Top 100 films of all time

Sight & Sound

Every decade, starting in 1952, the British film magazine Sight & Sound asks an international group of film critics to vote for the greatest film of all time. Since 1992, they have invited directors to vote in a separate poll. Sixty-three critics participated in 1952, 70 critics in 1962, 89 critics in 1972, 122 critics in 1982, 132 critics and 101 directors in 1992, 145 critics and 108 directors in 2002, and 846 critics and 358 directors in 2012.[1]

This poll is regarded as one of the most important "greatest ever film" lists. American critic Roger Ebert described it as "by far the most respected of the countless polls of great moviesthe only one most serious movie people take seriously."[2]

• Bicycle Thieves (1948) topped the first poll in 1952 with 25 votes.[1]
• Citizen Kane (1941) topped five critics' polls, with 22 votes in 1962, 32 votes in 1972, 45 votes in 1982, 43 votes in 1992, and 46 votes in 2002. It also topped the first two directors' polls, with 30 votes in 1992 and 42 votes in 2002.[1]
• Vertigo (1958) topped the critics' poll in 2012 with 191 votes, dethroning Citizen Kane.[1]
• Tokyo Story (1953) topped the directors' poll in 2012 with 48 votes, also dethroning Citizen Kane.[1]

Other polls

• Battleship Potemkin (1925) was ranked number 1 with 32 votes when the Festival Mondial du Film et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique asked 63 film professionals around the world, mostly directors, to vote for the best films of the half-century in 1951.[3] It was also ranked number 1 when the Brussels World's Fair polled 117 experts from 26 countries in 1958.[4]
• Citizen Kane (1941) was ranked number 1 with 48 votes when French film magazine Cahiers du cinéma asked 78 French critics and historians to vote for the best films in 2007.[5] It was also ranked number 1 with 48 votes when Chinese website Cinephilia.net asked 135 Chinese-speaking critics, scholars, curators, and cultural workers to vote for the best films in 2012.[6] It was ranked number 1 with 49 votes when Spanish film magazine Nickel Odeon[es] asked 150 Spanish film experts to vote for the best films in 1999.[7]
• Seven Samurai (1954) was voted the greatest foreign-language (non-English) film in BBC's 2018 poll of 209 critics in 43 countries.[8]
• Vertigo (1958) was ranked number 1 with 39 votes when German film magazine Steadycam[de] asked 174 critics and filmmakers to vote for their favorite films in 2007.[9][10] It was also ranked number 1 with 25 votes when Iranian film magazine Film asked 92 Iranian critics to vote for the best films in 2009.[11] It topped also the Télérama' poll in 2018. [12]
• 8+12 (1963) was voted the best foreign (i.e. non-Swedish) sound film with 21 votes in a 1964 poll of 50 Swedish film professionals organized by Swedish film magazine Chaplin[sv].[13] It was also ranked number 1 when the Museum of Cinematography in Łódź[pl] asked 279 Polish film professionals (filmmakers, critics, and professors) to vote for the best films in 2015.[14]
• The Godfather (1972) was ranked number 1 when Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo asked 114 Japanese critics and film professionals to vote for the best foreign (i.e. non-Japanese) films in 2009.[15] It was also voted the greatest film in a Hollywood Reporter poll of 2120 industry members, including every studio, agency, publicity firm and production house in Hollywood in 2014.[16]
• Boyz n the Hood (1991) topped the "Top Black Films of All Times" poll from the November 1998 edition of Ebony magazine.[17]
• The Piano (1993) was voted the best film made by a female director in a 2019 BBC poll of 368 film experts from 84 countries.[18]