TSPDT - The 1,000 Greatest Films


	The 1,000 Greatest Films
	As voted by 1,825 critics, filmmakers, reviewers, scholars and other likely film types.
	Current Version: December 2008

	• The 1,000 Greatest Films Home • The Top 300 Films • The Full List • The Top 100 Directors • PDF Companion • Links
	The Top 300 Films: • 1-25 • 26-50 • 51-75 • 76-100 • 101-150 • 151-200 • 201-250 • 251-300






	● The next updated version of TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films will be published in January 2010.

	NEW The One-Line Review Presents "Beyond the Canon: 100 Films Deserving of Greater Attention"
	"*Beyond the Canon* is essentially a greatest films poll, only without the greatest films. I challenged a number of dedicated film-lovers – critics, bloggers, filmmakers, IMDbers; professional, amateur, and in-between – to select up to 100 films that they believed to have been under-represented by film history, that meant more to them than the established, well-exposed classics." - Iain Stott, The One-Line Review

	The One-Line Review Presents "The 50 Greatest Films"
	A 2009 poll (compiled by Iain Stott) of filmmakers, critics, bloggers, historians, and other assorted cinephiles, attempting, consensually, to find “The 50 Greatest Films”. Thanks to Iain for asking me along. You can see my contribution to his poll here.


	I Check Movies
	I Check Movies is a new website that provides yet another useful tool for marking-off the films in the 1,000 Greatest Films you have seen. We like the fact that all 1,000 films are listed on one nicely constructed page. Sign Up, create your profile, watch lots of movies, and brag about it. Recommended.

	Doubling the Canon (2009)
	The IMDB "Classic Film" board folks (led by Lee Price, with sturdy assistance from Angel Gonzalez Garcia) have once again got together to update their complementary list of 1,000 essential movies, entitled "Doubling the Canon". 47 extremely astute, passionate and knowledgeable film lovers contributed this year (a new participatory record). I even got myself off the carpet and contributed for the first (and hopefully not last) time. These 1,000 films are currently not listed on They Shoot Pictures’ 1,000 Greatest Films listing. It's a terrific exercise, and has brought to our attention many film titles that are well and truly outside the acclaimed-film square. If you are interested in participating in future voting and/or want to have your say, you can link to the rules and results by registering/logging on to the IMDB message boards and checking out the "Doubling the Canon" threads within the "Classic Film" board. You can view the 2009 "Doubling the Canon" list here (it comes with TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films, so start your "Doubling the Canon" journey at number 1,001).

	Shooting Down Pictures
	• Kevin B. Lee's site is the perfect companion to TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films. Take a look at Shooting Down Pictures' essays of many of TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films. Kevin has also contributed, this time around, to the make-up of the 1,000 Greatest Films list by providing us with some ballots that he compiled himself. Muchas gracias.
	• YouTube index for Shooting Down Pictures' video essays.
	• Take a look at Kevin's response to the 2008 list: Thoughts (and a Call to Action) on the Latest Update to the 1,000 Greatest Films.



	Introduction to current version
	By Bill Georgaris

	• Well, here we go again. We've spent another baffling year sifting (sometimes aimlessly) through film polls and best-of film ballots, collating them, weighting them and, hey presto, here are the goddamn results. Are we unclassifiable dorks of a rather specific nature, or are we highly valued film patrons providing a harmless little public service? The truth, we'd say, lies somewhere in between. The fact remains, however, that we enjoy chugging this out once a year, and the mostly nice words and feedback we get makes it all worthwhile. Anyway, we hope you enjoy the new list and the more time-reducing (for us, that is) compact presentation. As always, we would love to hear any feedback (good, bad, or otherwise) you have on this ongoing project.

	• The December 2008 list of the 1,000 Greatest Films of all-time has primarily been compiled by using 1,825 individual critics' and filmmakers' best-films-of-all-time lists/ballots. That's 221 more ballots than our December 2007 list. Angel Gonzalez Garcia has continued to provide us with many ballots, as have many others. A warm thank you to everyone that has contributed and/or lent their support towards the current version.

	• In summary, here is the exact breakdown of individual ballots used, or if you like, where we have begged, borrowed and stolen from... Sight & Sound 1952-2002 polls (530 ballots), Senses of Cinema 2000-2007 (154), Time Out's 1995 poll (109), Nickel Odeon's 1994-1998 polls (100), Steadycam's 1995 & 2007 polls (80), Your Movie Database's (YMDB) Critics Corner (75), El Mundo's 1995 poll (72), Positif’s 1991 poll (66), The Cinematheque Top 10 Project (66), Facets’ polls (72), Cinematheque Belgique's 1952 poll (52), the 1988 publication, John Kobal Presents the Top 100 Movies (44), PBS's Independent Lens series (44), PopCornQ's 1997 poll (40), The Village Voice's 1999 poll (38), BBC's Calling the Shots series (31), Epoca Online’s 2000 poll (28), and 224 other ballots from a variety of sources.

	• As per previous versions, we have also factored in (although to a much lesser degree than the aforementioned individual ballots) over 900 magazine polls, film institute polls, individual polls from 'esteemed' critics or filmmakers, specialty polls of note, and other polls of interest. Some 2008 polls included are: Times Online's Top 100 Films, The National Society of Film Critics' The B List: Low-Budget Beauties, Genre-Bending Mavericks, and Cult Classics We Love, Philip French's Top 50 Films from the Past Five Decades, and many, many others. You can view all the sources used by clicking on the 'Sources' tab on this page.



	• A total of 96 films have come and gone. In terms of the changes that have occurred, personally-speaking, it's terrific to see some of my favourites climb on board. They include Anthony Mann's The Naked Spur, Sam Fuller's Forty Guns, Fritz Lang's Scarlet Street, John M. Stahl's Leave Her to Heaven, and Jean-Pierre Melville's The Red Circle. On the flip-side, it is disappointing to see such quality fare leave us (for now). My unluckiest 5 are Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor, the Coens' Blood Simple, Terence Davies' The Long Day Closes, Yasujiro Ozu's Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice, and Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool. I'm sure you will be, as we are, both delighted and disappointed with many of the comings and goings. I know for a fact, that many of you will be pleased that there are more films from this century on the list (up 4, from 10 to 14 films). However, for a more fulfilling fix of 21st Century cinema, please see our 21st Century section. On the director front, it's still hard to believe that Budd Boetticher and Frank Tashlin (to name just two greats) don't have a single film to show for on the list. And what about Raúl Ruiz? To view all the films that fell off the list please go here, and click on the 'Omissions' tab.

	• Directors with 2-plus new films in the 1,000 Greatest Films listing are Robert Altman (California Split, 3 Women, and MASH), Frank Capra (Arsenic and Old Lace, You Can't Take it with You, Lost Horizon), Stanley Donen (Charade, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), Fritz Lang (Fury, Die Nibelungen, Scarlet Street), Anthony Mann (The Naked Spur, Bend of the River), Kenji Mizoguchi (Chikamatsu monogatari, My Love Has Been Burning), and Sam Peckinpah (The Getaway, The Ballad of Cable Hogue*).

	• Directors with 2-plus films that dropped off the 1,000 Greatest Films listing are Elia Kazan (A Face in the Crowd, Baby Doll), Akira Kurosawa (Dodes'ka-den, Stray Dog), Anthony Mann (El Cid, The Man from Laramie), Kenji Mizoguchi (Street of Shame, Miss Oyu), Paul Schrader (Light Sleeper, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters), and Luchino Visconti (Bellissima, Conversation Piece).

	• Please take a look at our 339-page PDF Companion to the 1,000 Greatest Films. This document contains every critics' pick that contributed to TSPDT's current 1,000 Greatest Films. Whilst perusing this document, please keep in mind that we use a reasonably complicated set of formulas to come up with the Top-1000, from a starting list of over 7,900 films. These formulas take into account, amongst other things, the quality/reputation of the critic, the quality/reputation of the poll, the age of the poll (e.g., the 2002 Sight and Sound poll is weighted higher than the 1992 poll), whether a film has stood the test of time (yes, as you may have suspected, we do mark recent films harder), etc, etc.

	Narrowed down from a starting list of over 7,900 films, utilizing some rather tricky formulas, we believe that this is quite possibly the most definitive guide to the most-acclaimed movies of all-time. At the very least, it is a rather spiffy place for all budding/established film buffs to commence/enhance their cinematic experiences. So what are you waiting for? Start that Checklist now!

	*• See starting list of over 7,900 films (Amazon, Google* and IMDB links included). File size: 12,738KB.**

	• Speaking of checklists, you can now simply check-off what movies you've seen on either the 1,000 Greatest Films listing, the 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films listing, or the 250 Quintessential Noir Films listing and this handy website will do the rest for you.
	1,000 Greatest Films Checklist.
	21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films Checklist.
	250 Quintessential Noir Films Checklist.

	Credits
	• Many thanks to to Bill Spiby who kindly lent us his 1952, 1962 and 1982 Sight and Sound magazines. Thanks also to Harold Wexler for providing us with the 1972 Sight and Sound lists and many others. Thanks also to Lee Price (who is curating the "Doubling the Canon" project on the IMDB Classic Film Board) for his enthusiasm and support, and indeed, to everybody else who has provided us with more lists to reference and/or contacted us (either negatively or positively) with regards to this venture. Thanks-a-plenty to Angel Gonzalez Garcia who has provided us with countless European lists. And, finally thanks also to Kevin B. Lee and Kevyn Knox for the terrific support they have given to this project, and for their promotion of it on their own terrific websites found here and here. It must be said that Kevin B. Lee's detailed articles (sometimes with accompanying video essays) on many of the 1,000 Greatest Films can not afford to be missed. Thanks also to all other contributors and supporters of TSPDT.

	You can help
	If you have access to any additional film lists from critics and/or filmmakers that you think we may have missed, then - of course - we'd love to see them. Please send all lists to bill@theyshootpictures.com.


	• The 1,000 Greatest Films Home • The Top 300 Films • The Full List • The Top 100 Directors • PDF Companion • Links
	The Top 300 Films: • 1-25 • 26-50 • 51-75 • 76-100 • 101-150 • 151-200 • 201-250 • 251-300