The Top Ranked Film of Each Year

if Critics gave Best Picture.. and not Hollywood

I'll have to admit that I prefer most of the top ranked films, and some of the Oscar® winners, but overall the test of time has seemingly allowed the cream to rise to the top, especially in the early years with classics such as Sunrise, Man With the Movie Camera, M, Trouble in Paradise.

..[ Year ].. Film (rank in the top 1000) - Director
[1919] - Broken Blossoms #147 - Griffith, D.W.
[1921] - Kid, The #228 - Chaplin, Charles
[1922] - Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens #48 - Murnau, F.W.
[1923] - Our Hospitality #568 - Keaton, Buster/John Blystone
[1924] - Greed #79 - von Stroheim, Erich
[1925] - Gold Rush, The #39 - Chaplin, Charles
[1926] - Faust #585 - Murnau, F.W.
[1927] - Metropolis #23 - Lang, Fritz
[1928] - Sunrise #38 - Murnau, F.W. Best Picture: Wings
[ 1929 ] - Man With a Movie Camera, The #78 - Vertov, Dziga (photo rt) Best Picture: Broadway Melody
[ 1930 ] - All Quiet on the Western Front #164 - Milestone, Lewis Best Picture: All Quiet on the Western Front
[ 1931 ] - M #11 - Lang, Fritz Best Picture: Cimarron 
[ 1932 ] - Trouble in Paradise #234 - Lubitsch, Ernst Best Picture: Grand Hotel
[ 1933 ] - King Kong #40 - Cooper, Merian C./Ernest B. Schoedsack Best Picture: Cavalcade
[ 1934 ] - L'Atalante #49 - Vigo, Jean Best Picture: It Happened One Night
[ 1935 ] - Bride of Frankenstein #140 - Whale, James Best Picture: Mutiny on the Bounty
[ 1936 ] - Modern Times #36 - Chaplin, Charles Best Picture: The Great Ziegfeld
[ 1937 ] - Grande Illusion, La #198 - Renoir, Jean Best Picture: The Life of Emile Zola
[ 1938 ] - Bringing Up Baby #118 - Hawks, Howard Best Picture: You Can't Take It With You
[ 1939 ] - Wizard of Oz, The #18 - Fleming, Victor Best Picture: Gone With the Wind
[ 1940 ] - Grapes of Wrath, The #95 - Ford, John Best Picture: Rebecca
[ 1941 ] - Citizen Kane #5 - Welles, Orson Best Picture: How Green Was My Valley
[ 1942 ] - Casablanca #47 - Curtiz, Michael Best Picture: Mrs. Miniver
[ 1943 ] - Shadow of a Doubt #104 - Hitchcock, Alfred Best Picture: Casablanca (released in 42, Oscar awarded for 43)
[ 1944 ] - Double Indemnity #56 - Wilder, Billy Best Picture: Going My Way
[ 1945 ] - Brief Encounter #127 - Lean, David Best Picture: The Lost Weekend
[ 1946 ] - It's a Wonderful Life #10 - Capra, Frank Best Picture: The Best Years of Our Lives
[ 1947 ] - Out of the Past #236 - Tourneur, Jacques Best Picture: Gentlemen's Agreement
[ 1948 ] - Third Man, The #15 - Reed, Carol Best Picture: Hamlet
[ 1949 ] - Bicycle Thief, The #16 - De Sica, Vittorio Best Picture: All the King's Men
[ 1950 ] - Sunset Boulevard #14 - Wilder, Billy Best Picture: All About Eve
[ 1951 ] - Strangers on a Train #121 - Hitchcock, Alfred Best Picture: An American in Paris
[ 1952 ] - Singin' in the Rain #26 - Donen, Stanley/Gene Kelly Best Picture: The Greatest Show on Earth
[ 1953 ] - Tokyo Story #57 - Ozu, Yasujiro Best Picture: From Here to Eternity
[ 1954 ] - Seven Samurai, The #7 - Kurosawa, Akira Best Picture: On the Waterfront
[ 1955 ] - Pather Panchali / Apu Trilogy I #32 - Ray, Satyajit Best Picture: Marty
[ 1956 ] - Seventh Seal, The #29 - Bergman, Ingmar Best Picture: Around the World in 80 Days
[ 1957 ] - Paths of Glory #83 - Kubrick, Stanley Best Picture: Bridge on the River Kwai, The
[ 1958 ] - Vertigo #6 - Hitchcock, Alfred Best Picture: Gigi
[ 1959 ] - North by Northwest #19 - Hitchcock, Alfred Best Picture: Ben-Hur
[ 1960 ] - Psycho #8 - Hitchcock, Alfred Best Picture: The Apartment
[ 1961 ] - Jules et Jim #59 - Truffaut, François Best Picture: West Side Story
[ 1962 ] - Manchurian Candidate, The #43 - Frankenheimer, John Best Picture: Lawrence of Arabia
[ 1963 ] - 8½ #37 - Fellini, Federico Best Picture: Tom Jones
[ 1964 ] - Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb #17 - Kubrick, Stanley Best Picture: My Fair Lady
[ 1965 ] - Pierrot le fou #129 - Godard, Jean-Luc Best Picture: Sound of Music, The
[ 1966 ] - Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, The #73 - Leone, Sergio Best Picture: A Man for All Seasons
[ 1967 ] - Bonnie and Clyde #105 - Penn, Arthur Best Picture: In the Heat of the Night
[ 1968 ] - 2001: A Space Odyssey #2 - Kubrick, Stanley (photo top) Best Picture: Oliver!
[ 1969 ] - Wild Bunch, The #87 - Peckinpah, Sam Best Picture: Midnight Cowboy
[ 1970 ] - Conformist, The #76 - Bertolucci, Bernardo Best Picture: Patton
[ 1971 ] - Clockwork Orange, A #69 - Kubrick, Stanley Best Picture: French Connection, The
[ 1972 ] - Godfather, The #1 - Coppola, Francis Best Picture: Godfather, The
[ 1973 ] - Mean Streets #142 - Scorsese, Martin Best Picture: Sting, The
[ 1974 ] - Chinatown #3 - Polanski, Roman Best Picture: Godfather: Part II, The
[ 1975 ] - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest #54 - Forman, Milos Best Picture: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
[ 1976 ] - Taxi Driver #12 - Scorsese, Martin Best Picture: Rocky
[ 1977 ] - Annie Hall #77 - Allen, Woody Best Picture: Annie Hall
[ 1978 ] - Star Wars #4 - Lucas, George Best Picture: Deer Hunter, The
[ 1979 ] - Apocalypse Now #25 - Coppola, Francis Best Picture: Kramer vs. Kramer
[ 1980 ] - Raging Bull #24 - Scorsese, Martin Best Picture: Ordinary People
[ 1981 ] - Raiders of the Lost Ark #34 - Spielberg, Steven Best Picture: Chariots of Fire
[ 1982 ] - Blade Runner #13 - Scott, Ridley Best Picture: Gandhi
[ 1983 ] - Argent, L' #437 - Bresson, Robert Best Picture: Terms of Endearment
[ 1984 ] - Amadeus #63 - Forman, Milos Best Picture: Amadeus
[ 1985 ] - Ran #86 - Kurosawa, Akira Best Picture: Out of Africa
[ 1986 ] - Aliens #159 - Cameron, James Best Picture: Platoon
[ 1987 ] - Full Metal Jacket #206 - Kubrick, Stanley Best Picture: The Last Emperor
[ 1988 ] - Cinema Paradiso #158 - Tornatore, Giuseppe Best Picture: Rain Man
[ 1989 ] - Do The Right Thing #112 - Lee, Spike Best Picture: Driving Miss Daisy
[ 1990 ] - Goodfellas #31 - Scorsese, Martin Best Picture: Dances With Wolves
[ 1991 ] - Silence of the Lambs, The #90 - Demme, Jonathan Best Picture: The Silence of the Lambs
[ 1992 ] - Unforgiven #91 - Eastwood, Clint Best Picture: Unforgiven
[ 1993 ] - Schindler's List #27 - Spielberg, Steven Best Picture: Schindler's List
[ 1994 ] - Shawshank Redemption, The #155 - Darabont, Frank Best Picture: Forrest Gump
[ 1995 ] - Pulp Fiction #20 - Tarantino, Quentin Best Picture: Braveheart
[ 1996 ] - Fargo #61 - Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen Best Picture: English Patient, The
[ 1997 ] - L.A. Confidential #45 - Hanson, Curtis Best Picture: Titanic
[ 1998 ] - Saving Private Ryan #116 - Spielberg, Steven Best Picture: Shakespeare in Love
[ 1999 ] - American Beauty #139 - Mendes, Sam Best Picture: American Beauty
[ 2000 ] - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon #152 - Lee, Ang Best Picture: Gladiator
[ 2001 ] - Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The #84 - Jackson, Peter Best Picture: A Beautiful Mind
[ 2002 ] - Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The #144 - Jackson, Peter Best Picture: Chicago
[ 2003 ] - Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The #97 - Jackson, Peter Best Picture: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The
[ 2004 ] - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind #225 - Gondry, Michael Best Picture: Million Dollar Baby
[ 2005 ] - Brokeback Mountain #451 - Lee, Ang Best Picture: Crash
[ 2006 ] - Pan's Labyrinth #154 - del Toro, Guillermo Best Picture: The Departed
[ 2007 ] - No Country for Old Men #165 - Coen Ethan and Joel Best Picture: No Country for Old Men
[ 2008 ] - WALL-E #181 - Stanton, Andrew Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
[ 2009 ] - Inglorious Basterds #92 - Tarantino, Quentin Best Picture: The Hurt Locker
[ 2010 ] - Inception #9 - Nolan, Christopher Best Picture: The King's Speech


The observant will note only 12 matches above:
All Quiet on the Western Front, Casablanca (*listed in 2 separate years), The Godfather, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, Annie Hall, Silence of the Lambs, Unforgiven, Schindler's List, American Beauty, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, No Country for Old Men




Left: Max von Sydow plays chess with Death in Bergman's classic The Seventh Seal (1956)