**—Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*—Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | In the Mood for Love | Kar-Wai Wong | 94 |
| 2 | Gladiator** | Ridley Scott | 137 |
| 3 | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* | Ang Lee | 140 |
| 4 | Memento | Christopher Nolan | 145 |
| 5 | Requiem for a Dream | Darren Aronofsky | 293 |
| 6 | Yi yi: A One and a Two... | Edward Yang | 457 |
| 7 | American Psycho | Mary Harron | 493 |
| 8 | Almost Famous | Cameron Crowe | 494 |
| 9 | Love & Basketball | Gina Prince-Bythewood | 602 |
| 10 | Amores perros | Alejandro G. Iñárritu | 612 |
| 11 | Dancer in the Dark | Lars von Trier | 632 |
| 12 | Snatch. | Guy Ritchie | 645 |
| 13 | Battle Royale | Kinji Fukasaku | 664 |
| 14 | Remember the Titans | Boaz Yakin | 846 |
| 15 | Werckmeister Harmonies | Béla Tarr | 874 |
| 16 | The Gleaners & I | Agnès Varda | 927 |
| 17 | Chicken Run | Peter Lord and Nick Park | 995 |
| 18 | High Fidelity | Stephen Frears | 1027 |
| 19 | Unbreakable | M. Night Shyamalan | 1065 |
| 20 | O Brother, Where Art Thou? | Joel Coen | 1090 |
| 21 | Best in Show | Christopher Guest | 1095 |
| 22 | Sexy Beast | Jonathan Glazer | 1147 |
| 23 | X-Men | Bryan Singer | 1183 |
| 24 | Erin Brockovich* | Steven Soderbergh | 1187 |
| 25 | Traffic* | Steven Soderbergh | 1188 |
| 26 | Billy Elliot | Stephen Daldry | 1215 |
| 27 | Cast Away | Robert Zemeckis | 1387 |
| 28 | Meet the Parents | Jay Roach | 1513 |
| 29 | Bring It on | Peyton Reed | 1782 |
| 30 | Songs from the Second Floor | Roy Andersson | 1976 |
| 31 | The Emperor's New Groove | Mark Dindal | 2019 |
| 32 | Girlfight | Karyn Kusama | 2116 |
| 33 | George Washington | David Gordon Green | 2223 |
| 34 | Platform | Jia Zhang-ke | 2232 |
| 35 | Ginger Snaps | John Fawcett | 2327 |
| 36 | Final Destination | James Wong | 2387 |
| 37 | The Circle | Jafar Panahi | 2492 |
| 38 | The Patriot | Roland Emmerich | 2496 |
| 39 | Chocolat* | Lasse Hallström | 2525 |
| 40 | The Perfect Storm | Wolfgang Petersen | 2750 |
| 41 | Devils on the Doorstep | Wen Jiang | 2862 |
| 42 | Dark Days | Marc Singer | 2868 |
| 43 | As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty | Jonas Mekas | 2897 |
| 44 | Before Night Falls | Julian Schnabel | 2976 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Spirited Away | Hayao Miyazaki | 32 |
| 2 | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring* | Peter Jackson | 35 |
| 3 | Mulholland Dr. | David Lynch | 89 |
| 4 | Amélie | Jean-Pierre Jeunet | 119 |
| 5 | Donnie Darko | Richard Kelly | 136 |
| 6 | Monsters, Inc. | Pete Docter | 327 |
| 7 | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | Chris Columbus | 333 |
| 8 | Shrek | Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson | 338 |
| 9 | Moulin Rouge!* | Baz Luhrmann | 350 |
| 10 | Y tu mamá también | Alfonso Cuarón | 462 |
| 11 | The Royal Tenenbaums | Wes Anderson | 546 |
| 12 | A Beautiful Mind** | Ron Howard | 572 |
| 13 | Hedwig and the Angry Inch | John Cameron Mitchell | 605 |
| 14 | The Others | Alejandro Amenábar | 639 |
| 15 | A.I.: Artificial Intelligence | Steven Spielberg | 655 |
| 16 | Bridget Jones's Diary | Sharon Maguire | 736 |
| 17 | Black Hawk Down | Ridley Scott | 837 |
| 18 | The Devil's Backbone | Guillermo del Toro | 873 |
| 19 | Ocean's Eleven | Steven Soderbergh | 962 |
| 20 | Ghost World | Terry Zwigoff | 970 |
| 21 | Wet Hot American Summer | David Wain | 1214 |
| 22 | Lagaan: Once upon a Time in India | Ashutosh Gowariker | 1228 |
| 23 | Zoolander | Ben Stiller | 1305 |
| 24 | Ali | Michael Mann | 1316 |
| 25 | Legally Blonde | Robert Luketic | 1479 |
| 26 | Waking Life | Richard Linklater | 1514 |
| 27 | Monsoon Wedding | Mira Nair | 1588 |
| 28 | Pulse | Kiyoshi Kurosawa | 1664 |
| 29 | The Piano Teacher | Michael Haneke | 1697 |
| 30 | Millennium Actress | Satoshi Kon | 1716 |
| 31 | Training Day | Antoine Fuqua | 1826 |
| 32 | Gosford Park* | Robert Altman | 1835 |
| 33 | Shaolin Soccer | Stephen Chow | 1945 |
| 34 | Dogtown and Z-Boys | Stacy Peralta | 1984 |
| 35 | Kissing Jessica Stein | Charles Herman-Wurmfeld | 2212 |
| 36 | Fat Girl | Catherine Breillat | 2226 |
| 37 | Trouble Every Day | Claire Denis | 2346 |
| 38 | Enemy at the Gates | Jean-Jacques Annaud | 2392 |
| 39 | The Fast and the Furious | Rob Cohen | 2408 |
| 40 | In the Bedroom* | Todd Field | 2443 |
| 41 | No Man's Land | Danis Tanovic | 2473 |
| 42 | La Ciénaga | Lucrecia Martel | 2523 |
| 43 | Serendipity | Peter Chelsom | 2641 |
| 44 | Metropolis | Rintarô | 2721 |
| 45 | Ichi the Killer | Takashi Miike | 2735 |
| 46 | Session 9 | Brad Anderson | 2823 |
| 47 | The Man Who Wasn't There | Joel Coen | 2858 |
| 48 | Blow | Ted Demme | 2876 |
| 49 | The Fast Runner (Atanarjuat) | Zacharias Kunuk | 2955 |
| 50 | The Princess Diaries | Garry Marshall | 2960 |
| 51 | I Am Sam | Jessie Nelson | 2975 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers* | Peter Jackson | 58 |
| 2 | City of God | Fernando Meirelles | 103 |
| 3 | The Pianist* | Roman Polanski | 166 |
| 4 | 28 Days Later… | Danny Boyle | 409 |
| 5 | Minority Report | Steven Spielberg | 413 |
| 6 | Spider-Man | Sam Raimi | 516 |
| 7 | Bend It Like Beckham | Gurinder Chadha | 676 |
| 8 | Punch-Drunk Love | Paul Thomas Anderson | 689 |
| 9 | Infernal Affairs | Wai Keung Lau and Alan Mak | 711 |
| 10 | Talk to Her | Pedro Almodóvar | 714 |
| 11 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | Chris Columbus | 731 |
| 12 | Catch Me If You Can | Steven Spielberg | 733 |
| 13 | Chicago** | Rob Marshall | 763 |
| 14 | The Bourne Identity | Doug Liman | 790 |
| 15 | Bowling for Columbine | Michael Moore | 795 |
| 16 | Hero | Yimou Zhang | 808 |
| 17 | The Ring | Gore Verbinski | 1046 |
| 18 | Adaptation. | Spike Jonze | 1050 |
| 19 | 25th Hour | Spike Lee | 1051 |
| 20 | Russian Ark | Aleksandr Sokurov | 1300 |
| 21 | My Big Fat Greek Wedding | Joel Zwick | 1304 |
| 22 | Ice Age | Chris Wedge | 1309 |
| 23 | Road to Perdition | Sam Mendes | 1328 |
| 24 | Blade II | Guillermo del Toro | 1372 |
| 25 | The Hours* | Stephen Daldry | 1445 |
| 26 | Irréversible | Gaspar Noé | 1522 |
| 27 | Gangs of New York* | Martin Scorsese | 1532 |
| 28 | Lilja 4-ever | Lukas Moodysson | 1544 |
| 29 | Whale Rider | Niki Caro | 1565 |
| 30 | Signs | M. Night Shyamalan | 1581 |
| 31 | A Walk to Remember | Adam Shankman | 1619 |
| 32 | 24 Hour Party People | Michael Winterbottom | 1767 |
| 33 | Far from Heaven | Todd Haynes | 1768 |
| 34 | Lilo & Stitch | Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders | 1869 |
| 35 | The Rookie | John Lee Hancock | 1919 |
| 36 | Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks | Wang Bing | 1927 |
| 37 | Secretary | Steven Shainberg | 1981 |
| 38 | To Be and to Have | Nicolas Philibert | 2080 |
| 39 | Spellbound | Jeffrey Blitz | 2097 |
| 40 | Ju-on: The Grudge | Takashi Shimizu | 2121 |
| 41 | About a Boy | Chris and Paul Weitz | 2175 |
| 42 | Insomnia | Christopher Nolan | 2286 |
| 43 | Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance | Park Chan-wook | 2301 |
| 44 | Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones | George Lucas | 2335 |
| 45 | 8 Mile | Curtis Hanson | 2362 |
| 46 | Frida | Julie Taymor | 2399 |
| 47 | Equilibrium | Kurt Wimmer | 2414 |
| 48 | Rabbit-Proof Fence | Phillip Noyce | 2447 |
| 49 | 8 Women | François Ozon | 2586 |
| 50 | Bubba Ho-Tep | Don Coscarelli | 2599 |
| 51 | Morvern Callar | Lynne Ramsay | 2604 |
| 52 | The Son | Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne | 2656 |
| 53 | About Schmidt | Alexander Payne | 2852 |
| 54 | The Quiet American | Phillip Noyce | 2857 |
| 55 | Bloody Sunday | Paul Greengrass | 2898 |
| 56 | Bus 174 | José Padilha | 2970 |
| 57 | The Twilight Samurai | Yôji Yamada | 2981 |
| 58 | The Man without a Past | Aki Kaurismäki | 3020 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King** | Peter Jackson | 52 |
| 2 | Oldboy | Park Chan-wook | 141 |
| 3 | Finding Nemo | Andrew Stanton | 163 |
| 4 | Lost in Translation* | Sofia Coppola | 172 |
| 5 | Kill Bill: Vol. 1 | Quentin Tarantino | 262 |
| 6 | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl | Gore Verbinski | 363 |
| 7 | Love Actually | Richard Curtis | 503 |
| 8 | The Triplets of Belleville | Sylvain Chomet | 646 |
| 9 | Memories of Murder | Bong Joon Ho | 657 |
| 10 | X2 | Bryan Singer | 675 |
| 11 | Big Fish | Tim Burton | 694 |
| 12 | Mystic River* | Clint Eastwood | 707 |
| 13 | Dogville | Lars von Trier | 869 |
| 14 | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara | Errol Morris | 959 |
| 15 | Elf | Jon Favreau | 975 |
| 16 | The School of Rock | Richard Linklater | 977 |
| 17 | The Best of Youth | Marco Tullio Giordana | 1024 |
| 18 | Capturing the Friedmans | Andrew Jarecki | 1031 |
| 19 | Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring | Kim Ki-duk | 1064 |
| 20 | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World* | Peter Weir | 1129 |
| 21 | Monster | Patty Jenkins | 1379 |
| 22 | American Splendor | Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini | 1420 |
| 23 | Elephant | Gus Van Sant | 1457 |
| 24 | Something's Gotta Give | Nancy Meyers | 1470 |
| 25 | Seabiscuit* | Gary Ross | 1639 |
| 26 | The Matrix Reloaded | Lana and Lilly Wachowski | 1705 |
| 27 | Touching the Void | Kevin Macdonald | 1717 |
| 28 | Open Range | Kevin Costner | 1776 |
| 29 | The Dreamers | Bernardo Bertolucci | 1817 |
| 30 | A Tale of Two Sisters | Kim Jee-woon | 1842 |
| 31 | Good Bye Lenin! | Wolfgang Becker | 1877 |
| 32 | The Last Samurai | Edward Zwick | 1949 |
| 33 | 21 Grams | Alejandro G. Iñárritu | 2003 |
| 34 | Freaky Friday | Mark Waters | 2023 |
| 35 | Tokyo Godfathers | Shôgo Furuya and Satoshi Kon | 2070 |
| 36 | How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days | Donald Petrie | 2073 |
| 37 | The Barbarian Invasions | Denys Arcand | 2074 |
| 38 | The Return | Andrey Zvyagintsev | 2124 |
| 39 | The Station Agent | Tom McCarthy | 2193 |
| 40 | Moolaadé | Ousmane Sembene | 2214 |
| 41 | The Room | Tommy Wiseau | 2250 |
| 42 | Los Angeles Plays Itself | Thom Andersen | 2307 |
| 43 | Old School | Todd Phillips | 2309 |
| 44 | Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior | Prachya Pinkaew | 2334 |
| 45 | In the Cut | Jane Campion | 2425 |
| 46 | Good Bye, Dragon Inn | Tsai Ming-liang | 2596 |
| 47 | Thirteen | Catherine Hardwicke | 2622 |
| 48 | Bad Santa | Terry Zwigoff | 2633 |
| 49 | The Italian Job | F. Gary Gray | 2715 |
| 50 | The Five Obstructions | Jørgen Leth and Lars von Trier | 2998 |
| 51 | Tarnation | Jonathan Caouette | 3001 |
| 52 | High Tension | Alexandre Aja | 3004 |
| 53 | Cold Mountain | Anthony Minghella | 3014 |
| 54 | The Matrix Revolutions | Lana and Lilly Wachowski | 3044 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | Michel Gondry | 56 |
| 2 | The Incredibles | Brad Bird | 184 |
| 3 | Shaun of the Dead | Edgar Wright | 214 |
| 4 | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | Alfonso Cuarón | 305 |
| 5 | Before Sunset | Richard Linklater | 314 |
| 6 | Million Dollar Baby** | Clint Eastwood | 341 |
| 7 | The Notebook | Nick Cassavetes | 439 |
| 8 | Kill Bill: Vol. 2 | Quentin Tarantino | 445 |
| 9 | Spider-Man 2 | Sam Raimi | 459 |
| 10 | Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy | Adam McKay | 479 |
| 11 | Mean Girls | Mark Waters | 499 |
| 12 | Downfall | Oliver Hirschbiegel | 526 |
| 13 | Napoleon Dynamite | Jared Hess | 535 |
| 14 | Howl's Moving Castle | Hayao Miyazaki | 599 |
| 15 | Sideways* | Alexander Payne | 742 |
| 16 | Hotel Rwanda | Terry George | 794 |
| 17 | Saw | James Wan | 828 |
| 18 | The Bourne Supremacy | Paul Greengrass | 878 |
| 19 | Kung Fu Hustle | Stephen Chow | 897 |
| 20 | Shrek 2 | Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, and Conrad Vernon | 1114 |
| 21 | 2046 | Kar-Wai Wong | 1142 |
| 22 | Garden State | Zach Braff | 1164 |
| 23 | Miracle | Gavin O'Connor | 1193 |
| 24 | Primer | Shane Carruth | 1222 |
| 25 | Team America: World Police | Trey Parker | 1288 |
| 26 | Friday Night Lights | Peter Berg | 1350 |
| 27 | House of Flying Daggers | Yimou Zhang | 1358 |
| 28 | Mysterious Skin | Gregg Araki | 1401 |
| 29 | Hellboy | Guillermo del Toro | 1426 |
| 30 | Crash** | Paul Haggis | 1474 |
| 31 | The Sea Inside | Alejandro Amenábar | 1488 |
| 32 | Nobody Knows | Hirokazu Koreeda | 1569 |
| 33 | Collateral | Michael Mann | 1590 |
| 34 | Dead Man's Shoes | Shane Meadows | 1600 |
| 35 | Dawn of the Dead | Zack Snyder | 1640 |
| 36 | The Butterfly Effect | Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber | 1643 |
| 37 | Tropical Malady | Apichatpong Weerasethakul | 1670 |
| 38 | Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story | Rawson Marshall Thurber | 1690 |
| 39 | Bad Education | Pedro Almodóvar | 1699 |
| 40 | The Aviator* | Martin Scorsese | 1704 |
| 41 | The Passion of the Christ | Mel Gibson | 1720 |
| 42 | The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou | Wes Anderson | 1802 |
| 43 | 13 Going on 30 | Gary Winick | 1809 |
| 44 | Ray* | Taylor Hackford | 1929 |
| 45 | A Very Long Engagement | Jean-Pierre Jeunet | 1963 |
| 46 | Finding Neverland* | Marc Forster | 1965 |
| 47 | 3-Iron | Kim Ki-duk | 2020 |
| 48 | Man on Fire | Tony Scott | 2062 |
| 49 | Head-On | Fatih Akin | 2106 |
| 50 | Super Size Me | Morgan Spurlock | 2157 |
| 51 | Fahrenheit 9/11 | Michael Moore | 2183 |
| 52 | Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle | Danny Leiner | 2189 |
| 53 | 50 First Dates | Peter Segal | 2196 |
| 54 | Turtles Can Fly | Bahman Ghobadi | 2299 |
| 55 | Troy | Wolfgang Petersen | 2308 |
| 56 | The Village | M. Night Shyamalan | 2390 |
| 57 | National Treasure | Jon Turteltaub | 2413 |
| 58 | Metallica: Some Kind of Monster | Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky | 2448 |
| 59 | Vera Drake | Mike Leigh | 2487 |
| 60 | The Motorcycle Diaries | Walter Salles | 2646 |
| 61 | The Chorus | Christophe Barratier | 2680 |
| 62 | Layer Cake | Matthew Vaughn | 2819 |
| 63 | The Machinist | Brad Anderson | 2850 |
| 64 | My Summer of Love | Pawel Pawlikowski | 2904 |
| 65 | Saving Face | Alice Wu | 2977 |
| 66 | Mind Game | Masaaki Yuasa | 2987 |
| 67 | The Phantom of the Opera | Joel Schumacher | 3023 |
| 68 | Riding Giants | Stacy Peralta | 3050 |
**—Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*—Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
