**—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 | 101 |
| 2 | This Is Spinal Tap | Rob Reiner | 109 |
| 3 | Once Upon a Time in America | Sergio Leone | 133 |
| 4 | Amadeus** | Milos Forman | 163 |
| 5 | Ghostbusters | Ivan Reitman | 169 |
| 6 | Paris, Texas | Wim Wenders | 339 |
| 7 | A Nightmare on Elm Street | Wes Craven | 342 |
| 8 | Blood Simple | Joel Coen | 506 |
| 9 | Stranger than Paradise | Jim Jarmusch | 578 |
| 10 | Repo Man | Alex Cox | 657 |
| 11 | The Karate Kid | John G. Avildsen | 678 |
| 12 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | Steven Spielberg | 695 |
| 13 | Stop Making Sense | Jonathan Demme | 700 |
| 14 | Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind | Hayao Miyazaki | 750 |
| 15 | The Natural | Barry Levinson | 832 |
| 16 | Sixteen Candles | John Hughes | 1057 |
| 17 | 28 Up | Michael Apted | 1081 |
| 18 | The Killing Fields* | Roland Joffé | 1085 |
| 19 | Beverly Hills Cop | Martin Brest | 1119 |
| 20 | Gremlins | Joe Dante | 1146 |
| 21 | The Times of Harvey Milk | Rob Epstein | 1220 |
| 22 | The NeverEnding Story | Wolfgang Petersen | 1231 |
| 23 | Love Streams | John Cassavetes | 1457 |
| 24 | Broadway Danny Rose | Woody Allen | 1461 |
| 25 | The Brother from Another Planet | John Sayles | 1548 |
| 26 | The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension | W.D. Richter | 1790 |
| 27 | Purple Rain | Albert Magnoli | 1834 |
| 28 | Heimat | Edgar Reitz | 1895 |
| 29 | 1984 | Michael Radford | 2028 |
| 30 | Dune | David Lynch | 2034 |
| 31 | Starman | John Carpenter | 2074 |
| 32 | Yellow Earth | Kaige Chen | 2079 |
| 33 | Romancing the Stone | Robert Zemeckis | 2167 |
| 34 | Top Secret! | Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker | 2278 |
| 35 | Body Double | Brian De Palma | 2346 |
| 36 | Splash | Ron Howard | 2476 |
| 37 | The Toxic Avenger | Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman | 2501 |
| 38 | The Last Starfighter | Nick Castle | 2552 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Back to the Future | Robert Zemeckis | 45 |
| 2 | Brazil | Terry Gilliam | 115 |
| 3 | Ran | Akira Kurosawa | 197 |
| 4 | Shoah | Claude Lanzmann | 243 |
| 5 | Come and See | Elem Klimov | 277 |
| 6 | The Goonies | Richard Donner | 444 |
| 7 | The Breakfast Club | John Hughes | 456 |
| 8 | Re-Animator | Stuart Gordon | 843 |
| 9 | The Purple Rose of Cairo | Woody Allen | 848 |
| 10 | Witness* | Peter Weir | 857 |
| 11 | The Color Purple* | Steven Spielberg | 862 |
| 12 | A Room with a View* | James Ivory | 863 |
| 13 | My Beautiful Laundrette | Stephen Frears | 869 |
| 14 | Pee-wee's Big Adventure | Tim Burton | 873 |
| 15 | Out of Africa** | Sydney Pollack | 930 |
| 16 | After Hours | Martin Scorsese | 992 |
| 17 | Sherman's March | Ross McElwee | 1266 |
| 18 | Day of the Dead | George A. Romero | 1314 |
| 19 | My Life as a Dog | Lasse Hallström | 1345 |
| 20 | Lost in America | Albert Brooks | 1365 |
| 21 | Vagabond | Agnès Varda | 1427 |
| 22 | Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters | Paul Schrader | 1525 |
| 23 | Tampopo | Juzo Itami | 1579 |
| 24 | The Time to Live and the Time to Die | Hsiao-hsien Hou | 1725 |
| 25 | Desperately Seeking Susan | Susan Seidelman | 1745 |
| 26 | To Live and Die in L.A. | William Friedkin | 1777 |
| 27 | Silverado | Lawrence Kasdan | 1839 |
| 28 | Commando | Mark L. Lester | 1850 |
| 29 | Pale Rider | Clint Eastwood | 1877 |
| 30 | Better Off Dead… | Savage Steve Holland | 1960 |
| 31 | Rocky IV | Sylvester Stallone | 2044 |
| 32 | Runaway Train | Andrey Konchalovskiy | 2090 |
| 33 | Prizzi's Honor* | John Huston | 2101 |
| 34 | The Return of the Living Dead | Dan O'Bannon | 2213 |
| 35 | Kiss of the Spider Woman* | Hector Babenco | 2361 |
| 36 | The Sure Thing | Rob Reiner | 2393 |
| 37 | Cocoon | Ron Howard | 2400 |
| 38 | Jackie Chan's Police Story | Jackie Chan | 2431 |
| 39 | The Official Story | Luis Puenzo | 2438 |
| 40 | Desert Hearts | Donna Deitch | 2489 |
| 41 | Ladyhawke | Richard Donner | 2614 |
| 42 | Enemy Mine | Wolfgang Petersen | 2648 |
| 43 | Fright Night | Tom Holland | 2695 |
| 44 | Fletch | Michael Ritchie | 2795 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Aliens | James Cameron | 61 |
| 2 | Blue Velvet | David Lynch | 103 |
| 3 | Platoon** | Oliver Stone | 200 |
| 4 | The Fly | David Cronenberg | 223 |
| 5 | Stand by Me | Rob Reiner | 325 |
| 6 | Ferris Bueller's Day Off | John Hughes | 334 |
| 7 | Hannah and Her Sisters* | Woody Allen | 459 |
| 8 | Top Gun | Tony Scott | 693 |
| 9 | Hoosiers | David Anspaugh | 701 |
| 10 | Down by Law | Jim Jarmusch | 703 |
| 11 | Labyrinth | Jim Henson | 876 |
| 12 | Jean de Florette | Claude Berri | 881 |
| 13 | The Sacrifice | Andrei Tarkovsky | 987 |
| 14 | Laputa: Castle in the Sky | Hayao Miyazaki | 1058 |
| 15 | Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer | John McNaughton | 1073 |
| 16 | Pretty in Pink | Howard Deutch | 1128 |
| 17 | A Better Tomorrow | John Woo | 1357 |
| 18 | Manhunter | Michael Mann | 1377 |
| 19 | Little Shop of Horrors | Frank Oz | 1410 |
| 20 | The Mission* | Roland Joffé | 1451 |
| 21 | Betty Blue | Jean-Jacques Beineix | 1458 |
| 22 | Manon of the Spring | Claude Berri | 1503 |
| 23 | She's Gotta Have It | Spike Lee | 1537 |
| 24 | The Color of Money | Martin Scorsese | 1587 |
| 25 | 9 1/2 Weeks | Adrian Lyne | 1633 |
| 26 | Big Trouble in Little China | John Carpenter | 1699 |
| 27 | Highlander | Russell Mulcahy | 1714 |
| 28 | Summer | Eric Rohmer | 1778 |
| 29 | Salvador | Oliver Stone | 1820 |
| 30 | The Name of the Rose | Jean-Jacques Annaud | 1844 |
| 31 | Sid and Nancy | Alex Cox | 1889 |
| 32 | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home | Leonard Nimoy | 1973 |
| 33 | Something Wild | Jonathan Demme | 2086 |
| 34 | The Hitcher | Robert Harmon | 2173 |
| 35 | Parting Glances | Bill Sherwood | 2233 |
| 36 | When the Wind Blows | Jimmy T. Murakami | 2261 |
| 37 | An American Tail | Don Bluth | 2406 |
| 38 | River's Edge | Tim Hunter | 2565 |
| 39 | ¡Three Amigos! | John Landis | 2616 |
| 40 | Caravaggio | Derek Jarman | 2663 |
**—Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*—Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
