**--Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*--Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Terminator | James Cameron | 94 |
| 2 | This Is Spinal Tap | Rob Reiner | 99 |
| 3 | Amadeus** | Milos Forman | 128 |
| 4 | Once Upon a Time in America | Sergio Leone | 213 |
| 5 | Ghostbusters | Ivan Reitman | 303 |
| 6 | A Nightmare on Elm Street | Wes Craven | 360 |
| 7 | Paris, Texas | Wim Wenders | 441 |
| 8 | Blood Simple | Joel Coen | 481 |
| 9 | Stranger than Paradise | Jim Jarmusch | 534 |
| 10 | The Killing Fields* | Roland Joffé | 572 |
| 11 | Repo Man | Alex Cox | 660 |
| 12 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | Steven Spielberg | 699 |
| 13 | The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension | W.D. Richter | 867 |
| 14 | Stop Making Sense | Jonathan Demme | 961 |
| 15 | Beverly Hills Cop | Martin Brest | 962 |
| 16 | The Karate Kid | John G. Avildsen | 1016 |
| 17 | Sixteen Candles | John Hughes | 1062 |
| 18 | The Natural | Barry Levinson | 1079 |
| 19 | Gremlins | Joe Dante | 1096 |
| 20 | Places in the Heart* | Robert Benton | 1268 |
| 21 | Splash | Ron Howard | 1400 |
| 22 | Heimat | Edgar Reitz | 1488 |
| 23 | Broadway Danny Rose | Woody Allen | 1500 |
| 24 | Love Streams | John Cassavetes | 1549 |
| 25 | The Brother from Another Planet | John Sayles | 1592 |
| 26 | Top Secret! | Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker | 1640 |
| 27 | Romancing the Stone | Robert Zemeckis | 1709 |
| 28 | Dune | David Lynch | 1791 |
| 29 | Purple Rain | Albert Magnoli | 1817 |
| 30 | A Sunday in the Country | Bertrand Tavernier | 1860 |
| 31 | Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind | Hayao Miyazaki | 1946 |
| 32 | A Passage to India* | David Lean | 1961 |
| 33 | Starman | John Carpenter | 1992 |
| 34 | Yellow Earth | Kaige Chen | 2040 |
| 35 | The Times of Harvey Milk | Rob Epstein | 2115 |
| 36 | Revenge of the Nerds | Jeff Kanew | 2129 |
| 37 | A Soldier's Story* | Norman Jewison | 2168 |
| 38 | All of Me | Carl Reiner | 2183 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Brazil | Terry Gilliam | 86 |
| 2 | Back to the Future | Robert Zemeckis | 95 |
| 3 | Ran | Akira Kurosawa | 189 |
| 4 | The Breakfast Club | John Hughes | 370 |
| 5 | Out of Africa** | Sydney Pollack | 433 |
| 6 | Come and See | Elem Klimov | 467 |
| 7 | Witness* | Peter Weir | 472 |
| 8 | Shoah | Claude Lanzmann | 473 |
| 9 | A Room with a View* | James Ivory | 479 |
| 10 | The Color Purple* | Steven Spielberg | 512 |
| 11 | My Beautiful Laundrette | Stephen Frears | 686 |
| 12 | My Life as a Dog | Lasse Hallström | 694 |
| 13 | Re-Animator | Stuart Gordon | 854 |
| 14 | The Purple Rose of Cairo | Woody Allen | 879 |
| 15 | After Hours | Martin Scorsese | 935 |
| 16 | Prizzi's Honor* | John Huston | 971 |
| 17 | Vagabond | Agnès Varda | 1036 |
| 18 | Tampopo | Juzo Itami | 1037 |
| 19 | Pee-wee's Big Adventure | Tim Burton | 1082 |
| 20 | Lost in America | Albert Brooks | 1156 |
| 21 | Desperately Seeking Susan | Susan Seidelman | 1171 |
| 22 | The Goonies | Richard Donner | 1195 |
| 23 | The Official Story | Luis Puenzo | 1331 |
| 24 | Cocoon | Ron Howard | 1446 |
| 25 | To Live and Die in L.A. | William Friedkin | 1466 |
| 26 | The Time to Live and the Time to Die | Hsiao-hsien Hou | 1719 |
| 27 | Day of the Dead | George A. Romero | 1742 |
| 28 | Runaway Train | Andrei Konchalovsky | 1877 |
| 29 | 28 Up | Michael Apted | 1889 |
| 30 | Fletch | Michael Ritchie | 1941 |
| 31 | Better Off Dead… | Savage Steve Holland | 1995 |
| 32 | The Sure Thing | Rob Reiner | 2111 |
| 33 | Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome | George Miller and George Ogilvie | 2249 |
| 34 | Fright Night | Tom Holland | 2261 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Blue Velvet | David Lynch | 61 |
| 2 | Aliens | James Cameron | 66 |
| 3 | Platoon** | Oliver Stone | 112 |
| 4 | Ferris Bueller's Day Off | John Hughes | 310 |
| 5 | Stand by Me | Rob Reiner | 321 |
| 6 | Hannah and Her Sisters* | Woody Allen | 349 |
| 7 | The Fly | David Cronenberg | 399 |
| 8 | Jean de Florette | Claude Berri | 424 |
| 9 | Top Gun | Tony Scott | 440 |
| 10 | Manon of the Spring | Claude Berri | 655 |
| 11 | Hoosiers | David Anspaugh | 708 |
| 12 | Down by Law | Jim Jarmusch | 861 |
| 13 | She's Gotta Have It | Spike Lee | 930 |
| 14 | Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer | John McNaughton | 998 |
| 15 | Betty Blue | Jean-Jacques Beineix | 1134 |
| 16 | Manhunter | Michael Mann | 1217 |
| 17 | Highlander | Russell Mulcahy | 1285 |
| 18 | The Mission* | Roland Joffé | 1317 |
| 19 | 9 1/2 Weeks | Adrian Lyne | 1362 |
| 20 | Sid and Nancy | Alex Cox | 1401 |
| 21 | Salvador | Oliver Stone | 1419 |
| 22 | The Color of Money | Martin Scorsese | 1421 |
| 23 | Pretty in Pink | Howard Deutch | 1431 |
| 24 | The Hitcher | Robert Harmon | 1447 |
| 25 | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home | Leonard Nimoy | 1493 |
| 26 | Crocodile Dundee | Peter Faiman | 1529 |
| 27 | Children of a Lesser God* | Randa Haines | 1552 |
| 28 | Labyrinth | Jim Henson | 1582 |
| 29 | Sherman's March | Ross McElwee | 1645 |
| 30 | River's Edge | Tim Hunter | 1690 |
| 31 | Little Shop of Horrors | Frank Oz | 1768 |
| 32 | A Better Tomorrow | John Woo | 1803 |
| 33 | Summer | Eric Rohmer | 1840 |
| 34 | The Sacrifice | Andrei Tarkovsky | 1913 |
| 35 | The Horse Thief | Zhuangzhuang Tian | 1986 |
| 36 | The Big Easy | Jim McBride | 2009 |
| 37 | The Name of the Rose | Jean-Jacques Annaud | 2118 |
| 38 | Big Trouble in Little China | John Carpenter | 2201 |
| 39 | Something Wild | Jonathan Demme | 2258 |
**--Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*--Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
