The 10 Greatest Films of All Time

by Sight & Sound Magazine

Sight & Sound Magazine, every ten years since 1952, has published the results of their pollings of the world's leading film critics who were each asked to compile a list of the ten greatest films of all time. As a qualification of what 'greatest' meant, Sight & Sound's recent invitation letter stated to the participants in the polling: "We leave that open to your interpretation. You might choose the ten films you feel are most important to film history, or the ten that represent the aesthetic pinnacles of achievement, or indeed the ten films that have had the biggest impact on your own view of cinema."

Thus, the compiled critics' lists determined which films stood the test of time in the face of shifting critical opinion. Ultimately, a list of the critics' Top 100 films was determined based upon all of the votes. Below, only the top 10 films are reflected from the latest 2022 voting polls and from each previous decade.



10 Greatest Films of All Time Polls
by Sight & Sound Magazine
(by number of appearances in top 10, alphabetical order,
including the top-ten ranking within each decade's poll)

 Number of Appearances in Top Ten Poll, Film Title, Year, Director
 NAT
1952
Rank*
1962
Rank*
1972
Rank*
1982
Rank*
1992
Rank*
2002
Rank*
2012
Rank*
2022
Rank*
* Ranking from # 1 to # 10 based upon total number of votes received in that year's polling
7 Appearances in Top 10:
La Regle du Jeu (1939)
(Jean Renoir)
FR
# 10
# 3
# 2
# 2
# 2
# 3
# 4
Citizen Kane (1941)
(Orson Welles)
US
 
# 1
# 1
# 1
# 1
# 1
# 2
# 3
 
 
 
 
         
6 Appearances in Top 10:
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
(Sergei Eisenstein)
USSR
# 4
# 6
# 3
# 6
# 6
# 7
 
 
 
 
 
         
5 Appearances in Top 10:
Vertigo (1958)
(Alfred Hitchcock)
US
 
 
 
# 7
# 4
# 2
# 1
# 2
 
 
 
 
         
4 Appearances in Top 10:
8 1/2 (1963)
(Federico Fellini)
IT
 
 
# 4
# 5
 
# 9
# 10
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
(Carl Theodor Dreyer)
FR
# 7
 
# 7
 
# 6
 
# 9
Tokyo Story (1953)
(Yasujiro Ozu)
JP
 
 
 
 
# 3
# 5
# 3
# 4
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
(Stanley Kubrick)
UK
 
 
 
 
# 10
# 6
# 6
# 6
 
 
 
 
         
3 Appearances in Top 10:
L'Avventura (1960)
(Michelangelo Antonioni)
IT
 
# 2
# 5
# 7
 
   
The Searchers (1956)
(John Ford)
US
 
 
 
#10
# 5
 
# 7
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
(Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen)
US
 
 
 
# 3
 
# 10
 
# 10
 
 
 
 
         
2 Appearances in Top 10:
L'Atalante (1934)
(Jean Vigo)
FR
 
# 10
 
 
# 6
   
The Bicycle Thief (1948)
(Vittorio De Sica)
IT
# 1
# 7
 
 
 
   
The General (1927)
(Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman)
US
 
 
# 8
# 10
 
   
Greed (1924)
(Erich von Stroheim)
US
# 7
# 4
 
 
 
   
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
(Orson Welles)
US
 
 
# 8
# 7
 
   
The Man With a Movie Camera (1929)
(Dziga Vertov)
USSR
           
# 8
# 9
Sunrise (1927)
(F. W. Murnau)
US
 
 
 
 
 
# 7
# 5
Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)
(Kenji Mizoguchi)
JP
 
# 4
# 10
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
         
1 Appearance in Top 10:
 
 
 
         
Beau Travail (1999)
(Claire Denis)
FR
             
# 7
Brief Encounter (1945)
(David Lean)
UK
# 10
 
 
 
 
   
City Lights (1931)
(Charles Chaplin)
US
# 2
 
 
 
 
   
The Godfather (1972) and
The Godfather Part II (1974)
(Francis Ford Coppola)
US
 
 
 
 
 
# 4
 
The Gold Rush (1925)
(Charles Chaplin)
US
# 2
 
 
 
 
   
In the Mood for Love (2000)
(Wong Kar-wai)
HK/FR
             
# 5
Intolerance (1916)
(D.W. Griffith)
US
# 5
 
 
 
 
   
Ivan the Terrible (1945-1946)
(Sergei Eisenstein)
USSR
 
# 7
 
 
 
   
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
(Chantal Akerman)
BELG/FR
             
# 1
Le Jour Se Leve (1939)
(Marcel Carne)
FR
# 7
 
 
 
 
   
Louisiana Story (1947)
(Robert Flaherty)
US
# 5
 
 
 
 
   
Le Million (1930)
(Rene Clair)
FR
# 10
 
 
 
 
   
Mulholland Dr (2001)
(David Lynch)
US
             
# 8
Pather Panchali (1955)
(Satyajit Ray)
IN
 
 
 
 
# 6
   
Persona (1967)
(Ingmar Bergman)
SW
 
 
# 5
 
 
   
The Seven Samurai (1954)
(Akira Kurosawa)
JP
 
 
 
# 3
 
   
La Terra Trema (1948)
(Luchino Visconti)
IT
 
# 9
 
 
 
   
Wild Strawberries (1957)
(Ingmar Bergman)
SW
 
 
# 10
 
 
   


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