**--Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*--Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Jaws* | Steven Spielberg | 24 |
| 2 | One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest** | Milos Forman | 35 |
| 3 | Nashville* | Robert Altman | 86 |
| 4 | Monty Python and the Holy Grail | Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones | 133 |
| 5 | Dog Day Afternoon* | Sidney Lumet | 285 |
| 6 | The Rocky Horror Picture Show | Jim Sharman | 301 |
| 7 | Barry Lyndon* | Stanley Kubrick | 355 |
| 8 | Picnic at Hanging Rock | Peter Weir | 567 |
| 9 | The Man Who Would be King | John Huston | 665 |
| 10 | Jeanne Dielman | Chantal Akerman | 751 |
| 11 | The Mirror | Andrei Tarkovsky | 887 |
| 12 | Rollerball | Norman Jewison | 916 |
| 13 | The Travelling Players | Theodoros Angelopoulos | 988 |
| 14 | Seven Beauties | Lina Wertmüller | 1049 |
| 15 | The Passenger | Michelangelo Antonioni | 1063 |
| 16 | Grey Gardens | Ellen Hovde, Albert and David Maysles, and Muffie Meyer | 1150 |
| 17 | Dersu Uzala | Akira Kurosawa | 1194 |
| 18 | Shampoo | Hal Ashby | 1200 |
| 19 | Xala | Ousmane Sembene | 1234 |
| 20 | Three Days of the Condor | Sydney Pollack | 1308 |
| 21 | Salò | Pier Paolo Pasolini | 1310 |
| 22 | Love and Death | Woody Allen | 1343 |
| 23 | Tommy | Ken Russell | 1359 |
| 24 | Fox and His Friends | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 1599 |
| 25 | Night Moves | Arthur Penn | 1623 |
| 26 | A Boy and His Dog | L.Q. Jones | 1827 |
| 27 | Deep Red | Dario Argento | 1906 |
| 28 | Smile | Michael Ritchie | 1914 |
| 29 | Sholay | Ramesh Sippy | 1987 |
| 30 | Shivers | David Cronenberg | 2019 |
| 31 | India song | Marguerite Duras | 2086 |
| 32 | The Stepford Wives | Bryan Forbes | 2124 |
| 33 | The Story of Adele H. | François Truffaut | 2362 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Taxi Driver* | Martin Scorsese | 19 |
| 2 | Rocky** | John G. Avildsen | 101 |
| 3 | Network* | Sidney Lumet | 221 |
| 4 | Carrie | Brian De Palma | 269 |
| 5 | All the President's Men* | Alan J. Pakula | 277 |
| 6 | Eraserhead | David Lynch | 280 |
| 7 | In the Realm of the Senses | Nagisa Oshima | 615 |
| 8 | The Outlaw Josey Wales | Clint Eastwood | 645 |
| 9 | The Omen | Richard Donner | 739 |
| 10 | The Man Who Fell to Earth | Nicolas Roeg | 782 |
| 11 | The Bad News Bears | Michael Ritchie | 807 |
| 12 | Assault on Precinct 13 | John Carpenter | 862 |
| 13 | Marathon Man | John Schlesinger | 966 |
| 14 | 1900 | Bernardo Bertolucci | 970 |
| 15 | Harlan County, U.S.A. | Barbara Kopple | 989 |
| 16 | The Tenant | Roman Polanski | 1199 |
| 17 | The Killing of a Chinese Bookie | John Cassavetes | 1413 |
| 18 | The Shootist | Don Siegel | 1512 |
| 19 | Kings of the Road | Wim Wenders | 1521 |
| 20 | Bugsy Malone | Alan Parker | 1582 |
| 21 | The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings | John Badham | 1691 |
| 22 | Logan's Run | Michael Anderson | 1879 |
| 23 | Silver Streak | Arthur Hiller | 2037 |
| 24 | The Front | Martin Ritt | 2174 |
| 25 | Bound for Glory* | Hal Ashby | 2325 |
| 26 | The Pink Panther Strikes Again | Blake Edwards | 2367 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Star Wars* | George Lucas | 8 |
| 2 | Annie Hall** | Woody Allen | 25 |
| 3 | Close Encounters of the Third Kind | Steven Spielberg | 103 |
| 4 | Suspiria | Dario Argento | 327 |
| 5 | Saturday Night Fever | John Badham | 360 |
| 6 | Slap Shot | George Roy Hill | 673 |
| 7 | That Obscure Object of Desire | Luis Buñuel | 1080 |
| 8 | Pumping Iron | George Butler and Robert Fiore | 1332 |
| 9 | Julia* | Fred Zinnemann | 1403 |
| 10 | Cross of Iron | Sam Peckinpah | 1440 |
| 11 | 3 Women | Robert Altman | 1448 |
| 12 | The Goodbye Girl* | Herbert Ross | 1633 |
| 13 | The American Friend | Wim Wenders | 1653 |
| 14 | A Bridge Too Far | Richard Attenborough | 1709 |
| 15 | The Hills Have Eyes | Wes Craven | 1736 |
| 16 | Opening Night | John Cassavetes | 1749 |
| 17 | Martin | George A. Romero | 1826 |
| 18 | The Spy Who Loved Me | Lewis Gilbert | 1902 |
| 19 | Providence | Alain Resnais | 2005 |
| 20 | Ceddo | Ousmane Sembene | 2030 |
| 21 | Soldier of Orange | Paul Verhoeven | 2166 |
| 22 | New York, New York | Martin Scorsese | 2204 |
| 23 | Stroszek | Werner Herzog | 2225 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Deer Hunter** | Michael Cimino | 85 |
| 2 | Halloween | John Carpenter | 131 |
| 3 | Grease | Randal Kleiser | 187 |
| 4 | Dawn of the Dead | George A. Romero | 216 |
| 5 | Superman | Richard Donner | 272 |
| 6 | Days of Heaven | Terrence Malick | 297 |
| 7 | Animal House | John Landis | 299 |
| 8 | The Last Waltz | Martin Scorsese | 808 |
| 9 | Invasion of the Body Snatchers | Philip Kaufman | 889 |
| 10 | The Tree of Wooden Clogs | Ermanno Olmi | 976 |
| 11 | Heaven Can Wait* | Warren Beatty and Buck Henry | 1129 |
| 12 | Watership Down | Martin Rosen | 1163 |
| 13 | Coming Home* | Hal Ashby | 1356 |
| 14 | Midnight Express* | Alan Parker | 1595 |
| 15 | Gates of Heaven | Errol Morris | 1897 |
| 16 | In a Year of 13 Moons | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 1898 |
| 17 | La Cage aux Folles | Edouard Molinaro | 1900 |
| 18 | Autumn Sonata | Ingmar Bergman | 1911 |
| 19 | Blue Collar | Paul Schrader | 1937 |
| 20 | An Unmarried Woman* | Paul Mazursky | 1955 |
| 21 | The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith | Fred Schepisi | 1971 |
| 22 | The Lord of the Rings | Ralph Bakshi | 2208 |
| 23 | Straight Time | Ulu Grosbard | 2217 |
| 24 | I Spit on Your Grave | Meir Zarchi | 2249 |
| 25 | Newsfront | Phillip Noyce | 2272 |
| 26 | The Driver | Walter Hill | 2298 |
| 27 | The Buddy Holly Story | Steve Rash | 2315 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Apocalypse Now* | Francis Ford Coppola | 13 |
| 2 | Alien | Ridley Scott | 38 |
| 3 | Manhattan | Woody Allen | 135 |
| 4 | Life of Brian | Terry Jones | 147 |
| 5 | Breaking Away* | Peter Yates | 413 |
| 6 | Being There | Hal Ashby | 459 |
| 7 | Stalker | Andrei Tarkovsky | 509 |
| 8 | Kramer vs. Kramer** | Robert Benton | 535 |
| 9 | All That Jazz* | Bob Fosse | 577 |
| 10 | The Marriage of Maria Braun | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | 585 |
| 11 | Mad Max | George Miller | 606 |
| 12 | The Tin Drum | Volker Schlöndorff | 644 |
| 13 | The Jerk | Carl Reiner | 764 |
| 14 | North Dallas Forty | Ted Kotcheff | 961 |
| 15 | Norma Rae* | Martin Ritt | 980 |
| 16 | Nosferatu the Vampyre | Werner Herzog | 1047 |
| 17 | My Brilliant Career | Gillian Armstrong | 1096 |
| 18 | The China Syndrome | James Bridges | 1118 |
| 19 | The Warriors | Walter Hill | 1143 |
| 20 | The Muppet Movie | James Frawley | 1243 |
| 21 | The Black Stallion | Carroll Ballard | 1342 |
| 22 | Quadrophenia | Franc Roddam | 1439 |
| 23 | The Brood | David Cronenberg | 1577 |
| 24 | Return of the Secaucus Seven | John Sayles | 1631 |
| 25 | The In-Laws | Arthur Hiller | 1661 |
| 26 | Hair | Milos Forman | 1682 |
| 27 | Rocky II | Sylvester Stallone | 1805 |
| 28 | Star Trek: The Motion Picture | Robert Wise | 1894 |
| 29 | 1941 | Steven Spielberg | 1973 |
| 30 | Rock 'n' Roll High School | Allan Arkush | 1996 |
| 31 | Phantasm | Don Coscarelli | 2048 |
| 32 | 10 | Blake Edwards | 2197 |
| 33 | Love on the Run | François Truffaut | 2229 |
| 34 | Time after Time | Nicholas Meyer | 2320 |
| 35 | Wise Blood | John Huston | 2387 |
**--Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*--Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.