There is no scientifically final answer to “What is the best movie ever made?” Greatness depends on what you value: a powerful story, technical craft, influence, rewatchability, cultural impact, or simply how deeply a film stays with you. This guide solves the harder problem—choosing what to watch—by bringing together 194 essential films across eras, countries, genres, and styles.
Rather than pretending one rating or one website can settle the question, this best movies of all time list balances critical acclaim, historical influence, audience love, awards recognition, and lasting artistic value. It includes Hollywood landmarks, international cinema, animation, documentaries, modern favorites, and family-friendly choices. Rotten Tomatoes, for example, ranks its all-time list using Certified Fresh status, critic and audience scores, review and vote counts, release year, and editorial judgment—not ratings alone. AFI’s influential list, meanwhile, is specifically about American film, so it should be used as one perspective rather than a complete map of world cinema.afi+2
How This Movie List Was Chosen
The best movies of all time are not necessarily the highest-grossing, the newest, or the most highly rated on a single platform. A worthwhile all-time list should make room for different kinds of excellence:
- Film craft: Direction, acting, writing, cinematography, editing, music, and production design.
- Influence: Movies that changed storytelling, introduced techniques others copied, or reshaped genres.
- Longevity: Films that remain emotionally effective and worth discussing decades later.
- Range: Classic Hollywood belongs beside Japanese, Indian, Korean, Italian, French, Iranian, Brazilian, and animated films.
- Viewer usefulness: A great list should help a first-time viewer choose a rewarding film, not merely repeat the same ten prestige titles.
The rankings below are a curated watchlist, not an objective scoreboard. The numbering makes the list easy to navigate; it does not mean that film #1 is universally “better” than film #194.
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The Best 194 Movies of All Time
Essential Hollywood classics
| # | Movie Name | Release Year | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Godfather | 1972 | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 2 | Seven Samurai | 1954 | Akira Kurosawa |
| 3 | Casablanca | 1942 | Michael Curtiz |
| 4 | Citizen Kane | 1941 | Orson Welles |
| 5 | The Godfather Part II | 1974 | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 6 | Schindler’s List | 1993 | Steven Spielberg |
| 7 | 12 Angry Men | 1957 | Sidney Lumet |
| 8 | Singin’ in the Rain | 1952 | Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly |
| 9 | Sunset Boulevard | 1950 | Billy Wilder |
| 10 | On the Waterfront | 1954 | Elia Kazan |
| 11 | Rear Window | 1954 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 12 | The Third Man | 1949 | Carol Reed |
| 13 | The Wizard of Oz | 1939 | Victor Fleming |
| 14 | It’s a Wonderful Life | 1946 | Frank Capra |
| 15 | The Apartment | 1960 | Billy Wilder |
| 16 | Some Like It Hot | 1959 | Billy Wilder |
| 17 | All About Eve | 1950 | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| 18 | The Philadelphia Story | 1940 | George Cukor |
| 19 | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre | 1948 | John Huston |
| 20 | The Maltese Falcon | 1941 | John Huston |
| 21 | Double Indemnity | 1944 | Billy Wilder |
| 22 | The Best Years of Our Lives | 1946 | William Wyler |
| 23 | His Girl Friday | 1940 | Howard Hawks |
| 24 | The Shop Around the Corner | 1940 | Ernst Lubitsch |
| 25 | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | 1939 | Frank Capra |
| 26 | The Grapes of Wrath | 1940 | John Ford |
| 27 | The Searchers | 1956 | John Ford |
| 28 | North by Northwest | 1959 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 29 | Psycho | 1960 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 30 | Vertigo | 1958 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 31 | Witness for the Prosecution | 1957 | Billy Wilder |
| 32 | The Bridge on the River Kwai | 1957 | David Lean |
| 33 | Lawrence of Arabia | 1962 | David Lean |
| 34 | To Kill a Mockingbird | 1962 | Robert Mulligan |
| 35 | Dr. Strangelove | 1964 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 36 | The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | 1966 | Sergio Leone |
| 37 | 2001: A Space Odyssey | 1968 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 38 | The Graduate | 1967 | Mike Nichols |
| 39 | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | 1969 | George Roy Hill |
| 40 | The French Connection | 1971 | William Friedkin |
| 41 | The Last Picture Show | 1971 | Peter Bogdanovich |
| 42 | The Exorcist | 1973 | William Friedkin |
| 43 | Chinatown | 1974 | Roman Polanski |
| 44 | One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest | 1975 | Miloš Forman |
| 45 | Jaws | 1975 | Steven Spielberg |
| 46 | Taxi Driver | 1976 | Martin Scorsese |
| 47 | Network | 1976 | Sidney Lumet |
| 48 | Rocky | 1976 | John G. Avildsen |
| 49 | Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope | 1977 | George Lucas |
| 50 | Apocalypse Now | 1979 | Francis Ford Coppola |
Modern Hollywood Masterpieces
| # | Movie Name | Release Year | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 51 | Raging Bull | 1980 | Martin Scorsese |
| 52 | Raiders of the Lost Ark | 1981 | Steven Spielberg |
| 53 | Blade Runner | 1982 | Ridley Scott |
| 54 | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | 1982 | Steven Spielberg |
| 55 | Amadeus | 1984 | Miloš Forman |
| 56 | The Terminator | 1984 | James Cameron |
| 57 | Back to the Future | 1985 | Robert Zemeckis |
| 58 | Aliens | 1986 | James Cameron |
| 59 | The Princess Bride | 1987 | Rob Reiner |
| 60 | Do the Right Thing | 1989 | Spike Lee |
| 61 | Goodfellas | 1990 | Martin Scorsese |
| 62 | The Silence of the Lambs | 1991 | Jonathan Demme |
| 63 | Unforgiven | 1992 | Clint Eastwood |
| 64 | Jurassic Park | 1993 | Steven Spielberg |
| 65 | The Shawshank Redemption | 1994 | Frank Darabont |
| 66 | Pulp Fiction | 1994 | Quentin Tarantino |
| 67 | Forrest Gump | 1994 | Robert Zemeckis |
| 68 | Heat | 1995 | Michael Mann |
| 69 | Fargo | 1996 | Joel and Ethan Coen |
| 70 | L.A. Confidential | 1997 | Curtis Hanson |
| 71 | Titanic | 1997 | James Cameron |
| 72 | Saving Private Ryan | 1998 | Steven Spielberg |
| 73 | The Matrix | 1999 | The Wachowskis |
| 74 | The Green Mile | 1999 | Frank Darabont |
| 75 | Gladiator | 2000 | Ridley Scott |
| 76 | Memento | 2000 | Christopher Nolan |
| 77 | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | 2001 | Peter Jackson |
| 78 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | 2002 | Peter Jackson |
| 79 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | 2003 | Peter Jackson |
| 80 | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | 2004 | Michel Gondry |
| 81 | There Will Be Blood | 2007 | Paul Thomas Anderson |
| 82 | No Country for Old Men | 2007 | Joel and Ethan Coen |
| 83 | The Dark Knight | 2008 | Christopher Nolan |
| 84 | WALL-E | 2008 | Andrew Stanton |
| 85 | The Social Network | 2010 | David Fincher |
| 86 | Inception | 2010 | Christopher Nolan |
| 87 | The Tree of Life | 2011 | Terrence Malick |
| 88 | Moonlight | 2016 | Barry Jenkins |
| 89 | Get Out | 2017 | Jordan Peele |
| 90 | Lady Bird | 2017 | Greta Gerwig |
| 91 | The Shape of Water | 2017 | Guillermo del Toro |
| 92 | Knives Out | 2019 | Rian Johnson |
| 93 | The Irishman | 2019 | Martin Scorsese |
| 94 | Everything Everywhere All at Once | 2022 | Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert |
| 95 | Oppenheimer | 2023 | Christopher Nolan |
Great International Movies
| # | Movie Name | Release Year | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 96 | Tokyo Story | 1953 | Yasujirō Ozu |
| 97 | Ikiru | 1952 | Akira Kurosawa |
| 98 | Rashomon | 1950 | Akira Kurosawa |
| 99 | Bicycle Thieves | 1948 | Vittorio De Sica |
| 100 | Rome, Open City | 1945 | Roberto Rossellini |
| 101 | La Strada | 1954 | Federico Fellini |
| 102 | Nights of Cabiria | 1957 | Federico Fellini |
| 103 | The 400 Blows | 1959 | François Truffaut |
| 104 | Breathless | 1960 | Jean-Luc Godard |
| 105 | 8½ | 1963 | Federico Fellini |
| 106 | The Battle of Algiers | 1966 | Gillo Pontecorvo |
| 107 | Persona | 1966 | Ingmar Bergman |
| 108 | Playtime | 1967 | Jacques Tati |
| 109 | The Conformist | 1970 | Bernardo Bertolucci |
| 110 | Solaris | 1972 | Andrei Tarkovsky |
| 111 | The Mirror | 1975 | Andrei Tarkovsky |
| 112 | Stalker | 1979 | Andrei Tarkovsky |
| 113 | Das Boot | 1981 | Wolfgang Petersen |
| 114 | Fanny and Alexander | 1982 | Ingmar Bergman |
| 115 | Ran | 1985 | Akira Kurosawa |
| 116 | Cinema Paradiso | 1988 | Giuseppe Tornatore |
| 117 | Three Colors: Red | 1994 | Krzysztof Kieślowski |
| 118 | Before Sunrise | 1995 | Richard Linklater |
| 119 | In the Mood for Love | 2000 | Wong Kar-wai |
| 120 | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon | 2000 | Ang Lee |
| 121 | Spirited Away | 2001 | Hayao Miyazaki |
| 122 | City of God | 2002 | Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund |
| 123 | Oldboy | 2003 | Park Chan-wook |
| 124 | The Lives of Others | 2006 | Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck |
| 125 | Pan’s Labyrinth | 2006 | Guillermo del Toro |
| 126 | A Separation | 2011 | Asghar Farhadi |
| 127 | The Hunt | 2012 | Thomas Vinterberg |
| 128 | The Handmaiden | 2016 | Park Chan-wook |
| 129 | Portrait of a Lady on Fire | 2019 | Céline Sciamma |
| 130 | Parasite | 2019 | Bong Joon-ho |
| 131 | Drive My Car | 2021 | Ryūsuke Hamaguchi |
| 132 | The Worst Person in the World | 2021 | Joachim Trier |
| 133 | Anatomy of a Fall | 2023 | Justine Triet |
| 134 | Perfect Days | 2023 | Wim Wenders |
| 135 | Godzilla Minus One | 2023 | Takashi Yamazaki |
Animation, Family Movies and Documentaries
| # | Movie Name | Release Year | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 136 | Modern Times | 1936 | Charlie Chaplin |
| 137 | City Lights | 1931 | Charlie Chaplin |
| 138 | The Kid | 1921 | Charlie Chaplin |
| 139 | The Red Shoes | 1948 | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger |
| 140 | The Iron Giant | 1999 | Brad Bird |
| 141 | Toy Story | 1995 | John Lasseter |
| 142 | Toy Story 2 | 1999 | John Lasseter |
| 143 | Finding Nemo | 2003 | Andrew Stanton |
| 144 | The Incredibles | 2004 | Brad Bird |
| 145 | Ratatouille | 2007 | Brad Bird |
| 146 | Up | 2009 | Pete Docter |
| 147 | Toy Story 3 | 2010 | Lee Unkrich |
| 148 | Inside Out | 2015 | Pete Docter |
| 149 | Zootopia | 2016 | Byron Howard and Rich Moore |
| 150 | Coco | 2017 | Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina |
| 151 | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | 2018 | Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman |
| 152 | The Mitchells vs. the Machines | 2021 | Mike Rianda |
| 153 | The Wild Robot | 2024 | Chris Sanders |
| 154 | Grave of the Fireflies | 1988 | Isao Takahata |
| 155 | My Neighbor Totoro | 1988 | Hayao Miyazaki |
| 156 | Princess Mononoke | 1997 | Hayao Miyazaki |
| 157 | Howl’s Moving Castle | 2004 | Hayao Miyazaki |
| 158 | Waltz with Bashir | 2008 | Ari Folman |
| 159 | Man on Wire | 2008 | James Marsh |
| 160 | Hoop Dreams | 1994 | Steve James |
| 161 | The Act of Killing | 2012 | Joshua Oppenheimer |
| 162 | 13th | 2016 | Ava DuVernay |
| 163 | Free Solo | 2018 | Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin |
| 164 | Apollo 11 | 2019 | Todd Douglas Miller |
| 165 | Summer of Soul | 2021 | Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson |
More Essential Movies
| # | Movie Name | Release Year | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 166 | The Wages of Fear | 1953 | Henri-Georges Clouzot |
| 167 | Ugetsu | 1953 | Kenji Mizoguchi |
| 168 | Pather Panchali | 1955 | Satyajit Ray |
| 169 | The Night of the Hunter | 1955 | Charles Laughton |
| 170 | Paths of Glory | 1957 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 171 | Touch of Evil | 1958 | Orson Welles |
| 172 | The Manchurian Candidate | 1962 | John Frankenheimer |
| 173 | High and Low | 1963 | Akira Kurosawa |
| 174 | The Sound of Music | 1965 | Robert Wise |
| 175 | Once Upon a Time in the West | 1968 | Sergio Leone |
| 176 | The Conversation | 1974 | Francis Ford Coppola |
| 177 | Nashville | 1975 | Robert Altman |
| 178 | Halloween | 1978 | John Carpenter |
| 179 | The Shining | 1980 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 180 | The Thing | 1982 | John Carpenter |
| 181 | Paris, Texas | 1984 | Wim Wenders |
| 182 | Blue Velvet | 1986 | David Lynch |
| 183 | When Harry Met Sally… | 1989 | Rob Reiner |
| 184 | Thelma & Louise | 1991 | Ridley Scott |
| 185 | Groundhog Day | 1993 | Harold Ramis |
| 186 | Before Sunset | 2004 | Richard Linklater |
| 187 | Children of Men | 2006 | Alfonso Cuarón |
| 188 | Mad Max: Fury Road | 2015 | George Miller |
| 189 | The Big Sick | 2017 | Michael Showalter |
| 190 | Minari | 2020 | Lee Isaac Chung |
| 191 | The Father | 2020 | Florian Zeller |
| 192 | Aftersun | 2022 | Charlotte Wells |
| 193 | Past Lives | 2023 | Celine Song |
| 194 | The Holdovers | 2023 | Alexander Payne |
Where Should You Start?
A 194-film list is useful only if it does not leave you overwhelmed. Choose based on your mood rather than starting at #1 and treating it like homework.
| If you want… | Start with… | Why it works |
| A crime epic | The Godfather | Rich performances, memorable writing, and a complete family saga |
| A thrilling classic | Rear Window or Jaws | Tense, accessible, and still exceptionally entertaining |
| A modern blockbuster | The Dark Knight or Mad Max: Fury Road | Big-scale filmmaking with strong direction and emotional stakes |
| A moving international film | Parasite or A Separation | Powerful social observation with gripping stories |
| Animation for adults and children | Spirited Away, WALL-E, or Coco | Visually inventive and emotionally sophisticated |
| A family movie night | Toy Story, The Wizard of Oz, or The Incredibles | Engaging for different age groups, though parents should still check ratings |
| Something emotionally challenging | Schindler’s List, The Father, or Grave of the Fireflies | Exceptional films that deal with trauma, war, grief, or loss |
For U.S. viewers, remember that streaming availability changes frequently and differs by subscription plan and location. Instead of publishing a “best movies of all time on Netflix” list that becomes outdated quickly, verify the title in your streaming app, on the service’s official page, or through a current availability tracker before planning movie night.
Final Takeaway
The best 194 movies of all time are not a checklist to rush through—they are an invitation to discover what cinema can do. Start with one film that matches your mood, then let it lead you to a director, genre, country, or era you have not explored before.
What are the top 10 best movies ever?
A balanced top 10 could include The Godfather, Seven Samurai, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Schindler’s List, 12 Angry Men, Tokyo Story, Singin’ in the Rain, Parasite, and The Shawshank Redemption. Any top 10 is subjective, but these movies represent different eras, countries, genres, and approaches to filmmaking.
What are 50 movies everyone should see?
Start with the first 50 titles in this guide. They cover foundational Hollywood cinema, suspense, crime, comedy, musicals, science fiction, war movies, and major works by filmmakers including Hitchcock, Kubrick, Spielberg, Coppola, Kurosawa, Wilder, and Scorsese.
What is considered the number-one movie of all time?
There is no universal number one. Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Vertigo, Seven Samurai, The Shawshank Redemption, and Parasite regularly appear near the top of major critic, institution, and audience lists. The answer changes depending on whether a list prioritizes American cinema, global cinema, critic reviews, audience ratings, or historical impact.
Are IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and AFI lists the same?
No. IMDb reflects user ratings and includes community-created lists; Rotten Tomatoes aggregates professional reviews and audience sentiment using its own recommendation formula; AFI’s famous “100 Years…100 Movies” projects focus on American cinema. Comparing them can be useful, but each measures a different kind of acclaim.afi+1paste.txt
Which are the best movies of all time to watch with family?
Good starting choices include The Wizard of Oz, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Coco, My Neighbor Totoro, The Iron Giant, and The Princess Bride. “Family-friendly” does not mean suitable for every child, so check the current content rating and parental guidance notes first.
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