Top 100 Movies of All Time (2025 Edition): A Transparent Multi-Source Ranking Method

by admin February 28, 2026 19 37 min read

Film Ranking Methodology & Top 100 (Sight & Sound 2022 critics poll — reproducible)

Executive summary

“Top‑100 films of all time” is a multi‑criteria aggregation problem: different sources measure different ideas of greatness (critical consensus, audience affinity, cultural canon, institutional awards, long‑run influence). A defensible ranking therefore needs explicit criteria, normalization, missing‑data rules, and stability checks.

This article provides a production‑ready methodology and a reproducible Top‑100 built from the Sight & Sound 2022 critics’ poll ballots (each participant submits 10 unranked titles; a selected film receives one vote). The table below lists the 100 most‑voted films, with ties indicated by an equals sign in the rank column.

Data backbone: Sight & Sound 2022 critics ballots

Critics in dataset: 1,636

Output: Top‑100 by vote count (ties preserved)

BFI reports 1,639 participants for the critics’ poll; the public scraped dataset used here contains 1,636 critics. Minor discrepancies can occur if some pages are missing/changed or if certain entries are excluded by the scraper.

Ranking methodology (multi‑criteria blueprint)

Recommended scoring blocks

Block A — review and rating consensus (60–70%): IMDb (rating + votes), Rotten Tomatoes (Tomatometer + Popcornmeter), Metacritic (Metascore), Letterboxd. Normalize each to a 0–100 scale, then combine with weights.

Block B — institutional recognition (15–25%): wins/shortlists/major nominations across Oscars, Cannes, BAFTA, Berlin, Venice, etc. Use official databases and apply saturation so a single award‑heavy title doesn’t dominate.

Block C — canon and cultural persistence (10–20%): frequency and position in authoritative lists/polls (e.g., Sight & Sound, AFI, major archival or critics’ canons), normalized into a comparable index.

Why this structure works: A captures cross‑platform “quality” signals; B captures institutionally validated excellence; C captures long‑run cultural persistence and expert canon formation.

Normalization, vote‑count stabilization, missing data

Scaling to 0–100: IMDb×10; Letterboxd×20; Tomatometer/Popcornmeter already 0–100; Metascore already 0–100. Combine using weighted average.

Stability: where vote counts are available, apply Bayesian shrinkage (or an explicit minimum‑votes threshold) so small‑sample titles don’t jump unrealistically.

Missing values: if a source is unavailable for a title, keep the field as “not available” and renormalize weights over available signals (so a film isn’t punished purely because a platform lacks coverage).

Final score (conceptual): Final = α·Score_A + β·Score_B + γ·Score_C, with α+β+γ=1. This page publishes a canon‑anchored Top‑100 from the critics’ poll (Block C) and describes how to extend it to the full A/B/C composite.

Top‑100 films (Sight & Sound 2022 critics’ poll — reproducible from ballots)

Search Sort

Rank	Film	Year	Director
1	Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 BruxellesVotes: 215 of 1636 critics	1975	Chantal Akerman
2	VertigoVotes: 208 of 1636 critics	1958	Alfred Hitchcock
3	Citizen KaneVotes: 164 of 1636 critics	1941	Orson Welles
4	Tokyo StoryVotes: 145 of 1636 critics	1953	Yasujirō Ozu
5	In the Mood for LoveVotes: 141 of 1636 critics	2000	Wong Kar Wai
6	2001: A Space OdysseyVotes: 130 of 1636 critics	1968	Stanley Kubrick
7	Beau travailVotes: 106 of 1636 critics	1998	Claire Denis
8	Mulholland Dr.Votes: 105 of 1636 critics	2001	David Lynch
9	Man with a Movie CameraVotes: 100 of 1636 critics	1929	Dziga Vertov
10	Singin' in the RainVotes: 99 of 1636 critics	1951	Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
11	Sunrise: A Song of Two HumansVotes: 98 of 1636 critics	1927	F.W. Murnau
12	The GodfatherVotes: 94 of 1636 critics	1972	Francis Ford Coppola
13	La Règle du jeuVotes: 87 of 1636 critics	1939	Jean Renoir
14	Cléo from 5 to 7Votes: 81 of 1636 critics	1962	Agnès Varda
15	The SearchersVotes: 80 of 1636 critics	1956	John Ford
16	Meshes of the AfternoonVotes: 79 of 1636 critics	1943	Maya Deren, Alexander Hackenschmied
17	Close-upVotes: 78 of 1636 critics	1989	Abbas Kiarostami
18	PersonaVotes: 76 of 1636 critics	1966	Ingmar Bergman
19	Apocalypse NowVotes: 72 of 1636 critics	1979	Francis Ford Coppola
20	Seven SamuraiVotes: 71 of 1636 critics	1954	Akira Kurosawa
=21	Late SpringVotes: 70 of 1636 critics	1949	Yasujirō Ozu
=21	The Passion of Joan of ArcVotes: 70 of 1636 critics	1927	Carl Th. Dreyer
23	PlaytimeVotes: 68 of 1636 critics	1967	Jacques Tati
24	Do the Right ThingVotes: 67 of 1636 critics	1989	Spike Lee
=25	Au hasard BalthazarVotes: 66 of 1636 critics	1966	Robert Bresson
=25	The Night of the HunterVotes: 66 of 1636 critics	1955	Charles Laughton
27	ShoahVotes: 64 of 1636 critics	1985	Claude Lanzmann
28	DaisiesVotes: 63 of 1636 critics	1966	Věra Chytilová
29	Taxi DriverVotes: 62 of 1636 critics	1976	Martin Scorsese
30	Portrait of a Lady on FireVotes: 60 of 1636 critics	2019	Céline Sciamma
=31	8 1/2Votes: 59 of 1636 critics	1963	Federico Fellini
=31	MirrorVotes: 59 of 1636 critics	1975	Andrei Tarkovsky
=31	PsychoVotes: 59 of 1636 critics	1960	Alfred Hitchcock
34	L'AtalanteVotes: 58 of 1636 critics	1934	Jean Vigo
35	Pather PanchaliVotes: 56 of 1636 critics	1955	Satyajit Ray
=36	City LightsVotes: 55 of 1636 critics	1931	Charles Chaplin
=36	MVotes: 55 of 1636 critics	1931	Fritz Lang
=38	Rear WindowVotes: 53 of 1636 critics	1954	Alfred Hitchcock
=38	Some Like It HotVotes: 53 of 1636 critics	1959	Billy Wilder
=38	À bout de souffleVotes: 53 of 1636 critics	1960	Jean-Luc Godard
=41	Bicycle ThievesVotes: 52 of 1636 critics	1948	Vittorio De Sica
=41	RashomonVotes: 52 of 1636 critics	1950	Akira Kurosawa
=43	Killer of SheepVotes: 51 of 1636 critics	1977	Charles Burnett
=43	StalkerVotes: 51 of 1636 critics	1979	Andrei Tarkovsky
=45	Barry LyndonVotes: 49 of 1636 critics	1975	Stanley Kubrick
=45	North by NorthwestVotes: 49 of 1636 critics	1959	Alfred Hitchcock
=45	The Battle of AlgiersVotes: 49 of 1636 critics	1966	Gillo Pontecorvo
=48	OrdetVotes: 48 of 1636 critics	1955	Carl Th. Dreyer
=48	WandaVotes: 48 of 1636 critics	1970	Barbara Loden
=50	The 400 BlowsVotes: 46 of 1636 critics	1959	François Truffaut
=50	The PianoVotes: 46 of 1636 critics	1992	Jane Campion
=52	Fear Eats the SoulVotes: 45 of 1636 critics	1974	Rainer Werner Fassbinder
=52	News from HomeVotes: 45 of 1636 critics	1976	Chantal Akerman
=54	Battleship PotemkinVotes: 44 of 1636 critics	1925	Sergei M. Eisenstein
=54	Blade RunnerVotes: 44 of 1636 critics	1982	Ridley Scott
=54	Le MéprisVotes: 44 of 1636 critics	1963	Jean-Luc Godard
=54	Sherlock Jr.Votes: 44 of 1636 critics	1924	Buster Keaton
=54	The ApartmentVotes: 44 of 1636 critics	1960	Billy Wilder
59	Sans SoleilVotes: 43 of 1636 critics	1982	Chris Marker
=60	Daughters of the DustVotes: 42 of 1636 critics	1991	Julie Dash
=60	La dolce vitaVotes: 42 of 1636 critics	1960	Federico Fellini
=60	MoonlightVotes: 42 of 1636 critics	2016	Barry Jenkins
=63	CasablancaVotes: 40 of 1636 critics	1942	Michael Curtiz
=63	GoodFellasVotes: 40 of 1636 critics	1990	Martin Scorsese
=63	The Third ManVotes: 40 of 1636 critics	1949	Carol Reed
66	Touki BoukiVotes: 39 of 1636 critics	1973	Djibril Diop Mambéty
=67	Andrei RublevVotes: 38 of 1636 critics	1966	Andrei Tarkovsky
=67	La JetéeVotes: 38 of 1636 critics	1962	Chris Marker
=67	MetropolisVotes: 38 of 1636 critics	1927	Fritz Lang
=67	The Gleaners and IVotes: 38 of 1636 critics	2000	Agnès Varda
=67	The Red ShoesVotes: 38 of 1636 critics	1948	Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
=72	Journey to ItalyVotes: 37 of 1636 critics	1954	Roberto Rossellini
=72	L'avventuraVotes: 37 of 1636 critics	1960	Michelangelo Antonioni
=72	My Neighbour TotoroVotes: 37 of 1636 critics	1988	Hayao Miyazaki
=75	Imitation of LifeVotes: 36 of 1636 critics	1959	Douglas Sirk
=75	Sansho the BailiffVotes: 36 of 1636 critics	1954	Kenji Mizoguchi
=75	Spirited AwayVotes: 36 of 1636 critics	2001	Hayao Miyazaki
=78	A Brighter Summer DayVotes: 35 of 1636 critics	1991	Edward Yang
=78	A Matter of Life and DeathVotes: 35 of 1636 critics	1946	Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
=78	Céline and Julie Go BoatingVotes: 35 of 1636 critics	1974	Jacques Rivette
=78	Histoire(s) du CinémaVotes: 35 of 1636 critics	1988	Jean-Luc Godard
=78	Modern TimesVotes: 35 of 1636 critics	1936	Charles Chaplin
=78	Sunset Blvd.Votes: 35 of 1636 critics	1950	Billy Wilder
=78	SátántangóVotes: 35 of 1636 critics	1994	Béla Tarr
=85	Blue VelvetVotes: 34 of 1636 critics	1986	David Lynch
=85	Pierrot le fouVotes: 34 of 1636 critics	1965	Jean-Luc Godard
=85	The Spirit of the BeehiveVotes: 34 of 1636 critics	1973	Víctor Erice
=88	Chungking ExpressVotes: 33 of 1636 critics	1994	Wong Kar Wai
=88	The ShiningVotes: 33 of 1636 critics	1980	Stanley Kubrick
=90	Madame de...Votes: 32 of 1636 critics	1953	Max Ophuls
=90	ParasiteVotes: 32 of 1636 critics	2019	Bong Joon-ho
=90	The LeopardVotes: 32 of 1636 critics	1963	Luchino Visconti
=90	Ugetsu MonogatariVotes: 32 of 1636 critics	1953	Kenji Mizoguchi
=90	Yi YiVotes: 32 of 1636 critics	1999	Edward Yang
=95	A Man EscapedVotes: 31 of 1636 critics	1956	Robert Bresson
=95	Black GirlVotes: 31 of 1636 critics	1965	Ousmane Sembène
=95	Get OutVotes: 31 of 1636 critics	2017	Jordan Peele
=95	Once upon a Time in the WestVotes: 31 of 1636 critics	1968	Sergio Leone
=95	The GeneralVotes: 31 of 1636 critics	1926	Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman
=95	Tropical MaladyVotes: 31 of 1636 critics	2004	Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Tie notation: =N means multiple films share the same rank because they received the same number of votes.

Visual checks

Top‑20 vote counts

Votes out of 1,636 critics

Chart failed to load. Use the table above (sort by Votes) to view the same information.

Top‑100 by decade

Count of films in the Top‑100 by release decade

Chart failed to load. A quick reading from the table still shows strong concentration in the 1950s–1970s and a smaller (but meaningful) 21st‑century presence.

Sources

BFI / Sight & Sound: The Greatest Films of All Time (2022 critics’ poll hub): bfi.org.uk
Public scraped ballots dataset (used here to reproduce Top‑100): GitHub repository