I added 10 more “best movies of all time” lists to the meta-list, bringing the total number of original source lists to over 36 (I lost exact count along the way!). The new lists (all from 2020 and 2021) were identified by Enrique, a Make Lists, Not War reader – thank you Enrique for your contribution to the website!
Here are the links to the updated movie lists:
Best Films of All Time – Ranked
Best Films of All Time – Chronological
Best Films of All Time – By Director
The new lists rearranged the meta-list considerably and added two dozen new movies, many of them recent releases. I was surprised (and a bit disheartened) to see that Pulp Fiction is now tied for first place with Citizen Kane. Don’t get me wrong, I think Pulp Fiction is an excellent movie, but I don’t quite see it as the best movie ever. But that’s the fun of lists – you may not agree with the listers, but you can’t deny that Pulp Fiction was on 33 “best films of all time” lists.
Below are the 24 new movies I added to the meta-list (which contains films that are on at least four of the original source lists) as a result of the update. They include five women and four Black Americans; the world of movie directing is finally becoming diverse. There are also six winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture.
- The Gunfighter (US, 1950) Dir: Henry King (on 4 lists)
- The Passenger (France/Italy/US/Spain, 1975) Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni (on 4 lists)
- Gandhi (UK/India, 1982) Dir: Richard Attenborough (on 4 lists)
- Edward Scissorhands (US, 1990) Dir: Tim Burton (on 4 lists)
- Daughters of the Dust (US, 1991) Dir: Julie Dash (on 4 lists)
- Jurassic Park (US 1993) Dir: Steven Spielberg (on 5 lists)
- Forrest Gump (US, 1994) Dir: Robert Zemeckis (on 5 lists)
- Clueless (US, 1995) Dir: Amy Heckerling (on 5 lists)
- Titanic (US, 1997) Dir: James Cameron (on 5 lists)
- Life is Beautiful (Italy, 1997) Dir: Roberto Benigni (on 4 lists)
- Good Will Hunting (US, 1997) Dir: Gus Van Sant (on 5 lists)
- The Hurt Locker (US, 2008) Dir: Kathryn Bigelow (on 5 lists)
- Avatar (US, 2009) Dir: James Cameron (on 5 lists)
- Amour (France/Austria/Germany, 2012) Dir: Michael Haneke (on 4 lists)
- Carol (US/UK, 2015) Dir: Todd Haynes (on 4 lists)
- La La Land (US, 2016) Dir: Damien Chazelle (on 5 lists)
- Moonlight (US, 2016) Dir: Barry Jenkins (on 8 lists)
- Call Me By Your Name (Italy/US/France/Brazil, 2017) Dir: Luca Guadagnino (on 4 lists)
- Lady Bird (US, 2017) Dir: Greta Gerwig (on 7 lists)
- Get Out (US, 2017) Dir: Jordan Peele (on 8 lists)
- Roma (Mexico/US, 2018) Dir: Alfonso Cuarón (on 4 lists)
- Black Panther (US, 2018) Dir: Ryan Coogler (on 4 lists)
- Portrait of a Lady on Fire (France, 2019) Dir: Céline Sciamma (on 4 lists)
- Parasite (South Korea, 2019) Dir: Bong Joon-ho (on 6 lists)