| Rank | Title | Year | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Man with the Movie Camera | 1929 | Dziga Vertov | 240 |
| 2 | Hoop Dreams | 1994 | Steve James | 250 |
| 3 | Shoah | 1985 | Claude Lanzmann | 254 |
| 4 | Waltz with Bashir | 2008 | Ari Folman | 367 |
| 5 | Paris Is Burning | 1990 | Jennie Livingston | 412 |
| 6 | Night and Fog | 1956 | Alain Resnais | 490 |
| 7 | When We Were Kings | 1996 | Leon Gast | 523 |
| 8 | Harlan County, U.S.A. | 1976 | Barbara Kopple | 550 |
| 9 | Nanook of the North | 1922 | Robert J. Flaherty | 587 |
| 10 | The Thin Blue Line | 1988 | Errol Morris | 604 |
| 11 | Stop Making Sense | 1984 | Jonathan Demme | 622 |
| 12 | Man on Wire | 2008 | James Marsh | 644 |
| 13 | Grey Gardens | 1975 | Ellen Hovde, Albert and David Maysles, and Muffie Meyer | 654 |
| 14 | Grizzly Man | 2005 | Werner Herzog | 682 |
| 15 | Sans soleil | 1983 | Chris Marker | 700 |
| 16 | Koyaanisqatsi | 1982 | Godfrey Reggio | 704 |
| 17 | The Sorrow and the Pity | 1969 | Marcel Ophüls | 766 |
| 18 | Bowling for Columbine | 2002 | Michael Moore | 795 |
| 19 | Woodstock | 1970 | Michael Wadleigh | 858 |
| 20 | Triumph of the Will | 1935 | Leni Riefenstahl | 877 |
| 21 | Dont Look Back | 1967 | D.A. Pennebaker | 910 |
| 22 | Gimme Shelter | 1970 | Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin | 914 |
| 23 | The Gleaners & I | 2000 | Agnès Varda | 927 |
| 24 | Crumb | 1994 | Terry Zwigoff | 932 |
| 25 | The Last Waltz | 1978 | Martin Scorsese | 935 |
| 26 | Senna | 2010 | Asif Kapadia | 949 |
| 27 | F for Fake | 1973 | Orson Welles | 951 |
| 28 | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara | 2003 | Errol Morris | 959 |
| 29 | Murderball | 2005 | Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro | 973 |
| 30 | Häxan: Witchcraft through the Ages | 1922 | Benjamin Christensen | 996 |
| 31 | The Times of Harvey Milk | 1984 | Rob Epstein | 1028 |
| 32 | Capturing the Friedmans | 2003 | Andrew Jarecki | 1031 |
| 33 | 28 Up | 1984 | Michael Apted | 1040 |
| 34 | Titicut Follies | 1967 | Frederick Wiseman | 1066 |
| 35 | The Act of Killing | 2012 | Joshua Oppenheimer | 1070 |
| 36 | 42 Up | 1998 | Michael Apted | 1083 |
| 37 | Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations | 1938 | Leni Riefenstahl | 1097 |
| 38 | Roger & Me | 1989 | Michael Moore | 1149 |
| 39 | 35 Up | 1991 | Michael Apted | 1153 |
| 40 | Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty | 1938 | Leni Riefenstahl | 1154 |
| 41 | 49 Up | 2005 | Michael Apted | 1209 |
| 42 | Seven Up! | 1964 | Paul Almond | 1227 |
| 43 | 21 Up | 1977 | Michael Apted | 1232 |
| 44 | Salesman | 1969 | Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin | 1250 |
| 45 | Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse | 1991 | Fax Bahr, Eleanor Coppola, and George Hickenlooper | 1268 |
| 46 | Stories We Tell | 2012 | Sarah Polley | 1277 |
| 47 | O.J.: Made in America | 2016 | Ezra Edelman | 1302 |
| 48 | I Am Not Your Negro | 2016 | Raoul Peck | 1308 |
| 49 | Histoire(s) du cinéma | 1989 | Jean-Luc Godard | 1340 |
| 50 | Tongues Untied | 1989 | Marlon Riggs | 1347 |
| 51 | The King of Kong | 2007 | Seth Gordon | 1381 |
| 52 | March of the Penguins | 2005 | Luc Jacquet | 1385 |
| 53 | Seven Plus Seven | 1970 | Michael Apted | 1394 |
| 54 | American Movie | 1999 | Chris Smith | 1439 |
| 55 | The Decline of Western Civilization | 1981 | Penelope Spheeris | 1461 |
| 56 | Inside Job | 2010 | Charles Ferguson | 1489 |
| 57 | Buena Vista Social Club | 1999 | Wim Wenders | 1554 |
| 58 | The Endless Summer | 1966 | Bruce Brown | 1595 |
| 59 | Sherman's March | 1985 | Ross McElwee | 1644 |
| 60 | Searching for Sugar Man | 2012 | Malik Bendjelloul | 1646 |
| 61 | Hearts and Minds | 1974 | Peter Davis | 1659 |
| 62 | Pumping Iron | 1977 | George Butler and Robert Fiore | 1661 |
| 63 | Exit through the Gift Shop | 2010 | Banksy | 1682 |
| 64 | Touching the Void | 2003 | Kevin Macdonald | 1717 |
| 65 | 56 Up | 2012 | Michael Apted | 1733 |
| 66 | Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father | 2008 | Kurt Kuenne | 1752 |
| 67 | The Emperor's Naked Army Marches on | 1987 | Kazuo Hara | 1792 |
| 68 | When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts | 2006 | Spike Lee | 1800 |
| 69 | 13th | 2016 | Ava DuVernay | 1803 |
| 70 | Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) | 2021 | Questlove | 1820 |
| 71 | Gates of Heaven | 1978 | Errol Morris | 1836 |
| 72 | Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills | 1996 | Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky | 1854 |
| 73 | Burden of Dreams | 1982 | Les Blank | 1866 |
| 74 | Chronicle of a Summer | 1961 | Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch | 1870 |
| 75 | The Cove | 2009 | Louie Psihoyos | 1889 |
| 76 | The House Is Black | 1963 | Forugh Farrokhzad | 1921 |
| 77 | Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks | 2002 | Wang Bing | 1927 |
| 78 | Portrait of Jason | 1967 | Shirley Clarke | 1962 |
| 79 | The Look of Silence | 2014 | Joshua Oppenheimer | 1971 |
| 80 | The Battle of Chile: Part 1 | 1975 | Patricio Guzmán | 1972 |
| 81 | Dogtown and Z-Boys | 2001 | Stacy Peralta | 1984 |
| 82 | News from Home | 1976 | Chantal Akerman | 1997 |
| 83 | High School | 1968 | Frederick Wiseman | 1999 |
| 84 | Blackfish | 2013 | Gabriela Cowperthwaite | 2065 |
| 85 | To Be and to Have | 2002 | Nicolas Philibert | 2080 |
| 86 | The Hour of the Furnaces | 1968 | Octavio Getino and Fernando E. Solanas | 2087 |
| 87 | How to Survive a Plague | 2012 | David France | 2094 |
| 88 | Spellbound | 2002 | Jeffrey Blitz | 2097 |
| 89 | Berlin: Symphony of a Great City | 1927 | Walter Ruttmann | 2111 |
| 90 | For Sama | 2019 | Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts | 2137 |
| 91 | Lessons of Darkness | 1992 | Werner Herzog | 2145 |
| 92 | Free Solo | 2018 | Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi | 2149 |
| 93 | Super Size Me | 2004 | Morgan Spurlock | 2157 |
| 94 | Baraka | 1992 | Ron Fricke | 2158 |
| 95 | Nostalgia for the Light | 2010 | Patricio Guzmán | 2160 |
| 96 | Won't You Be My Neighbor? | 2018 | Morgan Neville | 2172 |
| 97 | Fahrenheit 9/11 | 2004 | Michael Moore | 2183 |
| 98 | The Battle of Chile: Part 2 | 1976 | Patricio Guzmán | 2221 |
| 99 | Monterey Pop | 1968 | D.A. Pennebaker | 2225 |
| 100 | Land without Bread | 1933 | Luis Buñuel | 2236 |
| 101 | The Celluloid Closet | 1995 | Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman | 2240 |
| 102 | The Beaches of Agnès | 2008 | Agnès Varda | 2252 |
| 103 | Amy | 2015 | Asif Kapadia | 2274 |
| 104 | Tokyo Olympiad | 1965 | Kon Ichikawa | 2293 |
| 105 | Los Angeles Plays Itself | 2003 | Thom Andersen | 2307 |
| 106 | An Inconvenient Truth | 2006 | Davis Guggenheim | 2337 |
| 107 | Citizenfour | 2014 | Laura Poitras | 2343 |
| 108 | Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat | 1896 | Auguste and Louis Lumière | 2351 |
| 109 | Jiro Dreams of Sushi | 2011 | David Gelb | 2353 |
| 110 | The Battle of Chile: Part 3 | 1979 | Patricio Guzmán | 2430 |
| 111 | Metallica: Some Kind of Monster | 2004 | Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky | 2448 |
| 112 | Brother's Keeper | 1992 | Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky | 2456 |
| 113 | The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years | 1988 | Penelope Spheeris | 2460 |
| 114 | My Winnipeg | 2007 | Guy Maddin | 2528 |
| 115 | Taxi to the Dark Side | 2007 | Alex Gibney | 2529 |
| 116 | Listen to Britain | 1942 | Humphrey Jennings and Stewart McAllister | 2549 |
| 117 | Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room | 2005 | Alex Gibney | 2553 |
| 118 | Anvil! The Story of Anvil | 2008 | Sacha Gervasi | 2590 |
| 119 | Minding the Gap | 2018 | Bing Liu | 2615 |
| 120 | Faces Places | 2017 | JR and Agnès Varda | 2617 |
| 121 | Little Dieter Needs to Fly | 1997 | Werner Herzog | 2621 |
| 122 | Welfare | 1975 | Frederick Wiseman | 2697 |
| 123 | This Is Not a Film | 2011 | Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and Jafar Panahi | 2713 |
| 124 | Jazz on a Summer's Day | 1959 | Bert Stern | 2718 |
| 125 | Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One | 1968 | William Greaves | 2724 |
| 126 | Man of Aran | 1934 | Robert J. Flaherty | 2730 |
| 127 | Pina | 2011 | Wim Wenders | 2743 |
| 128 | Apollo 11 | 2019 | Todd Douglas Miller | 2748 |
| 129 | Sicko | 2007 | Michael Moore | 2779 |
| 130 | The Imposter | 2012 | Bart Layton | 2854 |
| 131 | Dark Days | 2000 | Marc Singer | 2868 |
| 132 | As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty | 2000 | Jonas Mekas | 2897 |
| 133 | Food Inc. | 2008 | Robert Kenner | 2905 |
| 134 | Flee | 2021 | Jonas Poher Rasmussen | 2921 |
| 135 | No End in Sight | 2007 | Charles Ferguson | 2958 |
| 136 | Cameraperson | 2016 | Kirsten Johnson | 2965 |
| 137 | A Grin without a Cat | 1977 | Chris Marker | 2967 |
| 138 | Bus 174 | 2002 | José Padilha | 2970 |
| 139 | In the Shadow of the Moon | 2007 | David Sington | 2979 |
| 140 | The Five Obstructions | 2003 | Jørgen Leth and Lars von Trier | 2998 |
| 141 | Tarnation | 2003 | Jonathan Caouette | 3001 |
| 142 | Bill Cunningham New York | 2010 | Richard Press | 3022 |
| 143 | Riding Giants | 2004 | Stacy Peralta | 3050 |