100 Greatest Films of All-Time: 2026 Trilogy of Lists
- Will
- 4 days ago
- 11 min read
Casablanca (1942), The Battle of Algiers (1966), Pather Panchali (1955), and La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928) sit atop this year's list, holding the same positions they did last year
This year's Top 100* is a tad less diverse than last year's. While there are still only 34 films from English language-speaking countries, we are down to 27 countries featured in the Top 100 (last year, there was a record high of 28). The most represented countries are, in order: USA (26 films), Japan (10 films), France (10 films), Italy (7 films), and UK (7 films). Just like last year, there are fifteen total countries with multiple entrants, two shy of the record high 17 from the 2023 & 2024 renditions of the list. Fifteen films from last year's list fell off, and they were replaced by 4 first-time entrants (including spot 32!) and 11 re-entries. Additionally, I track what film rankings hold steady from the previous year to the current one. Last year, there were five such cases, with that number shooting up to nine this year. In fact, the top six films all held firm! The overall set of films that stayed put are #'s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 44, 72, and 82.
The methodology: Starting from an initial set of 617 great films, 320 finalists were determined. From there, films were split up at random into ranked groups from 1 to 25 (or 1 to 20 for the final group) before the groups' top films were ranked head to head until the Top 100 list below was completed. Once the remaining 220 films were divided into ranked groups of films from English language-speaking countries and films from foreign language-speaking countries, the same head-to-head selection process was repeated to fill out the two supplementary Top 100 lists.
*Quick side note: the films in competition for the Top 100 are exclusively narrative features. Documentaries and short films are not considered when compiling this annual tradition of film lists. If you would be interested in a list specifically of those, simply submit a request at the bottom of this page and I'd be more than happy to assemble one for you 😊
The 100 Greatest Films of All-Time, completed 08/23/2026
The Official Story (1985) is number 100 on this year's list
(All films are followed by their year of release and director/directors)
1. Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)
2. The Battle of Algiers (1966, Gillo Pontecorvo)
3. Pather Panchali (1955, Satyajit Ray)
4. La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928, Carl Theodor Dreyer)
5. Ucho (1970, Karel Kachyňa)
6. Ivan’s Childhood (1962, Andrei Tarkovsky)
7. The Big Sleep (1946, Howard Hawks)
9. Dersu Uzala (1975, Akira Kurosawa)
10. Blade Runner (1982, Ridley Scott)
11. if…. (1968, Lindsay Anderson)
12. Stalker (1979, Andrei Tarkovsky)
15. Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975, Chantal Akerman)
16. Teorema (1968, Pier Paolo Pasolini)
18. Tropical Malady (2004, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
19. Shoplifters (2018, Hirokazu Kore-eda)
20. An Elephant Sitting Still (2018, Hu Bo)
21. Kanał (1957, Andrzej Wajda)
22. Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)
23. Playtime (1967, Jacques Tati)
24. Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
27. Underground (1995, Emir Kusturica)
28. Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock)
29. A Matter of Life and Death (1946, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
30. Wings of Desire (1987, Wim Wenders)
31. A Man Escaped (1956, Robert Bresson)
32. Daughters of the Dust (1991, Julie Dash)
33. Singin’ in the Rain (1952, Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen)
34. Princess Mononoke (1997, Hayao Miyazaki)
35. Amor de Perdição (1978, Manoel de Oliveira)
36. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003, Peter Weir)
37. Do Bigha Zamin (1953, Bimal Roy)
38. The General (1927, Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman)
39. The Ascent (1977, Larisa Shepitko)
40. Grave of the Fireflies (1988, Isao Takahata)
41. Cyclo (1995, Trần Anh Hùng)
42. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Stanley Kubrick)
43. L.A. Confidential (1997, Curtis Hanson)
44. The Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola)
45. Harakiri (1962, Masaki Kobayashi)
46. La Grande Illusion (1937, Jean Renoir)
47. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013, Isao Takahata)
48. Sátántangó (1994, Béla Tarr)
49. The Blue Angel (1930, Josef von Sternberg)
50. La Promesse (1996, Luc Dardenne & Jean-Pierre Dardenne)
51. In a Lonely Place (1950, Nicholas Ray)
52. Festen (1998, Thomas Vinterberg)
53. Plácido (1961, Luis García Berlanga)
54. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014, Wes Anderson)
55. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, Lewis Milestone)
56. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962, Tony Richardson)
57. Brief Encounter (1945, David Lean)
58. Laura (1944, Otto Preminger)
59. A Separation (2011, Asghar Farhadi)
60. Daisies (1966, Věra Chytilová)
61. Polytechnique (2009, Denis Villeneuve)
62. À Nous la Liberté (1931, René Clair)
63. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, Don Siegel)
64. Some Like It Hot (1959, Billy Wilder)
65. Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922, Fritz Lang)
66. I Am Cuba (1964, Mikhail Kalatozov)
67. Kes (1969, Ken Loach)
68. Samurai Rebellion (1967, Masaki Kobayashi)
69. Mulholland Drive (2001, David Lynch)
70. Run Lola Run (1998, Tom Tykwer)
71. World on a Wire (1973, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
72. Suspiria (1977, Dario Argento)
73. La Terra Trema (1948, Luchino Visconti)
74. Au Revoir les Enfants (1987, Louis Malle)
75. The Lusty Men (1952, Nicholas Ray)
76. Yellow Earth (1984, Chen Kaige)
77. Love Me Tonight (1932, Rouben Mamoulian)
78. Chikamatsu Monogatari (1954, Kenji Mizoguchi)
79. The Shop on Main Street (1965, Ján Kadár & Elmar Klos)
80. The Last of the Mohicans (1992, Michael Mann)
81. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000, Béla Tarr)
82. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
83. Wild Strawberries (1957, Ingmar Bergman)
84. Black Orpheus (1959, Marcel Camus)
85. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, Robert Mulligan)
87. The Time to Live and the Time to Die (1985, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
88. The Killers (1946, Robert Siodmak)
89. Code Unknown (2000, Michael Haneke)
90. sex, lies, and videotape (1989, Steven Soderbergh)
91. The Burmese Harp (1956, Kon Ichikawa)
92. City of God (2002, Fernando Meirelles)
93. Three Colours: Blue (1993, Krzysztof Kieślowski)
94. Naked (1993, Mike Leigh)
95. Red Beard (1965, Akira Kurosawa)
96. Accattone (1961, Pier Paolo Pasolini)
97. Dekalog (1989, Krzysztof Kieślowski)
98. Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959, Alain Resnais)
99. Intolerance (1916, D. W. Griffith)
100. The Official Story (1985, Luis Puenzo)
The 100 Greatest Films from English Language-Speaking Countries, completed 08/29/2026
In Which We Serve (1942) is the top ranked film from an English language-speaking country to not make the Top 100
(All films are followed by their year of release, director/directors, and primary production country if it's not the USA)
1. Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)
2. The Big Sleep (1946, Howard Hawks)
3. Blade Runner (1982, Ridley Scott)
4. if…. (1968, Lindsay Anderson) -- United Kingdom
6. Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)
7. Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock)
8. A Matter of Life and Death (1946, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger) -- United Kingdom
9. Daughters of the Dust (1991, Julie Dash)
10. Singin’ in the Rain (1952, Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen)
11. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003, Peter Weir)
12. The General (1927, Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman)
13. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Stanley Kubrick) -- United Kingdom
14. L.A. Confidential (1997, Curtis Hanson)
15. The Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola)
16. In a Lonely Place (1950, Nicholas Ray)
17. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014, Wes Anderson)
18. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, Lewis Milestone)
19. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962, Tony Richardson) -- United Kingdom
20. Brief Encounter (1945, David Lean) -- United Kingdom
21. Laura (1944, Otto Preminger)
22. Polytechnique (2009, Denis Villeneuve) -- Canada
23. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, Don Siegel)
24. Some Like It Hot (1959, Billy Wilder)
25. Kes (1969, Ken Loach) -- United Kingdom
26. Mulholland Drive (2001, David Lynch)
27. The Lusty Men (1952, Nicholas Ray)
28. Love Me Tonight (1932, Rouben Mamoulian)
29. The Last of the Mohicans (1992, Michael Mann)
30. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, Robert Mulligan)
31. The Killers (1946, Robert Siodmak)
32. sex, lies, and videotape (1989, Steven Soderbergh)
33. Naked (1993, Mike Leigh) -- United Kingdom
34. Intolerance (1916, D. W. Griffith) [The supplementary titles that did not make the official 100 Greatest Films list begin with spot 35]
35. In Which We Serve (1942, Noël Coward & David Lean) -- United Kingdom
36. Bound (1996, Lana Wachowski & Lilly Wachowski)
37. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969, George Roy Hill)
38. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018, Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey & Rodney Rothman)
39. Alien (1979, Ridley Scott)
41. Us (2019, Jordan Peele)
42. Cabaret (1972, Bob Fosse)
43. Man of the West (1958, Anthony Mann)
44. Odd Man Out (1947, Carol Reed) -- United Kingdom
45. Double Indemnity (1944, Billy Wilder)
46. Top Hat (1935, Mark Sandrich)
47. The Man with the Golden Arm (1955, Otto Preminger)
48. The Great Escape (1963, John Sturges)
49. Videodrome (1983, David Cronenberg) -- Canada
50. Fantasia (1940, Samuel Armstrong, James Algar, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, David Hand, Ben Sharpsteen, Ford Beebe, Jim Handley, Hamilton Luske, Norman Ferguson, T. Hee & Wilfred Jackson)
51. Roman Holiday (1953, William Wyler)
52. Stagecoach (1939, John Ford)
53. The Killing (1956, Stanley Kubrick)
54. The Jungle Book (1967, Wolfgang Reitherman)
55. The Big Parade (1925, King Vidor)
56. 1917 (2019, Sam Mendes)
57. Beauty and the Beast (1991, Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise)
58. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, William Wyler)
59. Gone with the Wind (1939, Victor Fleming)
60. Get Out (2017, Jordan Peele)
61. The Usual Suspects (1995, Bryan Singer)
62. The Maltese Falcon (1941, John Huston)
63. 45 Years (2015, Andrew Haigh) -- United Kingdom
64. The Silence of the Lambs (1991, Jonathan Demme)
65. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001, Peter Jackson) -- New Zealand
66. Se7en (1995, David Fincher)
67. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985, Paul Schrader)
68. Wuthering Heights (1939, William Wyler)
69. The Apartment (1960, Billy Wilder)
70. Moonrise Kingdom (2012, Wes Anderson)
71. Zero Dark Thirty (2012, Kathryn Bigelow)
72. Spotlight (2015, Tom McCarthy)
73. Lawrence of Arabia (1962, David Lean) -- United Kingdom
74. Shakespeare in Love (1998, John Madden) -- United Kingdom
75. Out of the Past (1947, Jacques Tourneur)
76. Greed (1924, Erich von Stroheim)
77. Strangers on a Train (1951, Alfred Hitchcock)
78. Boyhood (2014, Richard Linklater)
79. Saving Private Ryan (1998, Steven Spielberg)
80. Hot Fuzz (2007, Edgar Wright) -- United Kingdom
81. Sunrise (1927, F. W. Murnau)
82. The Long Good Friday (1980, John Mackenzie) -- United Kingdom
83. The Martian (2015, Ridley Scott)
84. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938, Michael Curtiz & William Keighley)
85. The Grapes of Wrath (1940, John Ford)
86. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Steven Spielberg)
87. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925, Fred Niblo (& Charles Brabin -- uncredited))
88. Gun Crazy (1950, Joseph H. Lewis)
89. 42nd Street (1933, Lloyd Bacon)
90. Seven Chances (1925, Buster Keaton)
91. On the Waterfront (1954, Elia Kazan)
92. The Hurt Locker (2009, Kathryn Bigelow)
93. Easy Living (1937, Mitchell Leisen)
94. Sweet Smell of Success (1957, Alexander Mackendrick)
95. Kiss Me Deadly (1955, Robert Aldrich)
96. Dance, Girl, Dance (1940, Dorothy Arzner)
97. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963, Stanley Kramer)
98. Pulp Fiction (1994, Quentin Tarantino)
99. Get Carter (1971, Mike Hodges) -- United Kingdom
100. Eraserhead (1977, David Lynch)
The 100 Greatest Films from Foreign Language-Speaking Countries, completed 08/29/2026
Él (1953) is the top ranked film from a foreign-language speaking country to not make the Top 100
(All films are followed by their year of release, director/directors, and primary production country)
1. The Battle of Algiers (1966, Gillo Pontecorvo) -- Italy
2. Pather Panchali (1955, Satyajit Ray) -- India
3. La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928, Carl Theodor Dreyer) -- France
4. Ucho (1970, Karel Kachyňa) -- Czechoslovakia
5. Ivan’s Childhood (1962, Andrei Tarkovsky) -- USSR
7. Dersu Uzala (1975, Akira Kurosawa) -- USSR
8. Stalker (1979, Andrei Tarkovsky) -- USSR
11. Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975, Chantal Akerman) -- Belgium
12. Teorema (1968, Pier Paolo Pasolini) -- Italy
13. Tropical Malady (2004, Apichatpong Weerasethakul) -- Thailand
14. Shoplifters (2018, Hirokazu Kore-eda) -- Japan
15. An Elephant Sitting Still (2018, Hu Bo) -- China
16. Kanał (1957, Andrzej Wajda) -- Poland
17. Playtime (1967, Jacques Tati) -- France
18. Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa) -- Japan
21. Underground (1995, Emir Kusturica) -- Yugoslavia
22. Wings of Desire (1987, Wim Wenders) -- West Germany
23. A Man Escaped (1956, Robert Bresson) -- France
24. Princess Mononoke (1997, Hayao Miyazaki) -- Japan
25. Amor de Perdição (1978, Manoel de Oliveira) -- Portugal
26. Do Bigha Zamin (1953, Bimal Roy) -- India
27. The Ascent (1977, Larisa Shepitko) -- USSR
28. Grave of the Fireflies (1988, Isao Takahata) -- Japan
29. Cyclo (1995, Trần Anh Hùng) -- Vietnam
30. Harakiri (1962, Masaki Kobayashi) -- Japan
31. La Grande Illusion (1937, Jean Renoir) -- France
32. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013, Isao Takahata) -- Japan
33. Sátántangó (1994, Béla Tarr) -- Hungary
34. The Blue Angel (1930, Josef von Sternberg) -- Germany
35. La Promesse (1996, Luc Dardenne & Jean-Pierre Dardenne) -- Belgium
36. Festen (1998, Thomas Vinterberg) -- Denmark
37. Plácido (1961, Luis García Berlanga) -- Spain
38. A Separation (2011, Asghar Farhadi) -- Iran
39. Daisies (1966, Věra Chytilová) -- Czechoslovakia
40. À Nous la Liberté (1931, René Clair) -- France
41. Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922, Fritz Lang) -- Germany
42. I Am Cuba (1964, Mikhail Kalatozov) -- Cuba
43. Samurai Rebellion (1967, Masaki Kobayashi) -- Japan
44. Run Lola Run (1998, Tom Tykwer) -- Germany
45. World on a Wire (1973, Rainer Werner Fassbinder) -- West Germany
46. Suspiria (1977, Dario Argento) -- Italy
47. La Terra Trema (1948, Luchino Visconti) -- Italy
48. Au Revoir les Enfants (1987, Louis Malle) -- France
49. Yellow Earth (1984, Chen Kaige) -- China
50. Chikamatsu Monogatari (1954, Kenji Mizoguchi) -- Japan
51. The Shop on Main Street (1965, Ján Kadár & Elmar Klos) -- Czechoslovakia
52. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000, Béla Tarr) -- Hungary
53. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974, Rainer Werner Fassbinder) -- West Germany
54. Wild Strawberries (1957, Ingmar Bergman) -- Sweden
55. Black Orpheus (1959, Marcel Camus) -- France
57. The Time to Live and the Time to Die (1985, Hou Hsiao-hsien) -- Taiwan
58. Code Unknown (2000, Michael Haneke) -- France
59. The Burmese Harp (1956, Kon Ichikawa) -- Japan
60. City of God (2002, Fernando Meirelles) -- Brazil
61. Three Colours: Blue (1993, Krzysztof Kieślowski) -- France
62. Red Beard (1965, Akira Kurosawa) -- Japan
63. Accattone (1961, Pier Paolo Pasolini) -- Italy
64. Dekalog (1989, Krzysztof Kieślowski) -- Poland
65. Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959, Alain Resnais) -- France
66. The Official Story (1985, Luis Puenzo) -- Argentina [The supplementary titles that did not make the official 100 Greatest Films list begin with spot 67]
67. Él (1953, Luis Buñuel) -- Mexico
68. Forbidden Games (1952, René Clément) -- France
69. Winter Light (1963, Ingmar Bergman) -- Sweden
70. High and Low (1963, Akira Kurosawa) -- Japan
71. Pale Flower (1964, Masahiro Shinoda) -- Japan
72. Ashes of Time (1994, Wong Kar-wai) -- Hong Kong
73. That Obscure Object of Desire (1977, Luis Buñuel) -- France
74. Paisan (1946, Roberto Rossellini) -- Italy
75. Pickpocket (1959, Robert Bresson) -- France
76. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926, Lotte Reiniger) -- Germany
77. The Only Son (1936, Yasujirō Ozu) -- Japan
78. Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987, Abbas Kiarostami) -- Iran
79. Wooden Crosses (1932, Raymond Bernard) -- France
80. Anatomy of a Fall (2023, Justine Triet) -- France
81. La Roue (1923, Abel Gance) -- France
82. Twenty-Four Eyes (1954, Keisuke Kinoshita) -- Japan
83. Napoléon (1927, Abel Gance) -- France
84. Le Trou (1960, Jacques Becker) -- France
85. Das Boot (1981, Wolfgang Petersen) -- West Germany
86. Le Cercle Rouge (1970, Jean-Pierre Melville) -- France
87. Il Sorpasso (1962, Dino Risi) -- Italy
88. The Secret in Their Eyes (2009, Juan José Campanella) -- Argentina
89. Akira (1988, Katsuhiro Otomo) -- Japan
90. W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (1971, Dušan Makavejev) -- Yugoslavia
91. Memories of Murder (2003, Bong Joon Ho) -- South Korea
92. Le Bonheur (1965, Agnès Varda) -- France
93. Gomorrah (2008, Matteo Garrone) -- Italy
94. Let the Right One In (2008, Tomas Alfredson) -- Sweden
95. Week-End (1967, Jean-Luc Godard) -- France
96. Cinema Paradiso (1988, Giuseppe Tornatore) -- Italy
97. Death by Hanging (1968, Nagisa Ōshima) -- Japan
98. The Rules of the Game (1939, Jean Renoir) -- France
99. Y Tu Mamá También (2001, Alfonso Cuarón) -- Mexico
100. Duvidha (1973, Mani Kaul) -- India
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