Best Movies of All Time: 75 Films Every Cinephile Must See

The Best Movies including best films under 90 minutes, of All Time — A Definitive List That Actually Defends Its Picks

Updated February 2026. Every “best movies” list on the internet shares the same problem: they’re either crowd-sourced popularity contests (IMDB), aggregated critic averages (Rotten Tomatoes), or prestige lists that haven’t been updated since 1998 (AFI). None of them actually tell you why these films belong at the top, or what makes them great in a way a real person can understand.

This list does things differently. We’re giving you 75 films with a clear methodology, genuine editorial takes, and the information you actually need — including where to stream each one. If you want to know what’s on Netflix right now, we’ve got that too.

How We Ranked the Best Movies of All Time

Ranking films requires criteria. Ours combines four factors, each weighted:

• Critical consensus (40%) — Tomatometer score from Rotten Tomatoes, Metascore from Metacritic. Both must be tracked; neither alone is sufficient. A film with 99% RT but 70 Metacritic (like The Shawshank Redemption) tells a different story than one with 92% on both.
• Cultural impact (30%) — Did this film change how movies are made? Did it influence directors, cinematographers, writers who came after? We look at cited influences, film school curricula, and lasting pop culture presence.
• Craft excellence (20%) — Cinematography, screenplay structure, directorial vision, score. This is where a technically flawless film like 2001: A Space Odyssey earns its place even when audiences find it polarizing.
• Durability (10%) — Does the film hold up? A film that stunned in 1980 but feels dated now scores differently than one that still provokes on re-watch.

Awards are a signal, not a criterion. An Oscar for Best Picture validates that a film mattered to the industry at a specific moment — but the Academy has been wrong before (see: Crash over Brokeback Mountain), and some of the greatest films ever made won nothing.

The Top 10 Best Movies of All Time

These are the ten films that score highest across all four criteria. We’ll defend every pick.

1. Citizen Kane (1941) — Dir. Orson Welles
RT: 99% | Metacritic: 100 | Available: Max, Peacock
Every list puts Citizen Kane at #1 and few explain why outside of film school jargon. Here’s the plain version: Orson Welles invented or popularized at least a dozen cinematographic techniques in a single film — deep focus, low-angle shots, non-linear narrative — that every director since has used. The story of Charles Foster Kane is also genuinely great: a meditation on how power hollows people out. “Rosebud” isn’t just a twist; it’s a thesis. If you haven’t seen it, watch it expecting a landmark document of cinema craft rather than the most entertaining film ever made. You will not be disappointed by those terms.

2. Vertigo (1958) — Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
RT: 93% | Metacritic: 100 | Available: Various rental
Alfred Hitchcock’s most personal and psychologically complex film overtook Citizen Kane in the Sight & Sound poll in 2012. Its narrative structure is formally daring — the film reveals its central mystery at the midpoint, then weaponizes that knowledge against the audience. James Stewart’s Jimmy Stewart-ness working against him is part of the point. Vertigo rewards patience and punishes complacency.

3. The Godfather (1972) — Dir. Francis Ford Coppola
RT: 97% | Metacritic: 100 | Academy Award for Best Picture | Available: Paramount+
The Godfather won the Academy Award for Best Picture and it deserved it — which is unusual enough to note. Coppola’s film achieves something almost impossible: a three-hour crime epic that functions equally as a family drama, a political allegory, and a Greek tragedy. Marlon Brando’s performance as Vito Corleone is the canonical example of transformation through character study. Every frame is justified.

4. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) — Dir. Stanley Kubrick
RT: 92% | Metacritic: 84 | Available: Max
The film that proved cinema could be as formally ambitious as any other art form. Kubrick’s narrative structure is deliberately glacial; the film rewards viewers who surrender to its pace. HAL 9000 remains the most convincing AI character in cinema history. The final sequence is still unresolved and still perfect.

5. Parasite (2019) — Dir. Bong Joon-ho
RT: 99% | Metacritic: 96 | Academy Award for Best Picture | Available: Max, Hulu
Parasite became the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture — a statement about both the film’s quality and a long-overdue expansion of what “best” means in Hollywood. Bong Joon-ho’s genre-switching thriller is a nearly perfect film: funny, terrifying, devastating, and structurally precise. It belongs here.

6. Casablanca (1942) — Dir. Michael Curtiz
RT: 99% | Metacritic: 100 | Academy Award for Best Picture | Available: Max
Casablanca operates at the intersection of great entertainment and great filmmaking. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman generate chemistry that feels genuinely effortless; the screenplay (written under chaotic production conditions) is a model of economical, emotionally precise dialogue. “Here’s looking at you, kid” has survived because it’s earned, not because it’s quotable.

7. Schindler’s List (1993) — Dir. Steven Spielberg
RT: 97% | Metacritic: 94 | Academy Award for Best Picture | Available: Peacock
Spielberg’s magnum opus demonstrates that cinema’s greatest gift is empathy at scale. Shot in black and white — with one devastating exception — the film asks you to stay present through unbearable historical reality and refuses to let you look away. That it also works as riveting drama, not just important historical document, is its triumph.

8. Spirited Away (2001) — Dir. Hayao Miyazaki
RT: 97% | Metacritic: 96 | Academy Award for Best Animated Feature | Available: Max, Netflix
The best animated film ever made is also one of the best films ever made. Miyazaki’s fantasy world is internally consistent, visually inventive, and emotionally mature in ways that most live-action films fail to achieve. Chihiro’s journey is about capitalism, labor, identity, and growing up — filtered through imagery so rich it demands multiple viewings.

9. Pulp Fiction (1994) — Dir. Quentin Tarantino
RT: 92% | Metacritic: 94 | Available: Various rental
Tarantino’s nonlinear anthology rewired what independent cinema could do commercially and culturally. Its influence on dialogue, structure, and American film in the 1990s is incalculable. It remains thrillingly watchable three decades later.

10. Seven Samurai (1954) — Dir. Akira Kurosawa
RT: 100% | Metacritic: 98 | Available: Various rental
Kurosawa’s masterpiece invented the ensemble action-drama template that every subsequent ensemble action film — from The Magnificent Seven to Guardians of the Galaxy — descends from. At three and a half hours, it moves like a tight 90-minute film. The final battle sequence is still among the best-directed action in film history.

#1–25: The Undisputed Masterpieces

Films 11–25 represent works with nearly unanimous critical consensus across multiple rating systems, deep cultural impact, and proven durability across decades.

11. Bicycle Thieves (1948) — Dir. Vittorio De Sica | Available: Criterion Channel
12. Apocalypse Now (1979) — Dir. Francis Ford Coppola | Available: Max
13. Sunset Boulevard (1950) — Dir. Billy Wilder | Available: Paramount+
14. Rashomon (1950) — Dir. Akira Kurosawa | Available: Various rental
15. Metropolis (1927) — Dir. Fritz Lang | Available: Kino Lorber streaming
16. Singin’ in the Rain (1952) — Dir. Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen | Available: Max
17. All About Eve (1950) — Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Available: Various rental
18. The Rules of the Game (1939) — Dir. Jean Renoir | Available: Criterion Channel
19. Psycho (1960) — Dir. Alfred Hitchcock | Available: Peacock, rent digitally
20. Singing in the Rain (1952) — Dir. Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen | Available: Max
21. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) — Dir. Frank Darabont | Available: Max
22. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) — Dir. David Lean | Available: Various rental
23. 8½ (1963) — Dir. Federico Fellini | Available: Criterion Channel
24. Tokyo Story (1953) — Dir. Yasujiro Ozu | Available: Criterion Channel
25. The Wizard of Oz (1939) — Dir. Victor Fleming | Available: Max

#26–50: The Films That Changed Cinema

These landmark films each mark a turning point — in genre, technique, or cultural conversation.

26. Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) — Dir. George Lucas | Available: Disney+
27. Jaws (1975) — Dir. Steven Spielberg | Available: Peacock
28. The Dark Knight (2008) — Dir. Christopher Nolan | Available: Max
29. Mulholland Drive (2001) — Dir. David Lynch | Available: Max
30. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) — Dir. Guillermo del Toro | Available: Max
31. Get Out (2017) — Dir. Jordan Peele | Available: Peacock, Hulu
32. Amadeus (1984) — Dir. Miloš Forman | Available: Various rental
33. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) — Dir. Jonathan Demme | Available: Paramount+
34. Blade Runner (1982) — Dir. Ridley Scott | Available: Max
35. A Clockwork Orange (1971) — Dir. Stanley Kubrick | Available: Max
36. Taxi Driver (1976) — Dir. Martin Scorsese | Available: Netflix, Criterion Channel
37. Fargo (1996) — Dir. Joel Coen | Available: Max, Hulu
38. The Godfather Part II (1974) — Dir. Francis Ford Coppola | Available: Paramount+
39. Goodfellas (1990) — Dir. Martin Scorsese | Available: Max
40. Chinatown (1974) — Dir. Roman Polanski | Available: Paramount+
41. Alien (1979) — Dir. Ridley Scott | Available: Disney+, Hulu
42. Stalker (1979) — Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky | Available: Criterion Channel
43. The Shining (1980) — Dir. Stanley Kubrick | Available: Max
44. 12 Angry Men (1957) — Dir. Sidney Lumet | Available: Criterion Channel
45. Network (1976) — Dir. Sidney Lumet | Available: Various rental
46. Persona (1966) — Dir. Ingmar Bergman | Available: Criterion Channel
47. There Will Be Blood (2007) — Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson | Available: Paramount+
48. No Country for Old Men (2007) — Dir. Joel & Ethan Coen | Available: Paramount+
49. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) — Dir. Michel Gondry | Available: Prime Video
50. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) — Dir. Stanley Kubrick | Available: Max

#51–75: The Hidden Masterworks You Might Have Missed

These critically acclaimed films are essential cinema that often get overshadowed by bigger names on top-100 lists — but they belong here.

51. Hereditary (2018) — Dir. Ari Aster | Available: Prime Video
52. Moonlight (2016) — Dir. Barry Jenkins | Available: Netflix, Paramount+
53. Promising Young Woman (2020) — Dir. Emerald Fennell | Available: Peacock
54. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) — Dir. George Miller | Available: Max
55. The Tree of Life (2011) — Dir. Terrence Malick | Available: Various rental
56. Oldboy (2003) — Dir. Park Chan-wook | Available: Various rental
57. In the Mood for Love (2000) — Dir. Wong Kar-wai | Available: Criterion Channel
58. Yi Yi (2000) — Dir. Edward Yang | Available: Criterion Channel
59. Boyhood (2014) — Dir. Richard Linklater | Available: Peacock
60. A Separation (2011) — Dir. Asghar Farhadi | Available: Various rental
61. Princess Mononoke (1997) — Dir. Hayao Miyazaki | Available: Max, Netflix
62. The Hunt (2012) — Dir. Thomas Vinterberg | Available: Criterion Channel
63. Winter’s Bone (2010) — Dir. Debra Granik | Available: Various rental
64. Shoplifters (2018) — Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda | Available: Criterion Channel
65. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) — Dir. Céline Sciamma | Available: Hulu
66. The Florida Project (2017) — Dir. Sean Baker | Available: Hulu, Max
67. His Girl Friday (1940) — Dir. Howard Hawks | Available: Criterion Channel
68. City Lights (1931) — Dir. Charlie Chaplin | Available: Various streaming
69. Ikiru (1952) — Dir. Akira Kurosawa | Available: Various rental
70. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) — Dir. Sergio Leone | Available: Paramount+
71. Some Like It Hot (1959) — Dir. Billy Wilder | Available: Various rental
72. The Truman Show (1998) — Dir. Peter Weir | Available: Paramount+
73. Arrival (2016) — Dir. Denis Villeneuve | Available: Paramount+
74. Burning (2018) — Dir. Lee Chang-dong | Available: Various rental
75. The Power of the Dog (2021) — Dir. Jane Campion | Available: Netflix

Best Movies by Genre

Looking for the best films in a specific genre? We have dedicated guides for each:

• Best Horror Movies — From Psycho to Hereditary, our complete horror genre guide
• Best Horror Movies of All Time — Our definitive ranked list of 75 horror masterworks
• Best Movies on Netflix Right Now — Updated monthly; includes streaming availability for this entire list

Best Movies by Decade

If you’re exploring cinema history, here’s how our list breaks down by era:

• Pre-1950s: Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Bicycle Thieves, Metropolis, Singin’ in the Rain
• 1950s–1960s: Vertigo, Psycho, Seven Samurai, 8½, Lawrence of Arabia, Tokyo Story
• 1970s: The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Taxi Driver, Chinatown, Alien, Star Wars
• 1980s: The Shining, Blade Runner, A Clockwork Orange (re-release era), Amadeus
• 1990s: Pulp Fiction, Schindler’s List, Goodfellas, The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo
• 2000s: Spirited Away, The Dark Knight, There Will Be Blood, Mulholland Drive, Pan’s Labyrinth
• 2010s: Parasite, Moonlight, Get Out, Mad Max: Fury Road, Hereditary
• 2020s: The Power of the Dog, Promising Young Woman (and counting)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the #1 best movie of all time?

By critical consensus across multiple rating systems — Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, the Sight & Sound poll, and AFI — Citizen Kane (1941) holds the top position. It scores 100/100 on Metacritic, 99% on RT, and topped the Sight & Sound critics’ poll for 50 years. It’s the film that established the modern grammar of cinema.

What movies won the most Oscars?

Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) each won 11 Academy Awards — the most in history. Of these, only The Return of the King appears in conversations about the greatest films ever made, largely for what it achieved technically and narratively as a franchise conclusion.

How do critics decide the best films?

Critics use a mix of: craft analysis (cinematography, screenplay, performance, score, editing), cultural impact assessment, comparison to genre peers, and sometimes box office performance as a signal of broad resonance. The Sight & Sound poll — considered the most authoritative critics’ list — surveys hundreds of film critics every decade. Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer aggregates individual reviews by certified critics. No single methodology is definitive; consensus across multiple systems is more reliable than any one source.

What are the 10 most successful movies of all time by box office?

Box office success and critical excellence don’t always overlap. The highest-grossing films of all time include Avatar (2009, $2.9B), Avengers: Endgame (2019, $2.8B), and Titanic (1997, $2.2B). Of these, Titanic is the only one that appears on major “best films” lists. Commercial success is a valid signal of cultural impact, but our ranking prioritizes durability over opening weekend numbers.