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Top 50 Films

Updated Tuesday April 9, 2024

This list is a congregation of several countries, a dozen languages, and many directors' worth of material. With this list, I am hoping to express my personal favorites as well as acknowledge the greatest films of all time. See also my Top Albums List.

# Title Director Year
1. Manhattan Woody Allen 1979
2. Persona Ingmar Bergman 1966
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey Stanley Kubrick 1968
4. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Robert Wiene 1920
5. A Woman under the Influence John Cassavetes 1974
6. Woman in the Dunes Hiroshi Teshigahara 1964
7. Heaven Knows What Josh Safdie & Benny Safdie 2014
8. The Passion of Joan of Arc Carl Theodor Dreyer 1928
9. Sátántangó Béla Tarr 1994
10. Kings of the Road Wim Wenders 1976
11. Inland Empire David Lynch 2006
12. The Connection Shirley Clarke 1962
13. Stardust Memories Woody Allen 1980
14. Dogville Lars von Trier 2003
15. Naked Lunch David Cronenberg 1991
16. Stalker Andrei Tarkovsky 1979
17. Mulholland Dr. David Lynch 2001
18. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Pedro Almodóvar 1988
19. Thelma & Louise Ridley Scott 1991
20. Streetwise Martin Bell 1984
21. The Florida Project Sean Baker 2017
22. Mommy Xavier Dolan 2014
23. The Color of Pomegranates Sergei Parajanov 1968
24. The Doom Generation Gregg Araki 1995
25. Dancer in the Dark Lars von Trier 2000
26. Do the Right Thing Spkie Lee 1989
27. What Happened Was... Tom Noonan 1994
28. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Michel Gondry 2004
29. The Holy Mountain Alejandro Jodorowsky 1973
30. The Bicycle Thief Vittorio de Sica 1948
31. A Raisin in the Sun Daniel Petrie 1961
32. M Fritz Lang 1931
33. Paris Is Burning Jennie Livingston 1990
34. Lilya 4-Ever Lukas Moodysson 2002
35. First Reformed Paul Schrader 2017
36. Federico Fellini 1963
37. Chinatown Roman Polanski 1974
38. Judgment at Nuremburg Stanley Kramer 1961
39. Amour Michael Haneke 2012
40. Vagabond Agnès Varda 1985
41. Fail-Safe Sidney Lumet 1964
42. Network Sidney Lumet 1976
43. Suburbia Penelope Spheeris 1983
44. Synecdoche, New York Charlie Kaufman 2008
45. The Wages of Fear Georg Wilhelm Pabst 1953
46. Love Streams John Cassavetes 1984
47. The 400 Blows François Truffaut 1959
48. The Fire Within Louis Malle 1963
49. Threads Mick Jackson 1984
50. Holy Motors Leos Carax 2012