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The Sight & Sound Greatest Films poll

In 1952 Sight & Sound polled the world’s leading film critics to compile a list of the best films of all time. The magazine has repeated this poll every ten years, to show which films stand the test of time in the face of shifting critical opinion. In 1992 we added a poll of directors asking them for their personal choices.

Now, in 2002, the magazine has published its largest poll to date, receiving contributions from 145 film critics, writers and academics, and 108 film directors. The results are intriguing, both for their certainty in choosing intense personal films as the best, and for their lack of agreement about which films of recent times can compete with the greatest.

Explore the lists

Browse through the full lists of directors, critics and films voted for. Read the critics’ and directors’ comments on their lists:

• » The critics’ top ten films
• » The directors’ top ten films
• » The critics’ top ten directors
• » The directors’ top ten directors
• » Every film voted for
• » Critics polled
• » Directors polled

Historical results

See the results from the polls held every decade since 1952:

• » 1952
• » 1962
• » 1972
• » 1982
• » 1992

Media coverage of the poll

See global media coverage of the 2002 Sight & Sound Top Ten Poll

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See also

Sight & Sound writers propose candidates for the All-Time Top Ten:

• Nick James on Three Colours Blue (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1993)
• Iain Sinclair on King of New York (Abel Ferrara, 1990)
• Peter Matthews on Homework (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)
• Andy Medhurst on Muriel’s Wedding (PJ Hogan, 1994)
• Amy Taubin on Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)



Nul Britannia: Nick James on the lack of British films in the Critics’ Poll (September 2002)

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