Ten Best Films of 2023

1. Afire (Christian Petzold, Germany) 

It seemed inevitable that one of our greatest living filmmakers, Berlin School master Petzold, would eventually top one of this site’s yearly lists. Two films into his Rohmerian cycle on the elements, the director's La Collectionneuse makes consequential use of fire, wind and water all within a brilliantly controlled narrative that is so infected by its central figure's self absorption that we frequently have our viewing hopes dashed. A writer, director and actors' film equally, Afire adds some of Petzold's most lyrical and surreal images, the year's most vibey needle drop and a final act narrational recalibration that is worthy of the filmmaker's 2014 masterpiece Phoenix.

2. About Dry Grasses (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey/France/Germany/ Sweden) 

Ceylan’s latest masterclass in human motivation possesses the thematic density and character complexities of the Russian novelists for whom the director has cited his admiration—with a marathon running time to match. Structured around a series of nuanced conversations, Ceylan’s rural Anatolian epic teases out accusations of impropriety against two male middle school teachers, before their romantic rivalry, focusing on a new teacher, takes center stage. Ceylan, in this work of genuine moral seriousness, refines his now signature high-definition video aesthetic and post-Kiarostami observational style, replete with its own unexpected moment of non-fictional address.

3. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, United States/Germany) 

In this conceptual sequel to and massive improvement on The French Dispatch, Anderson finds encyclopedic inspiration in the American cinema and popular culture of the 1950s, stacking medium-specific metaphors (trains, dreams, open-air theater) on top of pulp genres (westerns, musicals, science fiction). Done in the service of a highly entertaining dioramic narrative that gestures at a bygone nuclear age, this archly American object rivals 2012's great Moonrise Kingdom in its thematic rigor. Yet, Anderson's very personal Asteroid City also admits uncertainty too as it looks to move beyond autobiography to something more cosmic.

4. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland/Germany) 

This refreshingly crisp and compressed romantic comedy makes masterful use of the director’s renowned expressionless performance style that fuses very funny Finnish cultural clichés of emotional impassivity with the uber-serious cinema of Robert Bresson. The latter’s L’Argent is one of a number of references that Kaurismäki underlines—others include Chaplin, Ozu, Fassbinder, Clair and 1930s proletarian Hollywood—in what proves a celebration of the director’s sources, such cinematic fellow travelers as Jim Jarmusch, and even the director's own past output (Drifting Clouds). Blissfully entertaining and one of the director's very best.

5. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, United States/United Kingdom/Poland) 

Glazer’s harrowing and very Kubrickian The Zone of Interest recreates the mostly bucolic home life of Auschwitz’s commandant Rudolf Höss and his family as they pass their days and evenings, literally, on the other side of the infamous prison camp’s wall. The product of meticulous historical research, Glazer uses the contrapuntal language of cinema to tell us what is going on in Auschwitz (through its more and less faint soundscapes) without visualizing the Nazi’s atrocities. Alongside 2015's Son of Saul, The Zone of Interest is one of the 21st century's most novel and impactful Holocaust narratives. A film that seems custom built for future intro to cinema syllabi.

6. In Our Day (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)

Korean art-house giant Hong's thirtieth feature since 1996 once again finds the director in The Novelist Film's autobiographical territory, in this case exploring the often comic daily interactions of the director's surrogate (in the figure of the poet Hong) and that of his lover and late-period axiom, Kim Min-hee. As the director contends on and off-screen with admiring acolytes and diminished health in his half of this two-parter, In Our Day extends the philosophical bent of Hong's most recent work, suggesting an answer to the biggest of questions in our ability to appreciate what is in front of us, to be thankful for existence without searching for deeper meaning.

7. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain/Argentina) 

For his first fiction feature in four decades and his first feature-length film of any variety in three, Spain's great maestro Erice has created a very personal and moving apologia for his lost filmmaking decades. After a historical preface that references the classical Hollywood cinema that Erice began his career revising with The Spirit of the Beehive—here the reference is Sternberg with a blissful Rio Bravo diversion still to come—a more televisual aesthetic obtains for much of the loose, episodic film's near three-hour runtime, before projected cinema is brought to bear to explain the present in the film's Shirin-inspired conclusion. 

8. Here (Bas Devos, Belgium) 

Following his luminous, nocturnal 2019 arthouse discovery Ghost Tropic, Devos once again traverses an often depopulated Brussels, in this case bringing together a Belgian-Chinese doctoral candidate and a Romanian laborer, just before the latter is preparing to return home. Devos's film is almost uniquely attuned to the acts of seeing (in microscopic detail) and listening, with the film's mise-en-scene lingering on sparkling nightscapes and to a series of magical incursions of the natural world into Brussels's industrial metropolis. A genuinely moving sense of romantic possibility decorates the film's gentle coupling in this exquisite Berlinale highlight.

9. Eureka (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/France/Portugal) 

Though it failed to secure a competition slot at this year's Cannes Film Festival, Alonso's long-waited return may be that festival's most meaningful exploration of American Indigenous trauma. Eureka is structured in three parts that successively move backward in time and mediate Native experience respectively through a black-and-white western, an elegantly lensed if emotionally gutting Cops-style night in the life of a Pine Ridge police officer, and in an Amazonian mining camp where narrated dreams bring about tragedy. Civilization is a blight in this object of enhanced realism from the celebrated Argentine author of La Libertad and Los Muertos.

10. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Phạm Thiên Ân, Vietnam/ France/Singapore/Spain) 

In a year that was short on major modernist works from Asia—one of the principle sources for the most innovative global art cinema of the past few decades—Phạm's epic directorial debut was the astonishingly ambitious and assured exception. Filled with some of the year's most elegant compositions, audacious camera movements, and a willingness to engage metaphysical concerns, the searching, Apichatpong or Bi Gan-inspired Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell is no less notable as a portrait of modern Vietnam and its Roman Catholic minority, dividing its time between contemporary Saigon and the once bifurcated country’s mist-covered, mountainous countryside.

Ten Best Films: 1930-2023

Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)

1930
1. Morocco (Josef von Sternberg, United States)
2. Earth (Aleksandr Dovzhenko, Soviet Union)
3. The Dawn Patrol (Howard Hawks, United States)
4. Her Man (Tay Garnett, United States)
5. Laughter (Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, United States)

6. That Night's Wife (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)
7. L'Âge d'or (Luis Buñuel, France)

8. The Blood of a Poet (Jean Cocteau, France)
9. Prix de Beauté (Augusto Genina, France)
10. The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, Germany)

1931
1. M (Fritz Lang, Germany)
2. Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (F. W. Murnau and Robert Flaherty, United States)
3. City Lights (Charles Chaplin, United States)

4. Dishonored (Josef von Sternberg, United States)

5. The Neighbor's Wife and Mine (Heinosuke Gosho, Japan)
6. À nous la liberté (René Clair, France)

7. Blonde Crazy (Roy Del Ruth, United States)
8. La Chienne (Jean Renoir, France)
9. The Criminal Code (Howard Hawks, United States)
10. Le Million (René Clair, France)

1932
1. Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, United States)
2. Scarface (Howard Hawks, United States)
3. Boudu Saved from Drowning (Jean Renoir, France)
4. I Was Born, But... (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)
5. Me and My Gal (Raoul Walsh, United States)
6. Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, United States)
7. The Man I Killed (Ernst Lubitsch, United States)
8. The Old Dark House (James Whale, United States)
9. Back Street (John M. Stahl, United States)
10. Hot Saturday (William A. Seiter, United States)

1933
1. Woman of Tokyo (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)
2. Liebelei (Max Ophüls, Germany/Austria)

3. Man's Castle (Frank Borzage, United States)
4. Zero for Conduct (Jean Vigo, France)

5. The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Frank Capra, United States)

6. Hallelujah, I'm a Bum! (Lewis Milestone, United States)

7. Bombshell (Victor Fleming, United States)

8. Little Toys (Sun Yu, China)

9. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang, Germany)

10. Sons of the Desert (William A. Seiter, United States)

1934
1. La Signora di tutti (Max Ophüls, Italy)

2. The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, United States)
3. L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, France)
4. Story of Floating Weeds (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)

5. Twentieth Century (Howard Hawks, United States)
6. Judge Priest (John Ford, United States)

7. The Merry Widow (Ernst Lubitsch, United States)
8. Man of Aran (Robert Flaherty, United Kingdom)

9. The Goddess (Wu Yonggang, China)

10. Little Man, What Now? (Frank Borzage, United States)

1935
1. Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo McCarey, United States)
2. Wife! Be Like a Rose! (Mikio Naruse, Japan)
3. The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, United Kingdom)
4. Steamboat 'Round the Bend (John Ford, United States)
5. Pot Worth a Million Ryo (Yamanaka Sadao, Japan)
6. The Devil is a Woman (Josef von Sternberg, United States)
7. An Inn at Tokyo (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)
8. Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, United States)
9. The Wedding Night (King Vidor, United States)
10. Poppy (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)

1936

1. By the Bluest of Seas (Boris Barnet, Soviet Union)

2. Sisters of the Gion (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)

3. The Crime of Monsieur Lange (Jean Renoir, France)

4. A Day in the Country (Jean Renoir, France)

5. Ceiling Zero (Howard Hawks, United States)

6. Mr. Thank You (Hiroshi Shimizu, Japan)

7. Story of a Cheat (Sacha Guitry, France)

8. Rose Hobart (Joseph Cornell, United States)
9. Osaka Elegy (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
10. Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, United States)

1937
1. Make Way for Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, United States)
2. The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, United States)
3. Angel (Ernst Lubitsch, United States)
4. You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang, United States)

5. Humanity and Paper Balloons (Yamanaka Sadao, Japan)

6. The Straits of Love and Hate (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
7. Stella Dallas (King Vidor, United States)
8. Young and Innocent (Alfred Hitchcock, United Kingdom)
9. Easy Living (Mitchell Leisen, United States)
10. The Great Garrick (James Whale, United States)

1938
1. Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, United States)
2. The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock, United Kingdom)
3. Olympia (Leni Riefenstahl, Germany)
4. You and Me (Fritz Lang, United States)
5. Flowers Have Fallen (Tamizo Ishida, Japan)

6. The Masseurs and a Woman (Hiroshi Shimizu, Japan)
7. La Bête humaine (Jean Renoir, France)

8. Four Daughters (Michael Curtiz, United States)

9. Holiday (George Cukor, United States)

10. The Baker's Wife (Marcel Pagnol, France)

1939

1. The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)

2. The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, France)

3. Stagecoach (John Ford, United States)
4. Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, United States)
5. Love Affair (Leo McCarey, United States)
6. Midnight (Mitchell Leisen, United States)

7. There's No Tomorrow (Max Ophüls, France)

8. When Tomorrow Comes (John M. Stahl, United States)

9. Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch, United States)

10. Young Mr. Lincoln (John Ford, United States)

The Ten Best Films of the 1930s (in alphabetical order)
L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, France)
By the Bluest of Seas (Boris Barnet, Soviet Union)
I Was Born, But... (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)

Make Way for Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, United States)
The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, France)
Scarface (Howard Hawks, United States)
The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, United States)
La Signora di tutti (Max Ophüls, Italy)
The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, United States)

A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

1940
1. The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, United States)
2. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, United States)
3. The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, United States)
4. Remember the Night (Mitchell Leisen, United States)
5. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
6. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, United States)
7. Pinocchio (Hamilton Luske and Ben Sharpsteen, United States)
8. The Mortal Storm (Frank Borzage, United States)
9. Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
10. London Can Take It! (Humphrey Jennings, United Kingdom)

1941
1. How Green Was My Valley (John Ford, United States)
2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, United States)
3. Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges, United States)
4. Hellzapoppin' (H. C. Potter, United States)
5. Ornamental Hairpin (Hiroshi Shimizu, Japan)
6. Remorques (Jean Grémillon, France)
7. The Devil and Daniel Webster (William Dieterle, United States)
8. Hold Back the Dawn (Mitchell Leisen, United States)
9. The Shanghai Gesture (Josef von Sternberg, United States)
10. Suspicion (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)

1942
1. The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, United States)
2. Listen to Britain (Humphrey Jennings and Stewart McAllister, United Kingdom)
3. Aniki Bóbó (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
4. There Was a Father (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)
5. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, United States)
6. The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, United States)
7. Went the Day Well? (Alberto Cavalcanti, United Kingdom)
8. The Loyal 47 Ronin (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
9. To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch, United States)
10. Gentleman Jim (Raoul Walsh, United States)

1943
1. Day of Wrath (Carl Theodor Dreyer, Denmark)
2. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, United Kingdom)
3. Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
4. I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, United States)
5. Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, United States)
6. Les Anges du péché (Robert Bresson, France)
7. Air Force (Howard Hawks, United States)
8. Ossessione (Luchino Visconti, Italy)
9. Heaven Can Wait (Ernst Lubitsch, United States)
10. Wild Flower (Emilio Fernández, Mexico)

1944
1. Ivan the Terrible (Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet Union)
2. To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks, United States)
3. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, United States)
4. Laura (Otto Preminger, United States)
5. Lifeboat (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
6. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (Preston Sturges, United States)
7. María Candelaria (Emilio Fernández, Mexico)
8. Hail the Conquering Hero (Preston Sturges, United States)
9. At Land (Maya Deren, United States)
10. The Curse of the Cat People (Robert Wise and Gunther von Fritsch, United States)

1945
1. Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson, France)
2. They Were Expendible (John Ford, United States)
3. Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini, Italy)
4. Leave Her to Heaven (John M. Stahl, United States)
5. The Southerner (Jean Renoir, United States)
6. Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné, France)
7. I Know Where I'm Going! (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, United Kingdom)
8. The Clock (Vincente Minnelli, United States)
9. Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, United States)
10. The Bells of St. Mary's (Leo McCarey, United States)

1946
1. My Darling Clementine (John Ford, United States)
2. A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, United Kingdom)
3. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
4. Paisan (Roberto Rossellini, Italy)
5. Canyon Passage (Jacques Tourneur, United States)
6. Utamaro and His Five Women (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
7. Cluny Brown (Ernst Lubitsch, United States)
8. Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, France)
9. The Girl I Loved (Keisuke Kinoshita, Japan)
10. The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, United States)

1947
1. Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, United States)
2. Antoine and Antoinette (Jacques Becker, France)
3. Black Narcissus (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, United Kingdom)
4. The Love of Sumako the Actress (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
5. Record of a Tenement Gentleman (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)
6. Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, United States)
7. The Exile (Max Ophüls, United States)
8. The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, United States)
9. The Unsuspected (Michael Curtiz, United States)
10. Phoenix (Keisuke Kinoshita, Japan)

1948
1. Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, United States)
2. Spring in a Small Town (Fei Mu, China)
3. La Terra Trema (Luchino Visconti, Italy)
4. Red River (Howard Hawks, United States)
5. Germany Year Zero (Roberto Rossellini, Italy)
6. Fort Apache (John Ford, United States)
7. Children of the Beehive (Hiroshi Shimizu, Japan)
8. Moonrise (Frank Borzage, United States)
9. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, United Kingdom)
10. They Live by Night (Nicholas Ray, United States)

1949
1. Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)
2. Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, United Kingdom)
3. Crows and Sparrows (Zheng Junli, China)
4. I Was a Male War Bride (Howard Hawks, United States)
5. White Heat (Raoul Walsh, United States)
6. Rendezvous in July (Jacques Becker, France)
7. The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls, United States)
8. Mahal (Kamal Amrohi, India)
9. The Third Man (Carol Reed, United Kingdom)
10. Mr. Shosuke Ohara (Hiroshi Shimizu, Japan)

The Ten Best Films of the 1940s (in alphabetical order)
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson, France)
Day of Wrath (Carl Theodor Dreyer, Denmark)
His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, United States)
Ivan the Terrible (Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet Union)
Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, United States)
A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, United Kingdom)
My Darling Clementine (John Ford, United States)
The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, United States)
Spring in a Small Town (Fei Mu, China)

Sansho the Bailiff (1954)

1950
1. The Flowers of St. Francis (Roberto Rossellini, Italy)
2. Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, France)
3. Stars in My Crown (Jacques Tourneur, United States)
4. Wagonmaster (John Ford, United States)
5. Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, United States)
6. Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann, United States)
7. La Ronde (Max Ophüls, France)
8. Born to Be Bad (Nicholas Ray, United States)
9. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, United States)
10. The Gunfighter (Henry King, United States)

1951
1. Early Summer (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)
2. The River (Jean Renoir, France/India/United States)
3. Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson, France)
4. Awaara (Raj Kapoor, India)
5. Édouard and Caroline (Jacques Becker, France)
6. The Man in the White Suit (Alexander Mackendrick, United Kingdom)
7. Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder, United States)
8. The Thing From Another World (Christian Nyby, United States)
9. Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
10. The Prowler (Joseph Losey, United States)

1952
1. The Life of Oharu (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
2. Limelight (Charles Chaplin, United States)
3. Él (Luis Buñuel, Mexico)
4. Monkey Business (Howard Hawks, United States)
5. Le Plaisir (Max Ophüls, France)
6. Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, United States)
7. Rancho Notorious (Fritz Lang, United States)
8. Lightning (Mikio Naruse, Japan)
9. On Dangerous Ground (Nicholas Ray, United States)
10. Europa '51 (Roberto Rossellini, Italy)

1953
1. Ugetsu Monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
2. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)

3. The Earrings of Madame de... (Max Ophüls, France/Italy)
4. The Sun Shines Bright (John Ford, United States)
5. Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (Jacques Tati, France)
6. The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, United States)
7. The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, United States)
8. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, United States)
9. The Golden Coach (Jean Renoir, France/Italy)
10. The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, United States)

1954
1. Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
2. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
3. Voyage in Italy (Roberto Rossellini, Italy/France)
4. A Star is Born (George Cukor, United States)
5. Sound of the Mountain (Mikio Naruse, Japan)
6. Chikamatsu Monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
7. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, United States)
8. Late Chrysanthemums (Mikio Naruse, Japan)
9. The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, Japan)
10. Track of the Cat (William A. Wellman, United States)

1955
1. Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer, Denmark)
2. Floating Clouds (Mikio Naruse, Japan)
3. Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, India)
4. Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, France/West Germany)
5. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, United States)
6. Mr. Arkadin (Orson Welles, France/Spain/Switzerland)
7. Wichita (Jacques Tourneur, United States)
8. The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Luis Buñuel, Mexico)
9. To Catch a Thief (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)

10. French Cancan (Jean Renoir, France/Italy)

1956
1. The Searchers (John Ford, United States)
2. A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson, France)
3. Streets of Shame (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
4. Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, United States)
5. Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk, United States)
6. There's Always Tomorrow (Douglas Sirk, United States)
7. Seven Men from Now (Budd Boetticher, United States)
8. The Girl Can’t Help It (Frank Tashlin, United States)
9. The Killing (Stanley Kubrick, United States)
10. Crazed Fruit (Kô Nakahira, Japan)

1957
1. Pyaasa (Guru Dutt, India)
2. Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, Japan)
3. Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
4. Forty Guns (Samuel Fuller, United States)
5. A King in New York (Charles Chaplin, United States)
6. Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, Italy/France)
7. Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (Frank Tashlin, United States)
8. Le Notti bianche (Luchino Visconti, Italy/France)
9. An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey, United States)
10. The Tall T (Budd Boetticher, United States)

1958
1. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
2. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, United States)
3. Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati, France/Italy)
4. Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda, Poland)
5. Anticipation of the Night (Stan Brakhage, United States)
6. Madhumati (Bimal Roy, India)
7. Man of the West (Anthony Mann, United States)
8. The Music Room (Satyajit Ray, India)
9. Some Came Running (Vincente Minnelli, United States)
10. Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (Leo McCarey, United States)

1959
1. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, United States)
2. Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, France)
3. North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
4. Kaagaz Ke Phool (Guru Dutt, India)
5. The World of Apu (Satyajit Ray, India)
6. Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, France/Japan)

7. Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, United States)
8. Nazarin (Luis Buñuel, Mexico)
9. The Sign of Leo (Eric Rohmer, France)
10. The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, France)

The Ten Best Films of the 1950s (in alphabetical order)
Early Summer (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)
The Earrings of Madame de... (Max Ophüls, France/Italy)
Floating Clouds (Mikio Naruse, Japan)
The Flowers of St. Francis (Roberto Rossellini, Italy)
Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer, Denmark)
Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, France)
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, United States)
Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan)
The Searchers (John Ford, United States)

L'Avventura (1960)

1960
1. L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy/France)
2. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
3. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, France)
4. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Mikio Naruse, Japan)
5. Wild River (Elia Kazan, United States)
6. The Cloud-Capped Star (Ritwik Ghatak, India)
7. The Apartment (Billy Wilder, United States)
8. La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, Italy/France)
9. The Savage Innocents (Nicholas Ray, France/Italy/United Kingdom)
10. The Housemaid (Kim Ki-Young, South Korea)

1961
1. Lola (Jacques Demy, France/Italy)
2. Viridiana (Luis Buñuel, Spain/Mexico)
3. Il Posto (Ermanno Olmi, Italy)
4. Accattone (Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy)
5. A Woman is a Woman (Jean-Luc Godard, France/Italy)
6. Two Daughters (Satyajit Ray, India)
7. The Aimless Bullet (Yoo Hyeon-Mok, South Korea)
8. A Wife Confesses (Yasuzo Masumura, Japan)
9. La Notte (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy/France)

10. Les Godelureaux (Claude Chabrol, France/Italy)

1962
1. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)
2. L'Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy/France)

3. Hatari! (Howard Hawks, United States)

4. Vivre sa vie (Jean-Luc Godard, France)
5. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, United States)
6. The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel, Mexico)

7. The Trial of Joan of Arc (Robert Bresson, France)

8. Alyonka (Boris Barnet, Soviet Union)

9. Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, France/Italy)

10. La Jetée (Chris Marker, France)

1963
1. Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, France/Italy)
2. The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, Italy/France)
3. Muriel (Alain Resnais, France/Italy)
4. I Fidanzati (Ermanno Olmi, Italy)
5. The House is Black (Forugh Farrokhzad, Iran)
6. The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
7. Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)
8. The Big City (Satyajit Ray, India)
9. Whistle Stop (Boris Barnet, Soviet Union)

10. Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller, United States)

1964
1. Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer, Denmark)
2. Charulata (Satyajit Ray, India)
3. The Enchanted Desna (Yuliya Solntseva, Soviet Union)

4. Yearning (Mikio Naruse, Japan)
5. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, France/West Germany)
6. Diary of a Chambermaid (Luis Buñuel, France/Italy)
7. Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
8. Black God, White Devil (Glauber Rocha, Brazil)
9. The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy/France)
10. Dry Summer (Metin Erksan, Turkey)

1965
1. Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, France/Italy)
2. Dog Star Man (Stan Brakhage, United States)
3. Le Bonheur (Agnès Varda, France)
4. Black Girl (Ousmane Sembene, France/Senegal)
5. Bunny Lake is Missing (Otto Preminger, United Kingdom)
6. Guide (Vijay Anand, India)
7. Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors (Sergei Paradjanov, Soviet Union)
8. Outer and Inner Space (Andy Warhol, United States)
9. Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, Spain/Switzerland)
10. Yoyo (Pierre Étaix, France)

1966
1. Au hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, France/Sweden)
2. Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union)
3. 7 Women (John Ford, United States)
4. The Rise to Power of Louis XIV (Roberto Rossellini, France)
5. Unsere Afrikareise/Our African Journey (Peter Kubelka, Austria)
6. Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, United Kingdom/Italy)
7. The Pornographers (Shohei Imamura, Japan)
8. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, Italy/Spain)
9. Daisies (Vera Chytilová, Czechoslovakia)
10. Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki, Japan)

1967
1. Playtime (Jacques Tati, France)
2. The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy, France)
3. Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard, France)
4. The Red and the White (Miklós Jancsó, Hungary/Soviet Union)
5. Wavelength (Michael Snow, Canada)
6. Mouchette (Robert Bresson, France)
7. Scattered Clouds (Mikio Naruse, Japan)
8. Belle de jour (Luis Buñuel, France/Italy)
9. La Collectionneuse (Eric Rohmer, France)
10. Jewel Thief (Vijay Anand, India)

1968
1. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, Italy/United States)

2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, United States)
3. Death by Hanging (Nagisa Oshima, Japan)
4. The Color of Pomegranates (Sergei Paradjanov, Soviet Union)
5. Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuba)
6. The Chronicles of Anna Magdalena Bach (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, West Germany/Italy)
7. High School (Frederick Wiseman, United States)
8. Faces (John Cassavetes, United States)
9. Carry On... Up the Khyber (Gerald Thomas, United Kingdom)
10. Witchfinder General (Michael Reeves, United Kingdom)

1969
1. My Night at Maud's (Eric Rohmer, France)
2. Boy (Nagisa Oshima, Japan)
3. L'Amour fou (Jacques Rivette, France)
4. The Unfaithful Wife (Claude Chabrol, France/Italy)

5. Katzelmacher (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)

6. Antonio das Mortes (Glauber Rocha, Brazil/France/West Germany)
7. Kes (Ken Loach, United Kingdom)
8. The Confrontation (Miklós Jancsó, Hungary)

9. The Structure of Crystal (Krzysztof Zanussi, Poland)
10. Le grand amour (Pierre Étaix, France)

The Ten Best Films of the 1960s (in alphabetical order)
Au hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, France/Sweden)
An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, Japan)
Charulata (Satyajit Ray, India)
L'Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy/France)
Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer, Denmark)
My Night at Maud's (Eric Rohmer, France)
Playtime (Jacques Tati, France)
Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard, France)
The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy, France)

Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)

1970
1. Claire's Knee (Eric Rohmer, France)
2. Tristana (Luis Buñuel, Spain/France/Italy)
3. The Little Theater of Jean Renoir (Jean Renoir, France/Italy)
4. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, Italy/France/West Germany)
5. Le Cercle rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville, France/Italy)

6. There Once Was a Singing Blackbird (Otar Iosseliani, Soviet Union)

7. Serene Velocity (Ernie Gehr, United States)

8. Le Boucher (Claude Chabrol, France/Italy)

9. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (Billy Wilder, United Kingdom)

10. A Swedish Love Story (Roy Andersson, Sweden)

1971

1. Out 1: Noli me Tangere (Jacques Rivette, France)
2. La Région centrale (Michael Snow, Canada)
3. (nostalgia) (Hollis Frampton, United States)
4. The Ceremony (Nagisa Oshima, Japan)
5. Four Nights of a Dreamer (Robert Bresson, France)
6. The House in the Woods (Maurice Pialat, France)
7. Love (Károly Makk, Hungary)

8. A Touch of Zen (King Hu, Taiwan)
9. Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, United States)

10. A New Leaf (Elaine May, United States)

1972
1. Pakeezah (Kamal Amrohi, India)
2. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel, France/
Italy/Spain)
3. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)
4. Blaise Pascal (Roberto Rossellini, Italy/France)

5. Frenzy (Alfred Hitchcock, United Kingdom)
6. Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union)
7. Ulzana's Raid (Robert Aldrich, United States)
8. Travels with My Aunt (George Cukor, United States)
9. Aguirre, Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, West Germany/Peru/
Mexico)
10. The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (Wim Wenders, West Germany/Austria)

1973
1. The Spirit of the Beehive (Victor Erice, Spain)
2. Badlands (Terrence Malick, United States)
3. The Age of Cosimo de Medici (Roberto Rossellini, Italy)
4. The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache, France)
5. Reed: Insurgent Mexico (Paul Leduc, Mexico)
6. A River Called Titas (Ritwik Ghatak, India/Bangladesh)
7. Touki Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambéty, Senegal)
8. Moses and Aaron (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Austria/France/West Germany/Italy)

9. Breezy (Clint Eastwood, United States)

10. Duvidha (Mani Kaul, India)

1974

1. Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette, France)

2. Lancelot of the Lake (Robert Bresson, France)

3. Arabian Nights (Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy/France)

4. F for Fake (Orson Welles, France/Iran/West Germany)

5. Alice in the Cities (Wim Wenders, West Germany)

6. Effi Briest (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)

7. A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, United States)

8. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (Werner Herzog, West Germany)

9. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)

10. Weighed But Found Wanting (Lino Brocka, Philippines)

1975
1. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France)
2. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, United States)
3. The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union)
4. The Travelling Players (Theo Angelopoulos, Greece)
5. The Messiah (Roberto Rossellini, Italy/France)
6. Xala (Ousmane Sembene, Senegal)
7. Benilde, or the Virgin Mother (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
8. The Passenger (Michelangelo Antonioni, France/Italy/United States/Spain)
9. Manila in the Claws of Light (Lino Brocka, Philippines)

10. India Song (Marguerite Duras, France)

1976
1. The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, United States)
2. Kings of the Road (Wim Wenders, West Germany)
3. Family Plot (Alfred Hitchcock, United States)
4. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, United States)
5. The Shootist (Don Siegel, United States)
6. The Marquise of O (Eric Rohmer, West Germany/France)
7. In the Realm of the Senses (Nagisa Oshima, Japan/France)
8. Duelle (Jacques Rivette, France)
9. Insiang (Lino Brocka, Philippines)
10. Nuts in May (Mike Leigh, United Kingdom)

1977
1. That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, France/Spain)
2. Providence (Alain Resnais, France/Switzerland)
3. Man of Marble (Andrzej Wajda, Poland)
4. Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, United States)
5. The Gauntlet (Clint Eastwood, United States)
6. Ceddo (Ousmane Sembene, Senegal)
7. News from Home (Chantal Akerman, France/Belgium/West Germany)
8. The Chess Players (Satyajit Ray, India)
9. Amar Akbar Anthony (Manmohan Desai, India)
10. The Report (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)

1978
1. Doomed Love (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
2. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, United States)
3. Perceval (Eric Rohmer, France/Italy/West Germany)
4. Fedora (Billy Wilder, France/West Germany)
5. Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France/West Germany)
6. Violette (Claude Chabrol, France/Canada)
7. The Driver (Walter Hill, United States)
8. Halloween (John Carpenter, United States)
9. Graduate First (Maurice Pialat, France)
10. Alexandria... Why? (Youssef Chahine, Egypt/Algeria)

1979
1. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union)
2. Tale of Tales (Yuri Norstein, Soviet Union)
3. "10" (Blake Edwards, United States)
4. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)
5. The Hypothesis of a Stolen Painting (Raoul Ruiz, France)
6. L'enfant secret (Philippe Garrel, France)
7. From the Clouds to the Resistance (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Italy/West Germany/United Kingdom/France)
8. Eureka (Ernie Gehr, United States)
9. West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty (Med Hondo, France/ Algeria/Mauritania) 
10. My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong, Australia)

The Ten Best Films of the 1970s (in alphabetical order)
Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, United States)
Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette, France)
Claire's Knee (Eric Rohmer, France)
Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, United States)
Doomed Love (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France)
Pakeezah (Kamal Amrohi, India)
The Spirit of the Beehive (Victor Erice, Spain)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union)
The Travelling Players (Theo Angelopoulos, Greece)

The Sacrifice (1986)

1980
1. Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)
2. Bronco Billy (Clint Eastwood, United States)
3. Melvin and Howard (Jonathan Demme, United States)
4. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, United States)
5. Loulou (Maurice Pialat, France)
6. Mon oncle d'Amérique (Alain Resnais, France)
7. Every Man for Himself (Jean-Luc Godard, France/Austria/West Germany/Switzerland)

8. Bona (Lino Brocka, Philippines)

9. Used Cars (Robert Zemeckis, United States)

10. Gregory's Girl (Bill Forsyth, United Kingdom)

1981
1. Francisca (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
2. The Aviator's Wife (Eric Rohmer, France)
3. Blind Chance (Krzysztof Kieslowski, Poland)
4. Modern Romance (Albert Brooks, United States)
5. Mandala (Im Kwon-taek, South Korea)
6. Man of Iron (Andrzej Wajda, Poland)
7. Lola (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)
8. Orderly or Disorderly (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)
9. Thief (Michael Mann, United States)
10. The Prodigal Son (Sammo Hung, Hong Kong)

1982
1. Une chambre en ville (Jacques Demy, Italy/France)
2. Passion (Jean-Luc Godard, France/Switzerland)
3. Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden/France/West Germany)
4. A Good Marriage (Eric Rohmer, France)
5. Toute une nuit (Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France/Netherlands/ Canada)

6. Le Pont du Nord (Jacques Rivette, France)
7. Dimensions of Dialogue (Jan Svankmajer, Czechoslovakia)
8. Danton (Andrzej Wajda, France/Poland/West Germany)

9. Moonlighting (Jerzy Skolimowski, United Kingdom/West Germany)

10. Burden of Dreams (Les Blank, United States)

1983
1. L'Argent (Robert Bresson, France)
2. Three Crowns of the Sailor (Raoul Ruiz, France)
3. Sans Soleil (Chris Marker, France)
4. À nos amours (Maurice Pialat, France)
5. Pauline at the Beach (Eric Rohmer, France)
6. Sudden Impact (Clint Eastwood, United States)

7. Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovsky, Italy/France/Soviet Union)
8. El Sur (Victor Erice, Spain/France)

9. Razia Sultan (Kamal Amrohi and G. P. Pawar, India)
10. My Brother's Wedding (Charles Burnett, United States)

1984
1. Love Streams (John Cassavetes, United States)
2. Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch, United States)
3. A Summer at Grandpa's (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
4. Yellow Earth (Chen Kaige, China)
5. Full Moon in Paris (Eric Rohmer, France)
6. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, Italy/United States)
7. My Friend Ivan Lapshin (Aleksei German, Soviet Union)
8. Long Arm of the Law (Johnny Mak, Hong Kong)
9. A Sunday in the Country (Bertrand Tavernier, France)
10. Streets of Fire (Walter Hill, United States)

1985
1. Taipei Story (Edward Yang, Taiwan)
2. The Time to Live and the Time to Die (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
3. Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, France)
4. The Satin Slipper (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
5. Lost in America (Albert Brooks, United States)
6. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader, United States/ Japan)
7. No End (Krzysztof Kieslowski, Poland)
8. Vagabond (Agnès Varda, France)
9. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, United States)
10. Typhoon Club (Shinji Sômai, Japan)

1986
1. The Green Ray/Summer (Eric Rohmer, France)
2. The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, Sweden/United Kingdom/France)
3. Blue Velvet (David Lynch, United States)
4. Mélo (Alain Resnais, France)
5. Dust in the Wind (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
6. Peking Opera Blues (Tsui Hark, Hong Kong)
7. The Horse Thief (Tian Zhuangzhuang, China)
8. Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch, United States/West Germany)
9. Terrorizers (Edward Yang, Taiwan)
10. Mon cas (Manoel de Oliveira, France/Portugal)

1987
1. Boyfriends and Girlfriends (Eric Rohmer, France)
2. Where is the Friend's House? (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)
3. Yeelen (Souleymane Cissé, Mali/Burkina Faso/France/West Germany)
4. Daughter of the Nile (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
5. The Dead (John Huston, United Kingdom/Ireland/United States)
6. King of the Children (Chen Kaige, China)
7. Hope and Glory (John Boorman, United Kingdom)
8. Under the Sun of Satan (Maurice Pialat, France)
9. Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, West Germany/France)
10. Housekeeping (Bill Forsyth, United States)

1988
1. Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies, United Kingdom)
2. My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
3. Damnation (Béla Tarr, Hungary)
4. Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, Canada/United States)
5. Landscape in the Mist (Theo Angelopoulos, Greece/
France/Italy)
6. Ariel (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland)
7. The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, United States)

8. A Short Film About Love (Krzysztof Kieslowski, Poland)
9. Rouge (Stanley Kwan, Hong Kong)
10. A Tale of the Wind (Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan, France/West Germany/United Kingdom/Netherlands)

1989
1. A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
2. The Decalogue (Krzysztof Kieslowski, Poland)
3. The Asthenic Syndrome (Kira Muratova, Soviet Union)
4. Gang of Four (Jacques Rivette, France/Switzerland)
5. The Killer (John Woo, Hong Kong)
6. Recollections of the Yellow House (João César Monteiro, Portugal)
7. O Sangue (Pedro Costa, Portugal)
8. Revenge (Ermek Shinarbaev, Soviet Union)

9. Joan of Arc of Mongolia (Ulrike Ottinger, West Germany/France)
10. Notebook on Cities & Clothes (Wim Wenders, West Germany/ France)

The Ten Best Films of the 1980s (in alphabetical order)
L'Argent (Robert Bresson, France)
Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)
Une chambre en ville (Jacques Demy, Italy/France)
A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies, United Kingdom)
Francisca (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
The Green Ray/Summer (Eric Rohmer, France)
The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, Sweden/United Kingdom/France)
Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, France)
Taipei Story (Edward Yang, Taiwan)

Flowers of Shanghai (1998)

1990
1. Close-up (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)
2. Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong)

3. An Angel at My Table (Jane Campion, Australia/United Kingdom/New Zealand)
4. No, or the Vainglory of Command (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France/Spain)
5. To Sleep with Anger (Charles Burnett, United States)
6. Boiling Point (Takeshi Kitano, Japan)
7. The Second Circle (Aleksandr Sokurov, Soviet Union)
8. White Hunter, Black Heart (Clint Eastwood, United States)
9. Nouvelle Vague (Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland/France)
10. The Match Factory Girl (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland/Sweden)

1991
1. A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang, Taiwan)
2. Centre Stage (Stanley Kwan, Hong Kong)

3. La Belle Noiseuse (Jacques Rivette, France/Switzerland)

4. The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski, France/
Poland/Norway)
5. The Stranger (Satyajit Ray, India/France)
6. Van Gogh (Maurice Pialat, France)

7. Defending Your Life (Albert Brooks, United States)
8. J'entends plus la guitare (Philippe Garrel, France)
9. A Scene at the Sea (Takeshi Kitano, Japan)
10. Side/Walk/Shuttle (Ernie Gehr, United States)

1992
1. The Quince Tree Sun (Victor Erice, Spain)
2. Life and Nothing More... (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)
3. The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies, United Kingdom)
4. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, United States)

5. A Tale of Winter (Eric Rohmer, France)
6. Guelwaar (Ousmane Sembene, Senegal/France/Germany)
7. Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog, Germany/France/United Kingdom)
8. Simple Men (Hal Hartley, United States/Italy/United Kingdom)
9. Hyenas (Djibril Diop Mambéty, Senegal)

10. Careful (Guy Maddin, Canada)

1993
1. Abraham's Valley (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France/
Switzerland)
2. A Perfect World (Clint Eastwood, United States)
3. The Puppetmaster (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
4. Sonatine (Takeshi Kitano, Japan)
5. D'Est (Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France/Portugal)
6. Naked (Mike Leigh, United Kingdom)
7. Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, United States)
8. Moving (Shinji Sômai, Japan)

9. The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, United States)

10. Swing (Aktan Abdykalykov, Kyrgyzstan)

1994
1. Through the Olive Trees (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran/France)
2. Sátántangó (Béla Tarr, Hungary/Germany/Switzerland)
3. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong)
4. Vive L'Amour (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan)
5. Cold Water (Olivier Assayas, France)
6. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, United States)
7. JLG/JLG (Jean-Luc Godard, France)

8. Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland/
Germany)
9. Exotica (Atom Egoyan, Canada)
10. Joan the Maid (Jacques Rivette, France)

1995

1. Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong)
2. Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, United States/Germany/Japan)
3. Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater, United States/Austria/
Switzerland)

4. The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, United States)

5. Heat (Michael Mann, United States)
6. La Ceremonie (Claude Chabrol, France/Germany)
7. The Convent (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France)
8. Rendezvous in Paris (Eric Rohmer, France)
9. The White Balloon (Jafar Panahi, Iran)
10. Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondô, Japan)

1996
1. Goodbye South, Goodbye (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
2. The Portrait of a Lady (Jane Campion, United Kingdom/United States)
3. Crash (David Cronenberg, Canada/United States)
4. My Sex Life... or How I Got into an Argument (Arnaud Desplechin, France)
5. Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, Demark/Sweden/France/
Netherlands/Norway/Iceland)
6. Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas, France)
7. Nenette and Boni (Claire Denis, France)
8. Drifting Clouds (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland)
9. Mother (Albert Brooks, United States)
10. Tierra (Julio Medem, Spain)

1997
1. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)
2. Mother and Son (Aleksandr Sokurov, Germany/Russia)
3. Hana-bi/Fireworks (Takeshi Kitano, Japan)
4. L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, United States)
5. Fragments * Jerusalem (Ron Havilio, Israel)
6. The River (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan)
7. Same Old Song (Alain Resnais, France/Switzerland/United Kingdom)
8. Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan)
9. La Vie de Jésus (Bruno Dumont, France)
10. Ulee's Gold (Victor Nunez, United States)

1998
1. Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
2. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, United States)
3. An Autumn Tale (Eric Rohmer, France)
4. Inquietude (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France/Spain/
Switzerland)
5. The Power of Kangwon Province (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)
6. The Hole (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan)
7. Rushmore (Wes Anderson, United States)
8. From the Notebook of... (Robert Beavers, United States)
9. There's Something About Mary (Bobby & Peter Farrelly, United States)
10. Dil Se.. (Mani Ratnam, India)

1999
1. The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran/France)
2. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, United States/United Kingdom)
3. Time Regained (Raoul Ruiz, France/Italy/Portugal)
4. Beau Travail (Claire Denis, France)
5. Gohatto/Taboo (Nagisa Oshima, Japan/France/United Kingdom)
6. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch, France/Germany/United States/Japan)
7. Rosetta (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, France/Belgium)
8. The Letter (Manoel de Oliveira, France/Spain/Portugal)
9. Clouds of May (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey)
10. The Mission (Johnnie To, Hong Kong)

The Ten Best Films of the 1990s (in alphabetical order)
Abraham's Valley (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/
France/Switzerland)
A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang, Taiwan)
Centre Stage (Stanley Kwan, Hong Kong)
Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong)
Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
A Perfect World (Clint Eastwood, United States)
The Quince Tree Sun (Victor Erice, Spain)
Sátántangó (Béla Tarr, Hungary/Germany/Switzerland)
The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, United States)
Through the Olive Trees (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran/France)

Blissfully Yours (2002)

2000
1. Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, Hungary/Italy/Germany/
France)
2. Yi Yi (Edward Yang, Taiwan/Japan)
3. The House of Mirth (Terence Davies, United Kingdom/France/
Germany/United States)
4. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong/
France/Thailand)
5. Platform (Jia Zhangke, China/Hong Kong/Japan/France)
6. Eureka (Shinji Aoyama, Japan)
7. The Circle (Jafar Panahi, Iran/Switzerland/Italy)
8. Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson, United States)
9. Songs from the Second Floor (Roy Andersson, Sweden/
Norway/Finland)
10. Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)

2001
1. I'm Going Home (Manoel de Oliveira, France/Portugal)
2. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, United States/France)
3. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
4. The Lady and the Duke (Eric Rohmer, France)
5. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, United States)
6. La Libertad (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina)
7. Millennium Mambo (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan/France)
8. Pistol Opera (Seijuin Suzuki, Japan)
9. La Ciénaga (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/France/Spain)
10. The Road (Darezhan Omirbaev, Kazakhstan/France/Japan)

2002
1. Russian Ark (Aleksandr Sokurov, Russia/Germany)
2. Ten (Abbas Kiarostami, France/Iran/United States)
3. Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/France)
4. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (Wang Bing, China)
5. Talk to Her (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain)
6. The Son (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France)
7. Friday Night (Claire Denis, France)
8. Spider (David Cronenberg, Canada/United Kingdom)
9. 25th Hour (Spike Lee, United States)
10. Springtime in a Small Town (Tian Zhuangzhuang, China/Hong Kong/France/Netherlands)

2003
1. Goodbye Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan)
2. Mystic River (Clint Eastwood, United States)
3. The Story of Marie and Julien (Jacques Rivette, France/Italy)
4. Five (Dedicated to Ozu) (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)
5. Zatôichi (Takeshi Kitano, Japan)
6. Crimson Gold (Jafar Panahi, Iran)
7. Café Lumière (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Japan/Taiwan)
8. A Talking Picture (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France/Italy)
9. Doppelgänger (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan)
10. Ana and the Others (Celina Murga, Argentina)

2004
1. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/
France/Germany/Italy)

2. Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood, United States)
3. Collateral (Michael Mann, United States)

4. Los Muertos (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/France/

Netherlands/Switzerland)

5. 2046 (Wong Kar-wai, China/France/Germany/Hong Kong)

6. The World (Jia Zhangke, China/Japan/France)

7. Innocence (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Belgium/France/United Kingdom)

8. 13 Lakes (James Benning, United States)
9. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, United States)

10. Kings and Queen (Arnaud Desplechin, France)

2005
1. The New World (Terrence Malick, United States)
2. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, United States)
3. The Sun (Aleksandr Sokurov, Russia/France/Italy/Switzerland)
4. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu, Romania)
5. Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan)
6. Caché (Michael Haneke, France/Austria/Germany/Italy)
7. L'Enfant (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France)
8. Oxhide (Liu Jiayin, China)
9. Regular Lovers (Philippe Garrel, France)
10. Linda Linda Linda (Nobuhiro Yamashita, Japan)

2006
1. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/France/Austria)
2. Private Fears in Public Places (Alain Resnais, France/Italy)
3. Still Life (Jia Zhangke, China/Hong Kong)
4. Déjà Vu (Tony Scott, United States)
5. Longing (Valeska Grisebach, Germany)

6. Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa, Portugal/France/Switzerland)
7. Climates (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey/France)
8. Woman on the Beach (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)
9. Kodak (Tacita Dean, United Kingdom/France/United States)
10. Les signes (Eugène Green, France)

2007
1. Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-hsien, France)
2. Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/Netherlands/
Germany)
3. Zodiac (David Fincher, United States)
4. The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (Eric Rohmer, France/
Italy/Spain)
5. In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerín, Spain)
6. Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg, United Kingdom/Canada/

United States)

7. The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, United States)
8. Fengming: A Chinese Memoir (Wang Bing, China)

9. The Duchess of Langeais (Jacques Rivette, France/Italy)
10. RR (James Benning, United States/Germany)

2008
1. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/France/
Italy/Spain)
2. Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan)
3. Shirin (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran)
4. Extraordinary Stories (Mariano Llinás, Argentina)

5. Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas, France)
6. Liverpool (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/France/Netherlands/
Germany/Spain)
7. Two Lovers (James Gray, United States)
8. 35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis, France/Germany)
9. A Christmas Tale (Arnaud Desplechin, France)
10. Our Beloved Month of August (Miguel Gomes, Portugal/France) 

2009
1. Police, Adjective (Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania)
2. Everyone Else (Maren Ade, Germany)

3. White Material (Claire Denis, France/Cameroon)
4. Around a Small Mountain (Jacques Rivette, France/Italy)

5. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson, United States) 

6. The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch, United States/Japan)
7. Oxhide II (Liu Jiayin, China)
8. I Am Love (Luca Guadagnino, Italy)
9. Bright Star (Jane Campion, United Kingdom/Australia/France)
10. Hadewijch (Bruno Dumont, France)

The Ten Best Films of the 2000s (in alphabetical order)
Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-hsien, France)
Goodbye Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan)
The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/France/Italy/
Spain)
I'm Going Home (Manoel de Oliveira, France/Portugal)
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, United States/France)
Mystic River (Clint Eastwood, United States)

Russian Ark (Aleksandr Sokurov, Russia/Germany)

Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/
France/Germany/Italy)

Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, Hungary/Italy/Germany/

France)

Yi Yi (Edward Yang, Taiwan/Japan)

Certified Copy (2010)

2010
1. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/United Kingdom/France/Germany/
Spain/Netherlands/United States)
2. Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, France/Italy/Iran)
3. Mysteries of Lisbon (Raoul Ruiz, Portugal/France/Brazil)
4. Aurora (Cristi Puiu, Romania/France/Switzerland/Germany)
5. Tuesday, After Christmas (Radu Muntean, Romania)
6. The Social Network (David Fincher, United States)
7. Winter Vacation (Li Hongqi, China)
8. My Joy (Sergei Loznitsa, Germany/Ukraine/Netherlands)
9. The Strange Case of Angélica (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/
Spain/France/Brazil)

10. Le Quattro Volte (Michelangelo Frammartino, Italy/Germany/ Switzerland)

2011
1. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey/
Bosnia and Herzegovina)
2. The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky, Hungary/
France/Germany/Switzerland/United States)
3. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, Iran)
4. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, United States)
5. This Is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Iran)
6. The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies, United Kingdom/United States)
7. Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland/France/Germany)
8. Old Dog (Pema Tseden, China)
9. Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn, United States)
10. Hugo (Martin Scorsese, United States)

2012
1. Holy Motors (Leos Carax, France/Germany)
2. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, United States)
3. Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, France/United Kingdom/United States)

4. Barbara (Christian Petzold, Germany)
5. Tabu (Miguel Gomes, Portugal/Germany/Brazil/France)
6. Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, United States)
7. Three Sisters (Wang Bing, China)
8. Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil)
9. You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (Alain Resnais, France/Germany)
10. A Woman's Revenge (Ruth Azevedo Gomes, Portugal)

2013
1. Closed Curtain (Jafar Panahi and Kambuzia Partovi, Iran)
2. Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan/France)

3. Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz, Philippines)

4. A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke, China)

5. The Grandmaster (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong/China)
6. The Great Beauty (Paolo Sorrentino, Italy)

7. Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie, France)
8. The Immigrant (James Gray, United States)
9. Manakamana (Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, Nepal/United States)
10. The Strange Little Cat (Ramon Zürcher, Germany)

2014
1. Li'l Quinquin (Bruno Dumont, France)
2. Phoenix (Christian Petzold, Germany/Poland)
3. Hill of Freedom (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)
4. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland/France)

5. Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/Denmark/France/Mexico/
United States/Germany/Brazil/Netherlands)
6. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, United States)
7. From What Is Before (Lav Diaz, Philippines)
8. Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey/France/Germany)
9. The Kindergarten Teacher (Nadav Lapid, Israel/France)
10. Maïdan (Sergei Loznitsa, Ukraine/Netherlands)

2015
1. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan/China/Hong Kong/
France)
2. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/United Kingdom/France/Germany/Malaysia/South Korea/Mexico/United States/Norway)

3. Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)

4. Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick, United States)

5. Taxi (Jafar Panahi, Iran)

6. No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France)

7. Son of Saul (László Nemes, Hungary)

8. The Treasure (Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania/France)

9. Chevalier (Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece)

10. Tharlo (Pema Tseden, China)

2016

1. A Quiet Passion (Terence Davies, United Kingdom/Belgium)

2. Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu, Romania) 

3. Nocturama (Betrand Bonello, France/Germany/Belgium)

4. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, Germany)

5. Elle (Paul Verhoeven, France/Germany/Belgium)

6. Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, United States) 

7. Scarred Hearts (Radu Jude, Romania/Germany) 

8. A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery (Lav Diaz, Philippines)

9. Yourself and Yours (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)

10. The Death of Louis XIV (Albert Serra, France/Portugal/Spain)

2017

1. The Day After (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)

2. Zama (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/Spain/France/Netherlands/ United States/Brazil/Mexico/Portugal/Lebanon/Switzerland)

3. Western (Valeska Grisebach, Germany/Bulgaria/Austria)

4. First Reformed (Paul Schrader, United States)

5. Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc (Bruno Dumont, France)

6. Milla (Valérie Massadian, France/Portugal)

7. Downsizing (Alexander Payne, United States/Norway)
8. Faces Places (Agnès Varda & JR, France)
9. Ghost in the Mountains (Yang Heng, China)

10. Lover for a Day (Philippe Garrel, France)

2018

1. An Elephant Sitting Still (Hu Bo, China)

2. La Flor (Mariano Llinás, Argentina)

3. The Mule (Clint Eastwood, United States)

4. Transit (Christian Petzold, Germany/France)

5. The Image Book (Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland/France)

6. The Wild Pear Tree (Nuri Blige Ceylan, Turkey/Macedonia/France/ Germany/Bosnia and Herzegovina/Bulgaria/Sweden)

7. Ash Is Purest White (Jia Zhangke, China/France/Japan)

8. Dead Souls (Wang Bing, Switzerland/France)

9. Long Day's Journey Into Night (Bi Gan, China/France)

10. Coincoin and the Extra-Humans (Bruno Dumont, France)

2019

1. Vitalina Varela (Pedro Costa, Portugal)

2. To the Ends of the Earth (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan/Uzbekistan/ Qatar)

3. State Funeral (Sergei Loznitsa, Netherlands/Lithuania)

4. Synonyms (Nadav Lapid, France/Israel/Germany)

5. I Was At Home, But… (Angela Schanelec, Germany/Serbia)

6. Martin Eden (Pietro Marcello, Italy/France/Germany)

7. Parasite (Bong Joon Ho, South Korea)

8. Atlantics (Mati Diop, France/Senegal/Belgium)

9. The Halt (Lav Diaz, Philippines/France)

10. Zombi Child (Bertrand Bonello, France)

The Ten Best Films of the 2010s (in alphabetical order)

The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan/China/Hong Kong/France)
Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, France/Italy/Iran)

An Elephant Sitting Still (Hu Bo, China) 

La Flor (Mariano Llinás, Argentina)

Li'l Quinquin (Bruno Dumont, France)

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey/Bosnia and Herzegovina)

A Quiet Passion (Terence Davies, United Kingdom/Belgium)

Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu, Romania) 

The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky, Hungary/France/Germany/Switzerland/United States)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/United Kingdom/France/Germany/ Spain/Netherlands/United States)

The Woman Who Ran (2020)

2020

1. Days (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan) 

2. The Calming (Song Fang, China) 

3. Wife of a Spy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan)

4. The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)

5. Undine (Christian Petzold, Germany/France)

6. The Salt of Tears (Philippe Garrel, France/Switzerland) 

7. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen, United Kingdom) 

8. City Hall (Frederick Wiseman, United States)

9. The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin) (C.W. Winter & Anders Edström, United States/Sweden/Japan/United Kingdom) 

10. Malmkrog (Cristi Puiu, Romania/Serbia/Switzerland/Sweden/ Bosnia and Herzegovina/North Macedonia) 

2021

1. What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? (Aleksandre Koberidze, Germany/Georgia) 

2. In Front of Your Face (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)

3. Drive My Car (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan) 

4. The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, United Kingdom/Canada/ Australia/New Zealand/United States) 

5. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Japan)  

6. Il Buco (Michelangelo Frammartino, Italy/France/Germany)

7. Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Colombia/Thailand/France/ Germany/Mexico/Qatar/United Kingdom/China/Switzerland) 

8. The Girl and the Spider (Ramon Zürcher and Silvan Zürcher, Switzerland)

9. Ahed’s Knee (Nadav Lapid, France/Israel/Germany) 

10. The Tsugua Diaries (Maureen Fazendeiro and Miguel Gomes, Portugal/France)

2022

1. Pacifiction (Albert Serra, France/Spain/Portugal)

2. The Novelist's Film (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)

3. Walk Up (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)

4. No Bears (Jafar Panahi, Iran)

5. Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (Richard Linklater, United States)

6. De humani corporis fabrica (Lucian Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, France/Switzerland)

7. Coma (Bertrand Bonello, France)

8. Unrest (Cyril Schäublin, Switzerland)

9. EO (Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland/Italy/United Kingdom)

10. Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella, Argentina/Germany)

2023

1. Afire (Christian Petzold, Germany) 

2. About Dry Grasses (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey/France/Germany/ Sweden) 

3. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, United States/Germany) 

4. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland/Germany) 

5. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, United States/United Kingdom/Poland) 

6. In Our Day (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)

7. Close Your Eyes (Victor Erice, Spain/Argentina) 

8. Here (Bas Devos, Belgium) 

9. Eureka (Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/France/Portugal) 

10. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Phạm Thiên Ân, Vietnam/ France/Singapore/Spain)