Master List of the Top 100 Films of All Time
There are many “Top 100 Film” lists, each with their own biases. There are lists based on popularity, lists based on critic reviews, lists based on filmmaker opinion, lists that are Hollywood-centric, lists that prefer international cinema, and so on.
This master list aggregates a selection of eight lists to produce a list of the top 100 films of all time. The advantage to such an aggregated list is that it balances out old vs. new and avoids being subject to the idiosyncrasies found in some lists. If a film makes it to this list there is an extremely strong consensus that it is one of the greatest films ever made.
Sources and methodology are at the bottom. Links take you to JustWatch, where you can find out where to stream the films listed. Enjoy.
2. Psycho
3. Citizen Kane
7. Rear Window
8. Pulp Fiction
10. Casablanca
11. Spirited Away
12. Vertigo
13. Alien
15. Taxi Driver
18. Goodfellas
19. The Dark Knight
20. Schindler’s List
21. 12 Angry Men
22. City Lights
23. The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
24. The Shining
25. Some Like It Hot
26. Once Upon A Time In The West
27. Sunset Boulevard
28. Toy Story
29. Bicycle Thieves
30. M
33. Star Wars
36. Jaws
37. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
38. Blade Runner
39. Fight Club
40. The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
41. Modern Times
43. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
44. Se7en
45. Chinatown
46. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
47. Raging Bull
48. The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
50. Persona
51. The Passion of Joan of Arc
52. Tokyo Story
53. Rashomon
55. Parasite
57. The Matrix
58. Forrest Gump
59. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
60. Andrei Rublev
61. The Searchers
65. All About Eve
66. Inception
67. Mulholland Drive
68. The Third Man
69. The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
70. Whiplash
71. Boyhood
72. Gladiator
73. Touch of Evil
75. The 400 Blows
76. Pan’s Labyrinth
77. American Beauty
78. The Lion King
79. Pather Panchali
81. Die Hard
83. Metropolis
84. The Thing
85. Paths of Glory
87. WALL-E
88. Memento
89. Oldboy
90. Nashville
91. The Seventh Seal
92. La La Land
93. Barry Lyndon
95. Reservoir Dogs
96. The Wizard of Oz
97. Moonlight
98. Harakiri
99. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles
100. Gone with the Wind
A point is awarded for a film’s placement on a given list, with ties broken by the aggregate placement within lists. For example, The Godfather and Psycho appear in every list and so score 8 points each but The Godfather is #1 because it tends to place higher within them.
Lists were chosen to reflect popularity as well as critical acclaim and to produce a balance between old vs. new, English-language vs. foreign, and mainstream vs. film school.
Lists:
- Empire magazine’s “The 100 Greatest Movies” (20 March 2018). Reader poll, mainstream.
- Sight and Sound magazine’s “The 100 Greatest Films of All Time” (23 March 2020). High-brow film critics’ poll, international cinema focus.
- Hollywood Reporter’s “Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Films” (25 June 2014). Filmmaker’s poll.
- IMDB’s “Top Rated Movies” (7 July 2020). Based on user ratings, mainstream.
- Rotten Tomatoes’ “Top 100 Movies of All Time” (7 July 2020). Mainstream critics’ reviews, bias towards recent films.
- Time Out’s “The 100 best movies of all time” (10 June 2019). Curated list, middle-brow.
- Metacritic’s “Best Movies of All Time” (7 July 2020). Mainstream critics’ reviews but more eclectic than Rotten Tomatoes.
- Letterboxd’s “Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films” (7 July 2020). Ratings from film nerds.
Score spreadsheet is here. Letterboxd version is here.
