**—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 | 211 |
| 2 | Children of Paradise | Marcel Carné | 216 |
| 3 | Rome, Open City | Roberto Rossellini | 360 |
| 4 | Mildred Pierce* | Michael Curtiz | 454 |
| 5 | Dead of Night | Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, and Robert Hamer | 787 |
| 6 | The Lost Weekend** | Billy Wilder | 892 |
| 7 | 'I Know Where I'm Going!' | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger | 903 |
| 8 | Detour | Edgar G. Ulmer | 1271 |
| 9 | They Were Expendable | John Ford | 1642 |
| 10 | Leave Her to Heaven | John M. Stahl | 1954 |
| 11 | Spellbound* | Alfred Hitchcock | 2099 |
| 12 | Scarlet Street | Fritz Lang | 2398 |
| 13 | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Albert Lewin | 2507 |
| 14 | Anchors Aweigh* | George Sidney | 2651 |
| 15 | A Tree Grows in Brooklyn | Elia Kazan | 2787 |
| 16 | Story of G.I. Joe | William A. Wellman | 3006 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | It's a Wonderful Life* | Frank Capra | 46 |
| 2 | Notorious | Alfred Hitchcock | 148 |
| 3 | The Best Years of Our Lives** | William Wyler | 200 |
| 4 | Beauty and the Beast | Jean Cocteau | 201 |
| 5 | The Big Sleep | Howard Hawks | 215 |
| 6 | A Matter of Life and Death | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger | 316 |
| 7 | My Darling Clementine | John Ford | 450 |
| 8 | Great Expectations* | David Lean | 539 |
| 9 | The Postman Always Rings Twice | Tay Garnett | 1112 |
| 10 | Paisan | Roberto Rossellini | 1120 |
| 11 | Gilda | Charles Vidor | 1139 |
| 12 | The Killers | Robert Siodmak | 1207 |
| 13 | Duel in the Sun | King Vidor | 1564 |
| 14 | A Day in the Country | Jean Renoir | 1625 |
| 15 | Shoeshine | Vittorio De Sica | 2120 |
| 16 | The Spiral Staircase | Robert Siodmak | 2784 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Black Narcissus | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger | 446 |
| 2 | Out of the Past | Jacques Tourneur | 461 |
| 3 | Miracle on 34th Street* | George Seaton | 807 |
| 4 | The Lady from Shanghai | Orson Welles | 1074 |
| 5 | Odd Man Out | Carol Reed | 1487 |
| 6 | Monsieur Verdoux | Charles Chaplin | 1658 |
| 7 | The Ghost and Mrs. Muir | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | 1791 |
| 8 | Nightmare Alley | Edmund Goulding | 1844 |
| 9 | Body and Soul | Robert Rossen | 2660 |
| 10 | Quai des Orfèvres | Henri-Georges Clouzot | 2890 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Bicycle Thief | Vittorio De Sica | 69 |
| 2 | The Treasure of the Sierra Madre* | John Huston | 142 |
| 3 | The Red Shoes* | Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger | 150 |
| 4 | Red River | Howard Hawks | 319 |
| 5 | Letter from an Unknown Woman | Max Ophüls | 793 |
| 6 | Rope | Alfred Hitchcock | 856 |
| 7 | Fort Apache | John Ford | 1118 |
| 8 | Force of Evil | Abraham Polonsky | 1354 |
| 9 | They Live by Night | Nicholas Ray | 1472 |
| 10 | Key Largo | John Huston | 1486 |
| 11 | The Fallen Idol | Carol Reed | 1722 |
| 12 | Germany, Year Zero | Roberto Rossellini | 1912 |
| 13 | Spring in a Small Town | Mu Fei | 1952 |
| 14 | La Terra Trema | Luchino Visconti | 1961 |
| 15 | Easter Parade | Charles Walters | 2026 |
| 16 | Brighton Rock | John Boulting | 2048 |
| 17 | Hamlet** | Laurence Olivier | 2146 |
| 18 | Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein | Charles Barton | 2220 |
| 19 | The Naked City | Jules Dassin | 2542 |
| 20 | Oliver Twist | David Lean | 2579 |
| 21 | Unfaithfully Yours | Preston Sturges | 2580 |
| 22 | Portrait of Jennie | William Dieterle | 2939 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Third Man | Carol Reed | 42 |
| 2 | Kind Hearts and Coronets | Robert Hamer | 345 |
| 3 | White Heat | Raoul Walsh | 447 |
| 4 | Late Spring | Yasujirô Ozu | 593 |
| 5 | Adam's Rib | George Cukor | 880 |
| 6 | She Wore a Yellow Ribbon | John Ford | 1013 |
| 7 | On the Town | Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly | 1023 |
| 8 | Twelve O'Clock High* | Henry King | 1094 |
| 9 | The Heiress* | William Wyler | 1557 |
| 10 | The Set-Up | Robert Wise | 1801 |
| 11 | Battleground* | William A. Wellman | 1926 |
| 12 | All the King's Men** | Robert Rossen | 2001 |
| 13 | Sands of Iwo Jima | Allan Dwan | 2055 |
| 14 | Tight Little Island | Alexander Mackendrick | 2450 |
| 15 | A Letter to Three Wives* | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | 2602 |
| 16 | Stray Dog | Akira Kurosawa | 2684 |
| 17 | D.O.A. | Rudolph Maté | 2822 |
| 18 | Caught | Max Ophüls | 2984 |
**—Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*—Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
