**—Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*—Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | This Is Spinal Tap | Rob Reiner | 85 |
| 2 | The Terminator | James Cameron | 106 |
| 3 | Once Upon a Time in America | Sergio Leone | 154 |
| 4 | Amadeus** | Milos Forman | 162 |
| 5 | Ghostbusters | Ivan Reitman | 220 |
| 6 | A Nightmare on Elm Street | Wes Craven | 336 |
| 7 | Paris, Texas | Wim Wenders | 379 |
| 8 | Blood Simple | Joel Coen | 433 |
| 9 | Stranger than Paradise | Jim Jarmusch | 512 |
| 10 | Stop Making Sense | Jonathan Demme | 617 |
| 11 | The Karate Kid | John G. Avildsen | 686 |
| 12 | Repo Man | Alex Cox | 691 |
| 13 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | Steven Spielberg | 723 |
| 14 | The Natural | Barry Levinson | 767 |
| 15 | The Killing Fields* | Roland Joffé | 782 |
| 16 | Sixteen Candles | John Hughes | 862 |
| 17 | Gremlins | Joe Dante | 1078 |
| 18 | Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind | Hayao Miyazaki | 1096 |
| 19 | The Times of Harvey Milk | Rob Epstein | 1148 |
| 20 | 28 Up | Michael Apted | 1312 |
| 21 | The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension | W.D. Richter | 1322 |
| 22 | Broadway Danny Rose | Woody Allen | 1324 |
| 23 | Beverly Hills Cop | Martin Brest | 1386 |
| 24 | Heimat | Edgar Reitz | 1409 |
| 25 | Love Streams | John Cassavetes | 1483 |
| 26 | The NeverEnding Story | Wolfgang Petersen | 1532 |
| 27 | Purple Rain | Albert Magnoli | 1708 |
| 28 | The Brother from Another Planet | John Sayles | 1778 |
| 29 | Dune | David Lynch | 1888 |
| 30 | Splash | Ron Howard | 1913 |
| 31 | 1984 | Michael Radford | 1989 |
| 32 | Yellow Earth | Kaige Chen | 2102 |
| 33 | Starman | John Carpenter | 2351 |
| 34 | A Sunday in the Country | Bertrand Tavernier | 2381 |
| 35 | The Last Starfighter | Nick Castle | 2394 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Back to the Future | Robert Zemeckis | 56 |
| 2 | Brazil | Terry Gilliam | 76 |
| 3 | Ran | Akira Kurosawa | 191 |
| 4 | Shoah | Claude Lanzmann | 295 |
| 5 | Come and See | Elem Klimov | 332 |
| 6 | The Breakfast Club | John Hughes | 437 |
| 7 | Witness* | Peter Weir | 645 |
| 8 | The Goonies | Richard Donner | 666 |
| 9 | A Room with a View* | James Ivory | 701 |
| 10 | The Purple Rose of Cairo | Woody Allen | 739 |
| 11 | Out of Africa** | Sydney Pollack | 751 |
| 12 | My Beautiful Laundrette | Stephen Frears | 832 |
| 13 | The Color Purple* | Steven Spielberg | 851 |
| 14 | Pee-wee's Big Adventure | Tim Burton | 887 |
| 15 | Re-Animator | Stuart Gordon | 918 |
| 16 | My Life as a Dog | Lasse Hallström | 927 |
| 17 | After Hours | Martin Scorsese | 1011 |
| 18 | Vagabond | Agnès Varda | 1179 |
| 19 | Tampopo | Juzo Itami | 1201 |
| 20 | Sherman's March | Ross McElwee | 1219 |
| 21 | Lost in America | Albert Brooks | 1452 |
| 22 | Day of the Dead | George A. Romero | 1555 |
| 23 | Desperately Seeking Susan | Susan Seidelman | 1647 |
| 24 | Prizzi's Honor* | John Huston | 1673 |
| 25 | Rocky IV | Sylvester Stallone | 1866 |
| 26 | The Official Story | Luis Puenzo | 1880 |
| 27 | The Time to Live and the Time to Die | Hsiao-hsien Hou | 1883 |
| 28 | Cocoon | Ron Howard | 1903 |
| 29 | Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters | Paul Schrader | 1976 |
| 30 | Commando | Mark L. Lester | 2133 |
| 31 | Rambo: First Blood Part II | George P. Cosmatos | 2138 |
| 32 | The Sure Thing | Rob Reiner | 2176 |
| 33 | Runaway Train | Andrey Konchalovskiy | 2192 |
| 34 | To Live and Die in L.A. | William Friedkin | 2197 |
| 35 | Fletch | Michael Ritchie | 2209 |
| 36 | Ladyhawke | Richard Donner | 2230 |
| 37 | Kiss of the Spider Woman* | Hector Babenco | 2235 |
| 38 | Enemy Mine | Wolfgang Petersen | 2236 |
| 39 | Pale Rider | Clint Eastwood | 2260 |
| 40 | Better Off Dead… | Savage Steve Holland | 2283 |
| 41 | Return to Oz | Walter Murch | 2402 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Blue Velvet | David Lynch | 72 |
| 2 | Aliens | James Cameron | 77 |
| 3 | Platoon** | Oliver Stone | 180 |
| 4 | The Fly | David Cronenberg | 273 |
| 5 | Ferris Bueller's Day Off | John Hughes | 301 |
| 6 | Stand by Me | Rob Reiner | 352 |
| 7 | Hannah and Her Sisters* | Woody Allen | 395 |
| 8 | Top Gun | Tony Scott | 571 |
| 9 | Jean de Florette | Claude Berri | 624 |
| 10 | Hoosiers | David Anspaugh | 695 |
| 11 | Down by Law | Jim Jarmusch | 710 |
| 12 | Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer | John McNaughton | 1001 |
| 13 | Manon of the Spring | Claude Berri | 1020 |
| 14 | Labyrinth | Jim Henson | 1050 |
| 15 | Manhunter | Michael Mann | 1137 |
| 16 | The Sacrifice | Andrei Tarkovsky | 1180 |
| 17 | She's Gotta Have It | Spike Lee | 1197 |
| 18 | Pretty in Pink | Howard Deutch | 1323 |
| 19 | Sid and Nancy | Alex Cox | 1344 |
| 20 | Betty Blue | Jean-Jacques Beineix | 1349 |
| 21 | 9 1/2 Weeks | Adrian Lyne | 1467 |
| 22 | Laputa: Castle in the Sky | Hayao Miyazaki | 1486 |
| 23 | Summer | Eric Rohmer | 1538 |
| 24 | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home | Leonard Nimoy | 1563 |
| 25 | Big Trouble in Little China | John Carpenter | 1589 |
| 26 | The Color of Money | Martin Scorsese | 1604 |
| 27 | A Better Tomorrow | John Woo | 1657 |
| 28 | Salvador | Oliver Stone | 1660 |
| 29 | The Hitcher | Robert Harmon | 1688 |
| 30 | The Mission* | Roland Joffé | 1717 |
| 31 | Little Shop of Horrors | Frank Oz | 1852 |
| 32 | The Name of the Rose | Jean-Jacques Annaud | 1904 |
| 33 | Highlander | Russell Mulcahy | 1953 |
| 34 | Something Wild | Jonathan Demme | 2034 |
| 35 | When the Wind Blows | Jimmy T. Murakami | 2164 |
| 36 | Caravaggio | Derek Jarman | 2245 |
**—Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*—Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
