List of movies considered the best

This is a list of movies considered the best based on various polls. These are polls for critics and the public. Votes are subjective and can be biased.

American and British Critics and Filmmakers

Sight & Sound 100 Greatest Films of all Time 2012:

• 1. Vertigo (1958)
• 2. Citizen Kane (1941)
• 3. Tokyo Story (1953)

Time Out 100 Best Movies of All Time:

• 1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• 2. The Godfather (1972)
• 3. Citizen Kane (1941)

AFI'S 100 YEARS...100 MOVIES — 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

• 1. Citizen Kane (1941)
• 2. The Godfather (1972)
• 3. Casablanca (1942)

The Village Voice 100 Greatest Films

• 1. Citizen Kane (1941)
• 2. The Rules of the Game (1939, Jean Renoir)
• 3. Vertigo (1958)

Entertainment Weekly 100 Greatest Movies of All Time

• 1. The Godfather (1972)
• 2. Citizen Kane (1941)
• 3. Casablanca (1942)

IndieWire's 50 Best Movies of All Time:

• 1. Citizen Kane (1941)
• 2. Vertigo (1958)
• 3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

BBC's The 100 greatest films directed by women:

• 1. The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993)
• 2. Cléo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)
• 3. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)

Ebony's 1998 "Top Black Films of All Times":

• 1. Boyz N the Hood (1991)
• 2. Do the Right Thing (1989)
• 3. Malcolm X (1992)

International Critics and Filmmakers

Brussels World's Fair of 1958 - The 12 Best Films of All Time

• 1. Battleship Potemkin (1925)
• 2. The Gold Rush (1925)
• 3. Bicycle Thieves (1948)

Cahiers du cinéma's 100 films pour une cinémathèque idéale

• 1. Citizen Kane (1941)
• 2. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
• 3. The Rules of the Game (1939)

Télérama Les 100 meilleurs films de tous les temps:

• 1. Vertigo (1958)
• 2. Citizen Kane (1941)
• 3. Tokyo Story (1953)

Le Temps The Fifty Best Films according to Swiss Critics

• 1. Citizen Kane (1941)
• 2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• 3. Apocalypse Now (1979)

Cinephilia.net Critics' 10 Greatest Films 2012:

• 1. Citizen Kane (1941)
• 2. The Godfather (1972)
• 3. A Bright Summer Day (1991)

Steadycam Critic's 30 Favorite Films 2007:

• 1. The Searchers (1956)
• 2. Taxi Driver (1976)
• 3. Vertigo (1958)

Film Magazine Critics' Best Foreign Movies Poll:

• 1. Vertigo (1958)
• 2. Citizen Kane (1941)
• 3. Tokyo Story (1953)

Kinema Junpo Critics' Best Foreign Movies:

• 1. The Godfather (1972)
• 2. Taxi Driver (1975)
• 3. West Side Story (1961)

Audience Polls

Empire Magazine 50 Best Movies 2001:

• 1. Star Wars (1977)
• 2. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
• 3. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Empire's 500 Greatest Movies of All Time 2008:

• 1. The Godfather (1972)
• 2. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• 3. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Harris Interactive Survey Poll 2008:

• 1. Gone With the Wind (1939)
• 2. Star Wars (1977)
• 3. Titanic (1997)

Time Out Top 100 Films Reader's Poll 1998:

• 1. The Godfather (1972)
• 2. Casablanca (1942)  
• 3. Citizen Kane (1941)

IMDb Reader's Top 250 Movies:

• 1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
• 2. The Godfather (1972)
• 3. The Dark Knight (2008)

Cinema's Readers Best Films of All Time 2000:

• 1. Schindler's List (1993)
• 2. Titanic (1997)
• 3. Pulp Fiction (1994)

Best Movies of the 21st Century

BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century:

• 1. Mulholland Drive (2001)
• 2. In the Mood for Love (2000)
• 3. There Will be Blood (2007)

Time Out's The 100 best movies of the 21st century:

• 1. Mulholland Drive (2001)
• 2. There Will be Blood (2008)
• 3. The Act of Killing (2013)

The Gaurdian's The 100 best films of the 21st century

• There Will be Blood (2007)
• 12 Years a Slave (2013)
• Boyhood (2014)

Best Movies by Genre or Media

Action

Time Out New York 100 Best Action Movies 2014:

• 1. Die Hard (1988)
• 2. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• 3. Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

Time Out The 101 best action movies of all time 2022:

• 1. Aliens (1986)
• 2. Seven Samurai (1954)
• 3. The Wild Bunch (1969)

Animation

Time Out The 100 best animated films of all time:

• 1. Pinocchio (1940)
• 2. Spirited Away (2001)
• 3. My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Animation Films in BBC's The 21st Century’s 100 greatest films:

• WALL-E (2008)
• Ratatouille (2007)
• Finding Nemo (2003)

Christmas

Greatest Christmas Films Excluding Die Hard by Axios and SurveyMonkey 2018:

• 1. It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
• 2. A Christmas Story (1983)
• 3. Home Alone (1990)

Empire's Greatest Christmas Movies 2015:

• Die Hard (1988)
• It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
• Gremlins (1984)

Comedy

AFI's 100 YEARS...100 LAUGHS:

• 1. Some Like it Hot (1959)
• 2. Tootsie (1982)
• 3. Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Rolling Stone's Readers’ Poll: The 25 Funniest Movies of All Time 2014:

• 1. Blazing Saddles (1974)
• 2. Airplane! (1979)
• 3. 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' (1975)

Crime

Time Out The 50 best gangster movies of all time:

• 1. The Godfather (1972)
• 2. The Killing (1956)
• 3. Goodfellas (1990)

AFI's 10 TOP 10 Gangster Films:

• 1. The Godfather (1972)
• 2. Goodfellas (1990)
• 2. The Godfather Part II (1974)

Business Insider Critics 100 Best Crime Movies of all Time:

• 1. The Godfather (1972)
• 2. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
• 3. Touch of Evil (1958)

Documentary

Critics’ 50 Greatest Documentaries of All Time Sight & Sound

• 1. Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
• 2. Shoah (1985)
• 3. Sans Soleil (1982)

Fantasy

TimeOut The 50 best fantasy movies of all time

• 1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• 2. King Kong (1933)
• 3. Onward (2020)

Horror

TimeOut The 100 best horror movies of all time

• 1. The Excorcist (1973)
• 2. The Shining (1980)
• 3. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Empire Magazine The 50 Best Horror Movies

• 1. The Shining (1980)
• 2. Alien (1979)
• 3. Scream (1996)