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

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' (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' (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' (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'
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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