Sight and Sound Magazine’s 2022 edition of
“The Greatest Films of All Time” List

Sight and Sound’s first list came out in 1952. Ever since, they’ve been doing a list every decade, voted by critics from all over the world. The 2022 list was voted for by 1,639 film critics, academics, distributors, writers, curators, archivists and programmers, who were asked to list their top 10 greatest picks. In total, over 4,000 films were mentioned at least once. Any ties in vote count result in multiple numbers on the list. Why does it jump drastically from number to number when the vote count is simply increasing by one? The world may never know.

For the first time in the list’s history, a film directed by a woman has landed at the #1 spot.

#1 JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES ✓
Dir. Chantal Akerman

#2 VERTIGO ✓
Dir. Orson Welles

#3 CITIZEN KANE ✓
Dir. Orson Welles

#4 TOKYO STORY ✓
Dir. Yasujiro Ozu

#5 IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE ✓
Dir. Wong Kar Wai

#6 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY ✓
Dir. Stanley Kubrick

#7 BEAU TRAVAIL ✓
Dir. Claire Denis

#8 MULHOLLAND DRIVE ✓
Dir. David Lynch

#9 MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA ✓
Dir. Dziga Vertov

#10 SINGIN' IN THE RAIN ✓
Dir. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly

#11 SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS ✓
Dir. F.W. Murnau

#12 THE GODFATHER ✓
Dir. Francis Ford Coppola

#13 THE RULES OF THE GAME ✓
Dir. Jean Renoir

#14 CLÉO FROM 5 TO 7 ✓
Dir. Agnès Varda

#15 THE SEARCHERS ✓
Dir. John Ford

#16 MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON
Dir. Maya Deren and Alexandr Hackenschmied

#17 CLOSE-UP ✓
Dir. Abbas Kiarostami

#18 PERSONA ✓
Dir. Ingmar Bergman

#19 APOCALYPSE NOW ✓
Dir. Francis Ford Coppola

#20 SEVEN SAMURAI ✓
Dir. Akira Kurosawa

#21 THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC ✓
Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

#21 LATE SPRING ✓
Dir. Yasujiro Ozu

#23 PLAYTIME ✓
Dir. Jacques Tati

#24 DO THE RIGHT THING
Dir. Spike Lee

#25 AU HASARD BALTHAZAR ✓
Dir. Robert Bresson

#25 THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER ✓
Dir. Charles Laughton

#27 SHOAH ✓
Dir. Claude Lanzmann

#28 DAISIES
Dir. Věra Chytilová

#29 TAXI DRIVER ✓
Dir. Martin Scorsese

#30 PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
Dir. Céline Sciamma

#31 MIRROR ✓
Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

#31 PSYCHO ✓
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

#31 8½ ✓
Dir. Federico Fellini

#34 L’ATALANTE ✓
Dir. Jean Vigo

#35 PATHER PANCHALI ✓
Dir. Satyajit Ray

#36 CITY LIGHTS (1931) ✓
Dir. Charlie Chaplin

#36 M ✓
Dir. Fritz Lang

#38 SOME LIKE IT HOT ✓
Dir. Billy Wilder

#38 BREATHLESS ✓
Dir. Jean-Luc Godard

#38 REAR WINDOW ✓
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

#41 BICYCLE THIEVES ✓
Dir. Vittorio De Sica

#41 RASHOMON ✓
Dir. Akira Kurosawa

#43 KILLER OF SHEEP
Dir. Charles Burnett

#43 STALKER ✓
Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

#45 THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS ✓
Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo

#45 NORTH BY NORTHWEST ✓
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

#45 BARRY LYNDON ✓
Dir. Stanley Kubrick

#48 WANDA
Dir. Barbara Loden

#48 ORDET ✓
Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

#50 THE 400 BLOWS ✓
Dir. François Truffaut

# 50 THE PIANO
Dir. Jane Campion

#52 FEAR EATS THE SOUL ✓
Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder

#52 NEWS FROM HOME
Dir. Chantal Akerman

#54 BLADE RUNNER ✓
Dir. Ridley Scott

#54 BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN ✓
Dir. Sergei Eisenstein

#54 CONTEMPT (LE MÉPRIS) ✓
Dir. Jean-Luc Godard

#54 SHERLOCK JR. ✓
Dir. Buster Keaton

#54 THE APARTMENT
Dir. Billy Wilder

#59 SANS SOLEIL ✓
Dir. Chris Marker

#60 MOONLIGHT
Dir. Barry Jenkins

#60 LA DOLCE VITA ✓
Dir. Federico Fellini

#60 DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST
Dir. Julie Dash

#63 CASABLANCA ✓
Dir. Michael Curtiz

#63 GOODFELLAS
Dir. Martin Scorsese

#63 THE THIRD MAN ✓
Dir. Carol Reed

#66 TOUKI BOUKI ✓
Dir. Djibril Diop Mambéty

#67 THE GLEANERS AND I
Dir. Agnès Varda

#67 LA JETÉE ✓
Dir. Chris Marker

#67 ANDREI RUBLEV ✓
Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

#67 METROPOLIS ✓
Dir. Fritz Lang

#67 THE RED SHOES
Dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

#72 MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
Dir. Hayao Miyazaki

#72 JOURNEY TO ITALY ✓
Dir. Roberto Rossellini

#72 L’AVVENTURA ✓
Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

#75 IMITATION OF LIFE ✓
Dir. Douglas Sirk

#75 SANSHO DAYU ✓
Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi

#75 SPIRITED AWAY
Dir. Hayao Miyazaki

#78 SÁTÁNTANGÓ ✓
Dir. Béla Tarr

#78 A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY ✓
Dir. Edward Yang

#78 CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING
Dir. Jacques Rivette

#78 SUNSET BLVD. ✓
Dir. Billy Wilder

#78 MODERN TIMES ✓
Dir. Charlie Chaplin

#78 A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH ✓
Dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

#78 HISTOIRE(S) DU CINÉMA ✓
Dir. Jean-Luc Godard

#85 PIERROT LE FOU ✓
Dir. Jean-Luc Godard

#85 THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE ✓
Dir. Víctor Erice

#85 BLUE VELVET ✓
Dir. David Lynch

#88 CHUNGKING EXPRESS
Dir. Wong Kar Wai

#88 THE SHINING
Dir. Stanley Kubrick

#90 THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE… ✓
Dir. Max Ophüls

#90 THE LEOPARD ✓
Dir. Luchino Visconti

#90 UGETSU MONOGATARI ✓
Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi

#90 YI YI ✓
Dir. Edward Yang

#90 PARASITE
Dir. Bong Joon-ho

#95 GET OUT
Dir. Jordan Peele

#95 TROPICAL MALADY
Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul

#95 BLACK GIRL
Dir. Ousmane Sembène

#95 THE GENERAL ✓
Dir. Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman

#95 A MAN ESCAPED ✓
Dir. Robert Bresson

#95 ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST ✓
Dir. Sergio Leone