**--Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*--Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Jaws* | Steven Spielberg | 27 |
| 2 | One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest** | Milos Forman | 37 |
| 3 | Nashville* | Robert Altman | 70 |
| 4 | Monty Python and the Holy Grail | Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones | 149 |
| 5 | Dog Day Afternoon* | Sidney Lumet | 324 |
| 6 | The Rocky Horror Picture Show | Jim Sharman | 333 |
| 7 | Barry Lyndon* | Stanley Kubrick | 423 |
| 8 | The Man Who Would be King | John Huston | 509 |
| 9 | Picnic at Hanging Rock | Peter Weir | 556 |
| 10 | The Travelling Players | Theodoros Angelopoulos | 768 |
| 11 | Seven Beauties | Lina Wertmüller | 887 |
| 12 | The Passenger | Michelangelo Antonioni | 905 |
| 13 | Shampoo | Hal Ashby | 928 |
| 14 | The Mirror | Andrei Tarkovsky | 973 |
| 15 | Rollerball | Norman Jewison | 1091 |
| 16 | Dersu Uzala | Akira Kurosawa | 1092 |
| 17 | Xala | Ousmane Sembene | 1214 |
| 18 | Night Moves | Arthur Penn | 1320 |
| 19 | Fox and His Friends | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 1399 |
| 20 | Grey Gardens | Ellen Hovde, Albert and David Maysles, and Muffie Meyer | 1481 |
| 21 | Smile | Michael Ritchie | 1498 |
| 22 | Salò | Pier Paolo Pasolini | 1527 |
| 23 | Love and Death | Woody Allen | 1544 |
| 24 | A Boy and His Dog | L.Q. Jones | 1610 |
| 25 | The Stepford Wives | Bryan Forbes | 1615 |
| 26 | Tommy | Ken Russell | 1721 |
| 27 | Three Days of the Condor | Sydney Pollack | 1732 |
| 28 | The Story of Adele H. | François Truffaut | 1756 |
| 29 | The Sunshine Boys | Herbert Ross | 1845 |
| 30 | Death Race 2000 | Paul Bartel | 2216 |
| 31 | India song | Marguerite Duras | 2256 |
| 32 | The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum | Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta | 2259 |
| 33 | Shivers | David Cronenberg | 2268 |
| 34 | Sholay | Ramesh Sippy | 2319 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Taxi Driver* | Martin Scorsese | 16 |
| 2 | Rocky** | John G. Avildsen | 107 |
| 3 | Network* | Sidney Lumet | 202 |
| 4 | Carrie | Brian De Palma | 275 |
| 5 | All the President's Men* | Alan J. Pakula | 309 |
| 6 | In the Realm of the Senses | Nagisa Oshima | 660 |
| 7 | Jeanne Dielman | Chantal Akerman | 661 |
| 8 | The Outlaw Josey Wales | Clint Eastwood | 733 |
| 9 | 1900 | Bernardo Bertolucci | 814 |
| 10 | The Omen | Richard Donner | 840 |
| 11 | The Bad News Bears | Michael Ritchie | 921 |
| 12 | Harlan County, U.S.A. | Barbara Kopple | 1139 |
| 13 | The Man Who Fell to Earth | Nicolas Roeg | 1173 |
| 14 | The Shootist | Don Siegel | 1207 |
| 15 | Marathon Man | John Schlesinger | 1286 |
| 16 | Assault on Precinct 13 | John Carpenter | 1353 |
| 17 | The Tenant | Roman Polanski | 1469 |
| 18 | Kings of the Road | Wim Wenders | 1616 |
| 19 | The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings | John Badham | 1760 |
| 20 | Small Change | François Truffaut | 1852 |
| 21 | Cria! | Carlos Saura | 1972 |
| 22 | Bugsy Malone | Alan Parker | 1990 |
| 23 | Silver Streak | Arthur Hiller | 2090 |
| 24 | Bound for Glory* | Hal Ashby | 2165 |
| 25 | The Killing of a Chinese Bookie | John Cassavetes | 2257 |
| 26 | Robin and Marian | Richard Lester | 2358 |
| 27 | The Front | Martin Ritt | 2472 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Star Wars* | George Lucas | 7 |
| 2 | Annie Hall** | Woody Allen | 24 |
| 3 | Close Encounters of the Third Kind | Steven Spielberg | 103 |
| 4 | Saturday Night Fever | John Badham | 346 |
| 5 | Eraserhead | David Lynch | 397 |
| 6 | Suspiria | Dario Argento | 456 |
| 7 | Slap Shot | George Roy Hill | 718 |
| 8 | Killer of Sheep | Charles Burnett | 1022 |
| 9 | That Obscure Object of Desire | Luis Buñuel | 1153 |
| 10 | The Goodbye Girl* | Herbert Ross | 1185 |
| 11 | The American Friend | Wim Wenders | 1279 |
| 12 | Julia* | Fred Zinnemann | 1287 |
| 13 | Pumping Iron | George Butler and Robert Fiore | 1445 |
| 14 | Man of Marble | Andrzej Wajda | 1642 |
| 15 | The Hills Have Eyes | Wes Craven | 1670 |
| 16 | Providence | Alain Resnais | 1705 |
| 17 | 3 Women | Robert Altman | 1740 |
| 18 | Cross of Iron | Sam Peckinpah | 1818 |
| 19 | Ceddo | Ousmane Sembene | 1830 |
| 20 | Soldier of Orange | Paul Verhoeven | 2019 |
| 21 | Martin | George A. Romero | 2020 |
| 22 | The Ascent | Larissa Shepitko | 2055 |
| 23 | Opening Night | John Cassavetes | 2316 |
| 24 | A Bridge Too Far | Richard Attenborough | 2353 |
| 25 | Smokey and the Bandit | Hal Needham | 2405 |
| 26 | Stroszek | Werner Herzog | 2457 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Deer Hunter** | Michael Cimino | 72 |
| 2 | Halloween | John Carpenter | 160 |
| 3 | Grease | Randal Kleiser | 201 |
| 4 | Dawn of the Dead | George A. Romero | 273 |
| 5 | Animal House | John Landis | 282 |
| 6 | Days of Heaven | Terrence Malick | 295 |
| 7 | Superman | Richard Donner | 314 |
| 8 | The Tree of Wooden Clogs | Ermanno Olmi | 770 |
| 9 | The Last Waltz | Martin Scorsese | 797 |
| 10 | Invasion of the Body Snatchers | Philip Kaufman | 932 |
| 11 | Coming Home* | Hal Ashby | 1124 |
| 12 | Watership Down | Martin Rosen | 1361 |
| 13 | Heaven Can Wait* | Warren Beatty and Buck Henry | 1439 |
| 14 | Autumn Sonata | Ingmar Bergman | 1561 |
| 15 | Blue Collar | Paul Schrader | 1604 |
| 16 | An Unmarried Woman* | Paul Mazursky | 1608 |
| 17 | In a Year of 13 Moons | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 1699 |
| 18 | The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith | Fred Schepisi | 1935 |
| 19 | Midnight Express* | Alan Parker | 1960 |
| 20 | Big Wednesday | John Milius | 2023 |
| 21 | Newsfront | Phillip Noyce | 2057 |
| 22 | La Cage aux Folles | Edouard Molinaro | 2143 |
| 23 | Straight Time | Ulu Grosbard | 2155 |
| 24 | The Buddy Holly Story | Steve Rash | 2240 |
| 25 | Get Out Your Handkerchiefs | Bertrand Blier | 2383 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Apocalypse Now* | Francis Ford Coppola | 17 |
| 2 | Alien | Ridley Scott | 54 |
| 3 | Manhattan | Woody Allen | 135 |
| 4 | Life of Brian | Terry Jones | 180 |
| 5 | Kramer vs. Kramer** | Robert Benton | 448 |
| 6 | Being There | Hal Ashby | 454 |
| 7 | Breaking Away* | Peter Yates | 458 |
| 8 | The Marriage of Maria Braun | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 512 |
| 9 | Stalker | Andrei Tarkovsky | 513 |
| 10 | Mad Max | George Miller | 543 |
| 11 | The Tin Drum | Volker Schlöndorff | 561 |
| 12 | All That Jazz* | Bob Fosse | 732 |
| 13 | My Brilliant Career | Gillian Armstrong | 860 |
| 14 | The Jerk | Carl Reiner | 977 |
| 15 | The China Syndrome | James Bridges | 1000 |
| 16 | Norma Rae* | Martin Ritt | 1043 |
| 17 | The Black Stallion | Carroll Ballard | 1111 |
| 18 | North Dallas Forty | Ted Kotcheff | 1161 |
| 19 | Nosferatu the Vampyre | Werner Herzog | 1222 |
| 20 | The In-Laws | Arthur Hiller | 1295 |
| 21 | Quadrophenia | Franc Roddam | 1436 |
| 22 | Hair | Milos Forman | 1479 |
| 23 | The Warriors | Walter Hill | 1533 |
| 24 | 1941 | Steven Spielberg | 1663 |
| 25 | The Muppet Movie | James Frawley | 1787 |
| 26 | Star Trek: The Motion Picture | Robert Wise | 1859 |
| 27 | Wise Blood | John Huston | 1863 |
| 28 | Love on the Run | François Truffaut | 1909 |
| 29 | 10 | Blake Edwards | 1916 |
| 30 | Rock 'n' Roll High School | Allan Arkush | 1917 |
| 31 | When a Stranger Calls | Fred Walton | 2207 |
| 32 | Best Boy | Ira Wohl | 2211 |
| 33 | Tess* | Roman Polanski | 2314 |
| 34 | The Great Santini | Lewis John Carlino | 2340 |
| 35 | Time after Time | Nicholas Meyer | 2379 |
| 36 | Phantasm | Don Coscarelli | 2402 |
| 37 | Real Life | Albert Brooks | 2423 |
**--Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*--Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.