List: Top 10 Films Of Every Year, By Year Of Production

I thought I’d keep something I could update on a semi-regular basis on here, showing my favourite films from each calendar year, separated by year of production (differing from my end-of-year lists, which favour UK release). I’m going back as far as 1940 for now, largely because the number of films per year that I’ve seen before that starts to rapidly diminish. That’s something I hope to rectify over time, and hopefully I’ll eventually update this page, stretching further into the past. It’s an idea I’ve stole wholesale from Vadim Rizov, whose intellectual integrity when writing about film is downright intimidating. Anyway, here’s where I am right now.

1940

1. Remember the Night (Mitchell Leisen)
2. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)
4. The Mortal Storm (Frank Borzage)
5. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks)
6. The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford)
7. The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin)
8. The Westerner (William Wyler)
9. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor)
10. Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock)

1941

1. Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges)
2. Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks)
3. All That Money Can Buy (William Dieterle)
4. Hellzapoppin’ (H.C. Potter)
5. How Green Was My Valley (John Ford)
6. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
7. The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges)
8. Suspicion (Alfred Hitchcock)
9. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)
10. High Sierra (Raoul Walsh)

1942

1. Now, Voyager (Irving Rapper)
2. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)
3. There Was A Father (Yasujiro Ozu)
4. The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges)
5. This Gun for Hire (Frank Tuttle)
6. You Were Never Lovelier (William A Seiter)
7. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
8. To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch)
9. Saboteur (Alfred Hitchcock)
10. Bambi (David Hand)

1943

1. The Ox-Bow Incident (William A Wellman)
2. Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. Le Corbeau (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
4. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger)
5. The Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur)
6. The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson)
7. I Walked With a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur)
8. Hangmen Also Die! (Fritz Lang)
9. Stormy Weather (Andrew L Stone)
10. Cabin in the Sky (Vincente Minnelli / Busby Berkeley)

1944

1. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)
2. Gaslight (George Cukor)
3. Cover Girl (Charles Vidor)
4. Christmas Holiday (Robert Siodmak)
5. Laura (Otto Preminger)
6. The Curse of the Cat People (Robert Wise, Gunther von Fritsch)
7. A Canterbury Tale (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger)
8. To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks)
9. Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk)
10. The Suspect (Robert Siodmak)

1945

1. Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz)
2. I Know Where I’m Going! (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger)
3. Brief Encounter (David Lean)
4. Leave Her to Heaven (John M Stahl)
5. Detour (Edgar G Ulmer)
6. The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder)
7. Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini)
8. Anchors Aweigh (George Sidney)
9. Christmas in Connecticut (Peter Godfrey)
10. Hangover Square (John Brahm)

1946

1. The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler)
2. The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett)
3. Let There Be Light (John Huston)
4. The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks)
5. Paisan (Roberto Rossellini)
6. A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger)
7. The Strange Love of Martha Ives (Lewis Milestone)
8. The Dark Corner (Henry Hathaway)
9. The Dark Mirror (Robert Siodmak)
10. Deadline At Dawn (Harold Clurman)

1947

1. Black Narcissus (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger)
2. Dark Passage (Delmer Daves)
3. Kiss of Death (Henry Hathaway)
4. Record of a Tenement Gentleman (Yasujiro Ozu)
5. The Lady From Shanghai (Orson Welles)
6. Framed (Richard Wallace)
7. Odd Man Out (Carol Reed)
8. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur)
9. Crossfire (Edward Dmytryk)
10. Down to Earth (Alexander Hall)

1948

1. The Last Stage (Wanda Jakubowska)
2. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston)
3. Yellow Sky (William A Wellman)
4. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger)
5. Pitfall (Andre de Toth)
6. Drunken Angel (Akira Kurosawa)
7. A Hen in the Wind (Yasujiro Ozu)
8. Act of Violence (Fred Zinnemann)
9. A Foreign Affair (Billy Wilder)
10. Raw Deal (Anthony Mann)

1949

1. Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu)
2. Criss-Cross (Robert Siodmak)
3. D.O.A. (Rudolph Maté)
4. Holiday Affair (Don Hartman)
5. On the Town (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly)
6. Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer)
7. White Heat (Raoul Walsh)
8. Side Street (Anthony Mann)
9. Colorado Territory (Raoul Walsh)
10. Caught (Max Ophüls)

1950

1. The Furies (Anthony Mann)
2. Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder)
3. Stromboli (Roberto Rossellini)
4. Winchester ’73 (Anthony Mann)
5. House by the River (Fritz Lang)
6. All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
7. Gun Crazy (Joseph H Lewis)
8. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa)
9. The Night and the City (Jules Dassin)
10. Broken Arrow (Delmer Daves)

1951

1. Fixed Bayonets! (Samuel Fuller)
2. The Tales of Hoffman (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger)
3. Early Summer (Yasujiro Ozu)
4. Alice in Wonderland (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson)
5. Miracle in Milan (Vittorio De Sica)
6. Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson)
7. Bellissima (Luchino Visconti)
8. Rawhide (Henry Hathaway)
9. Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder)
10. Awaara (Raj Kapoor)

1952

1. Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly)
2. Umberto D. (Vittorio De Sica)
3. The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice (Yasujiro Ozu)
4. Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa)
5. Bend of the River (Anthony Mann)
6. The Life of Oharu (Kenji Mizoguchi)
7. The Lusty Men (Nicholas Ray)
8. Rancho Notorious (Fritz Lang)
9. Million Dollar Mermaid (Mervyn LeRoy)
10. Way of a Gaucho (Jacques Tourneur)

1953

1. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks)
2. The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann)
3. Tokyo Story (Yasujro Ozu)
4. The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
5. Niagara (Henry Hathaway)
6. The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino)
7. Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller)
8. Calamity Jane (David Butler)
9. Glen or Glenda (Edward D. Wood, Jr.)
10. Summer with Monika (Ingmar Bergman)

1954

1. Godzilla (Ishirô Honda)
2. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray)
3. Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk)
4. Human Desire (Fritz Lang)
5. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
6. La Strada (Federico Fellini)
7. Touchez Pas au Grisbi (Jacques Becker)
8. Dial M for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock)
9. The Far Country (Anthony Mann)
10. Carmen Jones (Otto Preminger)

1955

1. All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)
2. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)
3. Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray)
4. The Big Combo (Joseph H Lewis)
5. Lola Montès (Max Ophüls)
6. Diabolique (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
7. Man Without a Star (King Vidor)
8. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich)
9. House of Bamboo (Samuel Fuller)
10. Rififi (Jules Dassin)

1956

1. A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson)
2. Aparajito (Satyajit Ray)
3. Tea and Sympathy (Vincente Minnelli)
4. Early Spring (Yasujiro Ozu)
5. Giant (George Stevens)
6. 7 Men from Now (Budd Boetticher)
7. Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray)
8. The Killing (Stanley Kubrick)
9. Bob le Flambeur (Jean-Pierre Melville)
10. Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk)

1957

1. The Tarnished Angels (Douglas Sirk)
2. The Cranes are Flying (Mikhail Kalatozov)
3. Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa)
4. Kanal (Andrzej Wajda)
5. The Tall T (Budd Boetticher)
6. 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)
7. Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini)
8. Tokyo Twilight (Yasujiro Ozu)
9. The Prince and the Showgirl (Laurence Olivier)
10. The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold)

1958

1. King Creole (Michael Curtiz)
2. Equinox Flower (Yasujio Ozu)
3. A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Douglas Sirk)
4. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)
5. The Big Country (William Wyler)
6. Cairo Station (Youssef Chahine)
7. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
8. Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda)
9. Elevator to the Gallows (Louis Malle)
10. Shadows (John Cassevetes)

1959

1. The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (Masaki Kobayashi)
2. The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (Masaki Kobayashi)
3. Suddenly, Last Summer (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
4. Day of the Outlaw (André de Toth)
5. Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder)
6. Apur Sansar (Satyajit Ray)
7. The Crimson Kimono (Samuel Fuller)
8. Sleeping Beauty (Clyde Geronimi)
9. Good Morning (Yasujiro Ozu)
10. Last Train from Gun Hill (John Sturges)

1960

1. L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni)
2. La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini)
3. Devi (Satyajit Ray)
4. The Apartment (Billy Wilder)
5. Eyes without a Face (Georges Franju)
6. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)
7. The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman)
8. Blood and Roses (Roger Vadim)
9. The Bad Sleep Well (Akira Kurosawa)
10. Comanche Station (Budd Boetticher)

1961

1. Mother Joan of the Angels (Jerzy Kawalerowicz)
2. The Misfits (John Huston)
3. La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni)
4. Through a Glass Darkly (Ingmar Bergman)
5. Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais)
6. Viridiana (Luis Bunuel)
7. Léon Morin, Priest (Jean-Pierre Melville)
8. The Hustler (Robert Rossen)
9. Homicidal (William Castle)
10. A Taste of Honey (Tony Richardson)

1962

1. Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi)
2. Vivre Sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard)
3. Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey)
4. L’Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni)
5. Cape Fear (J Lee Thompson)
6. The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel)
7. Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda)
8. Stark Fear (Ned Hockman)
9. Sanjuro (Akira Kurosawa)
10. Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah)

1963

1. The Leopard (Luchino Visconti)
2. High and Low (Akira Kurosawa)
3. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Vittorio De Sica)
4. 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini)
5. The Demon (Brunello Rondi)
6. The Silence (Ingmar Bergman)
7. Judex (Georges Franju)
8. Corruption (Mauro Bolognini)
9. The Whip and the Body (Mario Bava)
10. Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller)

1964

1. Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni)
2. The Gospel According to Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
3. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy)
4. Onibaba (Kaneto Shindō)
5. The Naked Kiss (Samuel Fuller)
6. Charulata (Satyajit Ray)
7. The Pumpkin Eater (Jack Clayton)
8. I Am Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov)
9. The Train (John Frankenheimer)
10. My Fair Lady (George Cukor)

1965

1. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer)
2. Juliet of the Spirits (Federico Fellini)
3. Le Bonheur (Agnes Varda)
4. Sandra (Luchino Visconti)
5. Red Beard (Akira Kurosawa)
6. Pierrot le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard)
7. A Story Written with Water (Yoshishige Yoshida)
8. For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone)
9. The Nest of the Cuckoos Birds (Bert Williams)
10. The Sons of Katie Elder (Henry Hathaway)

1966

1. Au hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson)
2. Daisies (Vera Chytilová)
3. The Nun (Jacques Rivette)
4. Persona (Ingmar Bergman)
5. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone)
6. Red Angel (Yasuzo Masumura)
7. Black Girl (Ousmane Sembène)
8. The Betrayal (Tokuzō Tanaka)
9. The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Montecorvo)
10. Moonlighting Wives (Joseph W. Sarno)

1967

1. Branded to Kill (Seijun Suzuki)
2. In Cold Blood (Richard Brooks)
3. La Chinoise (Jean-Luc Godard)
4. Viy (Georgi Keopachyov, Konstantin Yershov)
5. Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville)
6. Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard)
7. Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands (Atsushi Yamatoya)
8. The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy)
9. Spring Night, Summer Night (Joseph L. Anderson)
10. Accident (Joseph Losey)

1968

1. Theorem (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
3. Night of the Living Dead (George A Romero)
4. The Lion in Winter (Anthony Harvey)
5. The Snow Woman (Tokuzō Tanaka)
6. Vibrations (Joseph W. Sarno)
7. The Satanist (Zoltan G. Spencer)
8. Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski)
9. Kuroneko (Kaneti Shindo)
10. Mandabi (Ousmane Sembène)

1969

1. L’Amour Fou (Jacques Rivette)
2. Blind Beast (Yasuzo Masumura)
3. Funeral Parade of Roses (Toshio Matsumoto)
4. Salesman (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin)
5. Eros + Massacre (Yoshishige Yoshida)
6. Fellini Satyricon (Federico Fellini)
7. Model Shop (Jacques Demy)
8. The Colour of Pomegranates (Sergei Parajanov)
9. Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville)
10. Sweet Charity (Bob Fosse)

1970

1. Wanda (Barbara Loden)
2. The Things of Life (Claude Sautet)
3. The Vampire Lovers (Roy Ward Baker)
4. Ucho [The Ear] (Karel Kachyna)
5. Catch-22 (Mike Nichols)
6. Hospital (Frederick Wiseman)
7. Woodstock (Michael Wadleigh)
8. Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter (Yasuharu Hasebe)
9. Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal (Yasuharu Hasebe)
10. Gimme Shelter (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin)

1971

1. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (John D. Hancock)
2. A New Leaf (Elaine May)
3. Out 1 (Jacques Rivette)
4. Klute (Alan J Pakula)
5. The Shiver of the Vampires (Jean Rollin)
6. Bushman (David Schickele)
7. Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg)
8. Vanishing Point (Richard C Sarafian)
9. Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby)
10. Beware of a Holy Whore (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

1972

1. Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (Shunya Ito)
2. The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
3. Poem (Akio Jissoji)
4. Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (Sergio Martino)
5. Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (Shunya Ito)
6. What Have You Done to Solange? (Massimo Dallamano)
7. Morgiana (Juraj Herz)
8. The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (Paul Newman)
9. Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman)
10. Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky)

1973

1. Coffy (Jack Hill)
2. Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (Shunya Ito)
3. Hotel Monterey (Chantal Akerman)
4. The Iron Rose (Jean Rollin)
5. The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Ivan Dixon)
6. The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy)
7. Belladonna of Sadness (Eiichi Yamamoto)
8. Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight (Teruo Ishii)
9. Torso (Sergio Martino)
10. Sex and Fury (Norifumi Suzuki)

1974

1. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper)
2. Messiah of Evil (Gloria Katz, Willard Huyck)
3. Je Tu Il Elle (Chantal Akerman)
4. Edvard Munch (Peter Watkins)
5. Céline and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette)
6. The Swinging Cheerleaders (Jack Hill)
7. A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes)
8. Hearts and Minds (Peter Davis)
9. The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (Werner Herzog)
10. Identikit (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi)

1975

1. Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman)
2. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick)
3. Jaws (Steven Spielberg)
4. Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir)
5. Nashville (Robert Altman)
6. The Passenger (Michelangelo Antonioni)
7. Welfare (Frederick Wiseman)
8. Lips of Blood (Jean Rollin)
9. Supervixens (Russ Meyer)
10. Shivers (David Cronenberg)

1976

1. Duelle (une quarantine) (Jacques Rivette)
2. News from Home (Chantal Akerman)
3. Harlan County, U.S.A (Barbara Kopple)
4. Chinese Roulette (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
5. Dark August (Martin G. Goldman)
6. The Witch Who Came from the Sea (Matt Cimber)
7. Black Emmanuelle, White Emmanuelle (Brunoello Rondi)
8. All the President’s Men (Alan J. Pakula)
9. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese)
10. The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood)

1977

1. 3 Women (Robert Altman)
2. Eraserhead (David Lynch)
3. Opening Night (John Cassavetes)
4. Suspiria (Dario Argento)
5. The Ascent (Larisa Sheptiko)
6. One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (Agnès Varda)
7. Rabid (David Cronenberg)
8. Gay USA (Arthur J Bressan Jr.)
9. The Child (Robert Voskanian)
10. That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Bunuel)

1978

1. Beauty and the Beast (Juraj Herz)
2. Halloween (John Carpenter)
3. Autumn Sonata (Ingmar Bergman)
4. Girlfriends (Claudia Weill)
5. A Wedding (Robert Altman)
6. The Meetings of Anna (Chantal Akerman)
7. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino)
8. Despair (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
9. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Liu Chia-Laing)
10. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick)

1979

1. Alien (Ridley Scott)
2. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)
3. All That Jazz (Bob Fosse)
4. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky)
5. Is This Fate? (Helge Reidemeister)
6. Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog)
7. Legend of the Mountain (King Hu)
8. The Muppet Movie (James Frawley)
9. Dirty Ho (Lau Kar-leung)
10. Van Nuys Blvd. (William Sachs)

1980

1. The Night of the Hunted (Jean Rollin)
2. The Fog (John Carpenter)
3. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)
4. Atlantic City (Louis Malle)
5. Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper)
6. Airplane! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker)
7. Nine to Five (Colin Higgins)
8. Nightmare City (Umberto Lenzi)
9. Clan of the White Lotus (Lo Lieh)
10. Bronco Billy (Clint Eastwood)

1981

1. Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara)
2. The Beyond (Lucio Fulci)
3. Halloween II (Rick Rosenthal)
4. Possession (Andrzej Zulawski)
5. The War of the Worlds: Next Century (Piotr Szulkin)
6. Kagero-Za (Seijun Suzuki)
7. Friday the 13th Part 2 (Steve Miner)
8. Model (Frederick Wiseman)
9. Blind Spot (Claudia von Alemann)
10. Thief (Michael Mann)

1982

1. Losing Ground (Kathleen Collins)
2. The Thing (John Carpenter)
3. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott)
4. Toute une Nuit (Chantal Akerman)
5. Querelle (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
6. A Good Marriage (Éric Rohmer)
7. The Slayer (J.S. Cardone)
8. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (Tommy Lee Wallace)
9. Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (Robert Altman)
10. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Colin Higgins)

1983

1. Videodrome (David Cronenberg)
2. Pauline at the Beach (Éric Rohmer)
3. Variety (Bette Gordon)
4. Christine (John Carpenter)
5. Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden)
6. The Hunger (Tony Scott)
7. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Nagisa Oshima)
8. L’Argent (Robert Bresson)
9. Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola)
10. The Store (Frederick Wiseman)

1984

1. Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme)
2. Blood Simple (Joel Coen)
3. The Terminator (James Cameron)
4. Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders)
5. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki)
6. Streetwise (Martin Bell)
7. Body Double (Brian De Palma)
8. Special Effects (Larry Cohen)
9. Silent Night, Deadly Night (Charles E. Sellier, Jr.)
10. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Steven Spielberg)

1985

1. Shoah (Claude Lanzmann)
2. After Hours (Martin Scorsese)
3. Day of the Dead (George A. Romero)
4. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader)
5. A Zed & Two Noughts (Peter Greenaway)
6. Clue (Jonathan Lynn)
7. Angel’s Egg (Mamoru Ohii)
8. Desert Hearts (Donna Deitch)
9. Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood)
10. Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman)

1986

1. Working Girls (Lizzie Borden)
2. Blue Velvet (David Lynch)
3. Aliens (James Cameron)
4. Multi-Handicapped (Frederick Wiseman)
5. Terrorizers (Edward Yang)
6. The Green Ray (Éric Rohmer)
7. The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky)
8. Golden Eighties (Chantal Akerman)
9. Down By Law (JIm Jarmusch)
10. From Beyond (Stuart Gordon)

1987

1. Where is the Friend’s House? (Abbas Kiarostami)
2. Daughter of the Nile (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)
3. Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle (Éric Rohmer)
4. Robocop (Paul Verhoeven)
5. Diary for my Loves (Márta Mészáros)
6. Cobra Verde (Werner Herzog)
7. Housekeeping (Bill Forsyth)
8. Anguish (Bigas Luna)
9. Delirium: Photo of Gioia (Lamberto Bava)
10. Family Viewing (Atom Egoyan)

 

1988

1. My Neighbour Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki)
2. Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg)
3. Door (Banmei Takahashi)
4. The Vanishing (George Sluizer)
5. Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo)
6. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (James Signorelli)
7. Patty Hearst (Paul Schrader)
8. Jane B. par Agnès V. (Agnès Varda)
9. As Tears Go By (Wong Kar Wai)
10. Alice (Jan Svankmajer)

1989

1. My Twentieth Century (Ildikó Enyedi)
2. Do The Right Thing (Spike Lee)
3. Tetsuo: the Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto)
4. sex, lies and videotape (Steven Soderbergh)
5. Speaking Parts (Atom Egoyan)
6. American Stories: Food, Family and Philosophy (Chantal Akerman)
7. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (Peter Greenaway)
8. Patlabor: The Movie (Mamoru Oshii)
9. For All Mankind (Al Reinert)
10. Amityville: The Evil Escapes (Sandor Stern)

 

1990

1. Twilight / Szürkület (György Fehér)
2. Wild at Heart (David Lynch)
3. Miller’s Crossing (Joel Coen)
4. Maniac Cop 2 (William Lustig)
5. The Exorcist III (William Peter Blatty)
6. Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingston)
7. White Hunter, Black Heart (Clint Eastwood)
8. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Joe Dante)
9. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami)
10. Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven)

1991

1. The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)
2. Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott)
3. Naked Lunch (David Cronenberg)
4. Boyz N The Hood (John Singleton)
5. Jacquot de Nantes (Agnès Varda)
6. Night on Earth (Jim Jarmusch)
7. The Stranger (Satyajit Ray)
8. Aspen (Frederick Wiseman)
9. Yumeji (Seijun Suzuki)
10. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (Fax Behr, George Hickenlooper, Eleanor Coppola)

1992

1. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (David Lynch)
2. Alien³ (David Fincher)
3. Life, and Nothing More (Abbas Kiarostami)
4. Candyman (Bernard Rose)
5. Orlando (Sally Potter)
6. The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies)
7. Light Sleeper (Paul Schrader)
8. Juice (Ernest Dickerson)
9. Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog)
10. The Living End (Gregg Araki)

1993

1. Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater)
2. Return of the Living Dead 3 (Brian Yuzna)
3. Patlabor 2 (Mamoru Oshii)
4. Three Colours: Blue (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
5. The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese)
6. Menace II Society (Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes)
7. Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg)
8. Poetic Justice (John Singleton)
9. Calendar (Atom Egoyan)
10. In The Name of Christ (Roger Gnoan M’Bala) 

1994

1. Vive L’Amour (Tsai Ming-liang)
2. Sátántangó (Béla Tarr)
3. The Hudsucker Proxy (Joel Coen)
4. Exotica (Atom Egoyan)
5. Amateur (Hal Hartley)
6. Jeanne la Pucelle I: Les Batailles (Jacques Rivette)
7. Alma’s Rainbow (Ayoka Chenzira)
8. Chungking Express (Wong Kar Wai)
9. Three Colours: Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
10. Jeanne la Pucelle II: Les Prisons (Jacques Rivette)

1995

1. Maborosi (Hirokazu Kore-Eda)
2. Tales from the Hood (Rusty Cundieff)
3. Fallen Angels (Wong Kar Wai)
4. Tank Girl (Rachel Talalay)
5. Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii)
6. The Addiction (Abel Ferrara)
7. Safe (Todd Haynes)
8. Clockers (Spike Lee)
9. To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (Beeban Kidron)
10. Welcome II The Terrordome (Ngozi Onwurah)

1996

1. Crash (David Cronenberg)
2. Bound (Lana Wachowski, Lily Wachowski)
3. Set it Off (F Gary Gray)
4. Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas)
5. Gabbeh (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
6. Barb Wire (David Hogan)
7. Fargo (Joel Coen)
8. Nenette and Boni (Claire Denis)
9. The Delta (Ira Sachs)
10. Foxfire (Annette Haywood-Carter)

1997

1. Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion (David Mirkin)
2. Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
3. Lost Highway (David Lynch)
4. Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki)
5. Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon)
6. I Know What You Did Last Summer (Jim Gillespie)
7. Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki)
8. Eve’s Bayou (Kasi Lemmons)
9. The Mirror (Jafar Panahi)
10. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Clint Eastwood)

1998

1. After Life (Hirokazu Kore-Eda)
2. The Hole (Tsai Ming-liang)
3. Portishead: Roseland New York (Dick Carruthers)
4. Bride of Chucky (Ronny Yu)
5. New Rose Hotel (Abel Ferrara)
6. The Apple (Samira Makhmalbaf)
7. Wild Things (John McNaughton)
8. Ring (Hideo Nakata)
9. Show Me Love (Lukas Moodysson)
10. The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen)

 

1999

1. Beau Travail (Claire Denis)
2. eXistenZ (David Cronenberg)
3. Audition (Takashi Miike)
4. The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola)
5. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)
6. The Straight Story (David Lynch)
7. The Insider (Michael Mann)
8. The Limey (Steven Soderbergh)
9. The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez)
10. But I’m a Cheerleader (Jamie Babbit)

 

2000

1. Cecil B. Demented (John Waters)
2. Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky)
3. In The Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai)
4. The Captive (Chantal Akerman)
5. Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett)
6. Bamboozled (Spike Lee)
7. Shadow of the Vampire (E. Elias Merhige)
8. Yi Yi (Edward Yang)
9. Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku)
10. Disappearing Acts (Gina Prince-Bythewood)

2001

1. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
2. The Man Who Wasn’t There (Joel Coen)
3. Josie and the Pussycats (Deborah Kaplan, Harry Elfont)
4. Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff)
5. Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis)
6. What Time is it There? (Tsai Ming-liang)
7. Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
8. Wendigo (Larry Fassenden)
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson)
10. Millennium Mambo (Hou Hsiao-hsien)

 

2002

1. In My Skin (Marina de Van)
2. Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
4. Vendredi soir (Claire Denis)
5. Adaptation. (Spike Jonze)
6. Panic Room (David Fincher)
7. Gerry (Gus Van Sant)
8. Irreversible (Gaspar Noe)
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Peter Jackson)
10. Ju-On: The Grudge (Takashi Shimizu)

2003

1. Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang)
2. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
3. Memories of Murder (Bong Joon-ho)
4. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Marcus Nispel)
5. Elephant (Gus Van Sant)
6. Gozu (Takashi Miike)
7. The Matrix Reloaded (Lana Wachowski, Lily Wachowski)
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson)
9. Kill Bill vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino)
10. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Peter Weir)

 

2004

1. Box (Takashi Miike) [segment of the anthology film ‘Three… Extremes’]
2. 2046 (Wong Kar Wai)
3. Take Out (Sean Baker, Shih-Ching Tsou)
4. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
5. Innocence (Lucile Hadzihalilovic)
6. Seed of Chucky (Don Mancini)
7. A Dirty Shame (John Waters)
8. Saw (James Wan)
9. Mean Girls (Mark Waters)
10. Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Alexander Witt)

 

2005

1. War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg)
2. House of Wax (Jaume Collet-Serra)
3. The Bloodettes (Jean-Pierre Bekolo)
4. Tale of Cinema (Hong Sang-soo)
5. Good Night, and Good Luck (George Clooney)
6. The Wayward Cloud (Tsai Ming-liang)
7. Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-Wook)
8. The Quiet (Jamie Babbit)
9. Bubble (Steven Soderbergh)
10. Caché [Hidden] (Michael Haneke)

 

2006

1. Offside (Jafar Panahi)
2. The Lighthouse (Maria Saakyan)
3. Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt)
4. Volver (Pedro Almodóvar)
5. Retribution (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
6. Paprika (Satoshi Kon)
7. Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola)
8. I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang)
9. Jackass Number Two (Jeff Tremaine)
10. A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater)

2007

1. Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino)
2. No Country for Old Men (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
3. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. All is Forgiven (Mia Hansen-Love)
5. Zodiac (David Fincher)
6. Hostel Part II (Eli Roth)
7. Go-Go Tales (Abel Ferrara)
8. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
9. Encounters at the End of the World (Werner Herzog)
10. Lust, Caution (Ang Lee)

 

2008

1. Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt)
2. Still Walking (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
3. Home (Ursula Meier)
4. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martell)
5. Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
6. Revanche (Gotz Spielmann)
7. Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas)
8. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson)
9. Below Sea Level (Gianfranco Rosi)
10. The House Bunny (Fred Ward)

 

2009

1. The House of the Devil (Ti West)
2. Katalin Varga (Peter Strickland)
3. A Serious Man (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
4. The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch)
5. Lourdes (Jessica Hausner)
6. The Happiest Girl in the World (Radu Jude)
7. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans (Werner Herzog)
8. The Father of my Children (Mia Hansen-Love)
9. Mother (Bong Joon-ho)
10. Thirst (Park Chan-wook)

 

2010

1. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
2. The Oath (Laura Poitras)
3. Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky)
4. El Sicario, Room 164 (Gianfranco Rosi)
5. Resident Evil: Afterlife (Paul W.S. Anderson)
6. Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog)
7. Somewhere (Sofia Coppola)
8. Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt)
9. Piranha 3D (Alexandre Aja)
10. Scott Pilgrim vs the World (Edgar Wright)

 

2011

1. The Woman (Lucky McKee)
2. Scream 4 (Wes Craven)
3. You’re Next (Adam Wingard)
4. House of Tolerance (Bertrand Bonello)
5. Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven (Rena Riffel)
6. Goodbye, First Love (Mia Hansen-Love)
7. Haywire (Steven Soderbergh)
8. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
9. Pariah (Dee Rees)
10. I Wish (Hirokazu Kore-eda)

 

2012

1. Resident Evil: Retribution (Paul W.S. Anderson)
2. Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas)
3. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
4. Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami)
5. American Mary (Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska)
6. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel)
7. Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (John Hyams)
8. Excision (Richard Bates, Jr.)
9. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn, Anonymous)
10. No (Pablo Larraín)

2013

1. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
2. The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki)
3. Bastards (Claire Denis)
4. Like Father, Like Son (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
5. Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt)
6. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)
7. At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman)
8. Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn)
9. The Bling Ring (Sofia Coppola)
10. Palo Alto (Gia Coppola)

 

2014

1. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2. Girlhood (Céline Sciamma)
3. Selma (Ava DuVernay)
4. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)
5. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako)
6. The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland)
7. Phoenix (Christian Petzold)
8. Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas)
9. Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne)
10. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)

 

2015

1. Carol (Todd Haynes)
2. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
3. The Witch (Robert Eggers)
4. Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo)
5. Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhang-ke)
6. Tangerine (Sean Baker)
7. Magic Mike XXL (Gregory Jacobs)
8. Our Little Sister (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
9. Mistress America (Noah Baumbach)
10. Taxi Tehran (Jafar Panahi)

 

2016

1. Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt)
2. Jackie (Pablo Larraín)
3. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
4. Raw (Julia Ducournau)
5. Everybody Wants Some!! (Richard Linklater)
6. Hail, Caesar! (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
7. Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson)
8. Lovesong (So Yong Kim)
9. 10 Cloverfield Lane (Dan Trachtenberg)
10. A Quiet Passion (Terence Davies)

 

2017

1. Alien: Covenant (Ridley Scott)
2. Get Out (Jordan Peele)
3. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. BPM (Beats Per Minute) (Robin Campillo)
5. Ex Libris: The New York Public Library (Frederick Wiseman)
6. Sleep Has Her House (Scott Barley)
7. Happy Death Day (Christopher Landon)
8. John Wick Chapter 2 (Chad Stahelski)
9. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)
10. On Body and Soul (Ildikó Enyedi)

2018

1. If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)
2. Long Day’s Journey into Night (Bi Gan)
3. Annihilation (Alex Garland)
4. Suspiria (Luca Guadagnino)
5. The Strangers: Prey at Night (Johannes Roberts)
6. In Fabric (Peter Strickland)
7. First Man (Damien Chazelle)
8. Holiday (Isabella Eklof)
9. Burning (Lee Chang-dong)
10. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie)

 

2019

1. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma)
2. Homecoming – A Film by Beyoncé (Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Ed Burke)
3. Us (Jordan Peele)
4. The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg)
5. A Hidden Life (Terrence Malick)
6. Swallow (Carlos Mirabella-Davis)
7. Ema (Pablo Larraín)
8. The Irishman (Martin Scorsese)
9. An Easy Girl (Rebecca Zlotowski)
10. Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov)

 

2020

1. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman)
2. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)
3. Zola (Janicza Bravo)
4. Malmkrog (Cristi Puiu)
5. Relic (Natalie Erika James)
6. Purple Sea (Amel Alzakout, Khaled Abdulwahed)
7. Notturno (Gianfranco Rosi)
8. Beginning (Dea Kulumbegashvili)
9. I’m thinking of ending things (Charlie Kaufman)
10. The Nest (Sean Durkin)

 

2021

1. The Matrix Resurrections (Lana Wachowski)
2. Malignant (James Wan)
3. Happening (Audrey Diwan)
4. Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven)
5. Great Freedom (Sebastian Meise)
6. Parallel Mothers (Pedro Almodóvar)
7. Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson)
8. Censor (Prano Bailey-Bond)
9. Azor (Andreas Fontana)
10. Agnes (Mickey Reece)

 

2022

1. One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Love)
2. Pacifiction (Albert Serra)
3. Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)
4. Flux Gourmet (Peter Strickland)
5. Both Sides of the Blade (Claire Denis)
6. R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu)
7. Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg)
8. The People’s Joker (Vera Drew)
9. Nope (Jordan Peele)
10. Saint Omer (Alice Diop)

 

2023

1. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
2. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)
3. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
4. The Beast (Bertrand Bonello)
5. May December (Todd Haynes)
6. Earth Mama (Savanah Leaf)
7. Ferrari (Michael Mann)
8. Priscilla (Sofia Coppola)
9. Hoard (Luna Carmoon)
10. Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki)

 

2024

1. I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun)
2. Furiosa – A Mad Max Saga (George Miller)
3. April (Dea Kulumbegashvili)
4. My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow (Julia Loktev, Anna Nemzer)
5. The First Omen (Arkasha Stevenson)
6. Kinds of Kindness (Yorgos Lanthimos)
7. Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)
8. The Shrouds (David Cronenberg)
9. Grand Theft Hamlet (Sam Crane, Pinny Grylls)
10. In a Violent Nature (Chris Nash)

 

 

2025

1. The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
2. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. Peter Hujar’s Day (Ira Sachs)
4. Blue Heron (Sophy Romvari)
5. Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro)
6. Silent Night, Deadly Night (Mike P. Nelson)
7. Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh)
8. 28 Years Later (Danny Boyle)
9. No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook)
10. It Was Just An Accident (Jafar Panahi)