10 Best Films of All Time

by Sight & Sound Magazine

Sight & Sound Best Films Sight & Sound Magazine, every ten years since 1952, has published the results of their pollings of the world's leading film critics, to compile a list of the Ten Best Films of All Time.

Facts and Commentary About the List:

  • 145 film critics, writers and academics, and 108 film directors were asked to determine which films stood the test of time in the face of shifting critical opinion. See more information here at the BFI/Sight & Sound website.
  • Filmsite has compiled results of the British film magazine's polling, and published them below.
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".



10 Best 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*
* Ranking from #1 to #10 based upon total number of votes received in that year's polling
6 Appearances in Top 10:
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
(Sergei Eisenstein)
USSR
# 4
# 6
# 3
# 6
# 6
# 7
La Regle du Jeu (1939)
(Jean Renoir)
FR
# 10
# 3
# 2
# 2
# 2
# 3
 
 
 
 
       
5 Appearances in Top 10:
Citizen Kane (1941)
(Orson Welles)
US
 
# 1
# 1
# 1
# 1
# 1
 
 
 
 
       
4 Appearances in Top 10:
none
 
 
 
       
 
 
 
 
       
3 Appearances in Top 10:
L'Avventura (1960)
(Michelangelo Antonioni)
IT
 
# 2
# 5
# 7
 
 
8 1/2 (1963)
(Federico Fellini)
IT
 
 
# 4
# 5
 
# 9
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
(Carl Theodor Dreyer)
FR
# 7
 
# 7
 
# 6
 
Vertigo (1958)
(Alfred Hitchcock)
US
 
 
 
# 7
# 4
# 2
 
 
 
 
       
2 Appearances in Top 10:
L'Atalante (1934)
(Jean Vigo)
FR
 
# 10
 
 
# 6
 
The Bicycle Thief (1949)
(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 Searchers (1956)
(John Ford)
US
 
 
 
#10
# 5
 
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
(Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen)
US
 
 
 
# 3
 
# 10
Tokyo Story (1953)
(Yasujiro Ozu)
JP
 
 
 
 
# 3
# 5
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
(Stanley Kubrick)
UK
 
 
 
 
# 10
# 6
Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)
(Kenji Mizoguchi)
JP
 
# 4
# 10
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
       
1 Appearance in Top 10:
 
 
 
       
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
 
 
 
 
 
Intolerance (1916)
(D.W. Griffith)
US
# 5
 
 
 
 
 
Ivan the Terrible (1943-1946)
(Sergei Eisenstein)
USSR
 
# 7
 
 
 
 
Le Jour Se Leve (1939)
(Marcel Carne)
FR
# 7
 
 
 
 
 
Louisiana Story (1947)
(Robert Flaherty)
US
# 5
 
 
 
 
 
Le Million (1930)
(Rene Clair)
FR
# 10
 
 
 
 
 
Pather Panchali (1955)
(Satyajit Ray)
IN
 
 
 
 
# 6
 
Persona (1967)
(Ingmar Bergman)
SW
 
 
# 5
 
 
 
The Seven Samurai (1954)
(Akira Kurosawa)
JP
 
 
 
# 3
 
 
Sunrise (1927)
(F. W. Murnau)
US
 
 
 
 
 
# 7
La Terra Trema (1948)
(Luchino Visconti)
IT
 
# 9
 
 
 
 
Wild Strawberries (1957) (Ingmar Bergman)
SW
 
 
# 10
 
 
 


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