| Rank | Title | Year | Director(s) |
| 1901 | Show People | 1928 | King Vidor |
| 1902 | 49th Parallel | 1941 | Michael Powell |
| 1903 | Island of Lost Souls | 1932 | Erle C. Kenton |
| 1904 | Capturing the Friedmans | 2003 | Andrew Jarecki |
| 1905 | The Heartbreak Kid | 1972 | Elaine May |
| 1906 | Hidden | 2005 | Michael Haneke |
| 1907 | The Gleaners & I | 2000 | Agnès Varda |
| 1908 | Hour of the Wolf | 1968 | Ingmar Bergman |
| 1909 | Love on the Run | 1979 | François Truffaut |
| 1910 | Mother and Son | 1997 | Aleksandr Sokurov |
| 1911 | Viva Zapata! | 1952 | Elia Kazan |
| 1912 | On Her Majesty's Secret Service | 1969 | Peter R. Hunt |
| 1913 | Carry On... Up the Khyber | 1968 | Gerald Thomas |
| 1914 | Never Been Kissed | 1999 | Raja Gosnell |
| 1915 | The Kingdom | 1994 | Morten Arnfred and Lars von Trier |
| 1916 | 10 | 1979 | Blake Edwards |
| 1917 | Rock 'n' Roll High School | 1979 | Allan Arkush |
| 1918 | Antonio das Mortes | 1969 | Glauber Rocha |
| 1919 | The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse | 1921 | Rex Ingram |
| 1920 | Christopher Strong | 1933 | Dorothy Arzner |
| 1921 | The Fallen Idol | 1948 | Carol Reed |
| 1922 | About a Boy | 2002 | Chris and Paul Weitz |
| 1923 | Dance, Girl, Dance | 1940 | Dorothy Arzner |
| 1924 | Honey, I Shrunk the Kids | 1989 | Joe Johnston |
| 1925 | To Live and Die in L.A. | 1985 | William Friedkin |
| 1926 | The Tall T | 1957 | Budd Boetticher |
| 1927 | Mother | 1926 | Vsevolod Pudovkin |
| 1928 | Cinderella Man | 2005 | Ron Howard |
| 1929 | Burden of Dreams | 1982 | Les Blank |
| 1930 | Crossfire | 1947 | Edward Dmytryk |
| 1931 | Pit and the Pendulum | 1961 | Roger Corman |
| 1932 | À nos amours | 1983 | Maurice Pialat |
| 1933 | Personal Best | 1982 | Robert Towne |
| 1934 | Night and the City | 1950 | Jules Dassin |
| 1935 | The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith | 1978 | Fred Schepisi |
| 1936 | Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story | 2004 | Rawson Marshall Thurber |
| 1937 | My Bodyguard | 1980 | Tony Bill |
| 1938 | The Love Parade | 1929 | Ernst Lubitsch |
| 1939 | Scream 2 | 1997 | Wes Craven |
| 1940 | The Fly | 1958 | Kurt Neumann |
| 1941 | I Was Born, But... | 1932 | Yasujiro Ozu |
| 1942 | The First Wives Club | 1996 | Hugh Wilson |
| 1943 | Jamón, jamón | 1992 | J.J. Bigas Luna |
| 1944 | The Limey | 1999 | Steven Soderbergh |
| 1945 | Whistle Down the Wind | 1961 | Bryan Forbes |
| 1946 | The Narrow Margin | 1952 | Richard Fleischer |
| 1947 | House of Flying Daggers | 2004 | Yimou Zhang |
| 1948 | Ivan's Childhood | 1962 | Andrei Tarkovsky |
| 1949 | Le Plaisir | 1952 | Max Ophüls |
| 1950 | Brigadoon | 1954 | Vincente Minnelli |
| 1951 | Selena | 1997 | Gregory Nava |
| 1952 | One-Eyed Jacks | 1961 | Marlon Brando |
| 1953 | The Steel Helmet | 1951 | Samuel Fuller |
| 1954 | Queen Margot | 1994 | Patrice Chéreau |
| 1955 | The Big Combo | 1955 | Joseph H. Lewis |
| 1956 | Band of Brothers | 2001 | David Frankel, Mikael Salomon, Tom Hanks, David Leland, Richard Loncraine, David Nutter, Phil Alden Robinson, and Tony To |
| 1957 | American Gigolo | 1980 | Paul Schrader |
| 1958 | Broadway Danny Rose | 1984 | Woody Allen |
| 1959 | The Gang's All Here | 1943 | Busby Berkeley |
| 1960 | Midnight Express | 1978 | Alan Parker |
| 1961 | Kiki’s Delivery Service | 1989 | Hayao Miyazaki |
| 1962 | Le Cercle rouge | 1970 | Jean-Pierre Melville |
| 1963 | Tarzan and His Mate | 1934 | Cedric Gibbons |
| 1964 | The Lovers on the Bridge | 1991 | Leos Carax |
| 1965 | The Fire within | 1963 | Louis Malle |
| 1966 | Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan | 2006 | Larry Charles |
| 1967 | The Man Without a Past | 2002 | Aki Kaurismäki |
| 1968 | Divided We Fall | 2000 | Jan Hrebejk |
| 1969 | Murder on the Orient Express | 1974 | Sidney Lumet |
| 1970 | Emma | 1996 | Douglas McGrath |
| 1971 | Fantomas | 1913 | Louis Feuillade |
| 1972 | Cria! | 1976 | Carlos Saura |
| 1973 | In America | 2002 | Jim Sheridan |
| 1974 | George Washington | 2000 | David Gordon Green |
| 1975 | The Petrified Forest | 1936 | Archie Mayo |
| 1976 | Henry & June | 1990 | Philip Kaufman |
| 1977 | The Last House on the Left | 1972 | Wes Craven |
| 1978 | Spione | 1928 | Fritz Lang |
| 1979 | French Cancan | 1954 | Jean Renoir |
| 1980 | The Unknown | 1927 | Tod Browning |
| 1981 | Reality Bites | 1994 | Ben Stiller |
| 1982 | Nostalgia | 1983 | Andrei Tarkovsky |
| 1983 | Kiss of the Spider Woman | 1985 | Hector Babenco |
| 1984 | Strange Days | 1995 | Kathryn Bigelow |
| 1985 | Rio Grande | 1950 | John Ford |
| 1986 | American Psycho | 2000 | Mary Harron |
| 1987 | Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story | 1987 | Todd Haynes |
| 1988 | Fletch | 1985 | Michael Ritchie |
| 1989 | A Bronx Tale | 1993 | Robert De Niro |
| 1990 | Bugsy Malone | 1976 | Alan Parker |
| 1991 | Follow the Fleet | 1936 | Mark Sandrich |
| 1992 | Serenity | 2005 | Joss Whedon |
| 1993 | The Snake Pit | 1948 | Anatole Litvak |
| 1994 | Rambo: First Blood Part II | 1985 | George P. Cosmatos |
| 1995 | The Last Command | 1928 | Josef von Sternberg |
| 1996 | Boys Town | 1938 | Norman Taurog |
| 1997 | Magnificent Obsession | 1954 | Douglas Sirk |
| 1998 | Stray Dog | 1949 | Akira Kurosawa |
| 1999 | Fanny | 1932 | Marc Allégret |
| 2000 | Mulan | 1998 | Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook |
