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Here Are the 2022 Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time

'Jeanne Dielman' claims the top spot on Sight and Sound's 2022 critics' poll.
by V Renée - updated on May 9, 2023

Sight and Sound just came out with its decennial list of "Greatest Films of All Time," and 2022's winner stunned pretty much everyone in the film community. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, a film written and directed by legendary Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman, took the top spot — the first time a female-directed project has done so in the poll's 70-year history. Hitchcock's classic thriller Vertigo claimed the spot in 2012, and before that, Orson Welle's Citizen Kane reigned supreme for a whopping 50 years!

The director's poll was a (slightly) different story, with Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey replacing Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story at the top.

Let's take a look at the titles that made it on the 2022 Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time critics' poll and directors' poll.

Sight and Sound's 2022 Greatest Films of All Time Critics' Poll

The 2022 critics' poll was based on 1,639 participants, nearly doubling the 2012 number, which included film critics, programmers, curators, archivists, and academics.

A couple of contemporary standouts here on the list include Jordan Peele's horror film Get Out, Bong Joon-ho's thriller Parasite, and Barry Jenkin's coming-of-age drama Moonlight.

Here are the top 20. (For the full list, head on over to Sight and Sound.)

Seven Samurai (1954) | Dir. Akira Kurosawa

Apocalypse Now (1979) | Dir. Francis Ford Coppola

Persona (1966) | Dir. Ingmar Bergman

Close-up (1989) | Dir. Abbas Kiarostami

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) | Dir. Maya Deren, Alexander Hackenschmied

The Searchers (1956) | Dir. John Ford

Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) | Dir. Agnès Varda

La Règle du jeu (1939) | Dir. Jean Renoir

The Godfather (1972) | Dir. Francis Ford Coppola

Sunrise: A Tale of Two Humans

'Sunrise: A Tale of Two Humans' (1927)

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) | Dir. F.W. Murnau

Singin' in the Rain (1951) | Dir. Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen

Man with a Movie Camera (1929) | Dir. Dziga Vertov

Mulholland Dr. (2001) | Dir. David Lynch

Beau travail (1998) | Dir. Claire Denis

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) | Dir. Stanley Kubrick

In the Mood for Love (2000) | Dir. Wong Kar Wai

Tokyo Story (1953) | Dir. Yasujirō Ozu

Citizen Kane (1941) | Dir. Orson Welles

Vertigo (1958) | Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) | Dir. Chantal Akerman

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

'Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles' (1975)

Sight and Sound 's 2022 Directors’ 100 Greatest Films of All Time

The 2022 director's poll included ballots from 480 filmmakers, up from 358 from 2012. Even though both lists feature many of the same films, most of them are ranked differently, namely the titles in each Top 10 — Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey claims the top spot for the directors' list.

This list also features several films that have gained cult status among cinephiles and filmmakers, including Pier Paolo Pasolini's controversial Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Francis Ford Coppola's spy thriller The Conversation, Roman Polanski's classic Chinatown, David Lynch's surrealist horror film Eraserhead, Nicolas Roeg's thriller Don't Look Now, and Elem Klimov's brutal anti-war film Come and See. Also, while John Cassavetes wasn't included on the critics' poll, his powerful drama A Woman Under the Influence does show up on this list — and indie filmmakers everywhere rejoiced!

Rashomon (1950) | Dir. Akira Kurosawa

A Woman Under the Influence (1974) | Dir. John Cassavetes

Apocalypse Now (1979) | Dir. Francis Ford Coppola

Stalker (1979) | Dir. Andre Tarkovsky

Á bout de souffle (1960) | Dir. Jean-Luc Godard

Seven Samurai (1954) | Dir. Akira Kurosawa

Beau travail (1998) | Dir. Claire Denis

Barry Lyndon (1975) | Dir. Stanley Kubrick

Taxi Driver (1976) | Dir. Martin Scorsese

Close-up (1989) | Dir. Abbas Kiarostami

In the Mood for Love

'In the Mood for Love' (2000)

In the Mood for Love (2000) | Dir. Wong Kar Wai

Persona (1966) | Dir. Ingmar Bergman

Mirror (1975) | Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

8 1/2 (1963) | Dir. Federico Fellini

Vertigo (1958) | Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) | Dir. Chantal Akerman

Tokyo Story (1953) | Dir. Yasujirō Ozu

The Godfather (1972) | Dir. Francis Ford Coppola

Citizen Kane (1941) | Dir. Orson Welles

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) | Dir. Stanley Kubrick

2001: A Space Odyssey

'2001: A Space Odyssey'

Which films surprised you the most to see on Sight and Sound's lists of the greatest films of all time? Which titles would you have liked to see on the list? What does your list of top 10 greatest films of all time like like?

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