Yearly Top 10


Going by IMDb year

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

Last update 2 December 2017


































2017:
1. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)
2. Good Time (Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie)
3. Get Out (Jordan Peele)
4. The Square (Ruben Östlund)
5. Mother! (Darren Aronofsky)
6. Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan)
7. War for the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves)
8. Spielberg (documentary) (Susan Lacy)
9. David Bowie: The Last Five Years (documentary) (Francis Whately)
10. Thelma (Joachim Trier)







1. I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach)
2. The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn)
3. O.J.: Made in America (TV Mini-series) (Ezra Edelman)
4. The Day Will Come (Jesper W. Nielsen)
5. Zootopia (multiple directors)
6. Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie)
7. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
8. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)
9. American Honey (Andrea Arnold)
10. Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi)






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. Land of Mine (Martin Zandvliet)







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. Calvary (John Michael McDonagh)
8. Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (Elkabetz)
9. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
10. What We Do in the Shadows (Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi)





2013:
1. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)
2. Home from Home – Chronicle of a Vision (Edgar Reitz)
3. Blue Is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche)
4. Nymphomaniac (Lars von Trier)
5. Sorrow and Joy (Nils Malmros)
6. Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)
7. Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve)
8. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)
9. The Great Beauty (Paulo Sorrentino)
10. The Double (Richard Ayoade)






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. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)
8. The Hunt (Thomas Vinterberg)
9. The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan)
10. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)






2011:
1. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
2. Dreams of a Life (documentary) (Carol Morley)
3. Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan)
4. The Story of Film: An Odyssey (documentary) (Mark Cousins)
5. The Skin I Live In (Pedro Almodóvar)
6. The Intouchables (Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano)
7. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
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. The Trip (Michael Winterbottom)
3. Senna (documentary) (Asif Kapadia)
4. Exit Through the Gift Shop (documentary) (Banksy)
5. Armadillo (documentary) (Janus Metz Pedersen)
6. Inception (Christopher Nolan)
7. Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky)
8. Incendies (Denis Villeneuve)
9. Greenberg (Noah Baumbach)
10. Please Give (Nicole Holofcener)





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. Bright Star (Jane Campion)
7. Mary and Max (Adam Elliot)
8. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
9. The Vicious Kind (Lee Toland Krieger)
10. 500 Days of Summer (Marc Webb)





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. Unrelated (Joanna Hogg)
6. Lars and the Real Girl (Craig Gillespie)
7. Into the Wild (Sean Penn)
8. The Visitor (Thomas McCarthy)
9. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu)
10. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)






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. Tintin and I (documentary) (Anders Østergaard)
4. Dogville (Lars von Trier)
5. The Matrix Reloaded (Wachowski's)
6. Coffee and Cigarettes (Jim Jarmusch)
7. Big Fish (Tim Burton)
8. Touching The Void (documentary) (Kevin Macdonald)
9. A Decade Under the Influence (documentary) (Ted Demme)
10. The Return (Andrei Zvyagintsev)





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. Adaptation (Spike Jonze)
7. Insomnia (Christopher Nolan)
8. Bus 174 (documentary) (multiple directors)
9. Dummy (Greg Pritikin)
10. The Pianist (Roman Polanski)









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






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. Gladiator (Ridley Scott)





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. The Color of Paradise (Majid Majidi)
6. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)
7. Girl, Interrupted (James Mangold)
8. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze)
9. Election (Alexander Payne)
10. The Talented Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella)






1998:
1. Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer)
2. American History X (Tony Kaye)
3. Buffalo ’66 (Vincent Gallo)
4. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg)
5. Pi (Darren Aronofsky)
6. The Celebration (Thomas Vinterberg)
7. A Simple Plan (Sam Raimi)
8. Following (Christopher Nolan)
9. Rounders (John Dahl)
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. Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis)
5. Heat (Michael Mann)
6. Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee)
7. La Cérémonie (Claude Chabrol)
8. GoldenEye (Martin Campbell)
9. Dead Man Walking (Tim Robbins)
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. Alive (Frank Marshall)
7. Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg)
8. The Remains of the Day (James Ivory)
9. Shadowlands (Richard Attenborough)
10. Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater)





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 (Peter Jackson)
6. Batman Returns (Tim Burton)
7. Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley)
8. Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino)
9. Benny's Video (Michael Haneke)
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. Proof (Jocelyn Moorhouse)





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. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami)
9. Back to the Future 3 (Robert Zemeckis)
10. Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven)





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. The Seventh Continent (Michael Haneke)
6. Uncle Buck (John Hughes)
7. The Abyss (director’s cut) (James Cameron)
8. Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir)
9. Casualties of War (Brian De Palma)
10. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (Joe Johnston)





1988:
1. Big (Penny Marshall)
2. A Fish Called Wanda (Charles Crichton)
3. Rain Man (Barry Levinson)
4. Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore)
5. Willow (Ron Howard)
6. Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata)
7. Coming To America (John Landis)
8. The Vanishing (George Sluizer)
9. My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki)
10. Another Woman (Woody Allen)






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. Pretty in Pink (Howard Deutch)
9. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Leonard Nimoy)
10. Jean de Florette (Claude Berri)





1985:
1. A View To A Kill (John Glen)
2. The Breakfast Club (John Hughes)
3. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis)
4. Come and See (Elem Klimov)
5. The Goonies (Richard Donner)
6. The Sure Thing (Rob Reiner)
7. The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen)
8. Brazil (Terry Gilliam)
9. Phenomena (Dario Argento)
10. After Hours (Martin Scorsese)





1984:
1. The Neverending Story (Wolfgang Petersen)
2. Body Double (Brian De Palma)
3. Blood Simple (Coen's)
4. Starman (John Carpenter)
5. Romancing the Stone (Robert Zemeckis)
6. The Terminator (James Cameron)
7. Gremlins (Joe Dante)
8. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Steven Spielberg)
9. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone)
10. 28 Up (documentary) (Michael Apted)





1983:
1. Videodrome (David Cronenberg)
2. Octopussy (John Glen)
3. The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan)
4. The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)
5. Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand)
6. The Thorn Birds (TV Mini-Series) (Daryl Duke)
7. Angst (Gerald Kargl)
8. A Christmas Story (Bob Clark)
9. Christine (John Carpenter)
10. Zappa (Bille August)





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. Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman)
9. Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper)
10. Tootsie (Sydney Pollack)





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. Ordinary People (Robert Redford)
8. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese)
9. The Gods Must Be Crazy (Jamie Uys)
10. Dressed to Kill (Brian De Palma)





1979:
1. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)
2. Being There (Hal Ashby)
3. Alien (Ridley Scott)
4. Manhattan (Woody Allen)
5. Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog)
6. The Tin Drum (Volker Schlöndorff)
7. Tess (Roman Polanski)
8. The Jerk (Carl Reiner)
9. The Brood (David Cronenberg)
10. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)





1978:
1. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino)
2. The Driver (Walter Hill)
3. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick)
4. Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero)
5. Interiors (Woody Allen)
6. Watership Down (Martin Rosen)
7. Coming Home (Hal Ashby)
8. The Meetings of Anna (Chantal Akerman)
9. Superman (Richard Donner)
10. Halloween (John Carpenter)





1977:
1. Star Wars (George Lucas)
2. Eraserhead (David Lynch)
3. 3 Women (Robert Altman)
4. Abigail’s Party (Mike Leigh)
5. The Spy Who Loved Me (Lewis Gilbert)
6. Suspiria (Dario Argento)
7. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg)
8. House (Nobuhiko Ôbayashi)
9. Annie Hall (Woody Allen)
10. The Last Wave (Peter Weir)





1976:
1. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese)
2. All the President's Men (Alan J. Pakula)
3. The Omen (Richard Donner)
4. Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter)
5. Carrie (Brian De Palma)
6. The Man Who Fell To Earth (Nicolas Roeg)
7. Rocky (John G. Avildsen)
8. Network (Sidney Lumet)
9. Obsession (Brian De Palma)
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. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Martin Scorsese)
5. Chinatown (Roman Polanski)
6. The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola)
7. Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks)
8. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper)
9. Rabid Dogs (Mario Bava)
10. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Joseph Sargent)





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. High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood)





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. Minnie and Moskowitz (John Cassavetes)
5. The French Connection (William Friedkin)
6. Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg)
7. Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah)
8. The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich)
9. Dirty Harry (Don Siegel)
10. Duel (Steven Spielberg)





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. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci)
9. Kelly's Heroes (Brian G. Hutton)
10. Ryan’s Daughter (David Lean)





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. Yellow Submarine (George Dunning)
8. The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci)
9. Hang ’em High (Ted Post)
10. Hell in the Pacific (John Boorman)




1967:
1. In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison)
2. Mouchette (Robert Bresson)
3. Cool Hand Luke (Stuart Rosenberg)
4. The Graduate (Mike Nichols)
5. The Jungle Book (Wolfgang Reitherman)
6. The Fireman’s Ball (Milos Forman)
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. Closely Watched Trains (Jirí Menzel)





1965:
1. A Patch of Blue (Guy Green)
2. The Sound of Music (Robert Wise)
3. Repulsion (Roman Polanski)
4. For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone)
5. The Hill (Sidney Lumet)
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. Lilies of the Field (Ralph Nelson)
6. The Pink Panther (Blake Edwards)
7. Raven's End (Bo Widerberg)
8. High and Low (Akira Kurosawa)
9. The Silence (Ingmar Bergman)
10. Charade (Stanley Donen)





1962:
1. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean)
2. To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan)
3. Dr. No (Terence Young)
4. Il Sorpasso (Dino Risi)
5. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford)
6. Days of Wine and Roses (Blake Edwards)
7. Lolita (Stanley Kubrick)
8. Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah)
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. Divorce Italian Style (Pietro Germi)
9. Pit and the Pendulum (Roger Corman)
10. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Blake Edwards)























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. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard)
8. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell)
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. Diabolique (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
9. To Catch a Thief (Alfred Hitchcock)
10. Rififi (Jules Dassin)





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. Journey to Italy (Roberto Rossellini)
8.
9.
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. Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock)
6. Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson)
7. The African Queen (John Huston)
8. Scrooge (Brian Desmond Hurst)
9. Summer Interlude (Ingmar Bergman)
10.





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. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
4. Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin)
5. Brute Force (Jules Dassin)
6. Possessed (Curtis Bernhardt)
7. Soldaten og Jenny (Johan Jacobsen)
8.
9.
10.



1946:
1. It’s A Wonderful Life (Frank Capra)
2. Great Expectations (David Lean)
3. Gilda (Charles Vidor)
4. Ditte Menneskebarn (Bjarne Henning-Jensen)
5. The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks)
6. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock)
7. Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau)
8. A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
9. The Yearling (Clarence Brown)
10. The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler)



1945:
1. Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz)
2. Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang)
3. Brief Encounter (David Lean)
4. The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise)
5. Dead of Night (multiple directors)
6. The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)
7. Rome Open City (Roberto Rossellini)
8.
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. I Married a Witch (René Clair)
5. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
6. Now Voyager (Irving Rapper)
7.
8.
9.
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. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock)
6. Waterloo Bridge (Mervyn LeRoy)
7. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks)
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. Gone With The Wind (Victor Fleming)
4. Stagecoach (John Ford)
5. Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch)
6. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir)
7. Dark Victory (Edmund Goulding)
8. You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (George Marshall and Edward F. Cline)
9.
10.



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. The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock)
6. Anna Karenina (Clarence Brown)
7.
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. King Kong (Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack)
2. Duck Soup (Leo McCarey)
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.
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.
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.



1919:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

12 comments:

  1. I can't imagine how long this compendium might have taken so I really commend you for putting it together. I'm keeping these lists close for reference next time I find myself wondering which film I should watch. Great work!

    ReplyDelete
  2. @niels85: I can't promise you'll agree with all my choices (we disagreed on Videodrome), but I'm happy you can appreciate the effort putting this together! Thanks for the comment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. WOW. This is awesome. I'm tempted to do something like this, but I imagine it took *a lot* of time. Like Niels, I'll be keeping this page bookmarked so I can check out some of your favorites. Nice job!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Eric: Thanks for saying so! Hopefully is a useful reference to those who visit. Yes, took a long time.
      Initially, I did Top 100 favorite films. Then I compiled letterboxd lists 1920-2012, which include all 2000 films I've watched.
      I couldn't have done it without IMDb. This was a very useful google search for each year, if you ever want to compile your own:
      Highest Rated Feature Films Released In 1961 With At Least 1,000 Votes.

      Delete
  4. Question: are the years without a complete Top 10 ones in which you've only had the opportunity to see the films listed, ones in which you've seen more but only liked the films listed, or ones in which you've seen more, liked some, but only feel the ones listed are worthy of a Top 10?

    I'm asking because if it's the first I would go through and suggest some movies here or there for some of the partial years.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Chip Lary: To answer your question. You can click on the links I provided for each year above (1920-2015), and they show all the films I have seen for that given year on letterboxd, both good and bad, Sometimes over 50 per year. Or for 1920-1924 I have only seen 1-2 each year.
      If I didn’t like a film, I usually don’t include it on this top 10 list. But if I gave a film at least a score of 3 out of 5 on letterboxd, which was the case for The Man Who Laughs (1928), then it will get added to the top 10 page. When I see more from 1928, then that film will drop down.
      Should you have some suggestions for the partial years, I would be open to that, if you can think of any great films I missed. I should tell you I already have watchlists under” yet to see” here: http://moviesandsongs365.blogspot.com/2010/04/movie-marathons.html

      Delete
    2. That's a lot of lists and a lot of work to put them together. Here's yet another for you. :-)

      I see you had some Harold Lloyd under Shorts to Watch. That's good. He's overlooked too much. I'd highly recommend his shorts His Royal Slyness (1920), An Eastern Westerner (1920), and his film The Freshman (1925). Keaton basically copied to latter to make his own film College. Lloyd's films The Kid Brother and Speedy are also entertaining.

      Other 1920s films I gave at least 3 stars to that are not on your Seen lists:

      Way Down East (1920), The Sheik (1921), Orphans of the Storm (1921), Foolish Wives (1922), Nanook of the North (1922), La Roue (1923), Our Hospitality (1923), Souls for Sale (1923), The Thief of Bagdad (1923), The Great White Silence (1924), Entr'acte (1924), Greed (1924), Seven Chances (1925), The Big Parade (1925), The Eagle (1925), Moana (1926), The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), A Page of Madness (1926), 7th Heaven (1927), Napoleon (1927), Wings (1927), The Jazz Singer (1927), The Last Command (1928), The Crowd (1928), Spies (1928), The Wind (1928), The Docks of New York (1928), The Cameraman (1928), The Wedding March (1928), Storm Over Asia (1928), Steamboat Willie (1928), Pandora's Box (1929), and Alibi (1929).

      Highly recommended among those (at least 4 stars) are The Freshman, An Eastern Westerner, His Royal Slyness, Nanook of the North, La Roue, Our Hospitality, Souls for Sale, The Great White Silence, Seven Chances, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Napoleon, and The Last Command.

      And to dip a toe into the 1930s, I highly recommend The Blue Angel (1930) and I give my highest recommendation (5 stars) to All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).

      Delete
  5. @Chip Lary: Thanks for that! I have a lot of classics to catch up on from the 1920s and 1930s. I've heard of a number of the ones you recommend. Hopefully I can see a bunch of them in the next year or two.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, that's an awesome list. I'm glad you included so many foreign directors. Happy to see some unorthodox choices here (Matchpoint, which I personally loved but many criticized it as one of the Allen's low points) and Nightcrawler as one of the top movies of that year. I was really impressed by it and watched 2 times in 2 days... Sideways is one of my all-time favs too. Ghostworld is an incredible film, very little-known. And it shows clearly how smart ScarJo is by choosing right (for her roles) because movies like Ghost World clearly show she isn't a terrific actress. It seems we have pretty similar tastes.

    ReplyDelete
  7. @indiescifi451: I realize it's daunting to read this page with so many top tens, thanks for giving it a look. Glad you can approve of the ones you mention. Matchpoint is my favorite Allen film, I reviewed it. You're right, I'm a fan of foreign films. Hope you discover something here you want to check out in the future!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a great page you have here. I see, now
      I've checked your "about" page - you are from Denmark, right? I'm from Latvia. Nice to meet you. :)

      Delete
    2. @indiescifi451: Thanks, and welcome aboard! Oh right, Latvia, I’ve not travelled to the Baltic region, I know where it is though. Explains why you are familiar with Soviet cinema. Yep, I’m from DK, and as you can see there are a few Danish films mentioned on the blog.

      Delete

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