| Rank | Title | Year | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Man with the Movie Camera | 1929 | Dziga Vertov | 180 |
| 2 | Shoah | 1985 | Claude Lanzmann | 243 |
| 3 | Hoop Dreams | 1994 | Steve James | 284 |
| 4 | Night and Fog | 1956 | Alain Resnais | 390 |
| 5 | Waltz with Bashir | 2008 | Ari Folman | 400 |
| 6 | Nanook of the North | 1922 | Robert J. Flaherty | 411 |
| 7 | The Thin Blue Line | 1988 | Errol Morris | 438 |
| 8 | Koyaanisqatsi | 1982 | Godfrey Reggio | 538 |
| 9 | Sans soleil | 1983 | Chris Marker | 561 |
| 10 | When We Were Kings | 1996 | Leon Gast | 569 |
| 11 | Triumph of the Will | 1935 | Leni Riefenstahl | 590 |
| 12 | Harlan County, U.S.A. | 1976 | Barbara Kopple | 598 |
| 13 | Paris Is Burning | 1990 | Jennie Livingston | 615 |
| 14 | Crumb | 1994 | Terry Zwigoff | 621 |
| 15 | Grizzly Man | 2005 | Werner Herzog | 629 |
| 16 | Bowling for Columbine | 2002 | Michael Moore | 630 |
| 17 | F for Fake | 1973 | Orson Welles | 640 |
| 18 | Grey Gardens | 1975 | Ellen Hovde, Albert and David Maysles, and Muffie Meyer | 670 |
| 19 | Man on Wire | 2008 | James Marsh | 689 |
| 20 | Stop Making Sense | 1984 | Jonathan Demme | 700 |
| 21 | The Sorrow and the Pity | 1969 | Marcel Ophüls | 709 |
| 22 | Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations | 1938 | Leni Riefenstahl | 734 |
| 23 | Dont Look Back | 1967 | D.A. Pennebaker | 749 |
| 24 | Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty | 1938 | Leni Riefenstahl | 790 |
| 25 | Woodstock | 1970 | Michael Wadleigh | 805 |
| 26 | Gimme Shelter | 1970 | Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin | 830 |
| 27 | Roger & Me | 1989 | Michael Moore | 861 |
| 28 | The Last Waltz | 1978 | Martin Scorsese | 896 |
| 29 | Salesman | 1969 | Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin | 906 |
| 30 | Titicut Follies | 1967 | Frederick Wiseman | 920 |
| 31 | Capturing the Friedmans | 2003 | Andrew Jarecki | 924 |
| 32 | The Gleaners & I | 2000 | Agnès Varda | 926 |
| 33 | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara | 2003 | Errol Morris | 929 |
| 34 | Murderball | 2005 | Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro | 1051 |
| 35 | Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse | 1991 | Fax Bahr, Eleanor Coppola, and George Hickenlooper | 1062 |
| 36 | 28 Up | 1984 | Michael Apted | 1081 |
| 37 | American Movie | 1999 | Chris Smith | 1113 |
| 38 | Senna | 2010 | Asif Kapadia | 1127 |
| 39 | 42 Up | 1998 | Michael Apted | 1144 |
| 40 | Touching the Void | 2003 | Kevin Macdonald | 1180 |
| 41 | Histoire(s) du cinéma | Jean-Luc Godard | 1184 | |
| 42 | Seven Up! | 1964 | Paul Almond | 1196 |
| 43 | The Times of Harvey Milk | 1984 | Rob Epstein | 1220 |
| 44 | Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat | 1896 | Auguste and Louis Lumière | 1229 |
| 45 | Gates of Heaven | 1978 | Errol Morris | 1236 |
| 46 | March of the Penguins | 2005 | Luc Jacquet | 1252 |
| 47 | Sherman's March | 1985 | Ross McElwee | 1266 |
| 48 | 21 Up | 1977 | Michael Apted | 1290 |
| 49 | When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts | 2006 | Spike Lee | 1300 |
| 50 | 35 Up | 1991 | Michael Apted | 1322 |
| 51 | Burden of Dreams | 1982 | Les Blank | 1323 |
| 52 | 49 Up | 2005 | Michael Apted | 1329 |
| 53 | The Act of Killing | 2012 | Joshua Oppenheimer | 1332 |
| 54 | Hearts and Minds | 1974 | Peter Davis | 1346 |
| 55 | Spellbound | 2002 | Jeffrey Blitz | 1351 |
| 56 | Tongues Untied | 1989 | Marlon Riggs | 1374 |
| 57 | Seven Plus Seven | 1970 | Michael Apted | 1431 |
| 58 | Listen to Britain | 1942 | Humphrey Jennings and Stewart McAllister | 1481 |
| 59 | Berlin: Symphony of a Great City | 1927 | Walter Ruttmann | 1491 |
| 60 | Buena Vista Social Club | 1999 | Wim Wenders | 1506 |
| 61 | Chronicle of a Summer | 1961 | Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch | 1510 |
| 62 | Land without Bread | 1933 | Luis Buñuel | 1602 |
| 63 | Fahrenheit 9/11 | 2004 | Michael Moore | 1615 |
| 64 | Pumping Iron | 1977 | George Butler and Robert Fiore | 1617 |
| 65 | To Be and to Have | 2002 | Nicolas Philibert | 1674 |
| 66 | Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills | 1996 | Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky | 1712 |
| 67 | Baraka | 1992 | Ron Fricke | 1720 |
| 68 | Stories We Tell | 2012 | Sarah Polley | 1722 |
| 69 | Exit through the Gift Shop | 2010 | Banksy | 1723 |
| 70 | High School | 1968 | Frederick Wiseman | 1730 |
| 71 | Inside Job | 2010 | Charles Ferguson | 1739 |
| 72 | The Dream of Light | 1992 | Víctor Erice | 1742 |
| 73 | The Hour of the Furnaces | 1968 | Octavio Getino, Fernando E. Solanas, and Santiago Álvarez | 1762 |
| 74 | The Endless Summer | 1965 | Bruce Brown | 1765 |
| 75 | The King of Kong | 2007 | Seth Gordon | 1772 |
| 76 | The Cove | 2009 | Louie Psihoyos | 1798 |
| 77 | Dogtown and Z-Boys | 2001 | Stacy Peralta | 1806 |
| 78 | The Battle of Chile: Part 1 | 1975 | Patricio Guzmán | 1808 |
| 79 | Super Size Me | 2004 | Morgan Spurlock | 1827 |
| 80 | The House Is Black | 1963 | Forugh Farrokhzad | 1870 |
| 81 | The Battle of Chile: Part 2 | 1976 | Patricio Guzmán | 1884 |
| 82 | Searching for Sugar Man | 2012 | Malik Mendjelloul | 1905 |
| 83 | Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks | 2002 | Bing Wang | 1908 |
| 84 | Anvil! The Story of Anvil | 2008 | Sacha Gervasi | 1912 |
| 85 | Fast, Cheap & Out of Control | 1997 | Errol Morris | 1961 |
| 86 | An Inconvenient Truth | 2006 | Davis Guggenheim | 1975 |
| 87 | Man of Aran | 1934 | Robert J. Flaherty | 1980 |
| 88 | The Battle of Chile: Part 3 | 1979 | Patricio Guzmán | 2015 |
| 89 | 56 Up | 2012 | Michael Apted | 2035 |
| 90 | The Look of Silence | 2014 | Joshua Oppenheimer | 2057 |
| 91 | Taxi to the Dark Side | 2007 | Alex Gibney | 2063 |
| 92 | The Emperor's Naked Army Marches on | 1987 | Kazuo Hara | 2085 |
| 93 | Tokyo Olympiad | 1965 | Kon Ichikawa | 2122 |
| 94 | Nostalgia for the Light | 2010 | Patricio Guzmán | 2140 |
| 95 | Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room | 2005 | Alex Gibney | 2145 |
| 96 | Los Angeles Plays Itself | 2003 | Thom Andersen | 2163 |
| 97 | Primary | 1960 | Robert Drew | 2166 |
| 98 | Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory | 1895 | Louis Lumière | 2230 |
| 99 | Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids | 2004 | Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman | 2255 |
| 100 | The Decline of Western Civilization | 1981 | Penelope Spheeris | 2258 |
| 101 | Food Inc. | 2008 | Robert Kenner | 2260 |
| 102 | In the Shadow of the Moon | 2007 | David Sington | 2271 |
| 103 | The Celluloid Closet | 1995 | Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman | 2284 |
| 104 | Lessons of Darkness | 1992 | Werner Herzog | 2287 |
| 105 | Metallica: Some Kind of Monster | 2004 | Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky | 2302 |
| 106 | Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father | 2008 | Kurt Kuenne | 2310 |
| 107 | Bus 174 | 2002 | José Padilha | 2318 |
| 108 | Little Dieter Needs to Fly | 1997 | Werner Herzog | 2340 |
| 109 | Le Sang des bêtes | 1949 | Georges Franju | 2394 |
| 110 | Brother's Keeper | 1992 | Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky | 2420 |
| 111 | Sicko | 2007 | Michael Moore | 2427 |
| 112 | Les Maîtres fous | 1957 | Jean Rouch | 2486 |
| 113 | Portrait of Jason | 1967 | Shirley Clarke | 2496 |
| 114 | Heima | 2007 | Dean DeBlois | 2502 |
| 115 | The Corporation | 2003 | Jennifer Abbott and Mark Achbar | 2504 |
| 116 | DiG! | 2004 | Ondi Timoner | 2522 |
| 117 | In the Year of the Pig | 1968 | Emile de Antonio | 2548 |
| 118 | Restrepo | 2010 | Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger | 2594 |
| 119 | Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie | 1988 | Marcel Ophüls | 2610 |
| 120 | Jesus Camp | 2006 | Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady | 2623 |
| 121 | My Winnipeg | 2007 | Guy Maddin | 2627 |
| 122 | Pina | 2011 | Wim Wenders | 2649 |
| 123 | Monterey Pop | 1968 | D.A. Pennebaker | 2680 |
| 124 | How to Survive a Plague | 2012 | David France | 2729 |
| 125 | The Beaches of Agnès | 2008 | Agnès Varda | 2735 |
| 126 | The Imposter | 2012 | Bart Layton | 2747 |
| 127 | Shut Up & Sing | 2006 | Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck | 2751 |
| 128 | Citizenfour | 2014 | Laura Poitras | 2764 |
| 129 | Dark Days | 2000 | Marc Singer | 2775 |
| 130 | O.J.: Made in America | 2016 | Ezra Edelman | 2780 |
| 131 | The Five Obstructions | 2003 | Jørgen Leth and Lars von Trier | 2790 |
| 132 | Jazz on a Summer's Day | 1959 | Aram Avakian and Bert Stern | 2804 |