Some of these books are written simply to present and discuss the author's favorite films. Others are about other topics but also contain a top film list. Occasionally, the lists below are also in editions of the books other than the one cited below.
[No Author] (2002) Encyclopædia Britannica Almanac 2003 150 Greatest Films—The almanac includes a list of 150 (really 154) top films.
[No Author] (2003) Encyclopædia Britannica Almanac 2004 Encyclopædia Britannica's 100 Funniest Films—In the next year, the almanac presented its list of the best comedies.
[No Author] (2005) Encyclopædia Britannica Almanac 2006 Best Love Stories in Cinema—The almanac presents its list of the best 176 romantic films.
[No author] (1994) The Entertainment Weekly Guide to the Greatest Movies Ever Made—The magazine combines several previously published lists and creates some new ones to form a list of almost 1,000 films with a short description of each film.
[No author] (2022) 100 Essential Films—OK, this is a scratch-off poster rather than a book, but I saw this next to books in a bookstore at a price comparable with many of the books on this page.
[No Author] (2016) The Movie Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained—The book focuses on 116 films, with 88 honorable mention films in a directory. Each of the 116 films has several "What else to watch" recommendations, which may include films in the first two clumps. These lists combine to form a highbrow list that also leans mainstream. For most directors plus a few actors, a special effects supervisor, and "Modern German Cinema;" other "Key movies" are listed and for each film.
[No Author] (2001) 2002 People Almanac—The almanac includes critic Leah Rozen's 100 best films of all time.
[No Author] (2010) The Rough Guide to Cult Movies—The Rough Guide series tackled cult films with a selection of the best cult films.
[No Author] (2005) TV Guide Film & Video Companion 2006—This video guide contains an index of all reviewed films sorted by the star rating.
George Anastasia and Glen Macnow (2011) The Ultimate Book of Gangster Movies Featuring the 100 Greatest Gangster Movies of All Time—The authors selected the best crime films.
Geoff Andrew, David Boardwell, David Thomson, Philip French, Amy Taubin, Kent Jones, Gilbert Adair, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Jonathan Romney, Peter Wollen, Tony Rayns, & Paul Wells (2001). Film: The Critics' Choice: 150 Masterpieces of World Cinema Selected and Defended by the Experts—The authors divided filmdom into ten categories, usually by era and/or continent. For each category, one or two critics pick 15 top films. The picks are combined to form a list with a curious love of vampire films.
Mallory Andrew (2022). The Feminist Film Guide: 100 Great Films That Also Pass the Bechdel Test—The book reviews films that pass three criteria: (1) contain at least two female characters with named who (2) have a conversation with each other (3) on a topic other than a man or men in general. This book also rates films based on the number of women who worked on the film off camera.
Philip Armour (2011) The 100 Greatest Western Movies of All Time: Including Five You’ve Never Heard of—On behalf of American Cowboy magazine, the book presents some of the top western films of all time, along with a few essays on how the old west was presented on film.
Richard Armstrong, Tom Charity, Lloyd Hughes, & Jessica Winter (2007) The Rough Guide to Film Essential Classics and Lesser-Known Films—For each of 38 different categories (genres and national/regional cinemas), the book's authors selected five "essential classics" and five lesser-known films, which make up a highbrow leaning list.
Jeremy Arnold (2016) The Essentials: 52 Must-See Movies and Why They Matter and (2020) The Essentials Vol. 2: 52 More Must-See Movies and Why They Matter—A spinoff of the "Essentials" program on Turner Classic Movies in a mainstream list. Volume 2 also contains a list of all films that aired on the program.
Saul Austerlitz (2010) Another Fine Mess: A History of American Film Comedy Top 100 American Comedies—At the end of the book, there is a list of the best American comedies that is heavy on the silent comedians, Preston Sturges, and the Marx Brothers.
Alexander Ballinger & Danny Greydon (2007) The Rough Guide to Film Noir The Canon: 50 Essential Film Noirs—The series of film guidebooks took on noir films. It presented a list of cannonical films in the genre that curiously ignores Sunset Boulevard (1950).
Sarah Barrow & John White (Eds.) (2012) Fifty Key British Films—An introduction to British films.
Chris Barsanti (2011) Filmology: A Movie-a-Day Guide to a Complete Film Education—The author selected a film to be watched on each date of the year in a highbrow/mainstream leaning list. Occasionally, the film has some relevance to the date in question.
Richard Barrios (2017) Must-See Musicals: 50 Show-Stopping Movies We Can't Forget—A list of top film musicals that contains more films from 1929 than from the last quarter century. For each of the 50 films, there are two more films in a "More to see" section that may have some tie to the original film.
Ronald Bergan (2010) Film isms… Understanding cinema—This book divided films into various genres, movements, and periods in a highbrow leaning list. The gimmick is that the genres/movements/periods are described with the suffix "ism." Some, like "Neo-Realism," usualy include an ism. Others, like "liberalism," may contain an ism, but are usually not a film genre. Still others, like slapstickism, teenageism, and FXism strain to add an ism.
Ronald Bergan (2021) The Film Book: A Complete Guide to the World of Movies (New ed.) Must-See Movies—The book provides a highbrow/mainstream leaning list of the best films of all time. In addition, it provides "What to Watch" recommendations in a variety of genres and for a variety of nations and regions.
Jami Bernard (Ed.) (2005) The X List: The National Society of Film Critics Guide to the Movies That Turn Us on—The National Society of Film Critics invited various critics to write about the films that arouse them the most.
Kathryn Bernheimer (1999) 50 Funniest Movies of All Time—A list of 50 top comedies.
Steven Bingen (2023) The 50 MGM Films That Transformed Hollywood: Triumphs, Blockbusters and Fiascos—Also includes an appendix with "50 More Times the Lion Roared" and "Another 50 Titles."
David Bleiler (Ed.) (2003) TLA Video & DVD Guide: The Discerning Film Lover's Guide 2004 TLA Favorites—The video guide presents a list of favorites. Most, but not all of these films are reviewed in the book.
Alex Ben Block & Lucy Autry Wilson (Eds.) (2010) George Lucas’s Blockbusting: A Decade-by-Decade Survey of Timeless Movies Including Untold Secrets of Their Financial and Cultural Success 300 Films That Stood the Test of Time—The film director created a mainstream list of 300 films that were both financial and critical successes.
Ken Bloom (2010) Hollywood Musicals: The 101 Greatest Song-and-Dance Movies of All Time—The author presented his favorite musicals of all time, with a heavy emphasis on Hollywood musicals of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.
Peter Bogdanovich (1999) Movie of the Week—The noted director suggests one film to watch for each week of a year.
Jay Boyer (2007) Films to Go: 100 Memorable Movies for Travelers & Others—The author selected a mainstream leaning series of films relating to various means of transportation and destinations for tourists.
Peter M. Bracke (2004) Ultimate DVD: The Essential Guide to Building Your DVD Collection—The book presents a list of the 100 DVDs (including collections) that everyone should own. There are additional recommendations for lovers of some of the recommended DVDs.
Charles Bramesco (2023) Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes—The book focuses on color films but includes Voyage to the Moon, Intolerance, and Schindler's List. It contains stills along with hex triplet codes for the three (usually) most dominant colors.
Douglas Brode (2003) Edge of Your Seat: The 100 Greatest Movie Thrillers—The author presented a list of 100 thrilling films. It should be no surprise that the list is very heavy with Alfred Hitchcock films.
Douglas Brode (2015) Fantastic Planets, Forbidden Zones, and Lost Continents: The 100 Greatest Science-Fiction Films—The author presented a list of 100 science-fiction films.
Ty Burr (2007) The Best Old Movies for Families: A Guide to Watching Together—The film critic for the Boston Globe selected a list of (mostly) classic Hollywood films that would appeal to children.
Edward Buscombe (2008) 100 Westerns—A list of the top film westerns.
Ward Calhoun (2008) Must-See Movies: An Essential Guide Must-See Movies and More Must-See Movies—The book presents its version of a mainstream film cannon.
Jay Carr (Ed.) (2002) The A list: The National Society of Film Critics's 100 essential films—This book contains a series of essays by various National Society of Fom Critics members on one of their "essential" films.
Ricardo Cavolo (2017) Ricardo Cavolo Presents 101 Movies to Watch before You Die—This book counts franchises as a single film, so one must see 123 films before dying. These 123 films make up a popular leaning list.
Samantha Cook (2006) The Rough Guide to Chick Flicks The Cannon: 50 Essential Chick Flicks—The Rough Guide series examines chick flicks and presents its list of the 50 most important films in this category.
Melinda Corey & George Ochoa (Eds.) (2002) The American Film Institute Desk Reference—This book lists significant films by year, by nation of origin, and by genre in addition to presenting the results of some of its "100 Years..." polls. The list of significant films by nation contains an unusually large number of Bollywood films (i.e., more than 0), and the list of significant films by genre contains an unusual number of films starring Marion Davies, George 'Spanky' McFarland, and Rin Tin Tin.
Simon Cropper (Ed.) (2006) Time Out 1,000 Films to Change Your Life—Rather than divide film into genres, this book divided films into nine moods (joy, anger, desire, fear, saddness, exhilaration, regret, contempt, and wonder) as well as a tenth category of thought-provoking films. For each category except desire, there is a list of 20 films fitting that category, and all ten categories have ten-film lists in each of two subcategories. The most important of these films are included in a "100 to Watch" list.
Robert Crouse (2003) The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen—A list of 100 great films, many of which are obscure. The book includes a high number of documentaries and Canadian films, and 40% of the films were released between 1999 and 2002.
Paolo D'Agostini (2008) Legendary Movies—An Italian film critic discussed his most important films of all time in a mainstream list.
Millie De Chirico & Quatoyiah Murry (2022) TCM Underground: 50 Must-See Films from the World of Classic Cult and Late-Night Cinema—Like a lot of lists of cult films, this book contains a fair number of obscure films.
Sloan De Forest (2018) Must-See Sci-Fi: 50 Movies That Are Out of This World—Each of the 50 films has two additional "Keep Watching" films that sometimes have a loose link to the main film. It focuses mostly on films from 1951-1987 and often sticks to one film per franchise.
Sloan De Forest (2019) Dynamic Dames: 50 Leading Ladies Who Made History—The "Dames" are divided into eight categories: Pre-Code Bad Girls, Reel Role Models, Big Bad Mamas, Fatal Femmes, Ladies Who Laught, Women of Mystery, Strong Survivors, and Superheroines. There is also an additional 56 "More Dynamic Dames."
Sloan De Forest (2021) The Essential Directors: The Art and Impact of Cinema's Most Influential Filmmakers—Focuses on classic Hollywood directors and often gives just a short blurb to directors who work in languages other than English. Also ignores most active directors. Unessential directors include Yasujiro Ôzu, Luis Buñuel, Hayao Miyazaki, Jean Cocteau, Kenji Mizoguchi, Sergio Leone, Pedro Almodóvar, Andrei Tarkovsky, Ridley Scott, Quentin Tarantino, Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Joel Coen, David Lynch, and Clint Eastwood.
Fernando Di Giammatteo & Cristina Bragaglia (2004) Dizionario dei capolavori del cinema [Dictionary of Cinema Masterpieces]—An Italian guidebook of great films. It is not surprising that there is a large proportion of Italian films in the book. However, it is light in documentaries and animated films.
Ray Didinger & Glen Macnow (2009) The Ultimate Book of Sports Movies: Featuring the 100 Greatest Sports Films of All Time—A typical sports film list.
John DiLeo (2002) 100 Great Film Performances You Should Remember - But Probably Don't—The author selected great but unsung performances from many of Hollywood's leading stars.
Bryony Dixon (2011) 100 Silent Films—This BFI screen guide focuses on early film history
Paul Duncan & Jürgen Müller (2017) Horror Cinema Taschen's Top 50 Horror Movies—Either this is simply a reissue of an older edition or the authors are not fond of 21st century horror films as the most recent film is from 2001.
Paul Duncan & Jürgen Müller (2019) Film Noir Taschen's Top 50 Noir Movies—
Alonso Duralde (2005) 101 Must See Movies for Gay Men—The author identifies the films that are essential for approximately 2% of the audience.
Chris Durke, Ann Lloyd, Cara and Paul Frost-Shurrat, Rob Hill, and Donald Bergen (2010) 501 Must-See Movies—The authors split film into ten genres and pick 50 top films in each genre, adding and extra western. The result is a mainstream leaning list. A 2010 edition updated the list, concluding that Children of Paradise (1945) is no longer a "must-see," but High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) is.
Jennifer Eiss with JP Rutter and Steve White (2010) 500 Essential Cult Movies: The Ultimate Guide—The author selected 500 films in nine different categories while struggling with the definition of "cult."
Roger Ebert (2002) The Great Movies—A collection of 100 of the critic's essays from his great movies series. A 2005 edition and a 2010 edition each contains an additional 100 essays. The entire set, including essays that are available only online, make up a highbrow/mainstream list.
The Film Critics of The New York Times (2003) The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made—The newspaper's critics picked their top 1,000 (approximately) films of the sound era. The original New York Times review is included, even if it was negative. This is an update of a previous edition.
Thomas C. Foster (2016) Reading the Silver Screen: A Film Lover's Guide to Decoding the Art Form That Moves—A mainstream leaning list of films discussed in the book and films that could have or should have been discussed.
Afton Fraser (Ed.) (2004) Hollywood Picks the Classics: A Guide for the Beginner & the Aficionado—The wife of actor Brendan Fraser chooses some of the best classic Hollywood films. This book also contains lists of favorite films from various actors and other filmmakers.
Nick Fraser (Ed.) (2019) Say What Happened: A Story of Documentaries 100 Docs—The book concludes with a list of important documentaries.
Chris Fujiwara (2007) Defining Moments in Movies: The Greatest Films, Stars, Scenes and Events that Made Movie Magic Key Films—The book gave short descriptions of what it deemed to be key films along with key scenes, speeches, events, and persons.
Curt Gathje (Ed.) (2010) Zagat The World's Best Movies... To Make Sure You Have Seen before Your Popcorn Runs Out—After skipping a year, the pocket-sized guides decided to join the trend of suggesting what we should do before something bad happens. The films make up a mainstream list.
Jeffrey Geiger and R.L. Rutsky (Eds.) (2013) Film analysis: a Norton reader (2nd ed.)—This guide for undergraduate film writers contains essays about 50 different films.
Gary Gerani (2010) Top 100 Horror Movies—The author selected his top horror films, largely avoiding slashers in favor of monster films from Universal and Hammer.
Gary Gerani (2011) Top 100 Sci-Fi Movies—The author selected his top science-fiction films in a popular leaning list, showing a love of cheese that Wallace (Gromit's friend) could admire.
Gary Gerani (2012) Top 100 Fantasy Movies—In what started to look like an annual series, this book ranks fantasy films.
Gary Gerani (2017) Top 100 Comic Book Movies—After skipping a few years, the series now examines the lastest blockbuster craze, including a few films involving characters not created by Marvel or DC. The presence of Howard the Duck
and the high ranking of Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad point out how difficult it is to get 100 good comic-book films.Mark Gibney (2013) Watching Human Rights: The 101 Best Films—The first half of the book provides the top-50 feature films on human rights. The second half provides the top-51 documentaries. Many of these films have one or more "Also of Note" films.
Robert Glatzer (2001) Beyond Popcorn: A Critic's Guide to Looking at Films—One chapter includes the critic's "list of all the films you have to see before you die."
Fred Goodman (2022) Rock on Film: The Movies That Rocked the Big Screen—Includes concert films, musician biopics, and other films about popular music from the previous 70 years.
Yasin Goreja (2000) Pakistan's Top 100 Films—A Pakistani film journalist chose 100 of the best Pakistani films. The webmaster of this site confesses that he has heard of exactly zero of these films.
Barry Keith Grant (2013) 100 Science Fiction Films—Part of the British Film Institute's Screen Guides series.
David Gritten (Ed.) (2008) Halliwell’s The Movies That Matter: From Bogart to Bond and All the Latest Film Releases Top 10 Films by Genre, Four-Star Films, and Three-Star Films—A new editor presented a slimmed down video guide and heavily edited lists of four-star and three-star films that are highbrow and also lean mainstream. It also contains a mainstream-leaning list of the top-ten films in each of eleven genres.
Leslie Halliwell (1977) The Filmgoer's Companion (6th ed.) My Hundred Favorite Films—The film writer included a list of his favorite films in what he terms a "middlebrow" list.
Leslie Halliwell (1982) Halliwell's Hundred: A Nostalgic Choice of Films from the Golden Age—Another list from the writer, along with essays for each film.
Leslie Halliwell (1995) Halliwell's Filmgoers & Video Viewer's Companion John Walker (Ed.)—Contains a list from The Guardian of the best films from 1980-1993.
Leslie Halpern (2004) Reel Romance: The Lover's Guide to the 100 Best Date Movies—This book includes ten films in each of ten sub-genres of date movies. Readers will have to skip to the end to find the author's first and second favorites in each subgenre as well as her favorite date movie.
Leslie Hamilton (1996) 365 Four Star Videos You (Probably) Haven't Seen—A list of somewhat obscure films, enough to watch one a day for a year.
John W. Hesley & Jan G. Helsey (2001) Rent Two Films & Let's Talk in the Morning: Using Popular Movies in Psychotherapy (2nd ed.)—Discusses films that therapists might use in treating clients with various issues. It focuses on films from the previous 20 years.
Katrina Hill (2012) Action Movie Freak—A list of the top action films.
Jim Hillier & Barry Keith Grant (2009) 100 Documentary Films—Part of the British Film Institute's Screen Guides series.
Jim Hillier & Alastair Phillips (2009) 100 Film Noirs—This book also contains a list of "Another 100 Film Noirs.".
Thomas S. Hischak (2018) 100 Greatest American and British Animated Films—This book does contain a few films that are not from Disney.
Scott Hocking (Ed.) (2006) 100 Greatest Films of Australian Cinema—The book contains a discussion of the best that the Australian film world has to offer.
Lloyd Hughes (2005) The Rough Guide to Gangster Movies The Canon: 50 Essential Gangster Movies—The book, part of the Rough Guides series, analyzed crime films and discusses what it considers to be the 50 most important gangster films.
Bill Hunt and Todd Doogan (2004) The Digital Bits: Insider’s Guide to DVD—This book includes a large section in which the authors recommend DVDs to own.
Allan Hunter (Ed.) (1996) The Wordsworth Book of Movie Classics—A list of films to see with an essay for each film.
Alan Jones (2005) The Rough Guide to Horror Movies The Canon: 50 Horror Classics—The book, part of the Rough Guides series, analyzed horror films and discusses what it considers to be the 50 most important films in that genre.
Robert Kahn (Ed.) (2009) Movies: The Ultimate Insider's Guide to Cinema's Hidden Gems—This book includes short essays from various filmmakers and other notables on the films that they believe deserve more attention.
Philip Kemp (Ed.) (2011) Movies: From the silent classics of the silver screen to the digital and 3-D era—The author presents a highbrow leaning list of top films.
Gail Kinn & Jim Piazza (2008) The Greatest Movies Ever: The Ultimate List of the 101 Best Films of All Time—The authors updated their previous book of great films with a very strongly mainstream list.
Matt Lawson & Laurence MacDonald (2018) 100 Greatest Film Scores—In addition to the 100 greatest scores, there is also a list of 100 additional film scores. Altogether, they form a mainstream leaning list.
Joe Leyden (2004) Joe Leyden's Guide to Essential Movies You Must See if You Read, Write about or Make Movies—The author picked 64 films that people must see to be film literate. For each film, the author recommended three realted films. These combine to form a mainstream leaning list.
Dennis Lim (Ed.) (2007) The Village Voice Film Guide: 50 years of Movies from Classics to Cult Hits—A collection of reviews of some of the newspaper's favorite films results in a highbrow leaning list.
Kristen Lopez (2023) But Have You Read the Book?: 52 Literary Gems That Inspired Our Favorite Films—The book describes films that were themselves based on books.
John Malahy (2021) Summer Movies: 30 Sun-Drenched Classics—For each of the 30 films, there is another "Make It a Double Feature" film. The Book really likes films from 1955.
Michael Mallory (2015) Essential horror movies: Matinee monsters to cult classics—Includes 50 additional horror films worth seeing.
Leonard Maltin (2001) Leonard Maltin's 2002 Movie & Video Guide—The critic and video guide editor included a list of recommended family films.
Leonard Maltin (Ed.) (2003) Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide (2004 ed.) Fifty Films that Got Away—The critic and video guide editor notes some of his favorite films that tend to have been forgotten. It is heavy on pre-code sound films and films from the last 20 years.
Leonard Maltin (Ed.) (2004) Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide (2005 ed.) Fifty More Films Worth Seeing—The critic and video guide editor lists more of his favorite films that tend to have been forgotten. Half of the films came from the previous ten years.
Leonard Maltin (Ed.) (2005) Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide Our Picks: The Best DVD’s of Classic Films—After watching his Movie & Video Guide grow very fat over the years, Leonard Maltin decided to release a secondary book filled with older films. As a bonus, he and his editors named some of their favorite DVDs of classic films.
Leonard Maltin (Ed.) (2005) Leonard Maltin’s 2006 Movie Guide—The above list of favorite DVDs is continued in the 2006 version of Maltin's movie guide.
Leonard Maltin (Ed.) (2006) Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide (2007 ed.) 50 More Films You May Have Missed—Maltin returns to promoting obscure and overlooked films.
Leonard Maltin (Ed.) (2007) Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide (2008 ed.) 50 More Films You May Have Missed—Maltin returns to promoting obscure and overlooked films with the same list tile he used the previous year.
Leonard Maltin (Ed.) (2008) Leonard Maltin’s 2009 Movie Guide 50 More Films You May Have Missed—Maltin returns to promoting obscure and overlooked films, using the same title for the third year in a row.
Leonard Maltin (Ed.) (2009) Leonard Maltin’s 2010 Movie Guide Leonard Maltin’s Movie Lists—Rather than a simple list of obscure and overlooked films, Maltin instead listed a handful of overlooked films in each of several different categories.
Leonard Maltin (2010) Leonard Maltin’s 151 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen—Maltin went beyond including lists of his favorite obscure films to writing a whole book on these films.
Leonard Maltin (Ed.) (2013) Leonard Maltin’s 2014 Movie Guide: The Modern Era Movies that Oscar Overlooked—A list of great films that failed to win Academy Awards.
Leonard Maltin (Ed.) (2014) Leonard Maltin’s 2015 Movie Guide: The Modern Era 60 Breakthrough Performances—The final installment of this film guide series contains a list of breakthrough performances by various stars.
Leonard Maltin (Ed.) (2017) Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide: The Modern Era
Robert Marich (2011) More than Just a Kiss: The Greatest Love Movies—A list of some of the most romantic films of all time.
Michel Marie (2018) La belle histoire du cinéma français en 101 films [The beautiful history of French cinema in 101 films]—The book appears to have a limit of one film per director and often does not includes the director's most prominent film.
Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik (2011) 100 Cult Films Top 100 Cult Films—Another attempt to define cult films.
Bob McCabe (2005) The Rough Guide to Comedy Movies The Comedy Canon: 50 Seriously Funny Films—The book, part of the Rough Guides series, analyzed comedies films and discusses what it considers to be the 50 most important comedies.
Soren McCarthy (2003) Cult Movies in Sixty Seconds: The Best Films in the World in Less than a Minute—The author provided descriptions of various cult films.
Hamish McDouall (2009) 100 Essential New Zealand Films—
Scott McGee (2022) Danger on the Silver Screen: 50 Films Celebrating Cinema's Greatest Stunts—The author loves James Bond films and does not seem fond of films in languages other than English.
George McManus (2003) A Conservative Christian Reviews the Greatest Movies Ever Made: A Tribute to the First Century of Filmmaking The Top 100 and 440 Great Films—A discussion of top films from someone who believes that "Liberals and Leftists have ruined just about every good thing there ever was in America — including movies."
Alicia Malone (2018) The Female Gaze: Essential Movies Made by Women—The book discusses 52 films with female directors.
David N. Meyer (1997) The 100 Best Films to Rent You've Never Heard of—The author chooses (mostly) obscure films that he recommends along with a short essay on each film.
Frank Miller (1996) Movies We Love: 100 Collectable Classics—The author presents his recommended films, with an essay on each film. There is a special emphasis on films by George Cukor, Michael Curtiz, and Vincente Minelli.
Mr. Skin (2007) Mr. Skin’s Skintastic Video Guide: The 501 Greatest Movies for Sex & Nudity on DVD Mr. Skin's Top 69—This book highlights some of the most impressive showings of female skin.
Jürgen Müller (Ed.) (2001-2022) Movies of the 30s, Movies of the 40s, Movies of the 50s, Movies of the 60s, Movies of the 70s, Movies of the 80s, Movies of the 90s, Movies of the 2000s, Movies of the 2010s and 100 All-Time Favorite Movies—In this series of books, the editor selects the most important films of each decade. Combined, they form a mainstream list that also leans highbrow.
National Film Review (1988) 500 Best British and Foreign Films—The organization lists 500 recommended films from nations other than the United States. About 43% are British with the rest from a variety of nations.
Tim Newark (2016) 50 Great War Films—A list of war films.
Peter M. Nichols (2003) The New York Times Essential Library Children's Movies: A Critic's Guide to the Best Films Available on Video and DVD—The New York Times film critic recomends films that families can watch together. The definition of "children's movies" is very broad and includes films like High Noon, The Longest Day, and North by Northwest.
Peter M. Nichols (Ed.) (2005) The Best DVDs You've Never Seen, Just Missed or Almost Forgotten: A Guide for the Curious Film Lover—Five New York Times writers pick approximately 500 films that they believe have been overlooked. Most are recent art films, but there are a number of classic noir films as well. The book does not indicate which writer selected which film, so we do not know who is to blame for the appearance of Freddy Got Fingered.
Robert Niemi (2018) 100 Great War Movies: The Real History behind the Films—.
Christopher J. Olson (2018) 100 Greatest Cult Films—The book also includes ten each of international cult films, exploitation films, midnight movies, camp classics [so bad they're good], worst cult films [so bad they're bad].
Andrew Osmond (2010) 100 Animated Feature Films—The author selected his top animated films, including a couple of special effects laden films like Avatar (2009). The author seems to like the works of Hayao Miyazaki almost as much as the Webmaster of this site does.
David Parkinson (2007) The Rough Guide to Film Musicals The Canon: 50 Essential Film Musicals—The series of film guidebooks presented its list of the most important musicals.
Otto Penzler (2000) 101 Greatest Films of Mystery & Suspense—The author chooses the top mystery and suspense films, broadly defined, and includes an essay for each film.
Richard D. Pepperman (2008) Film School: How to Watch DVDs and Learn Everything about Filmmaking—The author selected 50 films to use as examples to explain various aspects of how to make films.
Lee Pfeiffer (2006) The Complete Idiot's Guide to Classic Movies—Most books in the series are how-to books, but this one is a collection of trivia of what the author considers to be the best films of all time. It is limited to films made before 1970 hoping that there can be a Complete Idiot's Guide to Modern Movies.
Pascal Pinteau (2004) Special Effects: An Oral History (Laurel Hirsch, Trans.) DVDs – Required Viewing—The book, originally published in French, presented films and television shows with impressive special effects and animation.
Douglas Pye & Jim Hillier (2011) 100 Film Musicals—
John Pym (Ed.) (2002) Time Out Film Guide (11th ed.)—The video guide includes the results of a small sample poll of film fans.
John Pym (Ed.) (2003) Time Out Film Guide (12th ed.) The Ultimate DVD Collection—In addition to reprinting the above list, this edition of the film guide also contains recommendations for a DVD collection.
John Pym (Ed.) (2007) Time Out Film Guide (2008 ed.) Cinema’s Second Century – The 50 Top Titles and Centenary Top 100—The film guide reprinted the results of its 1996 Centenary poll and presented the results of a fan poll of the best films produced since the original poll in a popular list.
Radio Times Film Unit (Ed.) (2009) Radio Times 100 Greatest Films: Thriller and Radio Times 100 Greatest Films: Comedies—Radio Times published two books: one on the greatest thrillers of all time and one on the greatest comedies of all time.
Mike Ramone and Tim Connelly (Eds.) (2005) The AVN Guide to the 500 Greatest Adult Films of All Time—This book describes the best films that do not need costume designers.
Andrew J. Rausch (2004) The Greatest War Films of All Time: A Quiz Book—The author selects and discusses his list of the 100 greatest war films. Each discussion includes a quiz about the film.
Adele Reinhartz (Ed.) (2013) Bible and Cinema: Fifty Key Films—This book discusses fifty films in which the Bible or some aspect of the Bible plays a role.
Robert C. Ring (2011) Sci-Fi Movie Freak—Lists some of the most notable science-fiction films from the "Best of the Best" to "Lesser-Known Gems" and "The Failures."
Graham Roberts and Heather Wallis (2002) Key Film Texts—The authors presented a mainstream leaning list of recommended films.
Rosemary Rogers and Nell Rogers Michlin with Christine Ernst Bode (2004) Mother-Daughter Movies: 101 Films to See Together—The book presents 101 films designed to promote conversations between mothers and daughters. Films are rated on criteria such as the "Hunk Factor" and the extent to which the sex scenes will make mothers and daughters squirm when viewed in each other's company.
Jonathan Rosenbaum (2000) Movie Wars: How Hollywood and the Media Limit What Movies We Can See—The film critic from the Chicago Reader includes his top-100 American film list (excluding films on the AFI's list) as well as 25 films from the AFI's list that he also considers to be worthy.
Jonathan Rosenbaum (2004) Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons—This book contains a collection of essays, mostly from the Chicago Reader. The appendix contains a list of the author's 1,000 favorite films.
Cathleen Rountree (2006) The Movie Lovers Club: How to Start Your Own Film Group—This book selects 12 themes, one for each month of the year, and chooses one classic film, one current film, one independent film, and one foreign film for each theme. The book makes additional suggestions for each combination of theme and category.
Mike Sacks (Ed.) (2014) Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations with Today’s Top Comedy Writers Two Hundred Essential Movies Every Comedy Writer Should See—In one chapter, comedian Bill Hader presented his list of essential films.
Will Salmon (Ed.) (2022) Total Film Presents 500 Must-See Movies—the "bookazine" divides films into five genres: comedy, action, thrillers, horror, and science-fiction. It often stretches a genre to fit a particular film.
Andrea Sarvady (2004) The Ultimate Girls' Movie Survival Guide: What to Rent, Who to Watch, How to Deal—A guide to the best films that could be described as "chick flicks." It focuses heavily on films of the last 10-15 years.
John Scalzi (2005) The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies The Canon: 50 Sci-Fi Classics—The book, part of the Rough Guides series, analyzed science-fiction films and discusses what it considers to be the 50 most important films in that genre.
Scarecrow Video (2004) The Scarecrow Video Movie Guide—The Seattle, Washington video store created its own video guide with a variety of lists. Those who believe that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds will like this book. Bamboozled (2000) is listed as both a favorite film by a director they hate and as a bad film by a director they usually love. Three films appear on both their list of best remakes and their list of worst remakes.
Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.) (2009) 101 Horror Movies You Must See before You Die—Actually, the last comment above may not be that accurate as this volume suggests that one must see five versions of Dracula (six if one counts Blacula).
Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.) (2009) 101 Sci-Fi Movies You Must See before You Die—This volume addresses science-fiction films in a mainstream leaning list, focusing mostly on films from the last half of the 20th century.
Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.) (2009) 101 Gangster Movies You Must See before You Die—This volume addresses gangster films.
Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.) (2009) 101 War Movies You Must See before You Die—The series tries to prolong viewers' lives by including even more on the to-do list.
Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.) (2010) 101 Action Movies You Must See before You Die—Same as the last four, only with action films.
Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.) (2010) 101 Cult Movies You Must See before You Die—The third 2010 book to tackle cult films.
Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.) (2021) 1001 Movies You Must See before You Die (9th ed.)—A team of critics choose a large number of films that everyone should see to become film literate in a highbrow list that also leans mainstream.
Wallace Schroeder (Ed.) (2019) The New York Times Book of Movies: The Essential 1,000 Films to See—A collection of New York Timesreviews of great films in a highbrow leaning list.
Ardis Sillick & Michael McCormick (1997) 400 Videos You've Got to Rent: Great movies you've probably missed—A video guide containing films that would not be familiar to the typical moviegoer along with a short description of each film.
Paul Simpson (2006) The Rough Guide to Westerns The Cannon: 50 Classic Westerns—The Rough Guide series examines westerns and presents its list of what are supposedly the 50 most important westerns. However, either the copy that the webmaster examined contained a misprint or the author cannot count as there were only 49 classic westerns.
David J. Skul (2020) Fright Favorites: 31 Movies to Haunt Your Halloween and beyond—A list of horror films. For each of the 31, ther is another "If you enjoyed [X], you might also like:" option. There is nothing from Japan and little from Italy or from the 21st century.
Ian Haydn Smith (2019) Cult Filmmakers: 50 Movie Mavericks You Need to Know—Contains a list of key works for each maverick.
Lawrence Smith (2018) Collection of World's Greatest Movies—A strongly mainstream list.
William G. Smith (2010) Socrates and Subtitles: A Philosopher's Guide to 95 Thought-Provoking Movies from around the World—This book focuses on films of a philosophical interest from many different nations.
David Sterritt and John Anderson (2008) The B List: The National Society of Film Critics on the Low-Budget Beauties, Genre-Bending Mavericks, and Cult Classics We Love—After the A List and the X List, the National Society of Film Critics completed its letter trilogy with a series of essays on relatively obscure films.
Barry Stone (2016) The 50 Greatest Westerns—Including two films by Akira Kurosawa.
David Thomson (2014) Moments that made the movies—The author listed some top film moments, including one television show and one photograph.
Christopher Tookey (1994) Critics' Film Guide—Contains the author's top 200 list and a top-200 list compiled from various video guide ratings. Most of the book contains excerpts from original reviews of these and other films.
Pierre Toromanoff (2021) 100 Iconic Gangster Movies—A somewhat idiosyncratic list that really adds up to 112 films.
Peter Travers (2005) 1,000 Best Movies on DVD—The Rolling Stone film critic presents his 1,000 favorite DVDs in a popular leaning list. DVDs were selected based on a balance between the quality of the film and the quality of the DVD.
Andy Tuohy with Matt Glasby (2018) A to Z: Great Film Directors—For each director in the book, there is a list of five "Films to See." They can be combined into a highbrow leaning list.
Kenneth Turan (2004) Never Coming to a Theater Near You—The Los Angeles Times film critic presents essays on great films, mostly from the previous 10-12 years, that many film fans may not have had the opportunity to see in theaters.
Kenneth Turan (2006) Now in Theaters Everywhere: A Celebration of a Certain Kind of Blockbuster—The Los Angeles Times film critic recognizes the fact that some Hollywood films are actually quite good. He presented essays on some of his favorites from the previous 15 years.
Kenneth Turan (2014) Not to Be Missed: Fifty-Four Favorites From a Lifetime of Film—The film critic selected 54 of his favorite films.
Kyle Turner (2023) The Queer Film Guide: 100 Great Movies That Tell LGBTQIA+ Stories—Each film entry seems to have a unique combination of font color and background color. Most of these combinations are readable. Each entry also includes a "More to See" film.
Michael J. Tyrkus (Ed.) (2019) VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (2020 ed.) 4 Bones—The video guide includes a mainstream/highbrow leaning list of all films that received a "4 bones" rating.
Steve Uhler (2001) A Movie a Day: A Year's Worth of Fascinating Films and Facts—The author picks one film for each date of the year, with extra titles for holidays and other special days.
Suzette Valle (2015) 101 Movies to See Before You Grow Up: Be your own movie critic—the must-see movie list for kids—The book describes top films appropriate for children of various ages.
Willie Waffle (2002) Back Shelf Beauties: Movies You Should Rent When the New Stuff Is Gone—Another guide to (mostly) obscure but good films It covers an unusually large number of made-for-television films.
John Walker (Ed.) (2007) Halliwell's Film & Video Guide 2008 Four-Star Films—The video guide contains a highbrow list with mainstream leanings of the films that received a four-star and three-star ratings. This list was updated after the publication of Walker's book listed below, so it no longer shows a particular fondness for British World War II propaganda films.
John Walker (Ed.) (2005) Halliwell's Top 1000—The video guide editor presented a ranked list of his 1,000 favorite films.
Cynthia Wang (Ed.) (2021) The Ultimate Family Movie Guide Vol. 1—A bookazine divided into five sections: "Timeless Classics", "From Page to Screen", "Franchise Frenzy!", "Animation Powerhouses", "Finding Inspiration."
John White & Sabine Haenni (Eds.) (2009) Fifty Key American Films—This book discusses fifty films as part of an overview of American cinema in a mainstream leaning list.
Tom Wiener (2002) The Off-Hollywood Film Guide: The Definitive Guide to Independent and Foreign Films on Video and DVD—A video guide includes a list of "essential films."
Randy Williams (2006) Sports Cinema 100 Movies: The Best of Hollywood’s Athletic Heroes, Losers, Myths, and Misfits—A list of the best sports films.
Jessica Winter (2006) The Rough Guide to American Independent Film The Cannon: 50 Essential Indie Films—The Rough Guide series examines low-budget American films and presented its list of the 50 most important ones.
Jason Wood (2009) 100 American Independent Films—The author selected top independent films.
Jennifer M. Wood (2022) The Curious Movie Buff: A Miscellany of Fantastic Films from the Past 50 Years—In addition to 89 featured films, there are various lists by decade or genere and additional films from the directors of the features films.
Michael Wood (2012) Film: A Very Short Introduction Around the World in 80 Films—Presents a list highbrow leaning list.
Rajan Zed (2007) 99 Remarkable Films of the World—The author presented another list of best films.
David Zinman (1992) 50 Classic Motion Pictures: The Stuff That Dreams Are Made of—A list of top Hollywood classic films.