**—Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*—Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Brief Encounter | David Lean | 174 |
| 2 | Children of Paradise | Marcel Carné | 179 |
| 3 | Rome, Open City | Roberto Rossellini | 239 |
| 4 | Mildred Pierce* | Michael Curtiz | 440 |
| 5 | 'I Know Where I'm Going!' | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger | 672 |
| 6 | The Lost Weekend** | Billy Wilder | 691 |
| 7 | Detour | Edgar G. Ulmer | 707 |
| 8 | Dead of Night | Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, and Robert Hamer | 882 |
| 9 | Leave Her to Heaven | John M. Stahl | 1448 |
| 10 | Scarlet Street | Fritz Lang | 1513 |
| 11 | They Were Expendable | John Ford | 1911 |
| 12 | Spellbound* | Alfred Hitchcock | 1987 |
| 13 | A Tree Grows in Brooklyn | Elia Kazan | 2517 |
| 14 | Anchors Aweigh* | George Sidney | 2670 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | It's a Wonderful Life* | Frank Capra | 33 |
| 2 | Notorious | Alfred Hitchcock | 126 |
| 3 | The Big Sleep | Howard Hawks | 177 |
| 4 | The Best Years of Our Lives** | William Wyler | 184 |
| 5 | Beauty and the Beast | Jean Cocteau | 237 |
| 6 | Stairway to Heaven | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger | 240 |
| 7 | My Darling Clementine | John Ford | 363 |
| 8 | Great Expectations* | David Lean | 415 |
| 9 | The Killers | Robert Siodmak | 686 |
| 10 | Gilda | Charles Vidor | 719 |
| 11 | The Postman Always Rings Twice | Tay Garnett | 954 |
| 12 | A Day in the Country | Jean Renoir | 1001 |
| 13 | Paisan | Roberto Rossellini | 1018 |
| 14 | Duel in the Sun | King Vidor | 1285 |
| 15 | Shoeshine | Vittorio De Sica | 1715 |
| 16 | The Spiral Staircase | Robert Siodmak | 2425 |
| 17 | The Harvey Girls | George Sidney | 2691 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Out of the Past | Jacques Tourneur | 289 |
| 2 | Black Narcissus | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger | 410 |
| 3 | Miracle on 34th Street* | George Seaton | 544 |
| 4 | The Lady from Shanghai | Orson Welles | 865 |
| 5 | Monsieur Verdoux | Charles Chaplin | 1092 |
| 6 | Odd Man Out | Carol Reed | 1230 |
| 7 | The Ghost and Mrs. Muir | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | 1528 |
| 8 | Kiss of Death | Henry Hathaway | 1555 |
| 9 | Body and Soul | Robert Rossen | 1593 |
| 10 | Nightmare Alley | Edmund Goulding | 2139 |
| 11 | Gentleman's Agreement** | Elia Kazan | 2150 |
| 12 | T-Men | Anthony Mann | 2246 |
| 13 | Quai des Orfèvres | Henri-Georges Clouzot | 2342 |
| 14 | Crossfire* | Edward Dmytryk | 2736 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Bicycle Thief | Vittorio De Sica | 57 |
| 2 | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre* | John Huston | 134 |
| 3 | The Red Shoes* | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger | 143 |
| 4 | Red River | Howard Hawks | 271 |
| 5 | Letter from an Unknown Woman | Max Ophüls | 571 |
| 6 | Rope | Alfred Hitchcock | 669 |
| 7 | Force of Evil | Abraham Polonsky | 850 |
| 8 | Fort Apache | John Ford | 951 |
| 9 | They Live by Night | Nicholas Ray | 991 |
| 10 | Brighton Rock | John Boulting | 1301 |
| 11 | Key Largo | John Huston | 1337 |
| 12 | La Terra Trema | Luchino Visconti | 1376 |
| 13 | Easter Parade | Charles Walters | 1472 |
| 14 | Hamlet** | Laurence Olivier | 1501 |
| 15 | Germany, Year Zero | Roberto Rossellini | 1517 |
| 16 | The Fallen Idol | Carol Reed | 1639 |
| 17 | The Naked City | Jules Dassin | 1749 |
| 18 | Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein | Charles Barton | 1751 |
| 19 | Portrait of Jennie | William Dieterle | 1802 |
| 20 | Oliver Twist | David Lean | 2037 |
| 21 | Unfaithfully Yours | Preston Sturges | 2084 |
| 22 | Spring in a Small Town | Mu Fei | 2354 |
| 23 | Raw Deal | Anthony Mann | 2439 |
| 24 | Drunken Angel | Akira Kurosawa | 2723 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Third Man | Carol Reed | 30 |
| 2 | Kind Hearts and Coronets | Robert Hamer | 207 |
| 3 | White Heat | Raoul Walsh | 336 |
| 4 | Adam's Rib | George Cukor | 574 |
| 5 | Late Spring | Yasujirô Ozu | 586 |
| 6 | On the Town | Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly | 706 |
| 7 | She Wore a Yellow Ribbon | John Ford | 1009 |
| 8 | Twelve O'Clock High* | Henry King | 1185 |
| 9 | The Heiress* | William Wyler | 1391 |
| 10 | The Set-Up | Robert Wise | 1437 |
| 11 | D.O.A. | Rudolph Maté | 1604 |
| 12 | Tight Little Island | Alexander Mackendrick | 1718 |
| 13 | All the King's Men** | Robert Rossen | 1900 |
| 14 | Stray Dog | Akira Kurosawa | 1965 |
| 15 | The Reckless Moment | Max Ophüls | 2001 |
| 16 | Battleground* | William A. Wellman | 2137 |
| 17 | Passport to Pimlico | Henry Cornelius | 2328 |
| 18 | Sands of Iwo Jima | Allan Dwan | 2376 |
| 19 | Le Sang des bêtes | Georges Franju | 2394 |
| 20 | Criss Cross | Robert Siodmak | 2518 |
| 21 | A Letter to Three Wives* | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | 2558 |
**—Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*—Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
