Film listings and other artistic expressions—from cinema to music, literature, painting, and comics—always invite surprises and occasional confusion. Yet at their core, they’re a playful, serious game that many people love to explore. The list of the 100 best films in history, released every decade by Sight & Sound, a project of the British Film Institute, remains one of the most watched and influential rankings in the world. It’s a living canon shaped by both critics and filmmakers alike.
The Sight and Sound poll began in 1952 with Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves at the top. In the 1962 ballot, Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane surged to number one and stayed there for decades. The Rules of the Game by Jean Renoir and Tales from Tokyo by Yasujiro Ozu followed in second and third. By 2012, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo had overtaken Welles’s debut, rising to second place in every check of the poll. The film’s ascent, from seventh in 1982 to first in 2022, underscored the poll’s evolving taste and endurance. The 846 participants in that round reflected a broad, international conversation about cinema history.
maintain hegemony
In the most recent edition, the poll gathered input from about 1,600 critics, academics, curators, and programmers, making the pool nearly double the size of the previous round. Vertigo slipped to second, while Citizen Kane also settled in at number two. In the top ranks, Tales from Tokyo remained strong, with another Asian title close behind, and a modern favorite from Wong Kar-wai in collaboration with Mulholland Drive appearing as a contemporary highlight. The rankings this century continue to reflect shifts in global cinema influence and audience taste, showing how classic and modern works intersect in a shared canon.
Completing the top ten, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick sits alongside Beau Travail by Claire Denis, The Man with a Camera by Dziga Vertov, and Singin’ in the Rain by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly. The lineup presents a spectrum from traditional musical cinema to avant-garde experiments, capturing the broad mix that defines the canon and demonstrates how Hitchcock, Welles, and Ozu continue to shape modern appreciation of film history.
What drew attention and sparked debate is a broader, more inclusive voting pool. By inviting more critics from five continents, the poll surfaced a set of choices that challenge earlier assumptions and highlight films that were less visible in the past. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, directed by Chantal Akerman in 1975, rose to the very top in some analyses, a result that surprised many readers and filmmakers. In 2012, the same film placed 51st, underscoring how perception can shift with a wider, more diverse voting body. In a separate vote by 480 filmmakers, Akerman’s Tales from Tokyo shared fourth place with Kubrick’s space epic, illustrating the tension between historical influence and contemporary reevaluation in the poll.
Paul Schrader, writer of Taxi Driver and director of Mishima, has his own list of favorites. He favored Pickpocket, Tales from Tokyo, Bergman’s Persona, The Rules of the Game, and a work by Bertolucci, suggesting alternate routes through cinema history. Schrader explained via social media how Akerman’s ascent could challenge established narratives. The debate echoed across pundits and fans alike, inviting a broader discussion about who counts the votes and how the votes are used to map cinema history. The conversation highlighted the interplay between democratic processes and the structure of the poll itself, inviting readers to consider the role of rankings in shaping cultural memory.
No news from Buñuel
There is lively debate over whether Singin’ in the Rain, a grand musical comedy about the transition from silent to sound, deserves the top spot more than Murnau’s Breaking Dawn, long celebrated as a masterpiece. Some readers question whether historical perspective should keep pace with a modern, evolving canon. The inclusion of recent titles like Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, placed amid classic masterpieces, continues to fuel discussion about how contemporary works sit within the long arc of cinema history. The conversation also embraces the broader spectrum of world cinema and its influence on the standard Hollywood model.
The list also highlights surprising inclusions and notable absences. Akerman and Denis appear with multiple strong entries, while Agnès Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7 and The Gleaners and the Gleaner receive attention for their lasting impact. Early experimental writers and directors from around the world surface in various positions, prompting ongoing reflection on the visibility of women filmmakers, pioneers in avant-garde cinema, and the global reach of film art. Readers may wonder where early pioneers like Alice Guy, Ida Lupino, Dorothy Arzner, Sofia Coppola, Naomi Kawase, and Kathryn Bigelow fit within the evolving canon. The list also prompts discussion about the place of legendary directors such as Buñuel, Cassavetes, von Stroheim, and von Sternberg, alongside modern figures who have redefined contemporary cinema. Latent regional voices and non-Western productions continue to shape the conversation, while animation and international cinema remind readers that the canon is a living, dynamic conversation rather than a fixed trophy case. The broader point remains: the Sight and Sound poll represents a global snapshot of cinematic values, not a final verdict, and it invites ongoing dialogue about what counts as great film and why.