The American Film Institute (AFI) of Los Angeles, California inaugurated a 100 Years... Series to "celebrate, commemorate, and recognize the very best in American Cinema's first 100 years."

Their first effort was the much-debated 1998 list: 100 Years ... 100 Movies - a "definitive selection of the 100 greatest American movies of all time, as determined by more than 1,500 leaders from the American film community." On their 10th Anniversary, AFI re-did their 100 Greatest American Films list. See below:

In subsequent years, the AFI has also produced other lists:

The Academy Awards®, affectionately known as the Oscars®, have been presented annually since 1927 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Best Picture is one of the original categories of the awards, although it was named Best Production until the 1932/33 awards.

This site has a Complete History - year by year - of the Academy Awards, with facts, trivia, records, and Best Picture posters.

TV Guide Magazine offered their picks for the perfect flicks to catch on television or pop into one's VCR (or DVD). From hundreds of the magazine's four-star titles, they chose the movies that play particularly well on the small screen and hold up to repeated viewings.

Empire Magazine
100 Greatest Movies of All Time

• October, 1999 issue
• March, 2004 issue (updated for the year 2003)

Movieline Magazine selected the 100 Best Movies Ever Made (from silents to Spielberg) in their December 1995 issue - 100 of the all-time greatest English-language films.

In its October 1998 newstand issue, Premiere Magazine presented "Rebel Cinema" or 100 Movies That Shook the World, celebrating the filmmakers (and their films) who dared to be ridiculous, offensive, or even unpopular, and who still came up with classic films.

FilmFour's
100 Greatest Films of All Time

UK's Channel4 created a ranked list of a wide range of some of the most innovative, popular and striking films across all major genres, with special consideration of their appeal and significance to a modern British audience. The list aimed to include films that are generally considered as classics of cinema, broke new ground in technique, subject matter or ideas, had phenomenal popular appeal and a lasting impact on popular culture and represent the greatest work of cinema's most respected directors and performers.

Early in 1999, the British Film Institute produced a selection booklet and sent copies to 1,000 people embracing all strands of the film, cinema and television industries throughout the UK - producers, directors, writers, actors, technicians, academics, exhibitors, distributors, executives and critics. Participants were asked to consider (and vote for up to 100) 'culturally British' feature films, released in cinemas during the 20th century, which they felt had made a strong and lasting impression. The final selection spans seven decades, from 1935 to 1998, accommodates the work of 70 film directors and much international talent.

Entertainment Weekly's 100 Greatest Movies of All Time, a hardcover guide published in 1999, celebrated films that can't be forgotten, that "help us understand and define who we are." The final list was whittled down from a preliminary collection of 500 nominated choices, excluding short films, documentaries, or any movies from the previous five years.

Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 2000 contained the exclusive list of the author's 100 Must-See Films of the 20th Century - an excellent starting point for film viewing. As the leading film historian and critic Maltin admits, "these are not the only great films of the century, or the only ones worth seeing."

In 1988, the Library of Congress established the National Film Preservation Board to preserve 25 films each year to add to the National Film Registry. As of 2004, there were 400 films selected. The films that are selected must meet two criteria: they must be culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant and they must be at least ten years old.

This list was taken from The Video Detective's pocket-sized guide published in 1997 and written by Jim Riffel with a suggested list of both its top 1000 films and 100 films of all-time for its readers, to provide advice on renting videos.

Rankings of Box-Office blockbusters have been compiled from various recent sources, regularly updated. In the unadjusted (for inflation) list of box office-champs, few films that are classics or films from Hollywood's Golden Era are included in a top-heavy list of recent films. The adjusted list takes into account inflationary factors such as ticket prices and any re-issues or re-releases, and is more reflective of the film's actual appeal.