Films considered the greatest ever

While there is no agreement upon the greatest film of all time, many publications and organizations have tried to determine the films considered the greatest ever. The films mentioned in this article have all been mentioned in a notable survey — be it a critics' poll or popular poll. Many of these sources focus on American films or were polls of English-speaking film goers, 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 (as in the case of the American Film Institute) voters were asked to select films from a limited list of entries.

Polls of critics and filmmakers

*Since 1952, the film magazine "Sight & Sound" has conducted a poll of the greatest films every ten years. Originally, "Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves)" received the most votes. According to noted film critic Roger Ebert, the "Sight & Sound" poll is "generally considered the most authoritative of all 'best film' lists". Fact|date=September 2008
*Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" has been consistently voted number one in each of the last five "Sight & Sound" polls. A separate poll of established film directors, held for the first time in 1992, has also placed "Citizen Kane" at the top. The film was selected as number one in a "Village Voice" and in a "Time Out" critics' poll and was listed as the greatest American film twice by the American Film Institute in 1998 and 2007.Fact|date=September 2008
*"La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game)" by director Jean Renoir was named the greatest film by the French film magazine "Positif" in 1991. It also holds the second slot in the "Village Voice" poll and is one of only two movies to have appeared in every one of the "Sight & Sound" polls.Fact|date=September 2008
*"The Searchers" is the film most often mentioned in a poll of the favorite films of directors by German language "Steadycam" magazine. [ [http://cinepad.com/awards/lieblingsfilme.htm Lieblings Filme] ]
*The Brussels World’s Fair, organized in 1958, offered the occasion for the organization by thousands of critics and filmmakers from all over the world, of the first universal film poll in history. [Władysław Jewsiewicki: "Kronika kinematografii światowej 1895-1964", Warsaw 1967, no ISBN, page 129 (in Polish)] . These were the films chosen as most artistically fulfilled::

Audience polls

*"The Shawshank Redemption", as of October 9th, 2008 holds the top spot on the IMDb's top 250 films. [ [http://www.imdb.com/chart/top IMDb Top 250 ] ] . It was voted the best film never to have won Best Picture in a 2005 BBC poll. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/entertainment/bestfilm/ Best Films] ] In January 2006 "Empire" magazine readers named it the best film ever.Fact|date=October 2008
*"The Dark Knight" holds the top spot at Yahoo! Movies as of October 9th, 2008. [cite web|url=http://movies.yahoo.com/mvc/top10|title=Yahoo! Movies - Top 10|accessdate=2008-10-09]
*"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 Writers' Guild of America declared "Casablanca"'s screenplay the best ever written.
*"Gone with the Wind" was ranked as the greatest film of all time in a poll surveyed by Harris Interactive between January 15 and 22, 2008. "" came in second place and "Casablanca" in third.
*"The Godfather" was voted number one by "Entertainment Weekly"'s readers [ [http://www.filmsite.org/ew100.html Filmsite.org posting about Entertainment Weekly's book] ] and voted as number one in a "Time Out" readers' poll in 1998. [ [http://www.filmsite.org/timeout2.html Filmsite.org posting about "Time out" reader's poll] ] The film was also voted as the "Greatest Movie of All Time" in September 2008 by 10,000 readers of "Empire" magazine, 150 people from the movie business and 50 film critics. [ [http://www.empireonline.com/500/99.asp Empire Online] ] As of August 25th, 2008, it currently holds number 2 on the IMDb list.
*"The Godfather Part II" was voted best movie ever by "TV Guide" readers [ [http://www.filmsite.org/tvguide2.html 50 Greatest Movies from TV Guide ] ] in 1998 and is in fourth place on the IMDb list.
*"Cross of Iron" (1977) was voted the greatest film of all time by "Cinemag".Fact|date=June 2008
*"Schindler's List" was voted the best film ever made by the German film magazine "Cinema". [ [http://www.cinema.de/news/specials/m/magicmoments?object_id=434&artobj_id=1447 Magische Filmmomente Top 100 Filme anno 2000 News & Specials.Alle Specials ] ]
*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". [ [http://www.presseportal.de/pm/7841/623493/kabel_eins/ presseportal.de (german)] ] Its first film, ' (2001), was the pick of readers in a poll by "Empire" magazine in November 2004. The third film, ', was voted the best movie of all time by Yahoo movies and Movies.com's annual reader's poll in 2006 and 2007. "" is also the all-time top rated movie by boxofficemojo's user grades. [ [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/grades/?page=usergrades&p=.htm boxofficemojo user grades] ]
*"" (1977) was chosen by readers of "Empire" magazine in November 2001 and by voters in a Channel 4/"FilmFour" poll [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1676023.stm] . It was voted number one in the 2007 Empire "Greatest 100 Movies" poll. [ It was also voted number one on the Australian Program '20 to 1' "Magnificent Movies". [http://greatest.empireonline.com.au/index.php Greatest.Empireonline.com] ]
*"" (1980) was voted number one in Total Film's Top 100 Movies of All Time and number one in the 2006 Empire "Greatest Movies Ever" special. [ [http://www.totalfilm.com/features/total_film_presents_the_top_100_movies_of_all_time Total Film Presents the Top 100 Movies of All Time] ]

Particular genres or media

Action

*"Die Hard" (1988) was voted greatest action movie of all time by both "Entertainment Weekly" and music channel MTV2 and the best disaster movie by Channel 4. Fact|date=September 2008

Animation

*"Toy Story 2" (1999) topped a Rotten Tomatoes poll of the 50 best animated movies ever made. [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/guides/best_animated_films/toy_story_2/] ]
*"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). [ [http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com/pages/pr/top100animated Top 100 Animated Features of All Time] at the Online Film Critics Society website.]
*"Akira" (1988) was chosen as the top anime ever by "Anime Insider" in fall 2001.Fact|date=September 2008
*"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. [cite web
url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1460940,00.html
title= Sweet little mystery
accessdate= 2008-02-06
author= A. S. Byatt
date= 2005-04-16
work= Guardian Unlimited
quote= Tale of Tales has been called the greatest animated film ever. But what does it mean?] [cite web
url= http://context.themoscowtimes.com/print.php?aid=141447
title= Teller of Tales
accessdate= 2008-02-06
author= Malpas, Anna
date= 2005-04-08
work= The Moscow Times
quote= Some people consider Yury Norshtein the greatest animator in history]
*"What's Opera, Doc?" (1957), directed by Chuck Jones, was voted the greatest animated short of all time in animation historian Jerry Beck's 1994 poll of animators, film historians and directors. [Beck, Jerry (ed.) (1994). "The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals". Atlanta: Turner Publishing.]
*"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), was selected as the best American animated movie ever by the American Film Institute during their Ten Top Ten. Fact|date=September 2008

Comedy

*"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975) A 2004 poll by UK arm of Amazon and the Internet Movie Database named Monty Python and the Holy Grail as the best British comedy picture of all timeFact|date=September 2008
*"Monty Python's Life of Brian" (1979) was voted the greatest comedy ever in polls conducted by Total Film magazine in 2000, [cite web|title=Life of Brian tops comedy poll|publisher= BBC News|date=29 September 2000 | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/948331.stm|accessdate=2007-04-03] the British TV networks Channel 4 in 2006 [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4573444.stm BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Life of Brian named best comedy ] ] and Channel Five in 2007 [cite web|url=http://www.five.tv/programmes/greatestevermovies/countdown/?list=0|title=Channel Five "Greatest Ever Movies - Comedy"|accessdate=2008-10-09] , and The Guardian newspaper in 2007. [ [http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,2131880,00.html The last laugh: your favourite 50 | Features | guardian.co.uk Film ] ]
*"National Lampoon's Animal House" (1978) was voted #1 on the Bravo list of funniest movies of all time.Fact|date=September 2008
*"Some Like It Hot" (1959) was listed Best American Film Comedy by the American Film Institute in June 2000.Fact|date=September 2008
*"City Lights" (1931) was selected as the best American romantic comedy by the American Film Institute during their "Ten top Ten". [cite news | publisher = American Film Institute | title = AFI's 10 Top 10 | date = 2008-06-17 | url = http://www.afi.com/10top10/romanticcomedy.html | accessdate=2008-06-18]

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." [ [http://ae.freep.com/entertainment/ui/michigan/movie.html?id=61794&reviewId=8681 Movie: The Last Wltz] ] The review at "Total Film" comments "In what is rightly considered the greatest concert film ever shot...." [ [http://www.totalfilm.com/dvd_reviews/the_last_waltz The Last Waltz - Total Film] ] Rolling Stone dubbed it the greatest film about music ever made. Allmovie said that the film is "considered to be [one] of the best-looking and sounding rock films ever". [ [http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:28404 Allmovie: The LasztlaW t] ]
*"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."Fact|date=September 2008

Crime/Gangster

*"The Godfather" (1972) was selected as the best gangster movie by the American Film Institute during their Ten Top Ten.Fact|date=September 2008

Disaster

*"The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) was voted best disaster movie in a poll commissioned by UCI cinemas in May 2004. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3720347.stm Poseidon Adventure tops film poll] ]

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 [http://www.lib.cwu.edu/media/intnationaldoc20.htm 20 all-time favorite non-fiction films] selected by members of the International Documentary Association (IDA). [ [http://www.documentary.org Documentary.com] ]
*"Seven Up!" (1964) was voted as the greatest ever documentary in a Channel 4 poll of the 50 Greatest Documentaries in 2005.Fact|date=September 2008

Epic

*"Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) was voted best epic by readers of "Total Film" in May 2004. It was selected as the number one epic movie during the American Film Institute during their Ten Top Ten.Fact|date=September 2008

Fantasy

*"The Wizard of Oz" (1939) was selected as the best fantasy movie by the American Film Institute during their Ten Top Ten.Fact|date=September 2008

Horror

*"The Exorcist" (1973): Voted scariest movie of all time by "Entertainment Weekly" and "Movies.com".Fact|date=September 2008
*"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. Fact|date=September 2008

Musical

* "Singin' in the Rain" (1952) tops the American Film Institute's list of the 25 best American musicals of all time. [ [http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/musicals.aspx 25 Best Musicals] ]
* "West Side Story" (1961) was chosen as the best screen musical by readers of "The Observer" in a 2007 poll. [ [http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2007/02/19/west_side_story_tops_best_movie_musical_/ West Side Story Tops Best Movie Musical] ]

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, [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1039001,00.html Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's favourite film propagandist, dies at 101 | World news | The Guardian ] ] 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.Fact|date=September 2008

cience fiction

*"" (1968) tops the Online Film Critics Society list of greatest science fiction films of all time. [cite web | title="2001: A Space Odyssey" Named the Greatest Sci-Fi Film of All Time By the Online Film Critics Society" | publisher=Online Film Critics Society | url=http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com/pages/pr/top100scifi | accessdate=2006-12-15] It is also the only science fiction film to make the Sight and Sound poll for ten best movies and was selected as the best ever Sci-Fi film by the American Film Institute during their Ten Top Ten.
*"Blade Runner" (1982) was voted the best science fiction film by a panel of scientists assembled by the British newspaper "The Guardian" in 2004. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1290823,00.html Scientists vote Blade Runner best sci-fi film of all time] ]
*"E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) topped a Rotten Tomatoes poll of the 100 best Science Fiction movies ever made. [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/features/special/2007/scifi/?r=1&mid=1006389 ET named top Sci-Fi Movie] ]

Mystery

*" Vertigo" was selected as the best mystery by the American Film Institute during their Ten Top Ten.

uperhero/Comic book adaptations

*"The Dark Knight" (2008) holds the top spot at Yahoo! Movies as of October 9th, 2008. [cite web|url=http://movies.yahoo.com/mvc/top10|title=Yahoo! Movies - Top 10|accessdate=2008-10-09]

*"Spider-Man 2" (2004) was selected the number one comic-to-cinema adaption in a poll of critics at rottentomatoes.com. [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/features/special/2007/comic/?r=1&mid=1133520 Comix Worst to Best] ] and was named as the greatest superhero movie ever made by film critic Roger Ebert.

port

*"Murderball" (2005) was number 1 on the Rotten Tomatoes countdown of the top sports movies. [cite web| title = Rotten Tomatoes Best Sports Films | publisher = Rottentomatoes.com | url = http://www.rottentomatoes.com/features/special/2007/top_sports/?r=1&mid=1003249| accessdate = 2007-09-13]
*"Raging Bull" (1980) was selected as the best ever sports film by the American Film Institute during their 10 Top 10.

War

*"Saving Private Ryan" (1998) was voted as the greatest war film in a 2008 Channel 4 poll of the 100 greatest war films. [cite web| title = 100 Greatest War Films| publisher = Channel4.com| url = http://www.channel4.com/film/newsfeatures/microsites/W/greatest_warfilms/results/5-1.html| accessdate = 2008-04-02]
* "Cross of Iron" (1977) by Sam Peckinpah was voted greatest war film of all time by "Sightsense" magazine in 1983 for its portrayal of Germans and the battles on the Eastern Front in 1943.Fact|date=September 2008

Western

*"The Searchers" was selected as the number one western by the American Film Institute during their Ten Top Ten. (See also: films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers above).

Countries

Australia

*"Mad Max" (1979): voted the best Australian film ever by the Australian Film Institute. Nominated for four Australian Film Institute Awards.Fact|date=March 2008
*"Picnic at Hanging Rock" (1975): voted No. 1 of the Top 10 best-ever Australian films at 1995 centenary of Australian cinema. [ [http://www.moria.co.nz/fantasy/hangingrock.htm Hanging Rock] ]

Belgium

*"Man Bites Dog" (1992): voted the best Belgian film on Moviemeter.nl, followed by Le Couperet, The Memory of a Killer, Toto the Hero and Ben X.Fact|date=September 2008
*"Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles": voted the best Belgian film on the They Shoot Pictures site (no. 142 in the Top 250).Fact|date=September 2008

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". [cite web
url= http://www.contracampo.com.br/27/frames.htm
title= contracampo - revista de cinema
accessdate= 2008-02-06
author= Tose, Juliano
date=
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language= Portuguese]