AFI's
100 Heroes & Villains

America's 100 Greatest
Virtuous Heroes
and Wicked Villains

The 400 Nominees

The American Film Institute's (AFI) sixth polling, 100 Heroes & Villains, again celebrated American cinema, and revealed America’s 100 greatest good and bad guys/gals (50 of each), as chosen by voters - a jury of 1,500 directors, actors, screenwriters, critics, historians and others. The AFI left the judgment calls to jurors about the categorization of virtuous heroes and wicked villains, advising them only to not vote for a character as both. The results were unveiled in a three-hour television special broadcast by CBS in June 2003.

The ballot of 400 nominated films (starting below) was the basis for the selected heroes/villains, either fact-based or fantastically-fictional, according to the following criteria:

• Hero - Sometimes mythic figures, sometimes ordinary people who prevail in extreme circumstances, heroes dramatize a sense of morality, courage and purpose often lacking in our everyday world. Heroes do what is good, just and right; and even though they may be ambiguous or flawed characters, they often sacrifice themselves to show humanity at its best and most humane. For voting purposes, AFI defined a "hero" as a single character, a duo or a team of characters.
  
  
• Villain - Characters that movie goers love to hate - and hate to love. Villains are characters whose wickedness of mind, selfishness of character and will to power are sometimes masked by beauty and nobility. Others rage unmasked. Daring the worst to gain the most, the movie villains we remember best can be horrifically evil, merely sleazy or grandiosely funny, but are usually complex, moving and tragic. For voting purposes, AFI defined a "villain" as a single character, a duo or a team of characters.
  
  
• Cultural Impact - Characters that have made a mark on American society in matters of style and substance.
  
  
• Legacy - Characters that elicit strong reactions across time, enriching America's film heritage and inspiring artists and audiences today.
  
  
• Feature Length Feature Films - Only feature-length American films released before January 1, 2002 were considered. AFI defined a feature-length film as a motion picture of narrative format that is typically over 60 minutes in length. AFI defined an American film as an English language film with significant creative and/or financial production elements from the United States.
  

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films.