Kicking the Canon
—The Film Canon—

A Note on Selection and Organization Criteria

The films in our canon were categorized according to the year of their U.S. theatrical release and the distributor behind it — except in cases where a.) the time between the film’s international release and its U.S. one exceeded five years, or b.) the film never received any U.S. theatrical release. Those films were instead categorized by the year of their earliest, at least semi-verifiable theatrical release (or otherwise first public exhibition, in the absence of any contemporaneous theatrical release, such as was the with Killer of Sheep), and the distributor behind it (if available). This also means that music videos, YouTube content, television series, etc., could be excluded with fair reason — a line had to be drawn somewhere. Generally, films were selected for this canon based on their critical regard, their subject matter, their historical relevance, and/or popularity. As such, not all films in our canon are great, or even necessarily good. They are, however, in our estimation, important: worthy of time from any discerning viewer who seeks to understand and appreciate the medium.

The 2000s

2009

  1. Silent Light / Carlos Reygadas (Palisades Tartan)
  2. Inglourious Basterds / Quentin Tarantino (The Weinstein Company)
  3. Antichrist / Lars Von Trier (IFC)
  4. Red Cliff / John Woo (Magnolia)
  5. Avatar / James Cameron (20th Century Fox)
  6. The Headless Woman / Lucrecia Martel (Strand Releasing)
  7. Two Lovers / James Gray (Magnolia)
  8. Summer Hours / Olivier Assayas (IFC)
  9. Afterschool / Antonio Campos (IFC)
  10. The Fantastic Mr. Fox / Wes Anderson (20th Century Fox)
  11. The Hurt Locker / Kathryn Bigelow (Summit Entertainment)
  12. Bright Star / Jane Campion (Apparition)
  13. Night and Day / Hong Sang-soo (IFC)
  14. Of Time and the City / Terence Davies (Strand Releasing)
  15. Watchmen / Zack Snyder (Warner Bros.)
  16. Police, Adjective / Corneliu Porumboiu (IFC)
  17. 35 Shots of Rum / Claire Denis (The Cinema Guild)
  18. The Sun / Aleksandr Sokurov (Lorber HT Digital)
  19. Shirin / Abbas Kiarostami
  20. 24 City / Jia Zhang-ke (The Cinema Guild)
  21. Crank: High Voltage / Brian Taylor & Mark Neveldine (Lionsgate)
  22. A Serious Man / Joel Coen (Focus Features)
  23. Paranormal Activity / Oren Peli (Paramount)
  24. Halloween II / Rob Zombie (Dimension)
  25. Sita Sings the Blues / Nina Paley (GKIDS)
  26. It Felt Like a Kiss / Adam Curtis
  27. Tokyo Sonata / Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Regent)
  28. Liverpool / Lisandro Alonso (The Match Factory)
  29. Face / Tsai Ming-liang (?)
  30. Home / Ursula Meier (Lorber Films)

2008

  1. Che / Steven Soderbergh (IFC)
  2. The Dark Knight / Christopher Nolan (Warner Bros.)
  3. Hunger / Steve McQueen (IFC)
  4. Let the Right One In / Tomas Alfredson (Magnet)
  5. Wall-E / Andrew Stanton (Disney)
  6. Rachel Getting Married / Jonathan Demme (Sony Pictures Classics)
  7. Speed Racer / Wachowskis (Warner Bros.)
  8. The Flight of the Red Balloon / Hou Hsiao-hsien (IFC)
  9. The Class / Laurent Cantet (Sony Pictures Classics)
  10. Woman on the Beach / Hong Sang-soo (New Yorker)
  11. The Secret of the Grain / Abdellatif Kechiche (IFC)
  12. Still Life / Jia Zhang-ke (New Yorker)
  13. Paranoid Park / Gus Van Sant (IFC)
  14. Step Brothers / Adam McKay (Sony)
  15. Twilight / Catherine Hardwicke (Summit Entertainment)
  16. My Winnipeg / Guy Maddin (IFC)
  17. The Duchess of Langeais / Jacques Rivette (IFC)
  18. Boarding Gate / Olivier Assayas (Magnolia)
  19. Summer Palace / Lou Ye (Palm Pictures)
  20. Sparrow / Johnnie To (Universe Entertainment)
  21. A Christmas Tale / Arnaud Desplechin (IFC)
  22. Timecrimes / Nacho Vigalando (Magnolia)
  23. Martyrs / Pascal Laugier (Wild Bunch)
  24. The Strangers / Bryan Bertino (Universal)
  25. RR  / James Benning (CalArts/Films)
  26. In the City of Sylvia / Jose Luis Guerin (New Yorker)
  27. La France / Serge Bozon (Kino Intl.)
  28. Lost in Beijing / Li Yu (New Yorker)
  29. All Around Us / Ryosuke Hashiguchi (Bitters End)
  30. Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind / John Gianvito (Watchmaker)

2007

  1. Zodiac / David Fincher (Paramount)
  2. Michael Clayton / Tony Gilroy (Warner Bros.)
  3. Black Book / Paul Verhoeven (Sony Pictures Classics)
  4. Syndromes and a Century / Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Strand)
  5. Grindhouse / Various Directors (Dimension)
  6. There Will Be Blood / Paul Thomas Anderson (Paramount)
  7. No Country for Old Men / Joel Coen (Miramax)
  8. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks / Wang Bing (Ad Vitam)
  9. Bamako / Abderrahmane Sissako (New Yorker)
  10. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford / Andrew Dominik (Warner Bros.)
  11. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days / Cristian Mungiu (IFC)
  12. Colossal Youth / Pedro Costa (Equation)
  13. Exiled / Johnnie To (Magnolia)
  14. The Host / Bong Joon-ho (Magnolia)
  15. Superbad / Greg Mottola (Sony)
  16. We Own the Night / James Gray (Columbia)
  17. Day Night Day Night / Julia Loktev (IFC)
  18. The Wayward Cloud / Tsai Ming-Liang (Strand)
  19. Southland Tales / Richard Kelly (Samuel Goldwyn/Destination)
  20. At Sea / Peter Hutton (?)
  21. Offside / Jafar Panahi (Sony Pictures Classics)
  22. Longing / Valeska Grisebach (Rommel)
  23. Hannah Takes the Stairs / Joe Swanberg (IFC)
  24. The Darjeeling Limited / Wes Anderson (Fox Searchlight)
  25. Time / Kim Ki-duk (Lifesize Entertainment)
  26. Rec / Jaume Balaguero & Paco Plaza (Sony)
  27. All is Forgiven / Mia Hansen-Love (?)
  28. The Bourne Ultimatum / Paul Greengrass (Universal)
  29. Bug / William Friedkin (Lionsgate)
  30. How to Become Myself / Jun Ichikawa (?)

2006

  1. L’Enfant / Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne (Sony Pictures Classics)
  2. Letters from Iwo Jima / Clint Eastwood (Warnes Bros.)
  3. Dave Chapelle’s Block Party / Michel Gondry (Rogue Pictures)
  4. Inland Empire / David Lynch (518 Media/Absurda)
  5. Borat / Larry Charles (20th Century Fox)
  6. Miami Vice / Michael Mann (Universal)
  7. Children of Men / Alfonso Cuaron (Universal)
  8. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu / Cristi Puiu (Tartan USA)
  9. Old Joy / Kelly Reichardt (Kino Intl.)
  10. Pan’s Labyrinth / Guillermo del Toro (Warner Bros.)
  11. The Prestige / Christopher Nolan (Buena Vista)
  12. Marie Antoinette / Sofia Coppola (Sony)
  13. Three Times / Hou Hsiao-hsien (IFC)
  14. A Prairie Home Companion / Robert Altman (Picturehouse/New Line)
  15. The Departed / Martin Scorsese (Warner Bros.)
  16. Déjà vu / Tony Scott (Buena Vista)
  17. Inside Man / Spike Lee (Universal)
  18. Volver / Pedro Almodovar (Sony Pictures Classics)
  19. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance / Park Chan-wook (Tartan)
  20. Linda Linda Linda / Nobuhiro Yamashita (Viz)
  21. Brick / Rian Johnson (Focus Features)
  22. Idiocracy / Mike Judge (20th Century Fox)
  23. Click / Frank Coraci (Sony)
  24. Oxhide / Liu Jiayin (?)
  25. Mountain Patrol / Lu Chuan (IDP)
  26. The Proposition / John Hillcoat (First Look Intl.)
  27. Casino Royale / Martin Campbell (Sony)
  28. Fireworks Wednesday / Asghar Farhadi (Dreamlab)
  29. Om Shanti Om / Farah Khan (Eros Intl.)
  30. Pudh Pettai / Selvaraghavan (Parasakthi)

2005

  1. Tropical Malady / Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Strand)
  2. The New World / Terrence Malick (New Line)
  3. The Best of Youth / Marco Tullio Giordana (Miramax)
  4. Oldboy / Park Chan-wook (Tartan)
  5. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith / George Lucas (20th Century Fox)
  6. Brokeback Mountain / Ang Lee (Focus Features)
  7. A History of Violence / David Cronenberg (New Line)
  8. Pulse /  Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Magnolia)
  9. Cache / Michael Haneke (Sony Pictures Classics)
  10. Memories of Murder / Bong Joon-ho (Palm Pictures)
  11. The Squid and the Whale / Noah Baumbach (Samuel Goldwyn/Sony)
  12. Regular Lovers / Philippe Garrel (Ad Vitam)
  13. The Descent / Neil Marshall (Pathé Distribution)
  14. The World / Jia Zhang-ke (Zeitgeist)
  15. The Devil’s Rejects / Rob Zombie (Lionsgate)
  16. Grizzly Man / Werner Herzog (Lionsgate)
  17. The Holy Girl / Lucrecia Martel (Fine Line)
  18. Kung Fu Hustle / Stephen Chow (Song Pictures Classics)
  19. The Forest for the Trees / Maren Ade (Film Movement)
  20. 2046 / Wong Kar-wai (Sony Pictures Classics)
  21. Innocence / Lucile Hadzihalilovic (Leisure Time)
  22. Kings and Queen / Arnaud Desplechin (Wellspring Media)
  23. Mysterious Skin / Gregg Araki (Tartan/TLA)
  24. Nobody Knows / Hirokazu Kore-eda (IFC)
  25. Funny Ha Ha / Andrew Bujalski (Goodbye Cruel/Wellspring)
  26. Throw Down / Johnnie To (Tai Seng)
  27. The Evolution of a Filipino Family / Lav Diaz)
  28. Princess Raccoon / Seijun Suzuki (?)
  29. Who’s Camus Anyways? / Mitsuo Yanagimachi (Film Movement)
  30. Vibrator / Ryuichi Hiroki (?)

2004

  1. Los Angeles Plays Itself / Thom Andersen (Submarine Entertainment)
  2. Before Sunset / Richard Linklater (Warner Independent)
  3. Dogville / Lars Von Trier (Lionsgate)
  4. Hero / Zhang Yimou (Miramax)
  5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind / Michel Gondry (Focus Features)
  6. The Brown Bunny / Vincent Gallo (Wellspring)
  7. Bad Education / Pedro Almodovar (?)
  8. Birth / Jonathan Glazer (New Line)
  9. Primer / Shane Carruth (THINKfilm/IFC)
  10. Goodbye, Dragon Inn / Tsai Ming-Liang (Wellspring)
  11. Sideways / Alexander Payne (Fox Searchlight)
  12. Star Spangled to Death / Ken Jacobs  (?)
  13. The Village / M. Night Shyamalan (Buena Vista)
  14. Oasis / Lee Chang-dong (Lifesize Entertainment)
  15. Million Dollar Baby / Clint Eastwood (Warner Bros.)
  16. Our Music / Jean-Luc Godard (Wellspring)
  17. The Return / Andrey Zvyagintsev (Kino Intl.)
  18. Distant / Nuri Bilge Ceylan (New Yorker)
  19. Shaun of the Dead / Edgar Wright (Rogue)
  20. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban / Alfonso Cuaron (Warner Bros.)
  21. Infernal Affairs / Alan Mok & Andrew Lau (Miramax)
  22. Kill Bill: Volume 2 / Quentin Tarantino (Miramax)
  23. Moolaade / Ousmane Sembene (New Yorker)
  24. House of Flying Daggers / Zhang Yimou (Sony Pictures Classics)
  25. The Passion of the Christ / Mel Gibson (Icon)
  26. A Talking Picture / Manoel de Oliveira (?)
  27. S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine / Rithy Panh (First Run Features)
  28. Twentynine Palms / Bruno Dumont (Wellspring)
  29. Blissfully Yours / Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Plexifilm)
  30. Trust Me, I’m Here / Farah Khan (Eros Intl.)

2003

  1. Lost in Translation / Sofia Coppola (Focus Features)
  2. In the Cut / Jane Campion (Screen Gems)
  3. Irreversible / Gaspar Noe (Lionsgate)
  4. The Son / Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne (New Yorker)
  5. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King / Peter Jackson (New Line)
  6. Elephant / Gus Van Sant (Fine Line)
  7. Demonlover / Olivier Assayas (Palm Pictures)
  8. The Company / Robert Altman (Sony Pictures Classics)
  9. Platform / Jia Zhang-ke (Empire)
  10. Finding Nemo / Andrew Stanton (Buena Vista)
  11. Kill Bill: Volume 1 / Quentin Tarantino (Miramax)
  12. Ichi the Killer / Takashi Miike (Media Blasters)
  13. Millennium Mambo / Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Palm Pictures)
  14. Down With Love / Peyton Reed (20th Century Fox)
  15. The Room / Tommy Wiseau (Chloe / TPW)
  16. Mystic River / Clint Eastwood (Warner Bros.)
  17. Come and Go / João César Monteiro (Gemini Films)
  18. Master and Commander: Far Side of the World / Peter Weir (20th Century Fox)
  19. The Man Without a Past / Aki Kaurismaki (Sony Pictures Classics)
  20. La Commune (Paris, 1871) / Peter Watkins (First Run)
  21. Pistol Opera / Seijun Suzuki (Media Blasters)
  22. Millennium Actress / Satoshi Kon (Go Fish)
  23. Ten / Abbas Kiarostami (Zeitgeist)
  24. Gerry / Gus Van Sant (THINKfilm)
  25. An Injury to One / Travis Wilkerson (Icarus)
  26. Unknown Pleasures / Jia Zhang-ke (New Yorker)
  27. Bad Santa / Terry Zwigoff (Dimension)
  28. Decasia / Bill Morrison (Icarus)
  29. The Story of Marie and Julien / Jacques Rivette (Les Films du Losange)
  30. Blue Gate Crossing / Yee Chin-yen (Strand)

2002

  1. Russian Ark / Aleksandr Sokurov (Wellspring)
  2. Spirited Away / Hayao Miyazaki (Disney)
  3. Y Tu Mama Tambien / Alfonso Cuaron (IFC)
  4. Morvern Callar / Lynne Ramsey (Palisades Pictures)
  5. Gangs of New York / Martin Scorsese (Buena Vista)
  6. 25th Hour / Spike Lee (Buena Vista)
  7. Talk to Her / Pedro Almodovar (Sony Pictures Classics)
  8. Adaptation / Spike Jonze (Sony)
  9. What Time is It There? / Tsai Ming-liang (WinStar)
  10. Femme Fatale / Brian de Palma (Warner Bros.)
  11. In Praise of Love / Jean-Luc Godard (Manhattan Pictures Intl.)
  12. The Pianist  / Roman Polanski (Focus Features)
  13. On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate / Hong Sang-soo)
  14. Far from Heaven / Todd Haynes (Focus Features)
  15. Minority Report / Steven Spielberg (20th Century Fox)
  16. Esther Kahn / Arnaud Desplechin (Empire)
  17. Time Out / Laurent Cantet (THINKfilm)
  18. Hush! / Ryosuke Hashiguchi (Strand)
  19. All About Lily Chou-Chou / Shunji Iwai (Cowboy Pictures)
  20. The Piano Teacher / Michael Haneke (Kino Intl.)
  21. Punch-Drunk Love / Paul Thomas Anderson (Sony)
  22. Beijing Bicycle / Wang Xiaoshuai (Sony Pictures Classics)
  23. Late Marriage / Dover Koshashvili (Magnolia)
  24. A New Life / Philippe Grandrieux (Mars)
  25. *Corpus Callosum / Michael Snow (Canyon Cinema)
  26. Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India / Ashutosh Gowariker (Sony Pictures Classics)
  27. Devils on the Doorstep / Jiang Wen (Cowboy Pictures)
  28. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner / Zacharias Kunuk (Lot 47)
  29. Bowling for Columbine / Michael Moore (MGM)
  30. Harmful Insect / Akihiko Shiota (Nikkatsu)

2001

  1. Mulholland Drive / David Lynch (Universal)
  2. In the Mood for Love / Wong Kar-wai (USA Films)
  3. As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of … / Jonas Mekas (Canyon Cinema)
  4. Werckmeister Harmonies / Bela Tarr (Menemsha)
  5. A.I. / Steven Spielberg (Warner Brothers)
  6. Trouble Every Day / Claire Denis (Film Desk)
  7. The Royal Tenenbaums / Wes Anderson (Buena Vista)
  8. Hedwig and the Angry Inch / John Cameron Mitchell (New Line)
  9. Fat Girl / Catherine Breillat (Cowboy)
  10. Memento / Christopher Nolan (Newmarket)
  11. Audition / Takashi Miike (Vitagraph)
  12. Wet Hot American Summer / David Wain (USA Films)
  13. Moulin Rouge! / Baz Luhrmann (20th Century Fox)
  14. Waking Life / Richard Linklater (Fox Searchlight)
  15. The Man Who Wasn’t There / Joel Coen (USA Films)
  16. Donnie Darko / Richard Kelly (Newmarket)
  17. Ginger Snaps / John Fawcett (Lionsgate)
  18. In Vanda’s Room / Pedro Costa (Gemini)
  19. Cure / Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cowboy)
  20. Suicide Club / Sion Sono (Daiei)
  21. Songs from the Second Floor / Roy Andersson (New Yorker)
  22. La Ciénaga / Lucrecia Martel (Cowboy)
  23. Va savoir / Jacques Rivette (Sony Pictures Classics)
  24. Eureka / Shinji Aoyama (Shooting Gallery)
  25. Freddy Got Fingered / Tom Green (20th Century Fox)
  26. The Gleaners & I / Agnes Varda (Zeitgeist)
  27. La Libertad / Lisandro Alonso (Distribution Co.)
  28. Tears of the Black Tiger / Wisit Sasanatieng (?)
  29. Ghost World / Terry Zwigoff (United Artists)
  30. That Old Dream that Moves / Alain Guiraudie (Magouric)

2000

  1. Yi Yi / Edward Yang (WinStar)
  2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon / Ang Lee (Sony Pictures Classics)
  3. Beau Travail / Claire Denis (Sony Pictures Classics)
  4. Dancer in the Dark / Lars Von Trier (Fine Line)
  5. Gladiator / Ridley Scott (Dreamworks)
  6. The House of Mirth / Terence Davies (New Yorker)
  7. The Virgin Suicides / Sofia Coppola (Paramount)
  8. The Wind Will Carry Us / Abbas Kiarostami (New Yorker)
  9. L’Humanite / Bruno Dumont (WinStar)
  10. Bamboozled / Spike Lee (New Line)
  11. Requiem for a Dream / Darren Aronofsky (Artisan)
  12. George Washington / David Gordon Green (Cowboy)
  13. Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai / Jim Jarmusch (Artisan)
  14. Ratcatcher / Lynne Ramsay (First Look)
  15. American Psycho / Mary Harron (Lionsgate)
  16. Battle Royale / Kinji Fukasaku (Toei)
  17. You Can Count on Me / Kenneth Lonergan (Paramount Classics)
  18. Best in Show / Christopher Guest (Warner Bros.)
  19. The Captive / Chantal Akerman (Gemini)
  20. Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors / Hong Sang-soo (Buena Vista Korea)
  21. Peppermint Candy / Lee Chang-dong (Cineclick Asia)
  22. O’ Brother Where Art Thou? / Joel Coen (Buena Vista)
  23. Time Regained / Raul Ruiz (Kino Intl.)
  24. Pola X / Leos Carax (WinStar)
  25. Taboo / Nagisa Ôshima (New Yorker)
  26. High Fidelity / Stephen Frears (Buena Vista)
  27. Jesus’ Son / Allison Maclean (Lionsgate)
  28. Nowhere to Hide / Lee Myung-se (Lionsgate)
  29. Suzhou River / Lou Ye (Strand)
  30. Almost Famous / Cameron Crowe (Dreamworks)

The 1990s

1999

  1. Eyes Wide Shut / Stanley Kubrick (Warner Bros.)
  2. All About My Mother / Pedro Almodóvar (Sony Pictures Classics)
  3. The Matrix / The Wachowski Brothers (Warner Bros.)
  4. Magnolia / Paul Thomas Anderson (New Line)
  5. Toy Story 2 / John Lasseter (Buena Vista)
  6. Rosetta / Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne (USA Films)
  7. Fight Club / David Fincher (20th Century Fox)
  8. Topsy-Turvy / Mike Leigh (October Films)
  9. The Sixth Sense / M. Night Shyamalan (Buena Vista)
  10. Blair Witch Project / Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez (Artisan)
  11. Perfect Blue / Satoshi Kon (Manga)
  12. The Insider / Michael Mann (Buena Vista)
  13. Three Kings / David O. Russell (Warner Bros.)
  14. The Limey / Steven Soderbergh (Artisan)
  15. Late August, Early September / Olivier Assayas (Zeitgeist)
  16. After Life / Hirokazu Koreeda (Artistic License)
  17. Being John Malkovich / Spike Jonze (USA Films)
  18. The Straight Story / David Lynch (Buena Vista)
  19. New Rose Hotel / Abel Ferrara (Avalanche)
  20. The Iron Giant / Brad Bird (Warner Bros.)
  21. Princess Mononoke / Hayao Miyazaki (Miramax)
  22. Sicilia! / Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub | Istituto Luce)
  23. Election / Alexander Payne (Paramount)
  24. A Moment of Innocence / Mohsen Makhmalbaf (New Yorker)
  25. The Dreamlife of Angels / Erick Zonca (Sony Pictures)

1998

  1. The Thin Red Line / Terrence Malick (20th Century Fox)
  2. Taste of Cherry / Abbas Kiarostami (Zeitgeist)
  3. Fallen Angels / Wong Kar-wai (Kino International)
  4. The Big Lebowski / Joel & Ethan Coen (Gramercy)
  5. Blade / Stephen Norrington (New Line)
  6. Babe: Pig in the City / George Miller (Universal)
  7. The Flowers of Shanghai / Hou Hsiao-hsien (Shochiku)
  8. Mother and Son / Alexander Sokurov (International Film Circuit)
  9. Armageddon / Michael Bay (Buena Vista)
  10. Saving Private Ryan / Steven Spielberg (DreamWorks)
  11. The Celebration / Thomas Vinterberg (Scanbox Danmark)
  12. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas / Terry Gilliam (Universal)
  13. Funny Games / Michael Haneke (Attitude)
  14. Ringu / Hideo Nakata (Ace)
  15. The Last Days of Disco / Whit Stillman (Gramercy)
  16. Buffalo ’66 / Vincent Gallo (Lions Gate)
  17. Rushmore / Wes Anderson (Buena Vista)
  18. Happiness / Todd Solondz (Good Machine)
  19. Beloved / Jonathan Demme (Buena Vista)
  20. Belly / Hype Williams (Artisan)
  21. Fireworks / Takashi Kitano (Milestone)
  22. The Hole / Tsai Ming-liang (Lucky Red)
  23. The Eel / Shohei Imamura (New Yorker)
  24. Inquietude / Manoel de Oliveira (Atalanta)
  25. The Mirror / Jafar Panahi (N/A)

1997

  1. Titanic / James Cameron (Paramount)
  2. Boogie Nights / Paul Thomas Anderson (New Line)
  3. Happy Together / Wong Kar-wai (Golden Harvest)
  4. The Sweet Hereafter / Atom Egoyan (First Line)
  5. Starship Troopers / Paul Verhoeven (Sony)
  6. Jackie Brown / Quentin Tarantino (Miramax)
  7. Crash / David Cronenberg (First Line)
  8. Underground / Emir Kusturica (New Yorker)
  9. Goodbye, South, Goodbye / Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Shochiku)
  10. Irma Vep / Olivier Assayas (Zeitgeist)
  11. Shall We Dance? / Masayuki Suo (Miramax)
  12. Face/Off / John Woo (Paramount)
  13. La Promesse / Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne (New Yorker)
  14. Conspirators of Pleasure / Jan Svankmajer (Zeitgeist)
  15. Made in Hong Kong / Fruit Chan (Focus Films)
  16. 4 Little Girls / Spike Lee (Home Box Office)
  17. The Watermelon Woman / Cheryl Dunye (First Run Features)
  18. Lost Highway / David Lynch (October)
  19. The Game / David Fincher (Polygram)
  20. L.A. Confidential / Curtis Hanson (Warner Bros.)
  21. Gummo / Harmony Korine (Fine Line)
  22. Eve’s Bayou / Kasi Lemmons (Trimark)
  23. My Sex Life… or How I Got Into an Argument / Arnaud Desplechin (Zeitgeist)
  24. Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion / Hideaki Anno & Kazuya Tsurumaki (Toei)
  25. Ulysses’ Gaze / Theo Angelopoulos (Fox Lorber)

1996

  1. Breaking the Waves / Lars von Trier (October)
  2. Chungking Express / Wong Kar-wai (Rolling Thunder)
  3. Secrets & Lies / Mike Leigh (October)
  4. Fargo / Joel & Ethan Coen (Gramercy)
  5. Scream / Wes Craven (Dimension)
  6. Life, and Nothing More… / Abbas Kiarostami (Mongrel)
  7. The White Balloon / Jafar Panahi (October)
  8. Dead Man / Jim Jarmusch (Miramax)
  9. When We Were Kings / Leon Gast (Gramercy)
  10. Mission: Impossible / Brian De Palma (Paramount)
  11. Independence Day / Roland Emmerich (20th Century Fox)
  12. Romeo + Juliet / Baz Luhrrman (20th Century Fox)
  13. Ashes of Time / Wong Kar-wai (Block 2)
  14. Vive L’Amour / Tsai Ming-liang (Strand)
  15. Comrades: Almost a Love Story / Peter Chan (Gordon’s)
  16. From the Journals of Jean Seberg / Mark Rappaport (Planet)
  17. Bound / The Wachowski Brothers (Gramercy)
  18. Ghost in the Shell / Mamoru Oshii (Polygram)
  19. The Cable Guy / Ben Stiller (Sony)
  20. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders … / Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky (United Artists)
  21. Walking and Talking / Nicole Holofcener (Miramax)
  22. Trainspotting / Danny Boyle (Miramax)
  23. La Cérémonie / Claude Chabrol (New Yorker)
  24. A Summer’s Tale / Eric Rohmer (Les Films du Losange)
  25. Joan the Maid / Jacques Rivette (Pierre Grise)

1995

  1. Heat / Michael Mann (Warner Bros.)
  2. Exotica / Atom Egoyan (Miramax)
  3. Through the Olive Trees / Abbas Kiarostami (Miramax)
  4. Toy Story / John Lasseter (Buena Vista)
  5. Clueless / Amy Heckerling (Paramount)
  6. Showgirls / Paul Verhoeven (United Artists)
  7. Se7en / David Fincher (New Line)
  8. Before Sunrise / Richard Linklater (Columbia)
  9. Lessons of Darkness / Werner Herzog (U/A)
  10. La Haine / Mathieu Kassovitz (Gramercy)
  11. Safe / Todd Haynes (Sony Pictures Classics)
  12. The Bridges of Madison County / Clint Eastwood (Warner Bros.)
  13. Postman / He Jianjun (?)
  14. Crumb / Terry Zwigoff (Sony Pictures Classics)
  15. Kids / Larry Clark (Shining Excaliber)
  16. Wild Reeds / André Techiné (Strand)
  17. Twelve Monkeys / Terry Gilliam (Universal)
  18. Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the 60s in Brussels / Chantal Akerman (Arte)
  19. The Glass Shield / Charles Burnett (Miramax)
  20. In the Mouth of Madness / John Carpenter (New Line)
  21. Strange Days / Kathryn Bigelow (20th Century Fox)
  22. Kicking and Screaming / Noah Baumbach (Trimark)
  23. I Can’t Sleep / Claire Denis (New Yorker)
  24. Dilwale Dulhania le Jayenge / Aditya Chopra (Yash Raj)
  25. Hyenas / Djibril Diop Mambéty (Kino)

1994

  1. Pulp Fiction / Quentin Tarantino (Miramax)
  2. Sátántangó / Bela Tarr (Pierre Grise)
  3. Three Colors: Red / Krzysztof Kieslowski (Miramax)
  4. Hoop Dreams / Steve James (Fine Line)
  5. Speed / Jan de Bont (20th Century Fox)
  6. Natural Born Killers / Oliver Stone (Warner Bros.)
  7. Heavenly Creatures / Peter Jackson (Miramax)
  8. Léon: The Professional / Luc Besson (Columbia)
  9. The Scent of Green Papaya / Tran Anh Hung (First Look Intl.)
  10. Ed Wood / Tim Burton (Buena Vista)
  11. To Live / Zhang Yimou (Samuel Goldwyn)
  12. A Tale of Winter / Éric Rohmer (New Yorker)
  13. U.S. Go Home / Claire Denis (IMA)
  14. The Lion King / Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff (Buena Vista)
  15. Crooklyn / Spike Lee (Universal)
  16. Clerks / Kevin Smith (Miramax)
  17. Serial Mom / John Waters (Savoy)
  18. The Blue Kite / Tian Zhuangzhuang (Kino Intl.)
  19. Cold Water / Olivier Assayas (Pan Européenne)
  20. Casa de Lava / Pedro Costa (?)
  21. Eat Drink Man Woman / Ang Lee (Samuel Goldwyn)
  22. Vanya on 42nd Street / Louis Malle (Sony Pictures Classics)
  23. Little Buddha / Bernardo Bertolucci (Miramax)
  24. In the Heat of the Sun / Jiang Wen (Golden Harvest)
  25. Calendar / Atom Egoyan (Zeitgeist)

1993

  1. Naked / Mike Leigh (First Line)
  2. Short Cuts / Robert Altman (Fine Line)
  3. The Long Day Closes / Terence Davies (Sony Pictures Classics)
  4. Blue / Derek Jarman (Zeitgeist)
  5. Carlito’s Way / Brian De Palma (Universal)
  6. Schindler’s List / Steven Spielberg (Universal)
  7. The Piano / Jane Campion (Miramax)
  8. Hard Boiled / John Woo (Rim)
  9. The Puppetmaster / Hou Hsiao-Hsien (ARP Sélection)
  10. Farewell My Concubine / Chen Kaige (Miramax)
  11. Jurassic Park / Steven Spielberg (Universal)
  12. Three Colors: Blue / Krzysztof Kieslowski (Miramax)
  13. Dazed and Confused / Richard Linklater (Gramercy)
  14. Groundhog Day / Harold Ramis (Columbia)
  15. Nitrate Kisses / Barbara Hammer (Strand)
  16. Full Contact / Ringo Lam (Rim)
  17. True Romance / Tony Scott (Warner Bros.)
  18. Smoking/No Smoking / Alain Resnais (Pyramide)
  19. A Perfect World / Clint Eastwood (Warner Bros.)
  20. Abraham’s Valley / Manoel de Oliveira (Vanguard)
  21. The Age of Innocence / Martin Scorsese (Columbia)
  22. Orlando / Sally Potter (Sony Pictures Classics)
  23. The Nightmare Before Christmas / Henry Selick (Buena Vista Intl.)
  24. Dead Alive / Peter Jackson (Trimark)
  25. Baraka / Ron Fricke (Samuel Goldwyn)

1992

  1. Raise the Red Lantern / Zhang Yimou (Orion Classics)
  2. The Crying Game / Neil Jordan (Miramax)
  3. Unforgiven / Clint Eastwood (Warner Bros.)
  4. The Last of the Mohicans / Michael Mann (20th Century Fox)
  5. Basic Instinct / Paul Verhoeven (TriStar)
  6. Malcolm X / Spike Lee (Warner Bros.)
  7. Husbands and Wives / Woody Allen (TriStar)
  8. Reservoir Dogs / Quentin Tarantino (Miramax)
  9. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me / David Lynch (New Line)
  10. Once Upon a Time in China / Tsui Hark (Rim)
  11. The Quince Tree Sun / Víctor Erice (?)
  12. Europa / Lars von Trier (Prestige)
  13. Glengarry Glen Ross / James Foley (New Line)
  14. The Player / Robert Altman (Fine Line)
  15. Bad Lieutenant / Abel Ferrara (Aries)
  16. Céline / Jean-Claude Brisseau (Gaumont)
  17. The Rocking Horsemen / Nobuhiko Ôbayashi (Toei)
  18. Dracula / Francis Ford Coppola (Columbia)
  19. Tetsuo, the Iron Man / Shin’ya Tsukamoto (Original)
  20. Delicatessen / Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Miramax)
  21. Passion Fish / John Sayles (Miramax)
  22. Van Gogh / Maurice Pialat (Sony Pictures Classics)
  23. The Match Factory Girl / Aki Kaurismaki (Kino International)
  24. Night and Day / Chantal Akerman (Intl. Film Circuit)
  25. Side/Walk/Shuttle / Ernie Gehr (?)

1991

  1. Close-Up / Abbas Kiarostami (Les Films du Paradoxe)
  2. A Brighter Summer Day / Edward Yang (Cine Qua Non)
  3. The Double Life of Veronique / Krzysztof Kieslowski (Miramax)
  4. My Own Private Idaho / Gus Van Sant (Fine Line)
  5. La belle noiseuse / Jacques Rivette (MK2 Diffusion)
  6. The Silence of the Lambs / Jonathan Demme (Orion)
  7. Days of Being Wild / Wong Kar-wai (Rim)
  8. Paris Is Burning / Jennie Livingston (Off White)
  9. An Angel at My Table / Jane Campion (Fine Line)
  10. Terminator 2: Judgment Day / James Cameron (TriStar)
  11. Boyz ‘n the Hood / John Singleton (Columbia)
  12. Jungle Fever / Spike Lee (Universal)
  13. Daughters of the Dust / Julie Dash (Kino Intl.)
  14. JFK / Oliver Stone (Warner Bros.)
  15. Thelma & Louise / Ridley Scott (MGM)
  16. Dogfight / Nancy Savoca (Warner Bros.)
  17. Beauty and the Beast / Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise (Buena Vista)
  18. Point Break / Kathryn Bigelow (20th Century Fox)
  19. Slacker / Richard Linklater (Orion Classics)
  20. Homicide / David Mamet (Triumph)
  21. Trust / Hal Hartley (Fine Line)
  22. Only Yesterday / Isao Takahata (Toho)
  23. La Femme Nikita / Luc Besson (Samuel Goldwyn)
  24. The Lovers on the Bridge / Leos Carax (Gaumont)
  25. Water and Power / Pat O’Neill (The Stutz Company)

1990

  1. The Decalogue / Krzysztof Kieslowski (Warner Bros.)
  2. Goodfellas / Martin Scorsese (Warner Bros.)
  3. Miller’s Crossing / Joel & Ethan Coen (20th Century Fox)
  4. King of New York / Abel Ferrara (Seven Arts/Carolco/New Line)
  5. The Sheltering Sky / Bernardo Bertolucci (Warner Bros.)
  6. Metropolitan / Whit Stillman (New Line)
  7. Nouvelle Vague / Jean-Luc Godard (AMLF)
  8. Time of the Gypsies / Emir Kusturica (Columbia)
  9. Wild at Heart / David Lynch (Samuel Goldwyn)
  10. Santa Sangre / Alejandro Jodorowsky (Republic)
  11. Edward Scissorhands / Tim Burton (20th Century Fox)
  12. Gremlins 2: The New Batch / Joe Dante (Warner Bros.)
  13. Mama / Yuan Zhang (?)
  14. The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover / Peter Greenaway (Miramax)
  15. Total Recall / Paul Verhoeven (TriStar)
  16. Miami Blues / George Armitage (Orion)
  17. The Killer / John Woo (Circle)
  18. Sweetie / Jane Campion (Avenue Pictures)
  19. To Sleep With Anger / Charles Burnett (Samuel Goldwyn)
  20. Sink or Swim / Su Friedrich (Canyon Cinema)
  21. Central Park / Frederick Wiseman (Zipporah)
  22. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! / Pedro Almodóvar (Miramax)
  23. Landscape in the Mist / Theo Angelopoulos (New Yorker)
  24. The Vanishing / George Sluizer (Tara)
  25. Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers / Wu Wenguang (Wu Wenguang)

The 1980s

1989

  1. Do the Right Thing / Spike Lee (Universal)
  2. A City of Sadness / Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Era Intl.)
  3. Brightness / Souleymane Cissé (Cinecom)
  4. Distant Voices, Still Lives / Terence Davies (Avenue)
  5. Batman / Tim Burton (Warner Bros.)
  6. Crimes and Misdemeanors / Woody Allen (Orion)
  7. Born on the Fourth of July / Oliver Stone (Universal)
  8. On the Silver Globe / Andrzej Żuławski (KADR)
  9. Sex, Lies, and Videotape / Steven Soderbergh (Miramax)
  10. When Harry Met Sally… / Rob Reiner (Columbia)
  11. Akira / Katsuhiro Ôtomo (Streamline)
  12. Casualties of War / Brian De Palma (Columbia)
  13. Homework / Abbas Kiarostami (?)
  14. Tongues United / Marlon Riggs (?)
  15. Drugstore Cowboy / Gus Van Sant (Avenue)
  16. Mystery Train / Jim Jarmusch (Orion Classics)
  17. Peking Opera Blues / Tsui Hark (Gordon’s)
  18. Violent Cop / Takeshi Kitano (Shochiku)
  19. For All Mankind / Al Reinert (Apollo)
  20. Say Anything… / Cameron Crowe (20th Century Fox)
  21. The Gang of Four / Jacques Rivette (Metropolis)
  22. Ariel / Aki Kaurismäki (Kino Intl.)
  23. Story of Women / Claude Chabrol (New Yorker)
  24. Under the Sun of Satan / Maurice Pialat (Alive)
  25. My Heart Is That Eternal Rose / Patrick Tam (?)

1988

  1. King Lear / Jean-Luc Godard (Cannon)
  2. Grave of the Fireflies / Isao Takahata (Tôhô)
  3. Wings of Desire / Wim Wenders (Orion Classics)
  4. The Last Temptation of Christ / Martin Scorsese (Universal)
  5. Die Hard / John McTiernan (20th Century Fox)
  6. The Thin Blue Line / Errol Morris (Miramax)
  7. Dead Ringers / David Cronenberg (20th Century Fox)
  8. Red Sorghum / Zhang Yimou (New Yorker)
  9. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown / Pedro Almodóvar (Orion Classics)
  10. My Neighbor Totoro / Hayao Miyazaki (Tôhô)
  11. A Short Film About Killing / Krzysztof Kieslowski (Film Polski)
  12. Damnation / Béla Tarr (Movies Inspired)
  13. Crossing Delancey / Joan Micklin Silver | (Warner Bros.)
  14. A Fish Called Wanda / Charles Crichton (MGM/UA)
  15. Rain Man / Barry Levinson (MGM/UA)
  16. Bird / Clint Eastwood (Warner Bros.)
  17. They Live / John Carpenter (Universal)
  18. Midnight Run / Martin Brest (Universal)
  19. The Horse Thief / Tian Zhuangzhuang (Intl. Film Circuit)
  20. Yellow Earth / Chen Kaige (Intl. Film Circuit)
  21. A Time to Live, a Time to Die / Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Intl. Film Circuit)
  22. Sound and Fury / Jean-Claude Brisseau (Les Films du Losange)
  23. Coming to America / John Landis (Paramount)
  24. The Last of England / Derek Jarman (Blue Dolphin)
  25. Salaam Bombay! / Mira Nair (Cinecom)

1987

  1. RoboCop / Paul Verhoeven (Orion)
  2. Come and See / Elem Klimov (IFEX)
  3. Empire of the Sun / Steven Spielberg (Warner Bros.)
  4. Au Revoir les Enfants / Louis Malle (Orion Classics)
  5. Full Metal Jacket / Paul Verhoeven (Warner Bros.)
  6. Landscape Suicide / James Bening (?)
  7. The Last Emperor / Bernardo Bertolucci (Columbia)
  8. The Dead / John Huston (Vestron)
  9. Where is the Friends Home? / Abbas Kiarostami (?)
  10. Broadcast News / James L. Brooks (20th Century Fox)
  11. Wall Street / Oliver Stone (20th Century Fox)
  12. The Untouchables / Brian De Palma (Paramount)
  13. House of Games / David Mamet (Orion)
  14. Law of Desire / Pedro Almodóvar (Cinevista)
  15. Dust in the Wind / Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Intl. Film Circuit)
  16. Predator / John McTiernan (20th Century Fox)
  17. Housekeeping / Bill Forsyth (Columbia)
  18. Matewan / John Sayles (Cinecom)
  19. Evil Dead II / Sam Raimi (Rosebud)
  20. The Princess Bride / Rob Reiner (20th Century Fox)
  21. Raising Arizona / Joel & Ethan Coen (20th Century Fox)
  22. Ishtar / Elaine May (Columbia)
  23. A Chinese Ghost Story / Ching Sui-tung (Media Asia)
  24. Eastern Condors / Sammo Hung (Golden Harvest)
  25. Tampopo / Jûzô Itami (New Yorker)

1986

  1. Blue Velvet / David Lynch (Des Laurentiis)
  2. Hannah and Her Sisters / Woody Allen (Orion)
  3. Summer / Eric Rohmer (Orion Classics)
  4. Sacrifice / Andrei Tarkovsky (Orion Classics)
  5. Platoon / Oliver Stone (Orion)
  6. The Fly / David Cronenberg (20th Century Fox)
  7. A Better Tomorrow / John Woo (Cinema City)
  8. Mauvais sang / Leos Carax (AAA Classic/Revcom)
  9. Aliens / James Cameron (20th Century Fox)
  10. Sherman’s March / Ross McElwee (First Run)
  11. Vagabond / Agnès Varda (Grange)
  12. The Terrorizers / Edward Yang (Inbaubel)
  13. Something Wild / Jonathan Demme (Orion)
  14. Down by Law / Jim Jarmusch (Island)
  15. She’s Gotta Have It / Spike Lee (Island)
  16. Rosa la rose, fille Publique / Paul Vecchiali (Les Films De L’Atalante)
  17. A Room With a View / James Ivory (Cinecom)
  18. Caravaggio / Derek Jarman (Cinevista)
  19. Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast / Nobuhiko Ôbayashi (ATG)
  20. The Hitcher / Robert Harmon (TriStar)
  21. Big Trouble in Little China / John Carpenter (20th Century Fox)
  22. The Toxic Avenger / Lloyd Kaufman (Troma)
  23. My Beautiful Launderette / Stephen Frears (Orion Classics)
  24. Kaos / Paolo & Vittorio Taviani (?)
  25. Max My Love / Nagisa Ôshima (Acteurs Auteurs Associés)

1985

  1. Shoah / Claude Lanzmann (New Yorker)
  2. Brazil / Terry Gilliam (Universal)
  3. Ran / Akira Kurosawa (Orion Classics)
  4. Blood Simple / Joel & Ethan Coen (Circle)
  5. Back to the Future / Robert Zemeckis (Universal)
  6. The Purple Rose of Cairo / Woody Allen (Orion)
  7. Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure / Tim Burton (Warner Bros.)
  8. When Father Was Away on Business / Emir Kusturica (Cannon)
  9. Hail Mary / Jean-Luc Godard (New Yorker)
  10. After Hours / Martin Scorsese (Warner Bros.)
  11. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters / Paul Schrader (Warner Bros.)
  12. The Color Purple / Steven Spielberg (Warner Bros.)
  13. Day of the Dead / George A. Romero (UFDC)
  14. The Return of the Living Dead / Dan O’Bannon (Orion)
  15. Police Story / Chi-Hwa Chen & Jackie Chan (Golden Harvest)
  16. The Breakfast Club / John Hughes (Universal)
  17. Taipei Story / Edward Yang (?)
  18. The Official Story / Luis Puenzo (Almi)
  19. Lost in America / Albert Brooks (Warner Bros.)
  20. To Live and Die in L.A. / William Friedkin (MGM/UA)
  21. Secret Honor / Robert Altman (Cinecom)
  22. Almanac of Fall / Béla Tarr (?)
  23. Re-Animator / Stuart Gordo (Empire)
  24. Police / Maurice Pialat (Gaumont)
  25. Smooth Talk / Joyce Chopra (International Spectrafilm)

1984

  1. L’argent / Robert Bresson (Cinecom)
  2. Nostalgia / Andrei Tarkovsky (Grange)
  3. The Ballad of Narayama / Shohei Imamura (Kino Intl.)
  4. Paris, Texas / Wim Wenders (20th Century Fox)
  5. The Terminator / James Cameron (Orion)
  6. Amadeus / Milos Forman (Orion)
  7. Love Streams / John Cassavetes (Cannon)
  8. The Times of Harvey Milk / Rob Epstein (TC)
  9. Stranger Than Paradise / Jim Jarmusch (Samuel Goldwyn)
  10. Once Upon a Time in America / Sergio Leone (Ladd)
  11. El Norte / Gregory Nava (Cinecom)
  12. Gremlins / Joe Dante (Warner Bros.)
  13. Beverly Hills Cop / Martin Brest (Paramount)
  14. Repo Man / Alex Cox (Universal)
  15. Body Double / Brian De Palma (Columbia)
  16. This Is Spinal Tap / Rob Reiner (Embassy)
  17. Full Moon in Paris / Eric Rohmer (Orion Classics)
  18. A Sunday in the Country / Bertrand Tavernier (MGM/UA Classics)
  19. Boy Meets Girl / Leos Carax (Forum)
  20. Under the Volcano / John Huston (Universal)
  21. Starman /John Carpenter (Columbia)
  22. Choose Me / Alan Rudolph (Island Alive)
  23. The Brother from Another Planet / John Sayles (Cinecom)
  24. First Name: Carmen / Jean-Luc Godard (Intl. Spectrafilm)
  25. Streetwise / Martin Bell (Angelika Films)

1983

  1. Sans soleil / Chris Marker (New Yorker)
  2. Berlin Alexanderplatz / Rainer Werner Fassbinder (TeleCulture)
  3. Fanny and Alexander / Ingmar Bergman (Embassy)
  4. The King of Comedy / Martin Scorsese (20th Century Fox)
  5. Scarface / Brian De Palma (Universal)
  6. Terms of Endearment / James L. Brooks (Paramount)
  7. Videodrome / David Cronenberg (Universal)
  8. Pauline at the Beach / Eric Rohmer (Orion Classics)
  9. À nos amours / Maurice Pialat (Gaumont)
  10. Koyaanisqatsi / Godfrey Reggio (Island Alive/New Cinema)
  11. Local Hero / Bill Forsyth (Warner Bros.)
  12. The Right Stuff / Philip Kaufman (Warner Bros.)
  13. Possession / Andrzej Zulawski (Limelight Intl.)
  14. The Night of the Shooting Stars / Paolo & Vittorio Taviani (United Artists)
  15. El Sur / Víctor Erice (C.B. Films S.A.)
  16. Cecelia / Humberto Solás (ICAIC)
  17. Rumble Fish / Francis Ford Coppola (Universal)
  18. The Evil Dead / Sam Raimi (New Line)
  19. Out of the Bue / Dennis Hopper (United Artists)
  20. The Trout / Joseph Losey (Triumph)
  21. Born in Fames / Lizzie Borden (First Fun)
  22. The Makioka Sisters / Kon Ichikawa (Tôhô)
  23. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence / Nagisa Ôshima (Universal)
  24. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro / Kundan Shah (?)
  25. Carmen / Carlos Saura (Orion Classics)

1982

  1. Stalker / Andrei Tarkovsky (Media Transactions)
  2. Fitzcarraldo / Werner Herzog (New World)
  3. Blade Runner / Ridley Scott (Warner Bros.)
  4. E.T. the Extra Terrestrial / Steven Spielberg (Universal)
  5. Poltergeist / Tobe Hooper (MGM)
  6. The Thing / John Carpenter (Universal)
  7. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior / George Miller (Warner Bros.)
  8. Tenebre / Dario Argento (Titanus)
  9. Das Boot / Wolfgang Petersen (Triumph)
  10. Veronika Voss / Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Filmverlag der Autoren)
  11. Siberiade / Andrei Konchalovskiy (IFEX)
  12. Passion / Jean-Luc Godard (Parafrance)
  13. Losing Ground / Kathleen Collins (N/A)
  14. White Dog / Samuel Fuller (Paramount)
  15. Victor Victoria / Blake Edwards (MGM)
  16. The Verdict / Sydney Pollack (20th Century Fox)
  17. Fast Times at Ridgemont High / Amy Heckerling (Universal)
  18. TRON / Steven Lisberger (Buena Vista)
  19. Burden of Dreams / Les Blank (Flower)
  20. Hours for Jerome / Nathaniel Dorsky (Canyon Cinema)
  21. Tree of Knowledge / Nils Malmros (Scandinavia Today)
  22. Diva / Jean-Jacques Beineix (United Artists Classics)
  23. Diner / Barry Levinson (MGM)
  24. Yol / Yilmaz Guney, Serif Goran (NEF-MK2)
  25. Mephisto / István Szabó (Analysis)

1981

  1. Man of Iron / Andrzej Wajda (United Artists Classics)
  2. The Last Metro / François Truffaut (United Artists Classics)
  3. Pixote / Hector Babenco (Unifilms)
  4. Blow Out / Brian De Palma (Filmways)
  5. Raiders of the Lost Ark / Steven Spielberg (Paramount)
  6. Reds / Warren Beatty — TS7 (Paramount)
  7. Doomed Love / Manoel de Oliveira (Joseph Papp)
  8. The Aviator’s Wife / Eric Rohmer (New Yorker)
  9. Escape from New York / John Carpenter (AVCO Embassy)
  10. Time Bandits / Terry Gilliam (AVCO Embassy)
  11. Scanners / David Cronenberg (AVCO Embassy)
  12. Thief / Michael Mann (United Artists)
  13. Ms. 45 / Abel Ferrara (Rochelle)
  14. Modern Romance / Albert Brooks (Columbia)
  15. Excalibur / John Boorman (Orion/Warner Bros.)
  16. Prince of the City / Sidney Lumet (Orion/Warner Bros.)
  17. My Dinner With Andre / Louis Malle (New Yorker)
  18. Southern Comfort / Walter Hill (20th Century Fox)
  19. Christiane F. / Ulrich Edel (New World)
  20. Cutter’s Way / Ivan Passer (United Artists)
  21. The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter / Connie Field (First Run)
  22. Polyester / John Waters (New Line)
  23. An American Werewolf in London / John Landis (Universal)
  24. Ek Duuje Ke Liye / K. Balachander (?)
  25. Confidence / István Szabó (New Yorker)

1980

  1. The Shining / Stanley Kubrick (Warner Bros.)
  2. Raging Bull / Martin Scorsese (United Artists)
  3. In a Year With 13 Moons / Rainer Werner Fassbinder (New Yorker)
  4. Kagemusha / Akira Kurosawa (20th Century Fox)
  5. Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back / Irvin Kershner (20th Century Fox)
  6. The Big Red One / Samuel Fuller (United Artists)
  7. Heaven’s Gate / Michael Cimino (United Artists)
  8. Gates of Heaven / Errol Morris (New Yorker)
  9. Dressed to Kill / Brian De Palma (Filmways)
  10. Personal Problems / Bill Gunn (?)
  11. The Elephant Man / David Lynch (Paramount)
  12. Bad Timing / Nicolas Roeg (World Northal)
  13. Every Man for Himself / Jean-Luc Godard (New Yorker)
  14. Cruising / William Friedkin (United Artists)
  15. Bloody Kills / Stephen Frears (?)
  16. Tess / Roman Polanski (Columbia)
  17. Gloria / John Cassavetes (Columbia)
  18. Zigeunerweisen / Seijun Suzuki (Little More Co.)
  19. Hitler: A Film from Germany / Hans-Jürgen Syberberg (Omni Zoetrope)
  20. My Brilliant Career / Gillian Armstrong (Analysis)
  21. My American Uncle / Alain Resnais (New World)
  22. Melvin and Howard / Jonathan Demme (Universal)
  23. Altered States / Ken Russell (Warner Bros.)
  24. Used Cars / Robert Zemeckis (Columbia)
  25. Loulou / Maurice Pialat (New Yorker)

The 1970s

1979

  1. Apocalypse Now / Francis Ford Coppola (United Artists)
  2. Manhattan / Woody Allen (United Artists)
  3. Alien / Ridley Scott (20th Century Fox)
  4. The Brood / David Cronenberg (New World)
  5. Dawn of the Dead / George A. Romero (UFDC)
  6. All that Jazz / Bob Fosse (20th Century Fox)
  7. Picnic at Hanging Rock / Peter Weir (Atlantic)
  8. Empire of Passion / Nagisa Ôshima (Barbary Coast)
  9. The Marriage of Maria Braun / Rainer Werner Fassbinder (United Artists)
  10. Deewaar / Yash Chopra (Trimurti)
  11. Nosferatu the Vampyre / Werner Herzog (20th Century Fox)
  12. The Tree of Wooden Clogs / Ermanno Olmi (New Yorker)
  13. The Warriors / Walter Hill (Paramount)
  14. Being There / Hal Ashby (United Artists)
  15. Life of Brian / Terry Jones (Warner Bros./Orion)
  16. Chilly Scenes of Winter / Joan Micklin Silver (United Artists)
  17. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin / Lau Kar-Leung (World Northal)
  18. ¡Que viva México! / Sergei Eisenstein (IFEX)
  19. Real Life / Albert Brooks (Paramount)
  20. Soft Fiction / Chick Strand (N/A)
  21. La Cage aux Folles / Édouard Molinaro (United Artists)
  22. Vengeance Is Mine / Shôhei Imamura (Shochiku)
  23. Queen of the Gypsies / Emil Loteanu (Sovexportfilm)
  24. Alexandria…Why? / Youssef Chahine (AISR Intl.)
  25. L’innocente / Luchino Visconti (Analysis)

1978

  1. Celine and Julie Go Boating / Jacques Rivette (New Yorker)
  2. Days of Heaven / Terrence Malick (Paramount)
  3. The Deer Hunter / Michael Cimino (Universal)
  4. The Ascent / Larisa Shepitko (Intl. Film Circuit)
  5. Animal House / John Landis (Universal)
  6. Halloween / John Carpenter (Compass Intl.)
  7. Autumn Sonata / Ingmar Bergman (New World)
  8. Insiang / Lino Brocka (N/A)
  9. Coup de grâce / Volker Schlöndorff (Cinema 5)
  10. Girlfriends / Claudia Weill (Warner Bros.)
  11. Interiors / Woody Allen (United Artists)
  12. The Fury / Brian De Palma (20th Century Fox)
  13. The Driver / Walter Hill (20th Century Fox)
  14. Blue Collar / Paul Schrader (Universal)
  15. Fingers / James Toback (Brut)
  16. Martin / George A. Romero (Libra)
  17. Grease / Randal Kleiser (Paramount)
  18. Invasion of the Body Snatchers / Philip Kaufman (United Artists)
  19. Sholay / Ramesh Sippy (B4U)
  20. The Duellists / Ridley Scott (Paramount)
  21. An Unmarried Woman / Paul Mazursky (20th Century Fox)
  22. Superman / Richard Donner (Warner Bros.)
  23. Drunken Master / Yuen Woo-ping (N/A)
  24. Remember My Name / Alan Rudolph (Columbia)
  25. The Girl with the Red Scarf / Atif Yilmaz (N/A)

1977

  1. Close Encounters of the Third Kind / Steven Spielberg (Columbia)
  2. F for Fake / Orson Welles (Specialty)
  3. Annie Hall / Woody Allen (United Artists)
  4. Eraserhead / David Lynch (Libra)
  5. Star Wars / George Lucas (20th Century Fox)
  6. In the Realm of the Senses / Nagisa Ôshima (Surrogate)
  7. Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom / Pier Paolo Pasolini (United Artists)
  8. That Obscure Object of Desire / Luis Buñuel (First Artists)
  9. Suspiria / Dario Argento (Intl. Classics)
  10. House / Nobuhiko Ôbayashi (Tôhô)
  11. 1900 / Bernardo Bertolucci (Paramount/United Artists)
  12. The Devil, Probably / Robert Bresson (Gaumont)
  13. Providence / Alain Resnais (Cinema 5)
  14. Opening Night / John Cassavetes (Faces)
  15. Alice in the Cities / Wim Wenders (Bauer Intl.)
  16. New York, New York / Martin Scorsese (United Artists)
  17. Padre Padrone / Paolo & Vittorio Taviani (Cinema 5)
  18. 3 Women / Robert Altman (20th Century Fox)
  19. Saturday Night Fever / John Badham (Paramount)
  20. The American Friend / Wim Wenders (New Yorker)
  21. Rolling Thunder / John Flynn (AIP)
  22. Sorcerer / William Friedkin (Universal)
  23. Last Chants for a Slow Dance / Jon Jost (N/A)
  24. Cria Cuervos / Carlos Saura (Interama)
  25. Overlord / Stuart Cooper (EMI)

1976

  1. Solaris / Andrei Tarkovsky (Magna)
  2. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles / Chantal Akerman (Olympic)
  3. The Spirit of the Beehive / Victor Erice (Janus)
  4. Taxi Driver / Martin Scorsese (Columbia)
  5. Rocky / John G. Alvidsen (United Artists)
  6. Assault on Precinct 13 / John Carpenter (Turtle)
  7. Edvard Munch / Peter Watkins (New Yorker)
  8. Mikey and Nicky / Elaine May (Paramount)
  9. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie / John Cassavetes (Faces)
  10. Carrie / Brian De Palma (United Artists)
  11. The Tenant / Roman Polanski (Paramount)
  12. The Outlaw Josey Wales / Clint Eastwood (Warner Bros.)
  13. The Marquis of O / Éric Rohmer (New Line Cinema)
  14. Deep Red / Dario Argento (Howard Mahler)
  15. Duelle (une quarantaine) / Jacques Rivette (Gaumont)
  16. The Man Who Fell to Earth / Nicolas Roeg (Cinema 5)
  17. Harlan County U.S.A. / Barbara Kopple (Cinema 5)
  18. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant / Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Filmverlag)
  19. A Matter of Time / Vincente Minnelli (AIP)
  20. Salomé  / Teo Hernández (N/A)
  21. All the President’s Men / Alan J. Pakula (Warner Bros.)
  22. Touki Bouki / Djibril Diop Mambéty (N/A)
  23. Seven Beauties / Lina Wertmüller (Cinema 5)
  24. Noroît / Jacques Rivette (N/A)
  25. Network / Sidney Lumet (MGM)

1975

  1. Nashville / Robert Altman (Paramount)
  2. The Mirror / Andrei Tarkovsky (ACFK)
  3. Xala / Ousmane Sembene (New Yorker)
  4. Barry Lyndon / Stanley Kubrick (Warner Bros.)
  5. Jaws / Steven Spielberg (Universal)
  6. Shampoo / Hal Ashby (Columbia)
  7. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser / Werner Herzog (New Yorker)
  8. India Song / Marguerite Duras (Roissy)
  9. Manila in the Claws of Light / Lino Brocka (N/A)
  10. Rocky Horror Picture Show / Jim Sharman (20th Century Fox)
  11. Monty Python & the Holy Grail / Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones (Cinema 5)
  12. The Passenger / Michelangelo Antonioni (MGM)
  13. Dog Day Afternoon / Sidney Lumet (Warner Bros.)
  14. Lancelot of the Lake / Robert Bresson (New Yorker)
  15. The Travelling Players / Theodoras Angelopoulos (Victor Michaelides)
  16. Chronicle of the Years of Fire / Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina (N/A)
  17. Moses and Aaron / Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub (New Yorker)
  18. Brother Can you Spare a Dime / Philippe Mora (Dimension)
  19. Benilde or the Virgin Mother / Manoel de Oliveira (Filmes Lusomundo)
  20. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest / Milos Forman (United Artists)
  21. Sweet Movie / Dušan Makavejev (Biograph Films)
  22. Je Tu Il Elle / Chantal Akerman (N/A)
  23. Adoption / Márta Mészáros (N/A)
  24. The Magic Flute / Ingmar Bergman (Dandrea Releasing)
  25. Swept Away / Lina Wertmüller (Cinema 5)

1974

  1. Scenes from a Marriage / Ingmar Bergman (Cinema 5)
  2. Amarcord / Federico Fellini (New World)
  3. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul / Rainer Werner Fassbinder (New Yorker)
  4. Chinatown / Roman Polanski (Paramount)
  5. The Godfather: Part II / Francis Ford Coppola (Paramount)
  6. A Woman Under the Influence / John Cassavetes (Faces)
  7. Out 1: Spectre / Jacques Rivette (Sunchild)
  8. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre / Tobe Hooper (Bryanston)
  9. The Conversation / Francis Ford Coppola (Paramount)
  10. The Mother and the Whore / Jean Eustache (New Yorker)
  11. The Phantom of Liberty / Luis Buñuel (20th Century Fox)
  12. Femmes femmes / Paul Vecchiali (Luso France)
  13. Arabian Nights / Pier Paolo Pasolini (United Artists)
  14. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Gonzalez / Sam Peckinpah (United Artists)
  15. Young Frankenstein / Mel Brooks (20th Century Fox)
  16. Cockfighter / Monte Hellman (New World)
  17. Phantom of the Paradise / Brian De Palma (20th Century Fox)
  18. Pastoral: To Die in the Country / Shūji Terayama (ATG)
  19. The Castle of Purity / Arturo Ripstein (Azteca)
  20. Black Christmas / Bob Clark (Warner Bros.)
  21. Film About a Woman Who… / Yvonne Rainer (First Run)
  22. Lady Snowblood / Toshiya Fujita (Tôhô)
  23. Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania / Jonas Mekas (Film Makers’)
  24. The Mouth Agape / Maurice Pialat (Les Films de la Boétie)
  25. The Street Fighter / Shigehiro Ozawa (New Line)

1973

  1. Day for Night / François Truffaut (Warner Bros.)
  2. Badlands / Terrence Malick (Warner Bros.)
  3. Mean Streets / Martin Scorsese (Warner Bros.)
  4. The Exorcist / William Friedkin (Warner Bros.)
  5. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid / Sam Peckinpah (MGM)
  6. Don’t Look Now / Nicolas Roeg (Paramount)
  7. The Holy Mountain / Alejandro Jodorowsky (ABKCO)
  8. The Last Tango in Paris / Bernardo Bertolucci (United Artists)
  9. Tout va Bien / Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin (New Yorker)
  10. Ganja & Hess / Bill Gunn (Kelly/Jordan Enterprises)
  11. The Long Goodbye / Robert Altman (United Artists)
  12. Paper Moon / Peter Bogdanovich (Paramount)
  13. Enter the Dragon / Robert Clouse (Warner Bros.)
  14. The Harder They Come / Perry Henzell (New World)
  15. American Graffiti / George Lucas (Universal)
  16. The Friends of Eddie Coyle / Peter Yates (Paramount)
  17. High Plains Drifter / Clint Eastwood (Universal)
  18. Battles Without Honor and Humanity / Shinji Fukasaku (Toei)
  19. Oh, Sun / Med Hondo (New Yorker)
  20. The Sting / George Roy Hill (Universal)
  21. Duvidha / Mani Kaul (N/A)
  22. Charley Varrick / Don Siegel (Universal)
  23. Fantastic Planet / René Laloux (New World Pictures) 
  24. Red Psalm / Miklós Jancsó (Audio Brandon)
  25. Horizons / Larry Gottheim (N/A)

1972

  1. Aguirre, the Wrath of God / Werner Herzog (Filmverlag)
  2. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie / Luis Buñuel (20th Century Fox)
  3. Cries and Whispers / Ingmar Bergman (New World)
  4. The Godfather / Francis Ford Coppola (Paramount)
  5. Cabaret / Bob Fosse (Allied Artists)
  6. Deliverance / John Boorman (Warner Bros.)
  7. The Heartbreak Kid / Elaine May (20th Century Fox)
  8. The Sorrow and the Pity / Marcel Ophüls (Cinema 5)
  9. Avanti! / Billy Wilder (United Artists)
  10. Fat City / John Huston (Columbia)
  11. Chloe in the Afternoon / Éric Rohmer (Columbia)
  12. Four Nights of a Dreamer / Robert Bresson (New Yorker)
  13. The Canterbury Tales / Pier Paolo Pasolini (United Artists)
  14. Blaise Pascal / Roberto Rossellini (N/A)
  15. Je t’aime, je t’aime / Alain Resnais (New Yorker)
  16. Ulzana’s Raid / Robert Aldrich (Universal)
  17. Silent Running / Douglas Trumbull (Universal)
  18. History Lessons / Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub (New Yorker)
  19. A Bay of Blood / Mario Bava (Hallmark)
  20. The Last House on the Left / Wes Craven (Hallmark Releasing/AIP)
  21. Super Fly / Gordon Parks Jr. (Warner Bros.)
  22. Sounder / Martin Ritt (20th Century Fox)
  23. Winter Soldier / “The Collective” (N/A)
  24. Cuadecuc, Vampir / Pere Portabella (Ronin Films)
  25. Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan / Chor Yuen (Celestial)

1971

  1. Walkabout / Nicolas Roeg (20th Century Fox)
  2. A Clockwork Orange / Stanley Kubrick (Warner Bros.)
  3. McCabe & Mrs. Miller / Robert Altman (Warner Bros.)
  4. Harold and Maude / Hal Ashby (Paramount)
  5. The Conformist / Bernardo Bertolucci (Paramount)
  6. A Touch of Zen / King Hu (N/A)
  7. La région centrale / Michael Snow (Canadian Filmmakers’ Distribution)
  8. Claire’s Knee / Éric Rohmer (Columbia)
  9. The Last Picture Show / Peter Bogdanovich (Columbia)
  10. The French Connection / William Friedkin (20th Century Fox)
  11. Straw Dogs / Sam Peckinpah (Cinerama)
  12. Klute / Alan J. Pakula (Warner Bros.)
  13. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory / Mel Stuart (Paramount)
  14. A New Leaf / Elaine May (Paramount)
  15. Dirty Harry / Don Siegel (Warner Bros.)
  16. The Devils / Ken Russell (Warner Bros.)
  17. Wanda / Barbara Loden (Bardene Intl.)
  18. From the Notebook of… / Robert Beavers (N/A)
  19. Two-Lane Blacktop / Monte Hellman (Universal)
  20. Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song / Melvin Van Peebles (Cinemation)
  21. Shaft / Gordon Parks (MGM)
  22. Death in Venice / Luchino Visconti (Warner Bros.)
  23. Le boucher / Claude Chabrol (Cinerama)
  24. S:TREAM:S:S:ECTION:S:ECTION:S:S:ECTIONED / Paul Sharits (Canyon Cinema) 
  25. Deep End / Jerzy Skolimowski (Paramount)

1970

  1. Au hasard Balthazar / Robert Bresson (Cinema Ventures)
  2. My Night at Maud’s / Éric Rohmer (Pathé Contemporary)
  3. Two or Three Things I Know About Her / Jean-Luc Godard (New Yorker)
  4. M*A*S*H / Robert Altman (20th Century Fox)
  5. Patton / Franklin J. Schaffner (20th Century Fox)
  6. Husbands / John Cassavetes (Columbia)
  7. Five Easy Pieces / Bob Rafelson (Columbia)
  8. El Topo / Alejandro Jodorowsky (ABKCO Films)
  9. Zabriskie Point / Michelangelo Antonioni (MGM)
  10. Le Cercle Rouge / Jean-Pierre Melville (Les Film Corona)
  11. Kes / Ken Loach (United Artists) Tristana / Luis Buñuel (Maron)
  12. Performance / Donald Cammell, Nicolas Roeg (Warner Bros.)
  13. Gimme Shelter / Albert & David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin (Cinema 5)
  14. Hi, Mom! / Brian De Palma (Sigma III)
  15. Funeral Parade of Roses / Toshio Matsumoto (New Yorker)
  16. Mera Naam Joker / Raj Kapoor (Yash Raj)
  17. Cotton Comes to Harlem / Ossie Davis (United Artists)
  18. The Hart of London / Jack Chambers (Canadian Filmmakers’ Distribution Centre)
  19. Entranced Earth / Glauber Rocha (New Yorker)
  20. The Honeymoon Killers / Leonard Kastle (Cinerama)
  21. Boy / Nagisa Ôshima (Grove Press)
  22. Woodstock / Michael Wadleigh (Warner Bros.)
  23. The Taking of Power of Louis XIV / Roberto Rossellini (Brandon)
  24. Zorns Lemma / Hollis Frampton (N/A)
  25. The Night of Counting the Years / Shadi Abdel Salam (N/A)

The 1960s

1969

  1. The Wild Bunch / Sam Peckinpah (Warner Bros./Seven Arts)
  2. Once Upon a Time in the West / Sergio Leone (Paramount)
  3. Pierrot le Fou / Jean-Luc Godard (Pathé Contemporary)
  4. The Army of Shadows / Jean-Pierre Melville (Valoria)
  5. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid / George Roy Hill (20th Century Fox)
  6. Simon of the Desert / Luis Buñuel (Altura Intl.)
  7. Black Girl / Ousmane Sembene (New Yorker)
  8. Midnight Cowboy / John Schlesinger (United Artists)
  9. Easy Rider / Dennis Hopper (Columbia)
  10. Putney Swope / Robert Downey Sr. (Cinema V)
  11. The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach / Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub (New Yorker)
  12. Teorema / Pier Paolo Pasolini (Continental)
  13. L’enfance nue / Maurice Pialat (Parafrance)
  14. High School / Frederick Wiseman (N/A)
  15. If…. / Lindsay Anderson (‘Paramount)
  16. Z / Costa-Gavras (Cinema 5)
  17. The Cow / Dariush Mehrjui (N/A)
  18. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? / Sydney Pollack (Cinerama)
  19. The Damned / Luchino Visconti (Warner Bros./Seven Arts)
  20. The Color of Pomegranates / Sergei Parajanov (Artkino)
  21. Medium Cool / Haskell Wexler (Paramount)
  22. Destroy All Monsters / Ishirô Honda (AIP)
  23. Not Reconciled / Jean-Marie Straub (New Yorker)
  24. Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son / Ken Jacobs (Film-Makers’ Cooperative)
  25. Stolen Kisses / François Truffaut (Lopert)

1968

  1. 2001: A Space Odyssey / Stanley Kubrick (MGM)
  2. Weekend / Jean-Luc Godard (Grove Press)
  3. Belle de Jour / Luis Buñuel (Allied Artists)
  4. Night of the Living Dead / George A. Romero (Continental)
  5. Rosemary’s Baby / Roman Polanski (Paramount)
  6. Memories of Underdevelopment / Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (N/A)
  7. Wavelength / Michael Snow (Canyon)
  8. The Party / Blake Edwards (United Artists)
  9. The Producers / Mel Brooks (AVCO Embassy)
  10. Faces / John Cassavetes (Continental)
  11. War and Peace / Sergey Bondarchuk (Continental)
  12. The Young Girls of Rochefort / Jacques Demy (Warner Bros.)
  13. Flesh / Paul Morrissey (Andy Warhol)
  14. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One / William Greaves (N/A)
  15. Fists in the Pocket / Marco Bellocchio (Peppercorn-Wormser)
  16. The Boston Strangler / Richard Fleischer (20th Century Fox)
  17. The Swimmer / Frank Perry (Columbia)
  18. Diamonds in the Night / Jan Nemec (Impact Films)
  19. La Chinoise / Jean-Luc Godard (Leacock-Pennebaker)
  20. Targets / Peter Bogdanovich (Paramount)
  21. The Firemen’s Ball / Milos Forman (Cinema V)
  22. Planet of the Apes / Franklin J. Schaffner (20th Century Fox)
  23. Yellow Submarine / George Dunning (United Artists)
  24. 23rd Psalm Branch / Stan Brakhage (N/A)
  25. The Red and the White / Miklós Jancsó (Brandon)

1967

  1. The Battle of Algiers / Gillo Pontecorvo (Rizzoli)
  2. Le Samouraï / Jean-Pierre Melville (S.N. Prodis)
  3. Playtime / Jacques Tati (N/A)
  4. Persona / Ingmar Bergman (Lopert)
  5. Bonnie and Clyde / Arthur Penn (Warner Bros./Seven Arts)
  6. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly / Sergio Leone (United Artists)
  7. Dragon Inn / King Hu (Shaw Brothers)
  8. Titicut Follies / Frederick Wiseman (Zipporah)
  9. Don’t Look Back / D.A. Pennebaker (Pennebaker)
  10. El Dorado / Howard Hawks (Paramount)
  11. Marketa Lazarová / Frantisek Vlácil (N/A)
  12. The Graduate / Mike Nichols (Embassy)
  13. Chimes at Midnight / Orson Welles (Peppercorn-Wormser)
  14. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors / Sergei Parajanov (Artkino)
  15. The War Game / Peter Watkins (Pathé Contemporary)
  16. Portrait of Jason / Shirley Clarke (Filmmakers)
  17. Point Blank / John Boorman (MGM)
  18. Branded to Kill / Seijun Suzuki (Nikkatsu)
  19. Daisies / Vera Chytilová (Sigma III)
  20. Cool Hand Luke / Stuart Rosenberg (Warner Bros./Seven Arts)
  21. The Exterminating Angel / Luis Buñuel (Altura)
  22. The Face of Another / Hiroshi Teshigahara (Tôhô)
  23. For a Few Dollars More / Sergio Leone (United Artists)
  24. The Departure / Jerzy Skolimowski (Pathé Contemporary)
  25. A Countess from Hong Kong / Charlie Chaplin (Universal)

1966

  1. Chelsea Girls / Paul Morrissey, Andy Warhol (Filmmakers)
  2. Andrei Rublev / Andrei Tarkovsky (ACFK)
  3. Blow-Up / Michelangelo Antonioni (Premier)
  4. Masculin Féminin / Jean-Luc Godard (Royal Intl.)
  5. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? / Mike Nichols (Warner Bros.)
  6. Gertrud / Carl Theodore Dreyer (Pathé Contemporary)
  7. The Gospel According to St. Matthew / Pier Paolo Pasolini (Continental)
  8. Le Deuxieme Souffle / Jean-Pierre Melville (S.N. Prodis)
  9. 7 Women / John Ford (MGM)
  10. The Loves of a Blonde / Milos Forman (Prominent)
  11. Cul-De-Sac / Roman Polanski (Sigma III)
  12. Le Bonheur / Agnès Varda (Clover)
  13. Red Beard / Akira Kurosawa (Tôhô)
  14. Hamlet / Grigori Kozintsev (Columbia)
  15. Tokyo Olympiad / Kon Ichikawa (Tôhô)
  16. The Shop on Main Street / Ján Kádar, Elmar Klos (Prominent)
  17. Sandra / Luchino Visconti (Royal Intl.)
  18. Seconds / John Frankenheimer (Paramount)
  19. The Endless Summer / Bruce Brown (Monterey)
  20. The Naked Prey / Cornel Wilde (Paramount)
  21. The Sword of Doom / Kihachi Okamoto (Tôhô)
  22. Come Drink With Me / King Hu (N/A)
  23. Violence at Noon / Nagisa Ôshima (N/A)
  24. Judex / Georges Franju (Continental)
  25. Tokyo Drifter / Seijun Suzuki (Nikkatsu)

1965

  1. Repulsion / Roman Polanski (Royal Intl.)
  2. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! / Russ Meyer (Eye)
  3. The Trial of Joan of Arc / Robert Bresson (Pathé Contemporary)
  4. Alphaville / Jean-Luc Godard (Pathé Contemporary)
  5. Doctor Zhivago / David Lean (MGM)
  6. The Sound of Music / Robert Wise (20th Century Fox)
  7. The Red Desert / Michelangelo Antonioni (Rizzoli)
  8. Juliet of the Spirits / Federico Fellini (Rizzoli)
  9. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold / Martin Ritt (Paramount)
  10. Kwaidan / Masaki Kobayashi (Continental)
  11. The Knack… and How to Get It / Richard Lester (Lopert)
  12. The Ipcress File / Sidney J. Furie (Universal)
  13. The Pawnbroker / Sidney Lumet (Allied Artists)
  14. In Harm’s Way / Otto Preminger (Paramount)
  15. The Train / John Frankenheimer (United Artists)
  16. High Wind in Jamaica / Alexander Mackendrick (20th Century Fox)
  17. Brainstorm / William Conrad (Warner Bros.)
  18. Onibaba / Kaneto Shindô (Tôhô)
  19. The Executioner / Luis García Berlanga (Pathé Contemporary)
  20. Chronicle of a Summer / Edgar Morin, Jean Rouch (Pathé Contemporary)
  21. A Married Woman / Jean-Luc Godard (Royal Intl.)
  22. I Knew Her Well / Antonio Pietrangeli (Medusa)
  23. Time to Love / Metin Erksan (N/A)
  24. The Ashes / Andrzej Wajda (N/A)
  25. Guide / Vijay Anand (N/A)

1964

  1. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg / Jacques Demy (Landau)
  2. Contempt / Jean-Luc Godard (Embassy)
  3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and … / Stanley Kubrick (Columbia)
  4. The Servant / Joseph Losey (Landau)
  5. My Fair Lady / George Cukor (Warner Bros.)
  6. Le Doulos / Jean-Pierre Melville (Pathé Contemporary)
  7. Charulata / Satyajit Ray (N/A)
  8. I Am Cuba / Mikhail Kalatozov (ICAIC)
  9. An Autumn Afternoon / Yasujirô Ozu (Shochiku)
  10. Dog Star Man / Stan Brakhage (N/A)
  11. Marnie / Alfred Hitchcock (Universal)
  12. A Hard Day’s Night / Richard Lester (United Artists)
  13. Mary Poppins / Robert Stevenson (Buena Vista)
  14. The Cool World / Shirley Clarke (Cinema V)
  15. Le Trou / Jacques Becker (Consort-Orion)
  16. The Patsy / Jerry Lewis (Paramount)
  17. Woman in the Dunes / Hiroshi Teshigahara (Pathé Contemporary)
  18. Harakiri / Masaki Kobayashi (Signal Intl.)
  19. Intentions of Murder / Shôhei Imamura (Tôhô)
  20. Yearning / Mikio Naruse (Tôhô)
  21. Two Stage Sisters / Xie Jin (N/A)
  22. Black God, White Devil / Glauber Rocha (Copacabana)
  23. The Naked Kiss / Samuel Fuller (Allied Artists)
  24. Twice a Man / Gregory J. Markopoulos (Film-Makers’ Cooperative)
  25. Bay of Angels / Jacques Demy (Pathé Contemporary)

1963

  1. 8½ / Federico Fellini (Embassy)
  2. Pickpocket / Robert Bresson (New Yorker)
  3. High and Low / Akira Kurosawa (Continental)
  4. Ivan’s Childhood / Andrei Tarkovsky (Shore Intl.)
  5. The Birds / Alfred Hitchcock (Universal)
  6. The Leopard / Luchino Visconti (20th Century Fox)
  7. Shock Corridor / Samuel Fuller (Allied Artists)
  8. Winter Light / Ingmar Bergman (Janus)
  9. Sanjuro / Akira Kurosawa (Tôhô)
  10. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs / Mikio Naruse (Tôhô)
  11. Vivre Sa Vie / Jean-Luc Godard (Union)
  12. The Music Room / Satyajit Ray (Edward Harrison)
  13. Il Posto / Ermanno Olmi (Janus)
  14. The Knife in the Water / Roman Polanski (Kanawha)
  15. The Great Escape / John Sturges (United Artists)
  16. The Haunting / Robert Wise (MGM)
  17. Charade / Stanley Donen (Universal)
  18. The Trial / Orson Welles (Astor)
  19. Muriel, or the Time of Return / Alain Resnais (Lopert)
  20. The Nutty Professor / Jerry Lewis (Paramount)
  21. Pigs and Battleships / Shôhei Imamura (European Producers Intl.)
  22. Flaming Creatures / Jack Smith (N/A)
  23. Youth of the Beast / Seijun Suzuki (Nikkatsu)
  24. Dr. No / Terence Young (United Artists)
  25. Night Tide / Curtis Harrington (AIP)

1962

  1. Viridiana / Luis Bunuel (Kingsley-Intl.)
  2. Eyes Without a Face / Georges Franju (Lopert)
  3. Last Year at Marienbad / Alain Resnais (Astor)
  4. Peeping Tom / Michael Powell (Astor)
  5. Lawrence of Arabia / David Lean (Columbia)
  6. Cleo from 5 to 7 / Agnès Varda (Zenith Intl.)
  7. Jules and Jim / François Truffaut (Janus)
  8. L’Eclisse / Michelangelo Antonioni (Times)
  9. Through a Glass Darkly / Ingmar Bergman (Janus)
  10. The Manchurian Candidate / John Frankenheimer (United Artists)
  11. Two Weeks in Another Town / Vincente Minnelli (MGM)
  12. Good Morning / Yasujirô Ozu (N/A)
  13. Lolita / Stanley Kubrick (MGM)
  14. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance / John Ford (Paramount)
  15. Hatari! / Howard Hawks (Paramount)
  16. Advise and Consent / Otto Preminger (Columbia)
  17. The Tale of Zatoichi / Kenji Misumi (Daiei)
  18. Knights of the Teutonic Order / Aleksander Ford (Amerpol)
  19. Lola / Jacques Demy (Around the World)
  20. Long Day’s Journey Into Night / Sidney Lumet (Embassy)
  21. Carnival of Souls / Herk Harvey (Herts-Lion Intl.)
  22. The Connection / Shirley Clarke (Around the World)
  23. Heaven and Earth Magic / Harry Smith (Film-Makers’ Cooperative)
  24. Testament of Orpheus / Jean Cocteau (Around the World)
  25. The Iron Gate / Youssef Chahine (N/A)

1961

  1. Breathless / Jean-Luc Godard (Around the World)
  2. L’Avventura / Michelangelo Antonioni (Janus)
  3. La Dolce Vita / Federico Fellini (Astor)
  4. The Innocents / Jack Clayton (20th Century Fox)
  5. West Side Story / Jerome Robbins & Robert Wise (United Artists)
  6. Breakfast at Tiffany’s / Blake Edwards (Paramount)
  7. Yôjimbô / Akira Kurosawa (Seneca)
  8. Accattone / Pier Paolo Pasolini (N/A)
  9. The Young One / Luis Buñuel (Valiant)
  10. Elevator to the Gallows / Louis Malle (Janus)
  11. Rocco and His Brothers / Luchino Visconti (Astor)
  12. Purple Noon / René Clément (Times)
  13. The Hustler / Robert Rossen (20th Century Fox)
  14. Underworld U.S.A. / Samuel Fuller (Columbia)
  15. The Red Detachment of Women / Xie Jin (N/A)
  16. Blast of Silence / Allen Baron (Universal)
  17. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning / Karel Reisz (Continental)
  18. A Raisin in the Sun / Daniel Petrie (Columbia)
  19. The Ladies Man / Jerry Lewis (Paramount)
  20. Cruel Story of Youth / Nagisa Ôshima (Shochiku)
  21. Black Sunday / Mario Bava (AIP)
  22. Ashes and Diamonds / Andrzej Wajda (Janus)
  23. Léon Morin, Priest / Jean-Pierre Melville (Lux Compagnie)
  24. Invention for Destruction / Karel Zeman (Warner Bros.w)
  25. The Ballad of Narayama / Keisuke Kinoshita (Around the World)

1960

  1. Psycho / Alfred Hitchcock (Paramount)
  2. The Apartment / Billy Wilder (United Artists)
  3. Hiroshima Mon Amour / Alain Resnais (Zenith Intl.)
  4. The Hidden Fortress / Akira Kurosawa (Albex)
  5. Spartacus / Stanley Kubrick (Universal)
  6. The World of Apu / Satyajit Ray (Edward Harrison)
  7. The Virgin Spring / Ingmar Bergman (Janus)
  8. The Cranes Are Flying / Mikhail Kalatozov (Warner Bros.)
  9. The Cloud-Capped Star / Ritwik Ghatak (N/A)
  10. Les bonnes femmes / Claude Chabrol (N/A)
  11. The Housemaid / Kim Ki-young (N/A)
  12. Ballad of a Soldier / Grigory Chukhray (Kingsley-Intl.)
  13. Sergeant Rutledge / John Ford (Warner Bros.)
  14. Inherit the Wind / Stanley Kramer (United Artists)
  15. The Magnificent Seven / John Sturges (United Artists)
  16. Comanche Station / Budd Boetticher (Columbia)
  17. Wild River / Elia Kazan (20th Century Fox)
  18. Late Autumn / Yasujirô Ozu (Shôchiku)
  19. The Sun’s Burial / Nagisa Ôshima (Shôchiku)
  20. General Della Rovere / Roberto Rossellini (Continental)
  21. House of Usher / Roger Corman (AIP)
  22. The Tiger of Eschnapur / Fritz Lang (AIP)
  23. The Warped Ones / Koreyoshi Kurahara (Nikkatsu)
  24. The Rickshaw Man / Hiroshi Inagaki (Cory)
  25. The Wild, Wild Rose / Tian-Lin Wang (N/A)

The 1950s

1959

  1. The 400 Blows / Francois Truffaut (Zenith)
  2. Wild Strawberries / Ingmar Bergman (Janus)
  3. Rio Bravo / Howard Hawks (Warner Bros.)
  4. North by Northwest / Alfred Hitchcock (MGM)
  5. Ben-Hur / William Wyler (Loew’s)
  6. Black Orpheus / Marcel Camus (Lopert)
  7. Imitation of Life / Douglas Sirk (Universal)
  8. Floating Weeds / Yasujiro Ozu (Daiei)
  9. Some Like It Hot / Billy Wilder (United Artists)
  10. The Human Condition I: No Greater Love / Masaki Kobayashi (Brandon Films)
  11. Ivan the Terrible, Part II / Sergei Eisenstein (Janus)
  12. Plan 9 from Outer Space / Ed Wood (Valiant)
  13. Le Beau Serge / Claude Chabrol (United Motion Pictures Organization)
  14. Aparajito / Satyajit Ray (Edward Harrison)
  15. Street of Shame / Kenji Mizoguchi (Edward Harrison)
  16. Anatomy of a Murder / Otto Preminger (Columbia)
  17. Kagaaz Ke Phool / Guru Dutt (Ajanta)
  18. Touchez Pas au Grisbi / Jacques Becker (United Motion Pictures Organization)
  19. Day of the Outlaw / Andre de Toth (United Artists)
  20. Shadows / John Cassavetes (British Lion)
  21. Araya / Margot Benacerraf (Caroni Films)
  22. Pillow Talk / Michael Gordon (Universal)
  23. House on Haunted Hill / William Castle (Allied Artists)
  24. Sleeping Beauty / Clyde Geronimi & Various Directors (Buena Vista)
  25. The World, the Flesh, and the Devil / Ranald MacDougall (MGM)

1958

  1. Vertigo / Alfred Hitchcock (Paramount)
  2. Pather Panchali / Satyajit Ray (Edward Harrison)
  3. The Seventh Seal / Ingmar Bergman (Janus)
  4. I, a Negro / Jean Rouch (Films du Jeudi)
  5. Touch of Evil / Orson Welles (Universal International)
  6. Mon Oncle / Jacques Tati (Continental)
  7. Some Came Running / Vincente Minnelli (MGM)
  8. Man of the West / Anthony Mann (United Artists)
  9. Giants and Toys / Yasuzo Masumura (Daiei Studios)
  10. Anticipation of the Night / Stan Brakhage (Film-Makers’ Cooperative)
  11. Equinox Flower / Yasujiro Ozu (Shochiku)
  12. Curse of the Demon / Jacques Tourneur (Columbia)
  13. A Night to Remember / Roy Ward Baker (Rank)
  14. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof / Richard Brooks (MGM)
  15. Death of a Cyclist / Juan Antonio Bardem (Janus)
  16. Bonjour Tristesse / Otto Preminger (Columbia)
  17. Bell, Book, and Candle / Richard Quine (Columbia)
  18. Buchanan Rides Alone / Budd Boetticher (Columbia)
  19. Gunman’s Walk / Phil Karlson (Columbia)
  20. A Flower in Hell / Shin Sang-ok (Seoul Films)
  21. Big Deal on Madonna Street / Mario Monicelli (Lux)
  22. Bitter Victory / Nicholas Ray (Columbia)
  23. The Last Day of Summer / Tadeusz Konwicki (KADR)
  24. The Lineup / Don Siegel (Columbia)
  25. Letter from Siberia / Chris Marker (?)

1957

  1. Ordet / Carl Theodor Dreyer (Kingsley-International)
  2. 12 Angry Men / Sidney Lumet (United Artists)
  3. A Man Escaped / Robert Bresson (Continental)
  4. Paths of Glory / Stanley Kubrick (United Artists)
  5. A Bridge on the River Kwai / David Lean (Columbia)
  6. Pyaasa / Guru Dutt (Guru Dutt Films Ltd.)
  7. Sweet Smell of Success / Alexander Mackendrick (United Artists)
  8. The Tall T / Budd Boetticher (Columbia)
  9. Nights of Cabiria / Federico Fellini (Lopert)
  10. A Face in the Crowd / Elia Kazan (Warner Bros.)
  11. Mother India / Mehboob Khan (Mehboob Productions)
  12. 3:10 to Yuma / Delmer Daves (Columbia)
  13. A Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era / Yuzo Kawashima (Nikkatsu)
  14. A King in New York / Charlie Chaplin (Archway)
  15. Tokyo Twilight / Yasujiro Ozu (Shochiku)
  16. The Incredible Shrinking Man / Jack Arnold (Universal)
  17. The Blue Sky Maiden / Yasuzo Masumura (Daiei Studios)
  18. The Tarnished Angels / Douglas Sirk (Universal)
  19. Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? / Frank Tashlin (20th Century Fox)
  20. Jailhouse Rock / Richard Thorpe (MGM)
  21. Smiles of a Summer Night / Ingmar Bergman (Rank Film Distributors of America)
  22. The White Reindeer / Erik Blomberg (Coronet)
  23. Forty Guns / Samuel Fuller (20th Century Fox)
  24. On the Bowery / Lionel Rogosin (Film Representations, Inc.)
  25. The Curse of Frankenstein / Terence Fisher (Warner Bros.)

1956

  1. Seven Samurai / Akira Kurosawa (Columbia)
  2. The Searchers / John Ford (Warner Bros.)
  3. Early Spring / Yasujiro Ozu (Shochiku)
  4. Rififi / Jules Dassin (United Motion Picture Organization)
  5. Invasion of the Body Snatchers / Don Siegel (Allied Artists)
  6. Ikiru / Akira Kurosawa (Brandon)
  7. Awaara / Raj Kapoor (J. H. Hoffberg)
  8. Crazed Fruit / Ko Nakahira (Topaz)
  9. Tea and Sympathy / Vincente Minnelli (MGM)
  10. Written on the Wind / Douglas Sirk (Universal)
  11. French Cancan / Jean Renoir (United Motion Pictures Organization)
  12. The Burmese Harp / Kon Ichikawa (Nikkatsu)
  13. Bigger Than Life / Nicholas Ray (20th Century Fox)
  14. Forbidden Planet / Jean Renoir (MGM)
  15. La Strada / Federico Fellini (Trans Lux)
  16. The Killing / Stanley Kubrick (United Artists)
  17. Flowing / Mikio Naruse (Toho)
  18. The Ogre of Athens / Nikos Koundouros (Athens Film Company)
  19. Sawdust and Tinsel / Ingmar Bergman (Times)
  20. Seven Men from Now / Budd Boetticher (Warner Bros.)
  21. Princess Yang Kwei Fei / Kenji Mizoguchi (Buena Vista)
  22. Death in the Garden / Luis Bunuel (Cinedis)
  23. La Point-Courte / Agnes Varda (Cine-Tamaris)
  24. The Ten Commandments / Cecil B. DeMille (Paramount)
  25. The Silent World / Louis Malle & Jacques-Yves Cousteau (Columbia)

1955

  1. The Wages of Fear / Henri-Georges Clouzot (DCA)
  2. Sansho the Bailiff / Kenji Mizoguchi (Daiei)
  3. All that Heaven Allows / Douglas Sirk (Universal)
  4. Umberto D / Vittorio De Sica (Joseph Burstyn)
  5. Night of the Hunter / Charles Laughton (United Artists)
  6. Journey to Italy / Roberto Rossellini (Fine Arts)
  7. Floating Clouds / Mikio Naruse (Toho)
  8. Kiss Me Deadly / Robert Aldrich (United Artists)
  9. Lola Montes / Max Ophuls (Gamma)
  10. Rebel Without a Cause / Nicholas Ray (Warner Bros.)
  11. El / Luis Bunuel (Omnifilms)
  12. Diabolique / Henri-Georges Clouzot (United Motion Picture Organization)
  13. Artists and Models / Frank Tashlin (Paramount)
  14. Mr. Arkadin / Orson Welles (Chamartin)
  15. Senso / Luchino Visconti (Lux)
  16. The Man from Laramie / Anthony Mann (Columbia)
  17. The Long Gray Line / John Ford (Columbia)
  18. Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto / Hiroshi Inagaki (Fine Arts)
  19. Le Amiche / Michelangelo Antonioni (Titanus)
  20. Bad Day at Black Rock / John Sturges (MGM)
  21. Tennessee’s Partner / Allan Dwan (RKO)
  22. Othello / Orson Welles (United Artists)
  23. Moonfleet / Fritz Lang (MGM)
  24. It’s Always Fair Weather / Stanley Donen (MGM)
  25. The Phenix City Story / Phil Karlson (Allied Artists)

1954

  1. The Earrings of Madame de… / Max Ophuls (Arlan)
  2. Rear Window / Alfred Hitchcock (Paramount)
  3. Ugetsu / Kenji Mizoguchi (Daiei)
  4. Diary of a Country Priest / Robert Bresson (Brandon)
  5. Godzilla / Ishiro Honda (Toho)
  6. Johnny Guitar / Nicholas Ray (Republic)
  7. On the Waterfront / Elia Kazan (Columbia)
  8. A Star is Born / George Cukor (Warner Bros.)
  9. La Ronde / Max Ophuls (Commercial)
  10. Late Chrysanthemums / Mikio Naruse (Toho)
  11. Anatahan / Josef von Sternberg (Arias)
  12. The Crucified Lovers / Kenji Mizoguchi (Daiei)
  13. Le Plaisir / Max Ophuls (Arthur Mayer-Edward Kingsley)
  14. Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday / Jacques Tati (GBD International)
  15. Twenty-four Eyes / Keisuke Kinoshita (Shochiku)
  16. Magnificent Obsession / Douglas Sirk (Universal)
  17. Europa ’51 / Roberto Rossellini (I.F.E.)
  18. Riot in Cell Block 11 / Don Siegel (Allied Artists)
  19. Gate of Hell / Teinosuki Kinugasa (Edward Harrison)
  20. The Golden Coach / Jean Renoir (I.F.E.)
  21. Creature from the Black Lagoon / Jack Arnold (Universal)
  22. Dial M for Murder / Alfred Hitchcock (Warner Brothers)
  23. Salt of the Earth / Herbert J. Biberman (Independent)
  24. Silver Lode / Allan Dwan (RKO)
  25. Drive a Crooked Road / Richard Quine (Columbia)

1953

  1. Tokyo Story / Yasujiro Ozu (Shochiku)
  2. The Big Heat / Fritz Lang (Columbia)
  3. The Bigamist / Ida Lupino (Filmakers Releasing Organization)
  4. Pickup on South Street / Samuel Fuller (20th Century Fox)
  5. The Band Wagon / Vincent Minnelli (MGM)
  6. The Naked Spur / Anthony Mann (MGM)
  7. Roman Holiday / William Wyler (Paramount)
  8. The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T / Roy Rowland (Columbia)
  9. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes / Howard Hawks (20th Century Fox)
  10. Angel Face / Otto Preminger (RKO)
  11. Shane / George Stevens (Paramount)
  12. From Here to Eternity / Fred Zinnemann (Columbia)
  13. Little Fugitive / Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, and Ruth Orkin (Joseph Burstyn)
  14. The Hitch-Hiker / Ida Lupino (RKO)
  15. The Sun Shines Bright / John Ford (Republic)
  16. It Came from Outer Space / Jack Arnold (Universal)
  17. A Geisha / Kenji Mizoguchi (Daiei)
  18. The War of the Worlds / Byron Haskin (Paramount)
  19. House of Wax / Andre de Toth (Warner Bros.)
  20. Rue de l’Estrapade / Jacques Becker (Cinedis)
  21. The Black Vampire / Roman Vinaly Barreto (Argentina Sono)
  22. Beat the Devil / John Huston (United Artists)
  23. Love Letter / Kinuyo Tanaka (Shintoho)
  24. Welcome, Mr. Marshall / Luis Garcia Berlanga (Mercurio)
  25. All My Babies: A Midwife’s Own Story / George C. Stoney (Georgia Department of Public Health)

1952

  1. Singin’ in the Rain / Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly (Loew’s)
  2. Limelight / Charles Chaplin (United Artists)
  3. The Life of Oharu / Kenji Mizoguchi (Toho)
  4. The Flowers of St. Francis / Roberto Rossellini (Joseph Burstyn)
  5. The Quiet Man / John Ford (Republic)
  6. The Lusty Men / Nicholas Ray (RKO)
  7. The Bad and the Beautiful / Vincent Minnelli (MGM)
  8. Les Enfants Terrible / Jean-Pierre Melville (Arthur Mayer-Edward Kingsley)
  9. Clash by Night / Fritz Lang (RKO)
  10. High Noon / Fred Zinnemann (United Artists)
  11. The Young and the Damned / Luis Bunuel (Azteca)
  12. Children of Hiroshima / Kaneto Shindo (Hokusei)
  13. Jour de Fete / Jacques Tati (Arthur Mayer-Edward Kingsley)
  14. Forbidden Games / Rene Clement (Times)
  15. The Small Back Room / Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell (Snader)
  16. The Big Sky / Howard Hawks (RKO)
  17. The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice / Yasujiro Ozu (Shochiku)
  18. Casque d’Or / Jacques Becker (DisCina)
  19. The Man in the White Suit / Alexander Mackendrick (Universal)
  20. Monkey Business / Howard Hawks (20th Century Fox)
  21. Ruby Gentry / King Vidor (20th Century Fox)
  22. Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie / Henry King (20th Century Fox)
  23. Miss Julie / Alf Sjoberg (Trans Global)
  24. My Son John / Leo McCarey (Paramount)
  25. The Narrow Margin / Richard Fleischer (RKO)

1951

  1. The Steel Helmet / Samuel Fuller (Lippert)
  2. Rashomon / Akira Kurosawa (RKO)
  3. A Streetcar Named Desire / Elia Kazan (Warner Bros.)
  4. The Tales of Hoffman / Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell (Lopert)
  5. The Day the Earth Stood Still / Robert Wise (20the Century Fox)
  6. Strangers on a Train / Alfred Hitchcock (Warner Bros.)
  7. Ace in the Hole / Billy Wilder (Paramount)
  8. The Thing from Another World / Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks (RKO)
  9. The River / Jean Renoir (United Artists)
  10. On Dangerous Ground / Nicholas Ray & Ida Lupino (RKO)
  11. Early Summer / Yasujiro Ozu (Shochiku)
  12. Miracle in Milan / Vittorio De Sica (Joseph Burstyn)
  13. The Prowler / Joseph Losey (United Artists)
  14. Venom and Eternity / Isidore Isou (Films M.-G. Guillemin)
  15. The African Queen / John Huston (United Artists)
  16. The Lavender Hill Mob / Charles Crichton (Universal)
  17. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman / Albert Lewin (MGM)
  18. Repast / Mikio Naruse (Toho)
  19. An American in Paris / Vincent Minnelli (MGM)
  20. The Browning Version / Anthony Asquith (Universal)
  21. Aventurera / Alberto Gout (Azteca Films)
  22. Alice in Wonderland / Clyde Geronimi & Various Directors (RKO)
  23. Poison / Sacha Guitry (Gaumont)
  24. A Place in the Sun / George Stevens (Paramount)
  25. He Ran All the Way / John Berry (United Artists)

1950

  1. Orpheus / Jean Cocteau (DisCina)
  2. Sunset Boulevard / Billy Wilder (Paramount)
  3. Night and the City / Jules Dassin (20th Century Fox)
  4. Stromboli / Roberto Rossellini (RKO)
  5. All About Eve / Joseph L. Mankiewicz (20th Century Fox)
  6. In a Lonely Place / Nicholas Ray (Columbia)
  7. Winchester ‘73 / Anthony Mann (Universal)
  8. Cinderella / Clyde Geronimi & Various Directors (RKO)
  9. A Day in the Country / Jean Renoir (Joseph Burstyn)
  10. Rio Grande / John Ford (Republic)
  11. Kind Hearts and Coronets / Robert Hamer (Eagle-Lion FIlms)
  12. Bitter Rice / Giuseppe De Santis (Lux)
  13. The Asphalt Jungle / John Huston (Loew’s)
  14. Stars in My Crown / Jacques Tourneur (MGM)
  15. Gun Crazy / Joseph H. Lewis (United Artists)
  16. Wagon Master / John Ford (RKO)
  17. The Furies / Anthony Mann (Paramount)
  18. The Baron of Arizona / Samuel Fuller (Lippert)
  19. Girl with Hyacinths / Hasse Ekman (Terrafilm)
  20. Outrage / Ida Lupino (RKO)
  21. No Way Out / Joseph L. Mankiewicz (20th Century Fox)
  22. Panic in the Streets / Elia Kazan (20th Century Fox)
  23. Born Yesterday / George Cukor (Columbia)
  24. Where the Sidewalk Ends / Otto Preminger (20th Century Fox)
  25. The White-Haired Girl / Bin Wang and Choui Khoua (Changchun)