**—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 | 111 |
| 2 | Batman Begins | Christopher Nolan | 384 |
| 3 | Hidden | Michael Haneke | 501 |
| 4 | V for Vendetta | James McTeigue | 524 |
| 5 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | Mike Newell | 534 |
| 6 | Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit | Steve Box and Nick Park | 634 |
| 7 | Grizzly Man | Werner Herzog | 682 |
| 8 | Sin City | Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez | 737 |
| 9 | The Descent | Neil Marshall | 746 |
| 10 | Serenity | Joss Whedon | 755 |
| 11 | The 40 Year Old Virgin | Judd Apatow | 767 |
| 12 | A History of Violence | David Cronenberg | 769 |
| 13 | Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith | George Lucas | 887 |
| 14 | Pride & Prejudice | Joe Wright | 968 |
| 15 | Murderball | Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro | 973 |
| 16 | King Kong | Peter Jackson | 1038 |
| 17 | 49 Up | Michael Apted | 1209 |
| 18 | Brick | Rian Johnson | 1230 |
| 19 | Kiss Kiss Bang Bang | Shane Black | 1254 |
| 20 | March of the Penguins | Luc Jacquet | 1385 |
| 21 | Capote* | Bennett Miller | 1406 |
| 22 | Walk the Line | James Mangold | 1416 |
| 23 | Cinderella Man | Ron Howard | 1423 |
| 24 | The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | Andrew Adamson | 1467 |
| 25 | The Death of Mister Lazarescu | Cristi Puiu | 1603 |
| 26 | The Constant Gardner | Fernando Meirelles | 1605 |
| 27 | War of the Worlds | Steven Spielberg | 1623 |
| 28 | The New World | Terrence Malick | 1630 |
| 29 | Corpse Bride | Tim Burton and Mike Johnson | 1665 |
| 30 | Match Point | Woody Allen | 1849 |
| 31 | Munich* | Steven Spielberg | 1883 |
| 32 | Good Night, and Good Luck.* | George Clooney | 2012 |
| 33 | The Proposition | John Hillcoat | 2050 |
| 34 | The Beat That My Heart Skipped | Jacques Audiard | 2056 |
| 35 | The Squid and the Whale | Noah Baumbach | 2202 |
| 36 | Lady Vengeance | Park Chan-wook | 2215 |
| 37 | Mr. & Mrs. Smith | Doug Liman | 2296 |
| 38 | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | Tim Burton | 2354 |
| 39 | Lord of War | Andrew Niccol | 2365 |
| 40 | Tsotsi | Gavin Hood | 2417 |
| 41 | Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room | Alex Gibney | 2553 |
| 42 | C.R.A.Z.Y. | Jean-Marc Vallée | 2652 |
| 43 | L'Enfant | Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne | 2744 |
| 44 | The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada | Tommy Lee Jones | 2781 |
| 45 | Me and You and Everyone We Know | Miranda July | 2793 |
| 46 | Constantine | Francis Lawrence | 2853 |
| 47 | Rent | Chris Columbus | 2973 |
| 48 | Jarhead | Sam Mendes | 3058 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Pan's Labyrinth | Guillermo del Toro | 82 |
| 2 | The Departed** | Martin Scorsese | 153 |
| 3 | Children of Men | Alfonso Cuarón | 193 |
| 4 | The Lives of Others | Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | 244 |
| 5 | Casino Royale | Martin Campbell | 358 |
| 6 | The Prestige | Christopher Nolan | 392 |
| 7 | Letters from Iwo Jima* | Clint Eastwood | 475 |
| 8 | Little Miss Sunshine* | Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris | 579 |
| 9 | Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan | Larry Charles | 606 |
| 10 | 300 | Zack Snyder | 726 |
| 11 | The Host | Bong Joon Ho | 747 |
| 12 | Once | John Carney | 886 |
| 13 | Paprika | Satoshi Kon | 933 |
| 14 | This Is England | Shane Meadows | 1225 |
| 15 | Inland Empire | David Lynch | 1273 |
| 16 | Volver | Pedro Almodóvar | 1282 |
| 17 | Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby | Adam McKay | 1368 |
| 18 | The Pursuit of Happyness | Gabriele Muccino | 1374 |
| 19 | United 93 | Paul Greengrass | 1380 |
| 20 | A Scanner Darkly | Richard Linklater | 1449 |
| 21 | Black Book | Paul Verhoeven | 1602 |
| 22 | Blood Diamond | Edward Zwick | 1657 |
| 23 | Apocalypto | Mel Gibson | 1712 |
| 24 | The Devil Wears Prada | David Frankel | 1751 |
| 25 | Idiocracy | Mike Judge | 1761 |
| 26 | Marie Antoinette | Sofia Coppola | 1793 |
| 27 | When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts | Spike Lee | 1800 |
| 28 | Flags of Our Fathers | Clint Eastwood | 1819 |
| 29 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | Gore Verbinski | 1867 |
| 30 | Dreamgirls | Bill Condon | 1908 |
| 31 | The Fall | Tarsem Singh | 1996 |
| 32 | Babel* | Alejandro G. Iñárritu | 2077 |
| 33 | The Fountain | Darren Aronofsky | 2155 |
| 34 | Shortbus | John Cameron Mitchell | 2237 |
| 35 | The Holiday | Nancy Meyers | 2238 |
| 36 | Cars | John Lasseter | 2239 |
| 37 | Lucky Number Slevin | Paul McGuigan | 2271 |
| 38 | Still Life | Jia Zhang-ke | 2313 |
| 39 | An Inconvenient Truth | Davis Guggenheim | 2337 |
| 40 | Inside Man | Spike Lee | 2384 |
| 41 | Little Children | Todd Field | 2407 |
| 42 | Akeelah and the Bee | Doug Atchison | 2472 |
| 43 | The Queen* | Stephen Frears | 2485 |
| 44 | High School Musical | Kenny Ortega | 2511 |
| 45 | Rescue Dawn | Werner Herzog | 2514 |
| 46 | Mission: Impossible III | J.J. Abrams | 2521 |
| 47 | Days of Glory | Rachid Bouchareb | 2552 |
| 48 | Crank | Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor | 2689 |
| 49 | Happy Feet | George Miller | 2747 |
| 50 | Syndromes and a Century | Apichatpong Weerasethakul | 2839 |
| 51 | Away from Her | Sarah Polley | 2844 |
| 52 | We Are Marshall | McG | 2893 |
| 53 | The Illusionist | Neil Burger | 2911 |
| 54 | The Last King of Scotland | Kevin Macdonald | 3040 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | No Country for Old Men** | Ethan and Joel Coen | 101 |
| 2 | There Will Be Blood* | Paul Thomas Anderson | 125 |
| 3 | Ratatouille | Brad Bird | 285 |
| 4 | The Bourne Ultimatum | Paul Greengrass | 315 |
| 5 | Persepolis | Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi | 334 |
| 6 | Juno* | Jason Reitman | 468 |
| 7 | Zodiac | David Fincher | 507 |
| 8 | Hot Fuzz | Edgar Wright | 561 |
| 9 | Atonement* | Joe Wright | 588 |
| 10 | Superbad | Greg Mottola | 610 |
| 11 | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | David Yates | 635 |
| 12 | The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford | Andrew Dominik | 713 |
| 13 | Into the Wild | Sean Penn | 749 |
| 14 | 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days | Cristian Mungiu | 778 |
| 15 | The Orphanage | J.A. Bayona | 803 |
| 16 | The Diving Bell and the Butterfly | Julian Schnabel | 902 |
| 17 | [Rec] | Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza | 994 |
| 18 | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street | Tim Burton | 998 |
| 19 | Enchanted | Kevin Lima | 1049 |
| 20 | 3:10 to Yuma | James Mangold | 1195 |
| 21 | Eastern Promises | David Cronenberg | 1266 |
| 22 | Sunshine | Danny Boyle | 1360 |
| 23 | Paranormal Activity | Oren Peli | 1369 |
| 24 | The King of Kong | Seth Gordon | 1381 |
| 25 | Hairspray | Adam Shankman | 1429 |
| 26 | The Mist | Frank Darabont | 1480 |
| 27 | American Gangster | Ridley Scott | 1523 |
| 28 | Knocked Up | Judd Apatow | 1542 |
| 29 | Lust, Caution | Ang Lee | 1543 |
| 30 | La Vie en rose | Olivier Dahan | 1566 |
| 31 | Stardust | Matthew Vaughn | 1667 |
| 32 | Bridge to Terabithia | Gabor Csupo | 1905 |
| 33 | Gone Baby Gone | Ben Affleck | 1950 |
| 34 | Transformers | Michael Bay | 1983 |
| 35 | Control | Anton Corbijn | 2113 |
| 36 | Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | Gore Verbinski | 2156 |
| 37 | Death Proof | Quentin Tarantino | 2194 |
| 38 | I Am Legend | Francis Lawrence | 2253 |
| 39 | 28 Weeks Later | Juan Carlos Fresnadillo | 2276 |
| 40 | I'm Not There. | Todd Haynes | 2282 |
| 41 | Across the Universe | Julie Taymor | 2358 |
| 42 | My Winnipeg | Guy Maddin | 2528 |
| 43 | Taxi to the Dark Side | Alex Gibney | 2529 |
| 44 | Michael Clayton* | Tony Gilroy | 2539 |
| 45 | Grindhouse | Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino | 2567 |
| 46 | Sicko | Michael Moore | 2779 |
| 47 | Inside | Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury | 2805 |
| 48 | The Darjeeling Limited | Wes Anderson | 2867 |
| 49 | The Simpsons Movie | David Silverman | 2884 |
| 50 | No End in Sight | Charles Ferguson | 2958 |
| 51 | Waitress | Adrienne Shelly | 2972 |
| 52 | In the Shadow of the Moon | David Sington | 2979 |
| 53 | P.S. I Love You | Richard LaGravenese | 3035 |
| 54 | Blades of Glory | Josh Gordon and Will Speck | 3038 |
| 55 | Live Free or Die Hard | Len Wiseman | 3045 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | The Dark Knight | Christopher Nolan | 18 |
| 2 | WALL•E | Andrew Stanton | 55 |
| 3 | The Hurt Locker** | Kathryn Bigelow | 221 |
| 4 | Let the Right One in | Tomas Alfredson | 290 |
| 5 | Waltz with Bashir | Ari Folman | 367 |
| 6 | Iron Man | Jon Favreau | 376 |
| 7 | Slumdog Millionaire** | Danny Boyle | 403 |
| 8 | The Wrestler | Darren Aronofsky | 483 |
| 9 | In Bruges | Martin McDonagh | 631 |
| 10 | Man on Wire | James Marsh | 644 |
| 11 | Gran Torino | Clint Eastwood | 699 |
| 12 | Milk* | Gus Van Sant | 811 |
| 13 | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button* | David Fincher | 824 |
| 14 | Taken | Pierre Morel | 1048 |
| 15 | Synecdoche, New York | Charlie Kaufman | 1078 |
| 16 | Ponyo | Hayao Miyazaki | 1092 |
| 17 | Mamma Mia! | Phyllida Lloyd | 1229 |
| 18 | Forgetting Sarah Marshall | Nicholas Stoller | 1236 |
| 19 | Kung Fu Panda | Mark Osborne and John Stevenson | 1321 |
| 20 | Hunger | Steve McQueen | 1355 |
| 21 | Hellboy II: The Golden Army | Guillermo del Toro | 1361 |
| 22 | The Boy in the Striped Pajamas | Mark Herman | 1481 |
| 23 | Wendy and Lucy | Kelly Reichardt | 1530 |
| 24 | Martyrs | Pascal Laugier | 1548 |
| 25 | 35 Shots of Rum | Claire Denis | 1611 |
| 26 | Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father | Kurt Kuenne | 1752 |
| 27 | Step Brothers | Adam McKay | 1832 |
| 28 | Gomorrah | Matteo Garrone | 1840 |
| 29 | Still Walking | Hirokazu Koreeda | 1862 |
| 30 | Ip Man | Wilson Yip | 2039 |
| 31 | Changeling | Clint Eastwood | 2089 |
| 32 | Cloverfield | Matt Reeves | 2108 |
| 33 | Love Exposure | Sion Sono | 2109 |
| 34 | The Reader* | Stephen Daldry | 2128 |
| 35 | Twilight | Catherine Hardwicke | 2165 |
| 36 | The Strangers | Bryan Bertino | 2170 |
| 37 | Doubt | John Patrick Shanley | 2176 |
| 38 | Sugar | Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck | 2219 |
| 39 | The Beaches of Agnès | Agnès Varda | 2252 |
| 40 | Sita Sings the Blues | Nina Paley | 2289 |
| 41 | Departures | Yôjirô Takita | 2303 |
| 42 | Tropic Thunder | Ben Stiller | 2324 |
| 43 | Burn after Reading | Ethan and Joel Coen | 2326 |
| 44 | Revolutionary Road | Sam Mendes | 2401 |
| 45 | Frost/Nixon* | Ron Howard | 2402 |
| 46 | Vicky Cristina Barcelona | Woody Allen | 2432 |
| 47 | Anvil! The Story of Anvil | Sacha Gervasi | 2590 |
| 48 | Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist | Peter Sollett | 2594 |
| 49 | The Headless Woman | Lucrecia Martel | 2746 |
| 50 | A Christmas Tale | Arnaud Desplechin | 2778 |
| 51 | Seven Pounds | Gabriele Muccino | 2812 |
| 52 | Food Inc. | Robert Kenner | 2905 |
| 53 | The Class | Laurent Cantet | 2951 |
| 54 | Happy-Go-Lucky | Mike Leigh | 3055 |
| Rank | Title | Director(s) | Overall Rank |
| 1 | Up* | Pete Docter | 112 |
| 2 | Avatar* | James Cameron | 149 |
| 3 | Inglourious Basterds* | Quentin Tarantino | 164 |
| 4 | District 9* | Neill Blomkamp | 329 |
| 5 | Moon | Duncan Jones | 495 |
| 6 | Star Trek | J.J. Abrams | 522 |
| 7 | Coraline | Henry Selick | 552 |
| 8 | Fantastic Mr. Fox | Wes Anderson | 564 |
| 9 | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | David Yates | 653 |
| 10 | A Prophet | Jacques Audiard | 692 |
| 11 | The Hangover | Todd Phillips | 774 |
| 12 | (500) Days of Summer | Marc Webb | 842 |
| 13 | The White Ribbon | Michael Haneke | 928 |
| 14 | Mary and Max | Adam Elliot | 1019 |
| 15 | Watchmen | Zack Snyder | 1054 |
| 16 | Fish Tank | Andrea Arnold | 1158 |
| 17 | A Serious Man* | Ethan and Joel Coen | 1203 |
| 18 | Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire* | Lee Daniels | 1251 |
| 19 | Hachiko: A Dog's Story | Lasse Hallström | 1367 |
| 20 | The Secret in Their Eyes | Juan José Campanella | 1391 |
| 21 | Mother | Bong Joon Ho | 1469 |
| 22 | In the Loop | Armando Iannucci | 1475 |
| 23 | The Princess and the Frog | Ron Clements and John Musker | 1520 |
| 24 | Antichrist | Lars von Trier | 1527 |
| 25 | The Blind Side* | John Lee Hancock | 1674 |
| 26 | The Damned United | Tom Hooper | 1724 |
| 27 | 3 Idiots | Rajkumar Hirani | 1725 |
| 28 | An Education* | Lone Scherfig | 1741 |
| 29 | The Secret of Kells | Tomm Moore | 1769 |
| 30 | Invictus | Clint Eastwood | 1771 |
| 31 | Zombieland | Ruben Fleischer | 1780 |
| 32 | Bright Star | Jane Campion | 1830 |
| 33 | A Single Man | Tom Ford | 1839 |
| 34 | Where the Wild Things Are | Spike Jonze | 1880 |
| 35 | The Cove | Louie Psihoyos | 1889 |
| 36 | Drag Me to Hell | Sam Raimi | 1891 |
| 37 | Enter the Void | Gaspar Noé | 1953 |
| 38 | Up in the Air* | Jason Reitman | 2049 |
| 39 | The House of the Devil | Ti West | 2063 |
| 40 | The Road | John Hillcoat | 2118 |
| 41 | Public Enemies | Michael Mann | 2188 |
| 42 | The Proposal | Anne Fletcher | 2277 |
| 43 | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Niels Arden Oplev | 2317 |
| 44 | Dogtooth | Yorgos Lanthimos | 2385 |
| 45 | Adventureland | Greg Mottola | 2415 |
| 46 | Black Dynamite | Scott Sanders | 2632 |
| 47 | Jennifer's Body | Karyn Kusama | 2765 |
| 48 | Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs | Phil Lord and Christopher Miller | 2775 |
| 49 | White Material | Claire Denis | 2788 |
| 50 | Big Fan | Robert Siegel | 2865 |
| 51 | Thirst | Park Chan-wook | 2901 |
| 52 | Sherlock Holmes | Guy Ritchie | 3012 |
| 53 | Whip It | Drew Barrymore | 3021 |
**—Won Academy Award for Best Picture.
*—Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
