**--Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*--Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Children of Paradise | Marcel Carné | 129 |
| 2 | Brief Encounter | David Lean | 148 |
| 3 | Open City | Roberto Rossellini | 205 |
| 4 | The Lost Weekend** | Billy Wilder | 380 |
| 5 | Mildred Pierce* | Michael Curtiz | 388 |
| 6 | Dead of Night | Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, and Robert Hamer | 640 |
| 7 | Detour | Edgar G. Ulmer | 702 |
| 8 | 'I Know Where I'm Going!' | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger | 830 |
| 9 | Spellbound* | Alfred Hitchcock | 1289 |
| 10 | A Tree Grows in Brooklyn | Elia Kazan | 1384 |
| 11 | They Were Expendable | John Ford | 1405 |
| 12 | The Spiral Staircase | Robert Siodmak | 1564 |
| 13 | And Then There Were None | René Clair | 1613 |
| 14 | Scarlet Street | Fritz Lang | 1870 |
| 15 | Story of G.I. Joe | William A. Wellman | 1907 |
| 16 | The Southerner | Jean Renoir | 2049 |
| 17 | A Walk in the Sun | Lewis Milestone | 2056 |
| 18 | The Ladies of the Bois De Boulogne | Robert Bresson | 2151 |
| 19 | Leave Her to Heaven | John M. Stahl | 2194 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | It's a Wonderful Life* | Frank Capra | 16 |
| 2 | Notorious | Alfred Hitchcock | 104 |
| 3 | The Best Years of Our Lives** | William Wyler | 126 |
| 4 | The Big Sleep | Howard Hawks | 163 |
| 5 | Beauty and the Beast | Jean Cocteau | 179 |
| 6 | Great Expectations* | David Lean | 257 |
| 7 | My Darling Clementine | John Ford | 263 |
| 8 | Stairway to Heaven | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger | 265 |
| 9 | The Killers | Robert Siodmak | 574 |
| 10 | Gilda | Charles Vidor | 643 |
| 11 | The Postman Always Rings Twice | Tay Garnett | 779 |
| 12 | Paisan | Roberto Rossellini | 871 |
| 13 | Duel in the Sun | King Vidor | 1146 |
| 14 | Shoeshine | Vittorio De Sica | 1524 |
| 15 | Song of the South | Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson | 2091 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Out of the Past | Jacques Tourneur | 242 |
| 2 | Black Narcissus | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger | 335 |
| 3 | Miracle on 34th Street* | George Seaton | 540 |
| 4 | Monsieur Verdoux | Charles Chaplin | 755 |
| 5 | Body and Soul | Robert Rossen | 785 |
| 6 | The Lady from Shanghai | Orson Welles | 904 |
| 7 | Brighton Rock | John Boulting | 925 |
| 8 | Odd Man Out | Carol Reed | 1001 |
| 9 | Gentleman's Agreement** | Elia Kazan | 1064 |
| 10 | The Ghost and Mrs. Muir | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | 1307 |
| 11 | Kiss of Death | Henry Hathaway | 1312 |
| 12 | Life with Father | Michael Curtiz | 2148 |
| 13 | T-Men | Anthony Mann | 2286 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Bicycle Thief | Vittorio De Sica | 67 |
| 2 | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre* | John Huston | 92 |
| 3 | The Red Shoes* | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger | 204 |
| 4 | Red River | Howard Hawks | 234 |
| 5 | Letter from an Unknown Woman | Max Ophüls | 477 |
| 6 | Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein | Charles Barton | 857 |
| 7 | Force of Evil | Abraham Polonsky | 891 |
| 8 | Oliver Twist | David Lean | 939 |
| 9 | Hamlet** | Laurence Olivier | 973 |
| 10 | Rope | Alfred Hitchcock | 1055 |
| 11 | Key Largo | John Huston | 1148 |
| 12 | La Terra Trema | Luchino Visconti | 1220 |
| 13 | Fort Apache | John Ford | 1341 |
| 14 | Easter Parade | Charles Walters | 1437 |
| 15 | Louisiana Story | Robert J. Flaherty | 1523 |
| 16 | Unfaithfully Yours | Preston Sturges | 1605 |
| 17 | The Fallen Idol | Carol Reed | 1785 |
| 18 | The Pirate | Vincente Minnelli | 2027 |
| 19 | State of the Union | Frank Capra | 2081 |
| 20 | Portrait of Jennie | William Dieterle | 2196 |
| 21 | Germany, Year Zero | Roberto Rossellini | 2199 |
| 22 | The Naked City | Jules Dassin | 2252 |
| 23 | The Search | Fred Zinnemann | 2385 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Third Man | Carol Reed | 27 |
| 2 | Kind Hearts and Coronets | Robert Hamer | 170 |
| 3 | White Heat | Raoul Walsh | 313 |
| 4 | Adam's Rib | George Cukor | 358 |
| 5 | On the Town | Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly | 506 |
| 6 | Late Spring | Yasujiro Ozu | 855 |
| 7 | All the King's Men** | Robert Rossen | 873 |
| 8 | They Live by Night | Nicholas Ray | 910 |
| 9 | Twelve O'Clock High* | Henry King | 1002 |
| 10 | The Heiress* | William Wyler | 1045 |
| 11 | She Wore a Yellow Ribbon | John Ford | 1098 |
| 12 | Tight Little Island | Alexander Mackendrick | 1100 |
| 13 | The Set-Up | Robert Wise | 1275 |
| 14 | Sands of Iwo Jima | Allan Dwan | 1418 |
| 15 | Champion | Mark Robson | 1463 |
| 16 | A Letter to Three Wives* | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | 1487 |
| 17 | Passport to Pimlico | Henry Cornelius | 1697 |
| 18 | Battleground* | William A. Wellman | 1707 |
| 19 | The Reckless Moment | Max Ophüls | 1799 |
| 20 | Jour de Fête | Jacques Tati | 2167 |
| 21 | It Happens Every Spring | Lloyd Bacon | 2180 |
| 22 | Samson and Delilah | Cecil B. DeMille | 2255 |
| 23 | Stray Dog | Akira Kurosawa | 2264 |
**--Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*--Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
