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List of films voted the best

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While it is impossible to objectively determine the greatest film of all time, it is possible to discuss the films that have been regarded as the greatest ever. The important criterion for inclusion in this article is that the film is the "greatest" by some specific criterion or indicator — be it a critics' poll, popular poll, box office receipts or awards. Obviously, the criterion is tilted heavily towards American films. See below for list of best movies for respective countries.

Films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers

File:Citiza kane.jpg
Citizen Kane tops many critics' lists

Films acclaimed in audience polls

Biggest box office successes

Main article: List of highest-grossing films

Worldwide highest grossing films (Not adjusted for inflation)

File:Titanic poster.jpg
Titanic broke box office records
  1. Titanic (1997) $1,845,034,188
  2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) $1,118,888,979
  3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorcerer's) Stone (2001) $976,475,550
  4. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) $926,287,400
  5. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) $924,317,558
  6. Shrek 2 (2004) $920,665,658
  7. Jurassic Park (1993) $914,691,118
  8. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) $891,249,794
  9. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) $876,688,482
  10. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) $871,368,364

^ Not adjusted for inflation. See the inflation-adjusted list for a more accurate gauge of commercial success.

Prior highest-grossing films

  • The Birth of a Nation (1915): Highest-grossing film until 1925. Director D.W. Griffith said in 1929 that the film had taken $10m worldwide. This has been reported as both an under-estimate and an over-estimate, and its true takings may never be known.
  • The Big Parade (1925). The highest grossing silent film of all time, taking $22m world wide.
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937): Highest grossing until 1939. Total gross $185m.
  • Gone with the Wind (1939): Highest grossing until 1966, when it was overtaken by The Sound of Music. Following a re-release in 1971, Gone with the Wind retook the lead for a further year. Current total gross $198m.
  • The Sound of Music (1965): Highest gross from August 1966 until the re-issue of Gone with the Wind in 1971. Current total gross $163m.
  • The Godfather (1972): Highest grossing until 1975. Current total gross $134m.
  • Jaws (1975): Highest grossing until 1977. Current total gross $470m.
  • Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977): Highest grossing until January 1983. Current total gross $798m
  • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982): Highest grossing until 1993. Current total gross $757m. (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope did not re-overtake E.T. until its re-release in 1997, by which time Jurassic Park had landed the top slot.)
  • Jurassic Park (1993): Highest grossing until 1997. Current total gross $920m.

Highest USA grossing film adjusted for inflation

File:Gwtw-original-poster.jpg
Gone with the Wind is the highest grossing film ever, when adjusted for inflation

By adjusting for inflated ticket prices, the popularity of films released at different times can be compared. This list estimates the number of admissions for each film by using the average ticket price at the time of each release [3]. Gone with the Wind, when adjusted for inflation is still the highest grossing film ever. The film has had at least four substantial releases worldwide (in 1939, 1954, 1961 and 1971). The adjusted for inflation value of these releases is $3.8bn worldwide, $1.3bn in the United States (2004 dollars).

  1. Gone with the Wind (1939) $1,293,085,600
  2. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) $1,139,965,400
  3. The Sound of Music (1965) $911,458,400
  4. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $907,867,700
  5. The Ten Commandments (1956) $838,400,000
  6. Titanic (1997) $821,413,700
  7. Jaws (1975) $819,704,400
  8. Doctor Zhivago (1965) $794,466,900
  9. The Exorcist (1973) $707,639,500
  10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) $697,600,000

Films that have received the most Academy Awards

Ever since their inception in 1928, the Academy Awards (the "Oscars") have been seen as the most significant of the film award ceremonies. The first film to dominate an Oscars ceremony was Frank Capra's It Happened One Night in 1935. It was the first film to win five awards. Moreover it won the "Oscar grand slam" by winning Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay—a feat that has been repeated only twice more, by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1976 and by Silence of the Lambs in 1992.

In 1939, Gone with the Wind was nominated for 13 awards and two special citations. It won eight of the Awards to beat It Happened One Night's record. All About Eve (1950) broke the nominations record with 14, and won in six categories.

Gigi was the film to break Gone with the Wind's record, winning in all nine of its nominated categories at the ceremony for films made in 1958. However, its moment at the top was short-lived, as the epic Ben-Hur went on to win 11 Oscars from 12 nominations the following year.

Ben-Hur's eleven Oscars remains the record. This achievement in turn has been equalled twice—by Titanic in 1997 with 11 awards from 14 nominations, and by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which won in all 11 of its nominated categories in 2003 in the greatest 'sweep' in the history of the Academy Awards.

Achievements

Films that are considered the greatest in their particular genre

Animation

File:Cover-akira.jpg
Akira was voted best anime film in 2001
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) is the highest-grossing animated film of all time when adjusted for inflation. Snow White also appeared at #49 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American movies (compiled in 1998), higher than any other animated film.
  • Tale of Tales (Сказка сказок) (1979) - Yuriy Norshteyn's short film was voted by a large international jury to be the greatest animated film of all time at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympiad of Animation and the 2002 Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films. [4] [5]
  • Akira (アキラ) (1988) was chosen as the top anime ever by Anime Insider in fall 2001.
  • Beauty and the Beast (1991), is the only fully-animated movie (computerized or not) to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. It has also been nominated for a total of six Oscars, more than any other animated film. It was also the first animated movie to win the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical.
  • Aladdin (1992) is the only animated movie to win an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Grammy, MTV Movie Award and Movie Of The Year.
  • Lion King The highest grossing traditionally animated movie of all time. Won a Golden Globe.
  • Toy Story (1995) was voted #1 on the Top 100 Animated Features of All Time by the Online Film Critics Society (list published March 2003). Toy Story was also the first animated movie to be nominated for a Best Screenplay award at the Oscars.
  • Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し) (2001) was voted best animated movie by IMDb users. It was the first anime (Japanese animation) film to win an Academy Award. It is the only movie to earn $250M before its US release.
  • Shrek 2 (2004) is the highest-grossing animated film of all time without correcting for inflation.
  • The Incredibles (2004), was nominated for 16 Annie Awards (the top award ceremony honoring animation), more than any other film. It also has won 10 of its nominations, another record. It also won the Best Animated Feature Oscar, and became one of only four animated movies ever to be nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar.

Comedy

Concert

  • The Last Waltz (1978), Martin Scorsese's chronicling of The Band's farewell concert on Thanksgiving Day in 1976. Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune calls it "The greatest rock concert movie ever made -- and maybe the best rock movie, period." Terry Lawson of the Detroit Free Press comments that "This is one of the great movie experiences." [7] The review at Total Film comments "In what is rightly considered the greatest concert film ever shot . . ." [8]
  • Stop Making Sense (1984) Film critic James Berardinelli wrote that Jonathan Demme's capturing of the Talking Heads in concert was "the best concert film to date when it first came out, and nothing in the past decade-and-a-half has come close to toppling it from that position." Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle had similar praise: "Has there ever been a live concert film as vibrant or as brilliantly realized? I don't think so."

Disaster

Documentary

Epic

Fantasy

Film noir


Horror/thriller

File:Psycho (1960).jpg
Psycho tops several lists

Musical

  • Singin' in the Rain The highest rated movie musical at the IMDb. Highest ranked musical at the 2002 Sight and Sound poll.
  • The Wizard of Oz The highest ranked musical on AFI's list of the 100 best American films.
  • Grease was voted the greatest musical by viewers of Channel 4 in 2003.
  • The Sound of Music is the highest grossing musical when adjusted for inflation.
  • West Side Story is the winner of the most Academy Awards of any movie musical (10).

Propaganda

Romance

  • Casablanca - Voted best American-based film in which there is "a romantic bond between two or more characters, whose actions and/or intentions provide the heart of the film’s narrative" by the AFI.
  • Gone with the Wind, considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. After adjusting for inflation, it is the highest grossing film ever. The AFI voted it as the fourth greatest film of all time.

Science fiction

Silent

  • Battleship Potemkin (see Films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers above.)
  • Greed, Erich von Stroheim's 1924 film has been included in numerous Sight and Sound Top Ten polls. It was the highest rated silent film (number four overall) in the 1962 poll.
  • Modern Times, the last major American film to make use of silent film conventions such as title cards for dialogue, is the highest-rated silent film on the IMDb. There is a recorded soundtrack; one scene has dialogue spoken over an intercom, and Charlie Chaplin sings nonsense lyrics to a song at the end. City Lights, another of Chaplin's films, is the highest-rated movie without any dialogue, spoken or sung. It too has a recorded soundtrack. Metropolis is the highest-rated movie that was totally silent when released. However, IMDb viewers most likely watched the restored version which has a recorded soundtrack.
  • The Big Parade is the highest-grossing silent film of all time, taking $22m world wide.
  • The Birth of a Nation (1915) - In the 1920s the New York Mail described the movie as "the supreme picture of all time".

War

Western

In particular countries

Australia

See also: Cinema of Australia

Brazil

See also: Cinema of Brazil
File:City of God movie.jpg
City of God is the highest ranked Brazilian film in the IMDb
  • City of God (Cidade de Deus in Portuguese), is the highest ranking Brazilian film featured in TIME magazine's 100 best movies of all-time list [18]. It is also the highest ranked (#18) in IMDb's top 250 list.
  • Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol (English: God and the Devil in the Land of the Sun, also known as Black God, White Devil) an example of Brazilian cinema movement known as Cinema Novo, is considered by many critics to be the best Brazilian movie of all time[19]; was named as such from a poll conducted by the Brazilian cinema magazine Contracampo (no. 27) Click on "articles".

Canada

See also: Cinema of Canada

China

See also: Cinema of China

Finland

See also: Cinema of Finland
  • The Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon Sotilas in Finnish), holds the record for the highest grossing domestic film in Finland, and received seven "Jussi" (Finnish Oscar) statuettes [20].

France

See also: Cinema of France

Germany

See also: Cinema of Germany

India

See also: Cinema of India


File:PatherDVD.jpg
  • Pather Panchali (1955) is the only Indian film to have ever appeared on Sight and Sound Critics's Top Ten Poll (ranked #9 in 1992). It was ranked the top Indian film in a 2002 popularity poll by the British Film Institute (BFI) conducted on the web, and number two in the BFI critics' poll in which critics were asked to compile a list of 50 best Indian as well as South Asian films [22]. Pather Panchali is the first film of director Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy (1955-1959, which are the only Indian films in the "top 100 best movies in the world", as rated by TIME magazine. [23]
  • Pushpak (The Love Chariot), from 1988, is the highest rated Indian film on IMDb.com.
  • Gandhi (1982), an Anglo-Indian production, received eight awards and eleven nominations at the Academy Awards.
  • Sholay is the highest grossing movie of all time in India. It was also the top film selected in the 2002 BFI critics' poll.
  • Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) is the longest running movie ever, released in 1995 and still running endlessly since 1995 in a theater in Mumbai. This is also the greatest earning movie of all time in the history of Indian cinema.
  • Hum Aapke Hain Koun(1994) is the second most highest grossing movie in india(unadjusted).


Ireland

Italy

Japan

See also: Cinema of Japan
File:SevenSamurai(ITA).jpg
The Seven Samurai
  • Rashōmon (羅生門): This 1950 film by Akira Kurosawa was the first Japanese film to gain world-wide acclaim. The highest-ranked Japanese film (#10) on the Village Voice list of 100 Best Films of the 20th Century. It was also the highest-ranked Japanese film on the Sight and Sound 2002 Directors' Top Ten Poll.
  • Tokyo Story (東京物語 Tokyo Monogatari), 1953. This film by Yasujiro Ozu about an aging couple as they journey from their rural village to visit their two married children in postwar Tokyo was declared the greatest film ever by Halliwell's Film Guide in 2005 25. It was also the highest-ranked Japanese film on the Sight and Sound 2002 Critics' Top Ten Poll. (As well as the only non-Kurosawa Japanese film in any of its polls.)
  • The Seven Samurai (七人の侍 Shichinin no samurai), 1954: Also by Kurosawa, this period adventure film is frequently cited as the greatest Japanese film ever; consistently the highest-rated foreign-made (outside of the United States) film on the IMDb Top 250, appropriately enough it is ranked #7 (as of June 2006).

Russia

See also: Cinema of Russia and Soviet Union

Sweden

See also: Cinema of Sweden
  • The Emigrants (Utvandrarna): Jan Troell's naturalist masterwork was the first Scandinavian film to receive Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, and it is often cited in Sweden as the greatest Swedish film of all-time. [citation needed]
  • Persona: voted "Best Picture" by US National Society of Film Critics. This film by acclaimed director Ingmar Bergman also reached the highest position (#5) of any Swedish film on Sight & Sound's 1972 list of greatest films of all time.
  • The Seventh Seal: also directed by Ingmar Bergman, is the highest rated Swedish film on the IMDB.

United Kingdom

See also: Cinema of the United Kingdom

United States

See also: Cinema of the United States


See also

References

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