equalled twice—by Titanic in 1997 with 11 awards from 14 nominations, and by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which won in all 11 of its nominated categories in 2003 in the greatest 'sweep' in the history of the Academy Awards (however it did not win any of the four acting Oscars).

[edit] Films that are considered the greatest in their particular genre

[edit] Animation

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) appeared at #49 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American movies (compiled in 1998), higher than any other animated film.
Tale of Tales (Сказка сказок) (1979) - Yuriy Norshteyn's short film was voted by a large international jury to be the greatest animated film of all time at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympiad of Animation and the 2002 Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films. [4] [5]
Akira (1988) was chosen as the top anime ever by Anime Insider in fall 2001.
Beauty and the Beast (1991), is the only fully-animated movie (computerized or not) to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. It has also been nominated for a total of six Oscars, more than any other animated film. It was also the first animated movie to win the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical.
Toy Story (1995) was voted #1 on the Top 100 Animated Features of All Time by the Online Film Critics Society (list published March 2003).<ref name="OFCS">Top 100 Animated Features of All Time at the Online Film Critics Society website.</ref> Toy Story was also the first animated movie to be nominated for a Best Screenplay award at the Oscars.
Toy Story 2 (1999) is the top rated movie of all time at Rotten Tomatoes.com with 100% approval by 106 critics.
Spirited Away (2002) was voted best animated movie by IMDb users. It was the first anime film to win an Academy Award.

[edit] Comedy

It Happened One Night (1934) is the only comedy (and one of only three movies) to win Best Leading Actor, Best Leading Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Picture and Best Director at the Academy Awards.
Some Like It Hot (1959) was listed Best Comedy by the American Film Institute in June 2000.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) is listed as the highest rated "Comedy" title by the IMDb and was #3 on AFI's "100 Years...100 Laughs". It was also the highest-rated comedy on the 2002 Sight and Sound Director's Poll.
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) was voted the greatest comedy ever by viewers of Channel 4 in 2005.[6]
National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) was voted #1 on the Bravo list of funniest movies of all time, and was #36 on AFI's "100 Years...100 Laughs".

[edit] Concert

The Last Waltz (1978), Martin Scorsese's chronicling of The Band's farewell concert on Thanksgiving Day in 1976. Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune calls it "The greatest rock concert movie ever made -- and maybe the best rock movie, period." Terry Lawson of the Detroit Free Press comments that "This is one of the great movie experiences." [7] The review at Total Film comments "In what is rightly considered the greatest concert film ever shot . . ." [8]
Stop Making Sense (1984) Film critic James Berardinelli wrote that Jonathan Demme's capturing of the Talking Heads in concert was "the best concert film to date when it first came out, and nothing in the past decade-and-a-half has come close to toppling it from that position." Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle had similar praise: "Has there ever been a live concert film as vibrant or as brilliantly realized? I don't think so."

[edit] Crime

The Godfather is the #1 ranked film in IMDB's top 250, let alone crime films. It was nominated for 11 Oscars and won 3.The Godfather Part 2 is ranked #3.
On The Waterfront won 8 Oscars and nominated for 4 others, the most wins by any film in the genre.

[edit] Disaster

The Poseidon Adventure (1972) was voted best disaster movie in a consumer poll commissioned by UCI cinemas in May 2004.
Titanic (1997) (See Academy Award sections above).

[edit] Documentary

Man with the Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov's classic experimental silent, was the highest rated documentary on the 2002 Sight and Sound critic's poll, and made Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Movies list.
Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore's controversial documentary relating gun control and the culture of fear in the United States, heads the list of 20 all-time favorite non-fiction films selected by members of the International Documentary Association (IDA). [9]
The Thin Blue Line, Errol Morris' 1988 film, has long been considered one of the greatest documentaries ever made. It is actually credited not only with solving a murder case, but also as the major factor in freeing an innocent man from prison in Texas. It was voted number two by the IDA.
The Sorrow and the Pity is the highest rated documentary at the IMDb.
Seven Up! was voted as the greatest ever documentary in a Channel 4 poll of the 50 Greatest Documentaries in 2005.

[edit] Epic

Lawrence of Arabia Voted best epic by readers of Total Film in May 2004. In addition it won 7 academy awards including best picture.
Ben-Hur (1959)- Collected 11 academy awards, matched by Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. (See Academy Award sections above).

[edit] Fantasy

Victor Fleming's acclaimed 1939 film The Wizard of Oz appears on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies at position number six, the highest of spot for a fantasy film.
Peter Jackson's highly acclaimed The Lord of the Rings film trilogy earned 17 Oscars with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King becoming the first fantasy film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. (See audience polls and Academy Awards sections above)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) is looked upon as the most iconic children's movie of all time

[edit] Film noir

Sunset Boulevard: Voted the best film noir of all-time by IMDb users. It was also ranked the highest on American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American movies at #12
Vertigo: This film has received countless honors such as #2 on the Director's Top 10 List on the British Sight and Sound Polls as well as #2 on totalfilm.com. It also got #8 on Halliwell's Top 1000.
Chinatown: One of the most popular detective films of all time got #69 on Halliwell's Top 1000 and #19 on AFI's List.

[edit] Horror/thriller

Psycho: the Alfred Hitchcock classic was voted the best horror film by IMDb users. Tops AFI’s list of the 100 most thrilling American films. Jaws, is second on the AFI thrills list.
The Silence of the Lambs: the only movie classified as "horror" to ever win the "Best Picture" Oscar. One of only 3 movies to win the top 5 Oscars. Is at #2 in the list of best horror films, as voted by IMDb voters, and at #5 in the AFI’s list of the 100 most thrilling American films. Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of Dr. Hannibal Lecter tops the AFI's list of the greatest villains of all time.
Halloween: Voted best horror film of all time by readers of SFX magazine in June 2004.
The Exorcist: Voted scariest movie of all time by Entertainment Weekly. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974 version) was second on the list.
The Shining: Stanley Kubrick's haunting The Shining was calculated to be the perfect scary movie[10].

[edit] Musical

Singin' in the Rain is the highest rated movie musical at the IMDb. It is also the highest ranked musical at the 2002 Sight and Sound poll.
The Wizard of Oz is the highest ranked musical on AFI's list of the 100 best American films.
Grease was voted the greatest musical by viewers of Channel 4 in 2003.
West Side Story is the winner of the most Academy Awards of any movie musical (10). Mary Poppins and Chicago share the record for the most Academy Award nominations for a musical (13).

[edit] Propaganda

Triumph of the Will, Leni Riefenstahl's documentary film glorifying Hitler and the 1934 Nazi Party Convention, in Nuremberg is widely renowned and reviled as the best propaganda film ever [11], although Riefenstahl claimed she intended it only as a documentary.
Battleship Potemkin (see Films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers above.)

[edit] Romance

Casablanca is the highest ranked romance film at the IMDB. It is also the top film on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions list, which ranks films in which there is "a romantic bond between two or more characters, whose actions and/or intentions provide the heart of the film’s narrative". Gone with the Wind is second on the AFI list.

[edit] Science fiction

2001: A Space Odyssey, a popular and influential film directed by Stanley Kubrick. The highest ranked science fiction film (#11) on the Village Voice 100 Best films of the 20th century list. Also the only Science Fiction film to make the Sight and Sound Top Ten Poll. [12]
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) is the highest-rated sci-fi film on the IMDb.
Blade Runner - Voted the best science fiction film by a panel of scientists assembled by the British newspaper The Guardian in 2004. [13]

[edit] Silent

Battleship Potemkin (see Films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers above.)
Greed, Erich von Stroheim's 1924 film has been included in numerous Sight and Sound Top Ten polls. It was the highest rated silent film (number four overall) in the 1962 poll.
Modern Times, the last major American film to make use of silent film conventions such as title cards for dialogue, is the highest-rated silent film on the IMDb. There is a recorded soundtrack; one scene has dialogue spoken over an intercom, and Charlie Chaplin sings nonsense lyrics to a song at the end. City Lights, another of Chaplin's films, is the highest-rated movie without any dialogue, spoken or sung. It too has a recorded soundtrack. Metropolis is the highest-rated movie that was totally silent when released.
The Birth of a Nation (1915) - In the 1920s the New York Mail described the movie as "the supreme picture of all time".
Sunrise by F.W. Murnau is the highest ranked silent film on Sight and Sound's 2002 poll.

[edit] War

Schindler's List is the number one film on IMDb's list of top rated war titles. The Shop on Main Street (Obchod na korze) is number two.
The English Patient won nine Academy Awards from 12 nominations, the most wins of any war film. From Here to Eternity and Gone with the Wind each won eight Academy Awards from 13 nominations, and tie for the most nominations of any war film.
In 2005 Saving Private Ryan was voted as the greatest ever war film in a Channel 4 poll of the 100 Greatest ever war films.

[edit] Western

The Searchers was voted the greatest Western of all time by Entertainment Weekly. (See also: films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers above).
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is listed as Best Western by the IMDb's list of Top Rated "Western" Titles. Once Upon a Time in the West is listed second. Both films appear on the Time magazine poll. Also both were directed by Sergio Leone.
Dances with Wolves was nominated for 11 Oscars and won seven, a record for westerns. It is one of the three westerns that have ever won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Unforgiven, and Cimarron are the the other two.
Shane story of the anti-hero featuring Alan Ladd in the lead role. Often discussed among the great Westerns ever made.

[edit] In particular countries

[edit] Australia

See also: Cinema of Australia

Mad Max: voted the best Australian film ever by the Australian Film Institute. Nominated for four Australian Film Institute Awards.
Picnic at Hanging Rock: voted No. 1 of the Top 10 best-ever Australian films at 1995 centenary of Australian cinema[14]
Gallipoli: voted No. 1 on 20 to 1: Great Aussie Films
Babe (1996) is tied with Shine (1997) for the most nominations (6) and most victories (1) for an Australian made film at the Academy Awards.

[edit] Austria

Metropolis by Fritz Lang is often considered to be the best science-fiction movie ever shot.

[edit] Bosnia

No Man's Land: is the only Bosnian film to win an oscar for best foreign movie.

[edit] Brazil

See also: Cinema of Brazil

City of God (Cidade de Deus in Portuguese), is the highest ranking Brazilian film featured in TIME magazine's 100 best movies of all-time list [15]. It is also the highest ranked (#18) in IMDb's top 250 list.
Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol (English: God and the Devil in the Land of the Sun, also known as Black God, White Devil) an example of Brazilian cinema movement known as Cinema Novo ("New Cinema"), is considered by many critics to be the best Brazilian movie of all time[16]; was named as such from a poll conducted by the Brazilian cinema magazine Contracampo (no. 27) Click on "articles".

[edit] Canada

See also: Cinema of Canada

Mon oncle Antoine: A poll of critics at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival and again at the 1993 and 2004 festivals named this the greatest Canadian film of all time.
Un Zoo la Nuit: Winner of the most Genie Awards with 13.

[edit] China

See also: Cinema of China

Spring in a Small Town (小城之春): This 1948 film was voted the best Chinese film ever made by Hong Kong Film Awards Association in 2005.

[edit] Finland

See also: Cinema of Finland

The Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon Sotilas in Finnish), received seven "Jussi" (Finnish Oscar) statuettes [17].

[edit] France

See also: Cinema of France

Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise): Voted "Best French Film of the Century" in a poll of 600 French critics and professionals in the late 1990s.
La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game): see films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers

[edit] Germany

See also: Cinema of Germany

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's famed silent film Nosferatu is regarded by critics and acclaimed German director Werner Herzog as the greatest German movie of all time. ^{[citation needed]}
Der Untergang (Downfall): This German World War II epic depicts the final days of the Third Reich in Adolf Hitler's bunker. It is currently the highest-ranked German film in the IMDb (as of June 2006)[18]. Das Boot is the second highest.

[edit] India

See also: Cinema of India

See also: List of popular Bollywood films

See also: List of popular Tamil (Kollywood) films[19]

See also: List of popular Tollywood films

Pather Panchali (1955) is the only Indian film to have ever appeared on Sight and Sound Critics's Top Ten Poll (ranked #9 in 1992). It was ranked the top Indian film in a 2002 popularity poll by the British Film Institute (BFI) conducted on the web, and number two in the BFI critics' poll in which critics were asked to compile a list of 50 best Indian as well as South Asian films [20]. Pather Panchali is the first film of director Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy (1955-1959), which are listed in the "all-time 100 best films", as rated by TIME magazine.
Nayakan (The Hero, 1987) is in the list of "all-time 100 best films", as rated by Time magazine .[21]
Pushpak (The Love Chariot), from 1988, is the highest rated Indian film on IMDb.com. The specialty of this movie is that it does not contain any dialogue.
Gandhi (1982), an Anglo-Indian production, received eight awards and eleven nominations at the Academy Awards.
Sholay was the top film selected in the 2002 BFI critics' poll.

[edit] Ireland

The Commitments (1991) was voted the best Irish film of all time in a 2005 Jameson Whiskey poll of 10,000 Irish people, with My Left Foot coming second. 24

[edit] Italy

Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) (1966) is the highest-ranked foreign-made (outside of the United States) film on the IMDB Top 250, where it is considered the 5th best film ever.
Ladri di Biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) (See: Films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers section above.)
8½ – Director Federico Fellini's 1963 film about filmmaking was the highest rated Italian film in the 2002 Sight & Sound poll of the best films of all time.

[edit] Japan

See also: Cinema of Japan

Rashōmon (羅生門): This 1950 film by Akira Kurosawa was the first Japanese film to gain world-wide acclaim. The highest-ranked Japanese film (#10) on the Village Voice list of 100 Best Films of the 20th Century. It was also the highest-ranked Japanese film on the Sight and Sound 2002 Directors' Top Ten Poll.
Tokyo Story (東京物語 Tokyo Monogatari), 1953. This film by Yasujiro Ozu about an aging couple as they journey from their rural village to visit their two married children in postwar Tokyo was declared the greatest film ever by Halliwell's Film Guide in 2005 25. It was also the highest-ranked Japanese film on the Sight and Sound 2002 Critics' Top Ten Poll. (As well as the only non-Kurosawa Japanese film in any of its polls.)
The Seven Samurai (七人の侍 Shichinin no samurai), 1954: Also by Kurosawa, this period adventure film is frequently cited as the greatest Japanese film ever; it is ranked #9 in the IMDB Top 250 (as of November 2006).

[edit] The Netherlands

See also: Cinema of the Netherlands

Soldaat van Oranje (Soldier of Orange - 1977 - Paul Verhoeven): Voted best Dutch film ever made in a 2006 internet poll by online film magazine Filmwereld.nl.
Turks Fruit (Turkish Delight - 1973 - Paul Verhoeven): Voted best Dutch film of the 20th century at the 1999 Netherlands Film Festival.

[edit] Russia

See also: Cinema of Russia and Soviet Union

Броненосец Потёмкин (Battleship Potemkin) see: Films acclaimed by critics and filmakers above.

[edit] Sweden

See also: Cinema of Sweden

The Emigrants (Utvandrarna): Jan Troell's naturalist masterwork was the first Scandinavian film to receive Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, and it is often cited in Sweden as the greatest Swedish film of all-time. ^{[citation needed]}
Persona: voted "Best Picture" by US National Society of Film Critics. This film by acclaimed director Ingmar Bergman also reached the highest position (#5) of any Swedish film on Sight & Sound's 1972 list of greatest films of all time.
The Seventh Seal: also directed by Ingmar Bergman, is the highest rated Swedish film on the IMDB.

[edit] United Kingdom

See also: Cinema of the United Kingdom

Lawrence of Arabia: voted "best British film of all time" in August of 2004 by a London Sunday Telegraph poll of Britain's leading filmmakers. (See also: Epic above).
The Third Man: Voted best British film ever by members of the British Film Institute in 1999.
Get Carter: Named best British film by Total Film in 2004.

[edit] United States

See also: Cinema of the United States

Citizen Kane: voted the best American film ever by the American Film Institute. (See also: Films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers section above).
2001: A Space Odyssey is considered by some critics, including Gene Siskel, to be the greatest film ever made, American or otherwise. Roger Ebert has also cited it in his top ten.
See also: Casablanca, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Goodfellas, Star Wars, and The Shawshank Redemption in the Films acclaimed in audience polls section above.
See also: Ben-Hur, Titanic, in the Films that have received the most Academy Awards section above.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

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