- Note: This article does not include films that had the highest box office receipts. For this information see: List of highest-grossing films and List of highest-grossing films throughout history.
While there is no agreement upon the greatest film of all time, it is possible to list films considered the greatest ever by a sizable populace of the film-watching community in the English-speaking world. The criterion for inclusion in this article is that the film has been mentioned the "greatest" in a notable survey — be it a critics' poll or popular poll. Many of these sources focus on American films, but those considered the greatest within their respective countries are also included here.
None of these citations should be viewed as scientific measures of the film-watching world. All the surveys are flawed in one way or another. They are often influenced by vote-stacking or they survey a population with skewed demographics. Internet-based surveys have a self-selecting audience of unknown participants. The methodology of some surveys may be questionable. Sometimes (like in the case of the American Film Institute) voters were asked to select films from a limited list of entries.
In polls of critics and filmmakers
- The Battleship Potemkin was voted best film ever by a panel of experts at the 1958 World's Fair.[1]
- Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves) was voted top film in a Sight & Sound magazine poll in 1952. Other than Citizen Kane, Bicycle Thieves is the only film to ever top the Sight and Sound poll.
- Orson Welles' Citizen Kane has been consistently 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". The film was 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 and 2007.
- On Metacritic, The Godfather is the all-time best-reviewed movie if reissues are not taken into account. If reissues are taken into account, the highest-scoring film is Au Hasard Balthazar. Both films score a perfect 100/100.
- Goodfellas was voted the greatest film of all time in 2005 by the editorial team of the magazine Total Film.[2]
- 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 The 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.[3]
In audience polls
- 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.
- The Godfather has long stood on the top of the IMDb's list of the top 250 films. It was also voted number one by Entertainment Weekly readers, listed as number one in Entertainment Weekly's 1999 book about the top 100 films [4] and voted number one in a Time Out readers' poll in 1998. [5]
- The Godfather Part II was voted best ever by TV Guide readers. [6] in 1998.
- Gone with the Wind was ranked Number One in a "What are the favorite movies of all time?" poll surveyed by Harris Interactive between January 15 and 22, 2008. In the second place came Star Wars while Casablanca was number three.
- 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 and by a poll casted by 120,000 german voters for the TV special "Die besten Filme aller Zeiten" (the best films of all time)[7]. 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. The third film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, was voted the best movie of all time by Movies.com's annual reader's poll in 2006 and in 2007. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is also the all-time top rated movie by boxofficemojo's user grades[8]. It is the only trilogy to have all 3 pictures in the Top 30 of the IMDb's list of top 250 films.
- Schindler's List was voted the best film ever made by the German film magazine Cinema[9].
- The Shawshank Redemption is the highest rated film on Yahoo! Movies by Yahoo! users and is listed second on the all-time greatest film list on the IMDb. It was voted the best film never to have won Best Picture in a 2005 BBC poll.[10] In January 2006 Empire magazine readers named it the best film ever.
- Star Wars (1977) was chosen by readers of Empire magazine in November 2001 and by voters in a Channel 4/FilmFour poll [8]. It was voted number one in the 2007 Empire "Greatest 100 Movies" poll.[11]
- Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) was voted number 1 in Total Film's Top 100 Movies of All Time and number 1 in the 2006 Empire "Greatest Movies Ever" special. .[12]
In particular genres
Action
Animation
- Akira (1988) was chosen as the top anime ever by Anime Insider in fall 2001.
- 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.[13][14]
- 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).[15]
Comedy
- Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) was voted the greatest comedy ever by viewers of Channel 4 in 2005.[16] It also was rated #1 comedy of all time from a poll conducted by Total Film Magazine.
Concert
- The Last Waltz: 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."[17] The review at Total Film comments "In what is rightly considered the greatest concert film ever shot...."[18] Rolling Stone dubbed it the greatest film about music ever made. All Movie Guide said that the film is "considered to be [one] of the best-looking and sounding rock films ever".[19]
- 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."
Disaster
- The Poseidon Adventure (1972) was voted best disaster movie in a poll commissioned by UCI cinemas in May 2004.[20]
Documentary
- Bowling for Columbine (2002), 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).[21]
- Seven Up! (1964) was voted as the greatest ever documentary in a Channel 4 poll of the 50 Greatest Documentaries in 2005.
Epic
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962) was voted best epic by readers of Total Film in May 2004. In addition, Peter O'Toole's performance as T.E. Lawrence was ranked number one in Premiere magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.
High School/Teen Film
- The Breakfast Club (1985) was included as number one on Entertainment Weekly's list of 50 best high school films of all time in 2006/2007. [22]
Horror
- The Exorcist (1973): Voted scariest movie of all time by Entertainment Weekly and Movies.com, also listed on AFI's most thrilling films ever.
- Halloween (1978): Voted best horror film of all time by readers of SFX magazine in June 2004, listed as one of AFI's most thrilling films ever, Empire Magazine's "50 Greatest Horror Movies" as well as Premiere Magazine's "Top 10 Horror Films of All Time",
- Psycho (1960): The Alfred Hitchcock classic tops AFI’s list of the 100 most thrilling American films and Rotten Tomatoes list of the 50 greatest horror movies.
- The Shining (1980): Voted scariest movie of all time by Channel 4. [9]
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974): Voted greatest horror movie of all time on Total Film's 50 Greatest Horror Movies of all Time[23], Empire Magazine's 50 Greatest Horror Movies of All Time, and Premiere Magazine's Top 10 Horror Films of All Time.
Independent Film
- Reservoir Dogs (1992): Was listed as the number one film on a list by Empire Magazine of the '50 Greatest Independent Films'. [24]
Musical
- Grease (1978) was voted the greatest musical by viewers of Channel 4 in 2003.
- Singin' in the Rain (1952) tops the American Film Institute's list of the 25 best American musicals of all time.[25]
- West Side Story (1961) was chosen as the best screen musical by readers of The Observer in a 2007 poll.[26]
Propaganda
- Triumph of the Will (1935), Leni Riefenstahl's documentary film glorifying Adolf Hitler and the 1934 Nazi Party Convention, in Nuremberg is widely perceived, renowned and acknowledged as the best propaganda film ever,[27] although Riefenstahl asserted she intended it only as a documentary.
Romance
- Casablanca (1942) is 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".
Science fiction
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) tops the Online Film Critics Society list of greatest science fiction films of all time.[28] It is also the only science fiction film to make the Sight and Sound poll for ten best movies.
- Blade Runner (1982) was voted the best science fiction film by a panel of scientists assembled by the British newspaper The Guardian in 2004.[29]
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) topped a Rotten Tomatoes poll of the 100 best Science Fiction movies ever made. [30]
- The Matrix (1999) was voted the greatest science fiction film of the last 25 years by Entertainment Weekly.
Superhero/Comic book adaptations
- Batman Begins (2005) listed as #1 on IGN's list of the 'Best & Worst Comic-Book Movies'. [31]
- Ghost World (2001) topped MSN Movies' list of the 'Top 10 Comic Book Movies' [32]
- Spider-Man 2 (2004) was selected the number one comic-to-cinema adaption in a poll of critics at rottentomatoes.com.[33] and was named as the greatest superhero movie ever made by film critic Roger Ebert.
- X2: X-Men United (2003) was voted greatest comic book film of all time by Empire Magazine.[34]
Sport
- Bull Durham (1988) was number 1 on the Rotten Tomatoes countdown of the top sports movies. [35]
- Rocky (1976) was also listed as the number 1 sports movie of all time by MovieFone. [36]
War
- Apocalypse Now (1979) was listed as the number 1 war film of all time by MovieFone and MSN Movies. [37][38]
Western
In particular countries
Argentina
- See also: Cinema of Argentina
- The Official Story (1985) was voted the top film of the 25 Top Best Argentina made movies.[citation needed] It also won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1985.
Australia
- See also: Cinema of Australia
- Mad Max (1979): voted the best Australian film ever by the Australian Film Institute. Nominated for four Australian Film Institute Awards.[citation needed]
- Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975): voted No. 1 of the Top 10 best-ever Australian films at 1995 centenary of Australian cinema.[39]
Brazil
- See also: Cinema of Brazil
- City of God (2002) is the highest rated Brazilian film according to IMDB users. Brazilian critics, however, have selected Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol (1964) as the best film of all several times, such as the 27th edition of Brazilian film magazine Contracampo[40] and a special issue of the magazine Bravo, entitled "100 essential films". The other Brazilian films included in Bravo's list are City of God, Pixote and Lavoura Arcaica, in that order.
Canada
- See also: Cinema of Canada
China
- See also: Cinema of China
Egypt
- See also: Cinema of Egypt
France
- See also: Cinema of France
Germany
- See also: Cinema of Germany
- M, Fritz Lang's 1931 classic crime film, is currently the highest rated German film in the IMDB top 250 films (rated by users). The 2007 Academy award winner for best foreign language film The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) is second followed by Downfall (Der Untergang), a 2004 German World War II epic which depicts the final days of the Third Reich in Adolf Hitler's bunker. Das Boot, a 1981 film retelling the story of Unterseeboot 96 during World War II, places fourth.
- F. W. Murnau's silent film Nosferatu is regarded by acclaimed German director Werner Herzog as the greatest German movie of all time.[41]
India
- See also: Cinema of India
- See also: Lists of Indian films
Iran
- See also: Cinema of Iran
Ireland
Italy
- See also: Cinema of Italy
Japan
- See also: Cinema of Japan
- Rashomon (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.
- 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; at #10, it is the highest ranked Japanese film in the IMDB Top 250 (as of March 2007).
- 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.[42] It was also the highest-ranked Japanese film on the Sight and Sound 2002 Critics' Top Ten Poll.
South Korea
- See also: Cinema of Korea
- Obaltan (오발탄): Released in 1960. This film is widely regarded as the best South Korean film of all time. It also listed as No.1 in "The Best Korean Films" by Film 2.0 Magazine. [43]
- Oldboy (올드보이): This 2003 South Korean film is the highest rated Korean language film on the IMDB top 250 list. It also won the Grand Prix of the jury at Cannes.
Mexico
- El callejón de los milagros (Midaq Alley) is the most awarded film in Mexican history with 49 international awards.[citation needed]
- Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno) is the highest rated film in Spanish on IMDb. While this film is set in Spain and primarily features Spanish actors, it was written and produced in Mexico and is considered a Mexican film.
The Netherlands
- See also: Cinema of the Netherlands
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