Our annual study of the greatest films of all-time has been hugely curtailed this year by a certain worldwide pandemic. In fact we almost abandoned the process entirely before deciding that such a study could be a useful distraction for both those compiling the list and our members and site visitors who enjoy viewing the final result. The list is compiled not only by the ballots of our contributors and members but also the results of numerous polls and user rating systems as shown in the Greatest Films List section.
The purpose of the poll is not to give a definitive answer to what are the greatest films ever made (that would be impossible given the subjective nature of ranking movies) but to get fans of the moving image thinking about what makes exceptional cinema. Also, it will hopefully, provide a guide as to what is worth watching.
Below are listed the directors with 2 or more films in the top 1000 –
14 ~ Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman
13 ~ Yasujiro Ozu
12 ~ Alfred Hitchcock
11 ~ Martin Scorsese
9 ~ Jean-Luc Godard, Luis Bunuel, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg
8 ~ Charles Chaplin, Federico Fellini, Fritz Lang, Howard Hawks, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Roberto Rossellini
7 ~ Andrei Tarkovsky, Christopher Nolan, Hayao Miyazaki, Satyajit Ray, Werner Herzog
6 ~ Abbas Kiarostami, Billy Wilder, Jean-Pierre Melville, Joel & Ethan Coen, John Cassavetes, John Ford, Kar Wai Wong, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Louis Malle, Masaki Kobayashi, Michael Powell, Michelangelo Antonioni, Orson Welles, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Altman, Robert Bresson
5 ~ Alain Resnais, Buster Keaton, Carl Th. Dreyer, David Lynch, Francois Truffaut, Hsiao-hsien Hou, John Huston, Kenji Mizoguchi, Michael Haneke, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Roman Polanski, Sergio Leone, Terrence Malick, Wim Wenders
4 ~ Agnes Varda, Edward Yang, Elia Kazan, Emeric Pressburger, Ernst Lubitsch, F. W. Murnau, Francis Ford Coppola, Frederick Wiseman, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Jacques Rivette, Jean Renoir, Jim Jarmusch, John Boorman, Lars Von Trier, Luchino Visconti, Mario Monicelli, Michael Mann, Nicholas Ray, Nicolas Roeg, Pedro Costa, Ridley Scott, Sergei M. Eisenstein, Shohei Imamura, Wes Anderson, Woody Allen
3 ~ Albert and David Maysles, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuaron, Andrzej Wajda, Bela Tarr, Bernardo Bertolucci, Brian De Palma, Chris Marker, Dardenne brothers, David Lean, Don Hertzfeldt, Frank Capra, George Miller, Glauber Rocha, Jacques Demy, Jacques Tati, James Cameron, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Josef Von Sternberg, Leo McCarey, Marcel Carne, Milos Forman, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Paul Thomas Anderson, Pedro Almodovar, Peter Jackson, Peter Weir, Preston Sturges, Sidney Lumet, Spike Lee, Steve McQueen, Terry Gilliam, Theodoros Angelopoulos, Victor Erice, Wang Bing, Yimou Zhang
2 ~ Agnes Hranitzky, Aleksei German, Andrew Dominik, Andrew Stanton, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Andrzej Żuławski, Ang Lee, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Bahman Ghobadi, Bob Fosse, Carol Reed, Charlotte Zwerin, D.W.Griffith, Damien Chazelle, Darren Aronofsky, David Cronenberg, David Fincher, David Hand, Denis Villeneuve, Dino Risi, Douglas Sirk, Emir Kusturica, Eric Rohmer, Erich Von Stroheim, Ermanno Olmi, Errol Morris, Ettore Scola, Franco Piavoli, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, George Cukor, George Lucas, George Roy Hill, George Stevens, Hal Ashby, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Isao Takahata, James Whale, Jan Švankmajer, Jan Troell, Jean Cocteau, Jean Vigo, Jia Zhangke, John Carpenter, John Frankenheimer, John Lasseter, Jonas Mekas, Jonathan Demme, Joon-ho Bong, Jules Dassin, Kaneto Shindo, King Vidor, Kon Ichikawa, Larisa Shepitko, Lee Chang-dong, Lindsay Anderson, Luis Garcia Berlanga, Mamoru Oshii, Max Ophuls, Mel Gibson, Michael Cimino, Michael Curtiz, Mijail Kalatozov, Mike Leigh, Mike Nichols, Mikio Naruse, Nagisa Ôshima, Oliver Stone, Otto Preminger, Peter Bogdanovich, Peter Watkins, Philip Kaufman, Richard Linklater, Robert Aldrich, Robert Wise, Robert Zemeckis, Sam Peckinpah, Sergei Parajanov, Shuji Terayama, Spike Jonze, Sydney Pollack, Terence Davies, Terry Jones, Thomas Vinterberg, Tim Burton, Tomas Alfredson, Toshio Matsumoto, Tsai Ming-liang, Victor Fleming, Victor Sjostrom, Vittorio De Sica, William Friedkin, William Wyler, Wojciech Has, Yuriy Norshteyn