Films that have been considered the greatest ever

While it is impossible to objectively determine the greatest film of all time, it is possible to discuss the films that have been regarded as the greatest ever. The important criterion for inclusion in this article is that the film is the "greatest" by some specific measure — be it a critics' poll, popular poll, box office receipts or awards. No one film tops all four criteria. None of the top films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers has won a popular poll, been a top financial success or received a record number of awards.

Films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers

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Citizen Kane tops many critics' lists

Orson Welles' Citizen Kane has been voted number one in the Sight and Sound poll of film critics in each of the last five polls over the last 40 years (the survey is carried out once every ten years). A separate poll of established film directors in the same magazine held for the first time in 2002 also had Citizen Kane at the top. Influential critic Roger Ebert says that "The Sight and Sound poll is generally considered the most authoritative of all 'best film' lists". Perhaps not coincidentally he considers Citizen Kane the best film ever. The film was also selected as number one in a Village Voice critics' poll, number one in a Time Out critics' poll in 1995 and listed as the greatest film ever by the American Film Institute in 1998.
La R�gle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game) by director Jean Renoir was named best film by the French film magazine Positif in 1991. It also holds the number two spot in the Village Voice poll. Along with Battleship Potemkin, it is one of only two films to have appeared in every one of Sight and Sound's 10-yearly polls (six occurrences).
Броненосец Потёмкин (Battleship Potemkin) was for many years generally considered the greatest film ever and was voted as such by a panel of experts at the 1958 World's Fair.
Ladri di Biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) was voted top film in a Sight & Sound magazine poll in 1952.
The Searchers is the film most often mentioned in a poll of the favorite films of directors by German language steadycam magazine.

Films acclaimed in audience polls

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The Godfather tops the IMDb

The Godfather has long stood atop IMDb's list of the top 250 films. It was also voted number one by Entertainment Weekly readers and number one in a Time Out Readers' poll in 1995.
The Shawshank Redemption, the #2 entry on the IMDb list, was voted the best film never to have won "Best Picture" in a 2005 BBC poll. [1]
The Godfather Part II, often considered better than the original, was voted best film ever by TV Guide readers in 1998.
Casablanca (1942) is widely cited as the greatest film of all time and was voted as such by readers of the Los Angeles Daily News in 1997. It is also regarded the "best Hollywood movie of all time" by the influential Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide.
Star Wars (1977) was chosen by readers of Empire magazine in November 2001 and by voters in a Channel 4/FilmFour poll [2].
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) was the pick of readers in a poll by Empire magazine in November 2004.
Dirty Dancing was chosen by 200,000 British respondents as their "best film ever" from a choice of 100 films weighted towards modern commercial films. The poll was organised by The Coca-Cola Company and Vue Cinemas [3].

Biggest box office successes

Worldwide highest grossing films

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Titanic broke box office records

Titanic (1997): Currently the highest grossing film ever. It has taken $1,835,300,000 in box office receipts.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) $1,129,219,252
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) $981,400,000
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) $926,600,000
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers(2002) $924,700,000
Jurassic Park (1993) $920,100,000
Shrek 2 (2004) $880,871,036
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) $866,300,000
Finding Nemo (2003) $865,000,000
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) $860,700,000

Prior highest-grossing films

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During the 1920s and 1930s D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation was considered to have been the greatest movie ever created

The Birth of a Nation (1915): Highest-grossing film until 1925. Director D.W. Griffith said in 1929 that the film had taken $10m worldwide. This has been reported as both an under-estimate and an over-estimate, and its true takings may never be known. In the 1920s the New York Mail described the movie as "the supreme picture of all time".
The Big Parade (1925). The highest grossing silent film of all time, taking $22m world wide.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937): Highest grossing until 1939. Total gross $185m.
Gone With the Wind (1939): Highest grossing until 1966, when it was overtaken by the Sound of Music. Following a re-release in 1971, Gone With The Wind retook the lead for a further year. Current total gross $309.5m.
The Sound of Music (1965): Highest gross from August 1966 until the re-issue of Gone With The Wind in 1971. Current total gross �163m.
The Godfather (1972): Highest grossing until 1975. Current total gross �245m.
Jaws (1975): Highest grossing until 1977. Current total gross $470m.
Star Wars (1977): Highest grossing until January 1983. Current total gross $798m
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982): Highest grossing until 1993. Current total gross $757m. (Star Wars did not re-overtake ET until its re-release in 1997, by which time Jurassic Park had landed the top slot.)
Jurassic Park (1993): Highest grossing until 1997. Current total gross $920m.

Highest USA grossing film adjusted for inflation

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Gone With the Wind is the highest grossing film ever, when adjusted for inflation

By adjusting for inflated ticket prices, the popularity of films released at different times can be compared. This list estimates the number of admissions for each film by using the average ticket price at the time of each release [4].

Gone With the Wind (1939): nine Academy Awards, National Film Registry, when adjusted for inflation is still the highest grossing film ever. The film has had at least four substantial releases worldwide (in 1939, 1954, 1961 and 1971). The adjusted for inflation value of these releases is $3.8bn worldwide, $1.3bn in the United States (2004 dollars).
Star Wars (1977)
The Sound of Music (1965)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Titanic (1997)
Jaws (1975)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
The Exorcist (1973)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Films that have received the most Academy Awards

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Ben Hur was the first film to win 11 Oscars

Ever since their inception in 1928, the Academy Awards (the "Oscars") have been seen as the most significant of the film award ceremonies. The first film to dominate an Oscars ceremony was Frank Capra's It Happened One Night at the 1935 ceremony. It was the first film to win five awards. Moreover it won the "Oscar grand slam" by winning Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay—a feat that has been repeated only twice more, by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1976 and Silence of the Lambs in 1992.

In the year that greatestfilm.org describes as "undoubtedly the most celebrated year in American film history" (1939), Gone With the Wind was nominated for thirteen awards and two special citations. It won eight of the Awards to beat It Happened One Night's record. All About Eve (1950) broke the nominations record with 14, and won in six categories.

Gigi was the film to break Gone With The Wind's record - winning in all nine of its nominated categories at the ceremony for films made in 1958. However its moment at the top was short-lived as the epic Ben-Hur went on to win 11 Oscars from 12 nominations the following year. Eleven Oscars remains the record. However this achievement has been equalled twice—by Titanic in 1997 with eleven awards from fourteen nominations, and by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which won in all eleven of its nominated categories in 2003 (an honor that many interpreted as applying to the whole of the Lord of the Rings trilogy).

Films that are considered the greatest in their particular genre

Animation

Сказка сказок - Tale of Tales (1979) - Yuri Norstein's (short biography) short film was voted by critics to be the greatest animated film of all time at a 1984 Los Angeles arts festival. [5] [6]
Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し) 2001 was voted best animated movie by IMDb users. It was the first anime (Japanese animation) film to win an Academy Award. It is the highest grossing movie in Japanese history, and the only movie to earn $250M before its US release.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) is the highest-grossing animated film of all time when adjusted for inflation. Without the effects of inflation, Shrek 2 (2004) is the highest grossing animated film of all time, computerized or not. The Lion King (1994) is the highest-grossing "traditional" (hand drawn) animated film and Finding Nemo (2003) was the first computer-generated motion picture to outgross The Lion King as the highest-grossing animated film of all time, until it was surpassed the next year by Shrek 2.
Akira (アキラ) 1988 was chosen as the top anime ever by Anime Insider in fall 2001.

Comedy

Some Like It Hot was listed Best Comedy by the American Film Institute in June 2000.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is listed as the highest rated "Comedy" title by the IMDb and was #3 on AFI's "100 Years...100 Laughs".
Shrek 2, the highest grossing comedy of all time (unadjusted).

Disaster

The Poseidon Adventure was voted best disaster movie in a consumer poll commissioned by UCI cinemas in May 2004.

Documentary

Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore's documentary relating gun control and the fear culture in the United States, heads the list of 20 all-time favorite non-fiction films selected by members of the International Documentary Association (IDA). [7]
The Thin Blue Line, Errol Morris' 1985 film, has long been considered one of the greatest documentaries ever made. It is actually credited with not only solving a murder case, but also as the major factor in freeing an innocent man from death row in Texas. It was voted number 2 by the IDA.
Fahrenheit 9/11, also by Michael Moore, won the Palme D'or at Cannes. It then became "the highest-grossing documentary in its opening weekend" [8] by breaking the old record held by Bowling for Columbine. It went on to become the "first ever documentary to cross the $100 million mark in the United States."[9]
Gates of Heaven, Errol Morris' first film which follows the lives of various pet owners as a pet cemetery closes down, was called one of the ten greatest films of all time by Roger Ebert.

Epic

Lawrence of Arabia Voted best epic by readers of Total Film in May 2004. See also: United Kingdom.

Horror/Thriller

Psycho: Alfred Hitchcock classic is considered the most important thriller of all time. Voted the best horror film by IMDb users. Tops AFI�s list of the 100 most thrilling American films.
Halloween: The original slasher was voted best horror film of all time by readers of SFX magazine in June 2004. Also was the most "profitable" film of all time (lowest production cost vs. highest box office gross) until surpassed in 1990 by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Before Halloween, the most profitable film was Easy Rider.

Musical

The Wizard of Oz The highest ranked musical on AFI's list of the 100 best American films and the Village Voice list of the 100 best films of the 20th century .
Singin' in the Rain The highest rated movie musical at the IMDb.
West Side Story Winner of the most Academy Awards of any movie musical (10).

Romance

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Casablanca - Voted best American-based film in which there is "a romantic bond between two or more characters, whose actions and/or intentions provide the heart of the film�s narrative" by the AFI.

Science fiction

2001: A Space Odyssey, a popular and influential film directed by Stanley Kubrick. The highest ranked science fiction film (#11) on the Village Voice 100 Best films of the 20th century list; selected by the late Gene Siskel as his choice of the best film ever.
Star Wars (1977) - the highest-rated sci-fi film (#8) on the IMDb, and also the highest-grossing.
Blade Runner - Initially avoided by North American audiences it was popular internationally and has become a cult classic. Voted the best science fiction film by a panel of scientists assembled by the British newspaper The Guardian in 2004. [10]

Silent

Battleship Potemkin see Films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers above.
Modern Times, the last major American film to make use of silent film conventions such as title cards for dialogue, is the highest rated silent film on the IMDb. There is a recorded soundtrack, a scene with dialogue spoken over an intercom and Charlie Chaplin sings nonsense lyrics to a song at the end. City Lights, another of Chaplin's films, is the highest rated movie without any dialogue, spoken or sung. It too has a recorded soundtrack. Metropolis is the highest rated movie that was totally silent when released. However, IMDb viewers most likely watched the restored version which has a recorded soundtrack.
The Big Parade is the highest grossing silent film of all time, taking $22m world wide.

War

Battleship Potemkin see Films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers above.
Schindler's List is the number one film on IMDb's list of top rated war titles.
In 2005 Saving Private Ryan was voted as the greatest ever war film in a Channel 4 poll of the 100 Greatest ever war films.
Jeux Interdits (Forbidden Games) - Critic Leonard Maltin said: "Jeux Interdits is almost unquestionably the most compelling and intensely poignant drama featuring young children ever filmed."

Western

The Searchers was voted the greatest Western of all time by Entertainment Weekly. See also: films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is listed as Best Western by the IMDb's list of Top Rated "Western" Titles.

In particular countries

Canada

Mon oncle Antoine: A poll of critics at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival and again at the 1993 and 2004 festivals named this the greatest Canadian film of all time.
Un Zoo la Nuit: Winner of the most Genie Awards with 13.

China

Spring in a Small Town (小城之春): This 1948 film was voted the best Chinese film ever by Hong Kong Film Awards Association in 2005.

France

Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise): Voted "Best French Film of the Century" in a poll of 600 French critics and professionals in the late 1990s.
La R�gle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game): see films acclaimed by critics and filmmakers.

India

Pather Panchali is the only Indian film to appear on Sight and Sound Critics's Top Ten Poll (ranked #9 in 1992). It was ranked the top Indian film in a 2002 popularity poll by the British Film Institute (BFI) conducted on the web, and number two in the BFI critics' poll in which critics were asked to compile a list of 50 best Indian as well as South Asian films [11]. It is also a favorite of many directors, including Martin Scorsese.
Sholay is the highest grossing movie of all time in India. It was also the top film selected in the 2002 BFI critics' poll.

Japan

羅生門 - Rashōmon: This 1950 film by Akira Kurosawa was the first Japanese film to gain world-wide acclaim. The highest ranked Japanese film (#10) on the Village Voice list of 100 Best Films of the 20th Century.
七人の侍 - Shichinin no samurai (The Seven Samurai), 1954: Also by Kurosawa, this adventure film is frequently cited as the greatest Japanese film ever; consistently the highest-rated foreign-made (outside of the United States) film on the IMDb Top 250 (ranked #5 as of August 2004).
千と千尋の神隠し (Spirited Away): 2001 The highest grossing movie in Japanese history (see the Animation section above).

United Kingdom

Lawrence of Arabia Voted "best British film of all time" in August of 2004 by a London Sunday Telegraph poll of Britain's leading filmmakers. See also: Epic.
The Third Man: Voted best British film ever by members of the British Film Institute in 1999.

United States

Citizen Kane: voted the best American film ever by the American Film Institute