As you can tell, by glancing through our website, we take film lists very seriously. It is our bread and butter. We love to compile them, we love to refer to them, and we love bringing them to you. We - quite frankly and embarrassingly - have databases and spreadsheets coming out of our ears. Make no mistake, referring to and utilising film lists is an extremely useful tool that can assist in the discovery of many wonderful films and filmmakers that you may have previously not encountered. They Shoot Pictures is indeed primarily a film list resource, and as we mention above, we make no bones about that. Jonathan Rosenbaum in one of his former Chicago Reader blogs (in which he cited They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?) stated that “lists have always played an important role in my own film education, and over the last decade or so they’ve taken on an increasing importance in my writing.” ‘Important role’ is the key phrase here. The importance of film lists should not be underplayed. However, as useful a tool as they are in helping us make decisions on what to watch next, they should not be considered the be all and end all of a film lover’s reading diet. Additionally, no matter how many films one watches, a deeper understanding of film as an art form cannot be attained unless one hits the shelves and digests some of the more important, educative and influential texts on cinema. These texts assist us in thinking about film in a new and more open-minded way, and subsequently aid us in our analysis of an individual film or of a director’s body of work. We have our own favourites in this regard, but thanks to Sight & Sound, here is a very informative place to start-: The best film books, by 51 critics.