**—Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*—Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Brokeback Mountain* | Ang Lee | 153 |
| 2 | Hidden | Michael Haneke | 409 |
| 3 | Batman Begins | Christopher Nolan | 414 |
| 4 | A History of Violence | David Cronenberg | 509 |
| 5 | Sin City | Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez | 515 |
| 6 | Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit | Steve Box and Nick Park | 563 |
| 7 | The 40 Year Old Virgin | Judd Apatow | 609 |
| 8 | Grizzly Man | Werner Herzog | 629 |
| 9 | V for Vendetta | James McTeigue | 705 |
| 10 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | Mike Newell | 827 |
| 11 | Serenity | Joss Whedon | 891 |
| 12 | Brick | Rian Johnson | 919 |
| 13 | King Kong | Peter Jackson | 1027 |
| 14 | Murderball | Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro | 1051 |
| 15 | Kiss Kiss Bang Bang | Shane Black | 1101 |
| 16 | Cinderella Man | Ron Howard | 1126 |
| 17 | Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith | George Lucas | 1139 |
| 18 | Walk the Line | James Mangold | 1171 |
| 19 | Pride & Prejudice | Joe Wright | 1208 |
| 20 | The Descent | Neil Marshall | 1228 |
| 21 | March of the Penguins | Luc Jacquet | 1252 |
| 22 | 49 Up | Michael Apted | 1329 |
| 23 | Capote* | Bennett Miller | 1386 |
| 24 | The New World | Terrence Malick | 1494 |
| 25 | The Death of Mister Lazarescu | Cristi Puiu | 1509 |
| 26 | The Beat That My Heart Skipped | Jacques Audiard | 1563 |
| 27 | Munich* | Steven Spielberg | 1624 |
| 28 | The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | Andrew Adamson | 1625 |
| 29 | War of the Worlds | Steven Spielberg | 1684 |
| 30 | The Squid and the Whale | Noah Baumbach | 1696 |
| 31 | Match Point | Woody Allen | 1831 |
| 32 | Good Night, and Good Luck.* | George Clooney | 1854 |
| 33 | The Proposition | John Hillcoat | 1878 |
| 34 | The World's Fastest Indian | Roger Donaldson | 1957 |
| 35 | The Constant Gardner | Fernando Meirelles | 1963 |
| 36 | Corpse Bride | Tim Burton and Mike Johnson | 1989 |
| 37 | Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room | Alex Gibney | 2145 |
| 38 | Mr. & Mrs. Smith | Doug Liman | 2146 |
| 39 | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | Tim Burton | 2179 |
| 40 | Lady Vengeance | Chan-wook Park | 2227 |
| 41 | Lord of War | Andrew Niccol | 2239 |
| 42 | Thank You for Smoking | Jason Reitman | 2264 |
| 43 | The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada | Tommy Lee Jones | 2325 |
| 44 | C.R.A.Z.Y. | Jean-Marc Vallée | 2404 |
| 45 | Coach Carter | Thomas Carter | 2407 |
| 46 | Tsotsi | Gavin Hood | 2573 |
| 47 | Rent | Chris Columbus | 2608 |
| 48 | Green Street Hooligans | Lexi Alexander | 2642 |
| 49 | Wolf Creek | Greg McLean | 2659 |
| 50 | L'Enfant | Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne | 2759 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Pan's Labyrinth | Guillermo del Toro | 146 |
| 2 | The Lives of Others | Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | 218 |
| 3 | The Departed** | Martin Scorsese | 238 |
| 4 | Children of Men | Alfonso Cuarón | 258 |
| 5 | Casino Royale | Martin Campbell | 431 |
| 6 | Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan | Larry Charles | 458 |
| 7 | The Prestige | Christopher Nolan | 555 |
| 8 | Little Miss Sunshine* | Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris | 607 |
| 9 | 300 | Zack Snyder | 666 |
| 10 | Letters from Iwo Jima* | Clint Eastwood | 748 |
| 11 | United 93 | Paul Greengrass | 1012 |
| 12 | Paprika | Satoshi Kon | 1168 |
| 13 | This Is England | Shane Meadows | 1205 |
| 14 | Volver | Pedro Almodóvar | 1221 |
| 15 | The Host | Bong Joon Ho | 1298 |
| 16 | When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts | Spike Lee | 1300 |
| 17 | Inland Empire | David Lynch | 1361 |
| 18 | A Scanner Darkly | Richard Linklater | 1389 |
| 19 | Babel* | Alejandro G. Iñárritu | 1420 |
| 20 | Black Book | Paul Verhoeven | 1473 |
| 21 | The Queen* | Stephen Frears | 1498 |
| 22 | The Pursuit of Happyness | Gabriele Muccino | 1716 |
| 23 | Little Children | Todd Field | 1724 |
| 24 | Blood Diamond | Edward Zwick | 1771 |
| 25 | Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby | Adam McKay | 1794 |
| 26 | The Fountain | Darren Aronofsky | 1801 |
| 27 | Crank | Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor | 1863 |
| 28 | Apocalypto | Mel Gibson | 1879 |
| 29 | The Fall | Tarsem Singh | 1883 |
| 30 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | Gore Verbinski | 1948 |
| 31 | Idiocracy | Mike Judge | 1953 |
| 32 | An Inconvenient Truth | Davis Guggenheim | 1975 |
| 33 | Lucky Number Slevin | Paul McGuigan | 1992 |
| 34 | The Girl Who Leapt Through Time | Mamoru Hosoda | 2053 |
| 35 | Inside Man | Spike Lee | 2119 |
| 36 | The Last King of Scotland | Kevin Macdonald | 2128 |
| 37 | Flags of Our Fathers | Clint Eastwood | 2149 |
| 38 | Happy Feet | George Miller | 2192 |
| 39 | Shortbus | John Cameron Mitchell | 2419 |
| 40 | Mission: Impossible III | J.J. Abrams | 2454 |
| 41 | Still Life | Zhangke Jia | 2465 |
| 42 | Marie Antoinette | Sofia Coppola | 2479 |
| 43 | Dreamgirls | Bill Condon | 2609 |
| 44 | Jesus Camp | Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady | 2623 |
| 45 | Days of Glory | Rachid Bouchareb | 2626 |
| 46 | Away from Her | Sarah Polley | 2635 |
| 47 | The Devil Wears Prada | David Frankel | 2675 |
| 48 | Glory Road | James Gartner | 2727 |
| 49 | Offside | Jafar Panahi | 2738 |
| 50 | Shut Up & Sing | Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck | 2751 |
| 51 | The Illusionist | Neil Burger | 2771 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | There Will Be Blood* | Paul Thomas Anderson | 147 |
| 2 | No Country for Old Men** | Ethan and Joel Coen | 189 |
| 3 | The Bourne Ultimatum | Paul Greengrass | 384 |
| 4 | Ratatouille | Brad Bird | 412 |
| 5 | Persepolis | Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi | 472 |
| 6 | Juno* | Jason Reitman | 522 |
| 7 | Hot Fuzz | Edgar Wright | 608 |
| 8 | The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford | Andrew Dominik | 681 |
| 9 | Atonement* | Joe Wright | 771 |
| 10 | Superbad | Greg Mottola | 777 |
| 11 | 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days | Cristian Mungiu | 808 |
| 12 | Into the Wild | Sean Penn | 870 |
| 13 | The Diving Bell and the Butterfly | Julian Schnabel | 895 |
| 14 | Once | John Carney | 942 |
| 15 | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street | Tim Burton | 1006 |
| 16 | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | David Yates | 1030 |
| 17 | Zodiac | David Fincher | 1037 |
| 18 | 3:10 to Yuma | James Mangold | 1059 |
| 19 | The Orphanage | J.A. Bayona | 1131 |
| 20 | La Vie en rose | Olivier Dahan | 1215 |
| 21 | Enchanted | Kevin Lima | 1296 |
| 22 | Sunshine | Danny Boyle | 1438 |
| 23 | [Rec] | Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza | 1444 |
| 24 | Eastern Promises | David Cronenberg | 1459 |
| 25 | Knocked Up | Judd Apatow | 1488 |
| 26 | Hairspray | Adam Shankman | 1637 |
| 27 | American Gangster | Ridley Scott | 1692 |
| 28 | The King of Kong | Seth Gordon | 1772 |
| 29 | Control | Anton Corbijn | 1775 |
| 30 | Gone Baby Gone | Ben Affleck | 1977 |
| 31 | The Mist | Frank Darabont | 2002 |
| 32 | I'm Not There. | Todd Haynes | 2008 |
| 33 | Michael Clayton* | Tony Gilroy | 2027 |
| 34 | Taxi to the Dark Side | Alex Gibney | 2063 |
| 35 | Stardust | Matthew Vaughn | 2126 |
| 36 | Lust, Caution | Ang Lee | 2218 |
| 37 | In the Shadow of the Moon | David Sington | 2271 |
| 38 | Paranormal Activity | Oren Peli | 2279 |
| 39 | Transformers | Michael Bay | 2309 |
| 40 | Waitress | Adrienne Shelly | 2381 |
| 41 | I Am Legend | Francis Lawrence | 2385 |
| 42 | Sicko | Michael Moore | 2427 |
| 43 | Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | Gore Verbinski | 2455 |
| 44 | Lars and the Real Girl | Craig Gillespie | 2461 |
| 45 | Live Free or Die Hard | Len Wiseman | 2469 |
| 46 | Heima | Dean DeBlois | 2502 |
| 47 | Across the Universe | Julie Taymor | 2604 |
| 48 | My Winnipeg | Guy Maddin | 2627 |
| 49 | Bridge to Terabithia | Gabor Csupo | 2669 |
| 50 | The Simpsons Movie | David Silverman | 2711 |
| 51 | The Darjeeling Limited | Wes Anderson | 2741 |
| 52 | 28 Weeks Later | Juan Carlos Fresnadillo | 2788 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Dark Knight | Christopher Nolan | 47 |
| 2 | WALL•E | Andrew Stanton | 82 |
| 3 | Slumdog Millionaire** | Danny Boyle | 394 |
| 4 | Let the Right One in | Tomas Alfredson | 395 |
| 5 | The Hurt Locker** | Kathryn Bigelow | 399 |
| 6 | Waltz with Bashir | Ari Folman | 400 |
| 7 | The Wrestler | Darren Aronofsky | 475 |
| 8 | Iron Man | Jon Favreau | 537 |
| 9 | Gran Torino | Clint Eastwood | 577 |
| 10 | Man on Wire | James Marsh | 689 |
| 11 | In Bruges | Martin McDonagh | 846 |
| 12 | Milk* | Gus Van Sant | 886 |
| 13 | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button* | David Fincher | 1029 |
| 14 | Synecdoche, New York | Charlie Kaufman | 1123 |
| 15 | Taken | Pierre Morel | 1166 |
| 16 | Hunger | Steve McQueen | 1321 |
| 17 | Kung Fu Panda | Mark Osborne and John Stevenson | 1327 |
| 18 | Ip Man | Wilson Yip | 1594 |
| 19 | Ponyo | Hayao Miyazaki | 1608 |
| 20 | Changeling | Clint Eastwood | 1848 |
| 21 | Anvil! The Story of Anvil | Sacha Gervasi | 1912 |
| 22 | Martyrs | Pascal Laugier | 1916 |
| 23 | Hellboy II: The Golden Army | Guillermo del Toro | 1966 |
| 24 | The Boy in the Striped Pajamas | Mark Herman | 1971 |
| 25 | Forgetting Sarah Marshall | Nicholas Stoller | 2049 |
| 26 | 35 Shots of Rum | Claire Denis | 2050 |
| 27 | The Reader* | Stephen Daldry | 2056 |
| 28 | Wendy and Lucy | Kelly Reichardt | 2131 |
| 29 | Cloverfield | Matt Reeves | 2214 |
| 30 | Gomorrah | Matteo Garrone | 2256 |
| 31 | Food Inc. | Robert Kenner | 2260 |
| 32 | Step Brothers | Adam McKay | 2290 |
| 33 | A Christmas Tale | Arnaud Desplechin | 2294 |
| 34 | Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father | Kurt Kuenne | 2310 |
| 35 | Sugar | Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck | 2316 |
| 36 | Tropic Thunder | Ben Stiller | 2321 |
| 37 | Doubt | John Patrick Shanley | 2327 |
| 38 | Departures | Yojiro Takita | 2508 |
| 39 | Twilight | Catherine Hardwicke | 2521 |
| 40 | Mamma Mia! | Phyllida Lloyd | 2639 |
| 41 | Sita Sings the Blues | Nina Paley | 2676 |
| 42 | Frost/Nixon* | Ron Howard | 2692 |
| 43 | Happy-Go-Lucky | Mike Leigh | 2703 |
| 44 | The Beaches of Agnès | Agnès Varda | 2735 |
| 45 | Love Exposure | Shion Sono | 2762 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Up* | Pete Docter | 188 |
| 2 | Avatar* | James Cameron | 262 |
| 3 | Inglourious Basterds* | Quentin Tarantino | 272 |
| 4 | District 9* | Neill Blomkamp | 518 |
| 5 | Star Trek | J.J. Abrams | 623 |
| 6 | Moon | Duncan Jones | 660 |
| 7 | Fantastic Mr. Fox | Wes Anderson | 694 |
| 8 | Coraline | Henry Selick | 717 |
| 9 | Mary and Max | Adam Elliot | 837 |
| 10 | A Prophet | Jacques Audiard | 842 |
| 11 | The Hangover | Todd Phillips | 844 |
| 12 | The White Ribbon | Michael Haneke | 946 |
| 13 | (500) Days of Summer | Marc Webb | 1106 |
| 14 | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | David Yates | 1153 |
| 15 | Fish Tank | Andrea Arnold | 1306 |
| 16 | In the Loop | Armando Iannucci | 1311 |
| 17 | Watchmen | Zack Snyder | 1355 |
| 18 | A Serious Man* | Ethan and Joel Coen | 1387 |
| 19 | The Secret in Their Eyes | Juan José Campanella | 1455 |
| 20 | Hachiko: A Dog's Story | Lasse Hallström | 1490 |
| 21 | Where the Wild Things Are | Spike Jonze | 1655 |
| 22 | The Blind Side* | John Lee Hancock | 1681 |
| 23 | 3 Idiots | Rajkumar Hirani | 1750 |
| 24 | The Cove | Louie Psihoyos | 1798 |
| 25 | An Education* | Lone Scherfig | 1843 |
| 26 | Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire* | Lee Daniels | 1934 |
| 27 | The Secret of Kells | Tomm Moore | 1999 |
| 28 | A Single Man | Tom Ford | 2087 |
| 29 | Antichrist | Lars von Trier | 2110 |
| 30 | Enter the Void | Gaspar Noé | 2115 |
| 31 | Up in the Air* | Jason Reitman | 2160 |
| 32 | The Princess and the Frog | Ron Clements and John Musker | 2175 |
| 33 | Invictus | Clint Eastwood | 2215 |
| 34 | Zombieland | Ruben Fleischer | 2217 |
| 35 | The Damned United | Tom Hooper | 2245 |
| 36 | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Niels Arden Oplev | 2292 |
| 37 | Drag Me to Hell | Sam Raimi | 2324 |
| 38 | The Road | John Hillcoat | 2326 |
| 39 | Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs | Phil Lord and Christopher Miller | 2343 |
| 40 | Sherlock Holmes | Guy Ritchie | 2528 |
| 41 | Bright Star | Jane Campion | 2710 |
| 42 | White Material | Claire Denis | 2712 |
| 43 | Adventureland | Greg Mottola | 2808 |
**—Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*—Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
