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. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks)
5. The Mortal Storm (Frank Borzage)
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. All That Money Can Buy (William Dieterle)
3. Hellzapoppin’ (H.C. Potter)
4. Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks)
5. How Green Was My Valley (John Ford)
6. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
7. The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges)
8. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston)
9. Suspicion (Alfred Hitchcock)
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. Le Corbeau (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
3. Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock)
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. Laura (Otto Preminger)
4. Cover Girl (Charles Vidor)
5. Christmas Holiday (Robert Siodmak)
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 Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett)
2. The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler)
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. Kiss of Death (Henry Hathaway)
3. Record of a Tenement Gentleman (Yasujiro Ozu)
4. Dark Passage (Delmer Daves)
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. Yellow Sky (William A Wellman)
2. The Last Stage (Wanda Jakubowska)
3. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger)
4. Pitfall (Andre de Toth)
5. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston)
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. Act of Violence (Fred Zinnemann)
3. D.O.A. (Rudolph Maté)
4. Holiday Affair (Don Hartman)
5. Criss-Cross (Robert Siodmak)
6. On the Town (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly)
7. Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer)
8. Side Street (Anthony Mann)
9. Colorado Territory (Raoul Walsh)
10. Caught (Max Ophüls)

1950

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

1951

1. Fixed Bayonets! (Samuel Fuller)
2. The Tales of Hoffman (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger)
3. Miracle in Milan (Vittorio De Sica)
4. Early Summer (Yasujiro Ozu)
5. Alice in Wonderland (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson)
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. Niagara (Henry Hathaway)
4. The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice (Yasujiro Ozu)
5. Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa)
6. Bend of the River (Anthony Mann)
7. The Life of Oharu (Kenji Mizoguchi)
8. The Lusty Men (Nicholas Ray)
9. Rancho Notorious (Fritz Lang)
10. Million Dollar Mermaid (Mervyn LeRoy)

1953

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

1954

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

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. Man Without a Star (King Vidor)
6. Diabolique (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
7. Lola Montès (Max Ophüls)
8. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich)
9. House of Bamboo (Samuel Fuller)
10. Rififi (Jules Dassin)

1956

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

1957

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

1958

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

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. The Crimson Kimono (Samuel Fuller)
6. Sleeping Beauty (Clyde Geronimi)
7. Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder)
8. Apur Sansar (Satyajit Ray)
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. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)
6. The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman)
7. Eyes without a Face (Georges Franju)
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. La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni)
3. Léon Morin, Priest (Jean-Pierre Melville)
4. Through a Glass Darkly (Ingmar Bergman)
5. Viridiana (Luis Bunuel)
6. The Hustler (Robert Rossen)
7. Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais)
8. The Misfits (John Huston)
9. Homicidal (William Castle)
10. A Taste of Honey (Tony Richardson)

1962

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

1963

1. The Leopard (Luchino Visconti)
2. High and Low (Akira Kurosawa)
3. The Demon (Brunello Rondi)
4. Judex (Georges Franju)
5. The Silence (Ingmar Bergman)
6. The Whip and the Body (Mario Bava)
7. Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller)
8. 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini)
9. Le Mepris (Jean-Luc Godard)
10. Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Rouben Mamoulian)

1964

1. Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni)
2. The Gospel According to Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
3. Onibaba (Kaneto Shindō)
4. The Naked Kiss (Samuel Fuller)
5. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy)
6. Charulata (Satyajit Ray)
7. The Pumpkin Eater (Jack Clayton)
8. I Am Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov)
9. Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara)
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. Red Beard (Akira Kurosawa)
5. Sandra (Luchino Visconti)
6. A Story Written with Water (Yoshishige Yoshida)
7. Pierrot le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard)
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. Red Angel (Yasuzo Masumura)
6. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone)
7. Black Girl (Ousmane Sembène)
8. Come Drink with Me (King Hu)
9. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols)
10. Moonlighting Wives (Joseph W. Sarno)

1967

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

1968

1. Theorem (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
2. Night of the Living Dead (George A Romero)
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
4. The Lion in Winter (Anthony Harvey)
5. Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski)
6. Vibrations (Joseph W. Sarno)
7. Kuroneko (Kaneti Shindo)
8. Mandabi (Ousmane Sembène)
9. High School (Frederick Wiseman)
10. The Devil Rides Out (Terence Fisher)

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. Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville)
9. Sweet Charity (Bob Fosse)
10. The Cow (Dariush Mehrjui)

1970

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

1971

1. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (John D. Hancock)
2. Out 1 (Jacques Rivette)
3. A New Leaf (Elaine May)
4. Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg)
5. Klute (Alan J Pakula)
6. Vanishing Point (Richard C Sarafian)
7. The Shiver of the Vampires (Jean Rollin)
8. Bushman (David Schickele)
9. Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff)
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. Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (Sergio Martino)
4. Poem (Akio Jissoji)
5. What Have You Done to Solange? (Massimo Dallamano)
6. Morgiana (Juraj Herz)
7. The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (Paul Newman)
8. Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman)
9. Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (Shunya Ito)
10. Fat City (John Huston)

1973

1. Coffy (Jack Hill)
2. Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (Shunya Ito)
3. Hotel Monterey (Chantal Akerman)
4. The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy)
5. The Iron Rose (Jean Rollin)
6. Torso (Sergio Martino)
7. Belladonna of Sadness (Eiichi Yamamoto)
8. The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Ivan Dixon)
9. Lady Snowblood (Toshiya Jufita)
10. Ganja & Hess (Bill Gunn)

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. Hearts and Minds (Peter Davis)
7. The Phantom of the Paradise (Brian De Palma)
8. The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (Werner Herzog)
9. The Swinging Cheerleaders (Jack Hill)
10. Identikit (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi)

1975

1. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick)
2. Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman)
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. The Witch Who Came from the Sea (Matt Cimber)
5. Chinese Roulette (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
6. Black Emmanuelle, White Emmanuelle (Brunoello Rondi)
7. Dark August (Martin G. Goldman)
8. All the President’s Men (Alan J. Pakula)
9. Carrie (Brian de Palma)
10. The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg)

1977

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

1978

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

1979

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

1980

1. The Night of the Hunted (Jean Rollin)
2. Atlantic City (Louis Malle)
3. The Fog (John Carpenter)
4. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)
5. Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper)
6. Nightmare City (Umberto Lenzi)
7. Clan of the White Lotus (Lo Lieh)
8. 9 to 5 (Colin Higgins)
9. Inferno (Dario Argento)
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. Kagero-Za (Seijun Suzuki)
6. The War of the Worlds: Next Century (Piotr Szulkin)
7. Friday the 13th Part 2 (Steve Miner)
8. Model (Frederick Wiseman)
9. One from the Heart (Francis Ford Coppola)
10. Blind Spot (Claudia von Alemann)

1982

1. The Thing (John Carpenter)
2. Losing Ground (Kathleen Collins)
3. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott)
4. Toute une Nuit (Chantal Akerman)
5. A Good Marriage (Éric Rohmer)
6. The Slayer (J.S. Cardone)
7. Querelle (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
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 King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)

1983

1. Videodrome (David Cronenberg)
2. Variety (Bette Gordon)
3. Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden)
4. Pauline at the Beach (Éric Rohmer)
5. The Hunger (Tony Scott)
6. Christine (John Carpenter)
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. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Steven Spielberg)
7. Streetwise (Martin Bell)
8. Body Double (Brian De Palma)
9. Special Effects (Larry Cohen)
10. Silent Night, Deadly Night (Charles E. Sellier, Jr.)

1985

1. Shoah (Claude Lanzmann)
2. Day of the Dead (George A. Romero)
3. After Hours (Martin Scorsese)
4. A Zed & Two Noughts (Peter Greenaway)
5. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader)
6. Clue (Jonathan Lynn)
7. Desert Hearts (Donna Deitch)
8. Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood)
9. Ran (Akira Kurosawa)
10. Tampopo (Juzo Itami)

1986

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

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. Cobra Verde (Werner Herzog)
5. Robocop (Paul Verhoeven)
6. Delirium: Photo of Gioia (Lamberto Bava)
7. Housekeeping (Bill Forsyth)
8. Rouge (Stanley Kwan)
9. Diary for my Loves (Márta Mészáros)
10. Family Viewing (Atom Egoyan)

 

1988

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

1989

1. My Twentieth Century (Ildikó Enyedi)
2. sex, lies and videotape (Steven Soderbergh)
3. Do The Right Thing (Spike Lee)
4. Speaking Parts (Atom Egoyan)
5. Tetsuo: the Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto)
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. Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingston)
4. Maniac Cop 2 (William Lustig)
5. Miller’s Crossing (Joel Coen)
6. The Exorcist III (William Peter Blatty)
7. White Hunter, Black Heart (Clint Eastwood)
8. Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven)
9. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Joe Dante)
10. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami)

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. The Stranger (Satyajit Ray)
6. Aspen (Frederick Wiseman)
7. Jacquot de Nantes (Agnès Varda)
8. Yumeji (Seijun Suzuki)
9. Night on Earth (Jim Jarmusch)
10. Clearcut (Ryszard Bugajski)

1992

1. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (David Lynch)
2. Alien³ (David Fincher)
3. Life, and Nothing More (Abbas Kiarostami)
4. Orlando (Sally Potter)
5. Candyman (Bernard Rose)
6. The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies)
7. Juice (Ernest Dickerson)
8. Light Sleeper (Paul Schrader)
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. Jeanne la Pucelle I: Les Batailles (Jacques Rivette)
3. Sátántangó (Béla Tarr)
4. Exotica (Atom Egoyan)
5. Amateur (Hal Hartley)
6. The Hudsucker Proxy (Joel Coen)
7. Chungking Express (Wong Kar Wai)
8. Three Colours: Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
9. Alma’s Rainbow (Ayoka Chenzira)
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. Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii)
5. Tank Girl (Rachel Talalay)
6. Safe (Todd Haynes)
7. Clockers (Spike Lee)
8. To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (Beeban Kidron)
9. The Addiction (Abel Ferrara)
10. Welcome II The Terrordome (Ngozi Onwurah)

1996

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

1997

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

1998

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

 

1999

1. Beau Travail (Claire Denis)
2. Audition (Takashi Miike)
3. eXistenZ (David Cronenberg)
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. Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett)
4. The Captive (Chantal Akerman)
5. In The Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai)
6. Shadow of the Vampire (E. Elias Merhige)
7. Bamboozled (Spike Lee)
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. Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff)
4. Josie and the Pussycats (Deborah Kaplan, Harry Elfont)
5. Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis)
6. What Time is it There? (Tsai Ming-liang)
7. Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
8. Wendigo (Larry Fassenden)
9. Millennium Mambo (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson)

 

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. Panic Room (David Fincher)
6. May (Lucky McKee)
7. Adaptation. (Spike Jonze)
8. Ju-On: The Grudge (Takashi Shimizu)
9. Gerry (Gus Van Sant)
10. Irreversible (Gaspar Noe)

2003

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

 

2004

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

 

2005

1. War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg)
2. The Bloodettes (Jean-Pierre Bekolo)
3. House of Wax (Jaume Collet-Serra)
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. The Lighthouse (Maria Saakyan)
2. Offside (Jafar Panahi)
3. Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt)
4. Volver (Pedro Almodóvar)
5. Retribution (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
6. Paprika (Satoshi Kon)
7. I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang)
8. Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola)
9. A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater)
10. Jackass Number Two (Jeff Tremaine)

2007

1. Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino)
2. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. No Country for Old Men (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
4. Hostel Part II (Eli Roth)
5. All is Forgiven (Mia Hansen-Love)
6. Zodiac (David Fincher)
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. Water Lilies (Céline Sciamma)

 

2008

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

 

2009

1. Katalin Varga (Peter Strickland)
2. The House of the Devil (Ti West)
3. The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch)
4. The Happiest Girl in the World (Radu Jude)
5. A Serious Man (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
6. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans (Werner Herzog)
7. The Father of my Children (Mia Hansen-Love)
8. Lourdes (Jessica Hausner)
9. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)
10. The Girlfriend Experience (Steven Soderbergh)

 

2010

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

 

2011

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

 

2012

1. Resident Evil: Retribution (Paul W.S. Anderson)
2. Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas)
3. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel)
4. American Mary (Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska)
5. Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami)
6. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
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. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)
6. Texas Chainsaw 3D (John Luessenhop)
7. At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman)
8. Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt)
9. Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn)
10. Palo Alto (Gia Coppola)

 

2014

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

 

2015

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

2016

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

 

2017

1. Alien: Covenant (Ridley Scott)
2. Happy Death Day (Christopher Landon)
3. Get Out (Jordan Peele)
4. Ex Libris: The New York Public Library (Frederick Wiseman)
5. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
6. BPM (Beats Per Minute) (Robin Campillo)
7. John Wick Chapter 2 (Chad Stahelski)
8. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)
9. Virus Tropical (Santiago Caicedo)
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. In Fabric (Peter Strickland)
6. The Strangers: Prey at Night (Johannes Roberts)
7. Holiday (Isabella Eklof)
8. First Man (Damien Chazelle)
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. Swallow (Carlos Mirabella-Davis)
6. A Hidden Life (Terrence Malick)
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. Zola (Janicza Bravo)
3. Malmkrog (Cristi Puiu)
4. Purple Sea (Amel Alzakout, Khaled Abdulwahed)
5. Relic (Natalie Erika James)
6. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)
7. Beginning (Dea Kulumbegashvili)
8. Notturno (Gianfranco Rosi)
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. Great Freedom (Sebastian Meise)
5. Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven)
6. Censor (Prano Bailey-Bond)
7. Parallel Mothers (Pedro Almodóvar)
8. Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson)
9. Agnes (Mickey Reece)
10. Azor (Andreas Fontana)

 

2022

1. One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Love)
2. Pacifiction (Albert Serra)
3. Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)
4. Nope (Jordan Peele)
5. Flux Gourmet (Peter Strickland)
6. Both Sides of the Blade (Claire Denis)
7. R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu)
8. Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg)
9. The People’s Joker (Vera Drew)
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. Priscilla (Sofia Coppola)
7. Ferrari (Michael Mann)
8. Earth Mama (Savanah Leaf)
9. Menus-Plaisirs, les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman)
10. All Dirt Roads Taste Like Salt (Raven Jackson)

 

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. The Shrouds (David Cronenberg)
8. Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)
9. Grand Theft Hamlet (Sam Crane, Pinny Grylls)
10. In a Violent Nature (Chris Nash)

 

1. 

The Secret Agent

2025

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