**--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 | 78 |
| 2 | The Terminator | James Cameron | 95 |
| 3 | Amadeus** | Milos Forman | 141 |
| 4 | Once Upon a Time in America | Sergio Leone | 207 |
| 5 | Ghostbusters | Ivan Reitman | 314 |
| 6 | A Nightmare on Elm Street | Wes Craven | 345 |
| 7 | Paris, Texas | Wim Wenders | 473 |
| 8 | Blood Simple | Joel Coen | 479 |
| 9 | Stranger than Paradise | Jim Jarmusch | 597 |
| 10 | The Killing Fields* | Roland Joffé | 620 |
| 11 | Repo Man | Alex Cox | 629 |
| 12 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | Steven Spielberg | 676 |
| 13 | The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension | W.D. Richter | 838 |
| 14 | The Natural | Barry Levinson | 908 |
| 15 | Stop Making Sense | Jonathan Demme | 926 |
| 16 | The Karate Kid | John G. Avildsen | 1003 |
| 17 | Beverly Hills Cop | Martin Brest | 1073 |
| 18 | Gremlins | Joe Dante | 1152 |
| 19 | Sixteen Candles | John Hughes | 1173 |
| 20 | Places in the Heart* | Robert Benton | 1350 |
| 21 | Broadway Danny Rose | Woody Allen | 1394 |
| 22 | Heimat | Edgar Reitz | 1404 |
| 23 | Splash | Ron Howard | 1515 |
| 24 | Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind | Hayao Miyazaki | 1647 |
| 25 | The Brother from Another Planet | John Sayles | 1670 |
| 26 | Love Streams | John Cassavetes | 1677 |
| 27 | The Times of Harvey Milk | Rob Epstein | 1798 |
| 28 | Top Secret! | Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker | 1802 |
| 29 | Purple Rain | Albert Magnoli | 1804 |
| 30 | Romancing the Stone | Robert Zemeckis | 1872 |
| 31 | A Sunday in the Country | Bertrand Tavernier | 1938 |
| 32 | All of Me | Carl Reiner | 1962 |
| 33 | A Passage to India* | David Lean | 2023 |
| 34 | Dune | David Lynch | 2067 |
| 35 | Starman | John Carpenter | 2121 |
| 36 | Birdy | Alan Parker | 2122 |
| 37 | A Soldier's Story* | Norman Jewison | 2241 |
| 38 | The Toxic Avenger | Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman | 2287 |
| 39 | Revenge of the Nerds | Jeff Kanew | 2351 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Brazil | Terry Gilliam | 77 |
| 2 | Back to the Future | Robert Zemeckis | 91 |
| 3 | Ran | Akira Kurosawa | 185 |
| 4 | The Breakfast Club | John Hughes | 346 |
| 5 | Come and See | Elem Klimov | 407 |
| 6 | Shoah | Claude Lanzmann | 415 |
| 7 | Out of Africa** | Sydney Pollack | 498 |
| 8 | Witness* | Peter Weir | 510 |
| 9 | A Room with a View* | James Ivory | 526 |
| 10 | My Beautiful Laundrette | Stephen Frears | 610 |
| 11 | The Color Purple* | Steven Spielberg | 630 |
| 12 | My Life as a Dog | Lasse Hallström | 700 |
| 13 | Re-Animator | Stuart Gordon | 812 |
| 14 | The Purple Rose of Cairo | Woody Allen | 837 |
| 15 | After Hours | Martin Scorsese | 944 |
| 16 | Tampopo | Juzo Itami | 981 |
| 17 | The Goonies | Richard Donner | 1036 |
| 18 | Prizzi's Honor* | John Huston | 1041 |
| 19 | Lost in America | Albert Brooks | 1083 |
| 20 | Pee-wee's Big Adventure | Tim Burton | 1093 |
| 21 | Vagabond | Agnès Varda | 1170 |
| 22 | Desperately Seeking Susan | Susan Seidelman | 1227 |
| 23 | The Official Story | Luis Puenzo | 1371 |
| 24 | Day of the Dead | George A. Romero | 1571 |
| 25 | Cocoon | Ron Howard | 1578 |
| 26 | To Live and Die in L.A. | William Friedkin | 1596 |
| 27 | 28 Up | Michael Apted | 1835 |
| 28 | Fright Night | Tom Holland | 1840 |
| 29 | Fletch | Michael Ritchie | 1850 |
| 30 | Runaway Train | Andrei Konchalovsky | 1970 |
| 31 | Better Off Dead… | Savage Steve Holland | 2068 |
| 32 | Yellow Earth | Kaige Chen | 2118 |
| 33 | Rambo: First Blood Part II | George P. Cosmatos | 2146 |
| 34 | The Sure Thing | Rob Reiner | 2177 |
| 35 | Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters | Paul Schrader | 2297 |
| 36 | Rocky IV | Sylvester Stallone | 2327 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Blue Velvet | David Lynch | 59 |
| 2 | Aliens | James Cameron | 65 |
| 3 | Platoon** | Oliver Stone | 122 |
| 4 | Ferris Bueller's Day Off | John Hughes | 295 |
| 5 | Stand by Me | Rob Reiner | 315 |
| 6 | The Fly | David Cronenberg | 349 |
| 7 | Hannah and Her Sisters* | Woody Allen | 354 |
| 8 | Jean de Florette | Claude Berri | 386 |
| 9 | Top Gun | Tony Scott | 411 |
| 10 | Manon of the Spring | Claude Berri | 617 |
| 11 | Hoosiers | David Anspaugh | 651 |
| 12 | Down by Law | Jim Jarmusch | 792 |
| 13 | Betty Blue | Jean-Jacques Beineix | 890 |
| 14 | She's Gotta Have It | Spike Lee | 912 |
| 15 | Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer | John McNaughton | 1010 |
| 16 | Manhunter | Michael Mann | 1147 |
| 17 | The Color of Money | Martin Scorsese | 1153 |
| 18 | Sid and Nancy | Alex Cox | 1196 |
| 19 | The Hitcher | Robert Harmon | 1247 |
| 20 | 9 1/2 Weeks | Adrian Lyne | 1280 |
| 21 | Salvador | Oliver Stone | 1349 |
| 22 | The Mission* | Roland Joffé | 1355 |
| 23 | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home | Leonard Nimoy | 1482 |
| 24 | Highlander | Russell Mulcahy | 1490 |
| 25 | Sherman's March | Ross McElwee | 1529 |
| 26 | Labyrinth | Jim Henson | 1545 |
| 27 | Pretty in Pink | Howard Deutch | 1555 |
| 28 | Crocodile Dundee | Peter Faiman | 1590 |
| 29 | Little Shop of Horrors | Frank Oz | 1668 |
| 30 | Children of a Lesser God* | Randa Haines | 1742 |
| 31 | Summer | Eric Rohmer | 1757 |
| 32 | River's Edge | Tim Hunter | 1778 |
| 33 | The Time to Live and the Time to Die | Hsiao-hsien Hou | 1797 |
| 34 | A Better Tomorrow | John Woo | 1866 |
| 35 | The Big Easy | Jim McBride | 2078 |
| 36 | Big Trouble in Little China | John Carpenter | 2173 |
| 37 | The Name of the Rose | Jean-Jacques Annaud | 2184 |
| 38 | Laputa: Castle in the Sky | Hayao Miyazaki | 2245 |
| 39 | Something Wild | Jonathan Demme | 2310 |
| 40 | Mona Lisa | Neil Jordan | 2374 |
**--Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*--Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
