BBC Culture has commissioned a poll of critics to see what the top 100 films of the 21st Century are. With 2016 being a lackluster year for movies, with a few exceptions, it is almost predictable to look into the past. On a list like this, there are many factors that are considered, including pacing, dialog, plot, and directional lens.
This is a really good list, but there is something missing. Before you skip to the end and start shouting foul at the screen and the BBC, there are a number of really big exclusions from this list. Films like Guardians of the Galaxy, The Departed, The Incredibles, Argo, Django Unchained, Edge of Tomorrow, and The Revenant are just a few excluded from the list.
Check out the complete list below, brought to you by the BBC:
1. “Mulholland Drive” (David Lynch, 2001)
2. “In the Mood for Love” (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
3. “There Will Be Blood” (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
4. “Spirited Away” (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
5. “Boyhood” (Richard Linklater, 2014)
6. “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (Michel Gondry, 2004)
7. “The Tree of Life” (Terrence Malick, 2011)
8. “Yi Yi: A One and a Two” (Edward Yang, 2000)
9. “A Separation” (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)
10. “No Country for Old Men” (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007)
11. “Inside Llewyn Davis” (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2013)
12. “Zodiac” (David Fincher, 2007)
13. “Children of Men” (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)
14. “The Act of Killing” (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012)
15. “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)
16. “Holy Motors” (Leos Carax, 2012)
17. “Pan’s Labyrinth” (Guillermo Del Toro, 2006)
18. “The White Ribbon” (Michael Haneke, 2009)
19. “Mad Max: Fury Road” (George Miller, 2015)
20. “Synecdoche, New York” (Charlie Kaufman, 2008)
21. “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (Wes Anderson, 2014)
22. “Lost in Translation” (Sofia Coppola, 2003)
23. “Cache” (Michael Haneke, 2005)
24. “The Master” (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)
25. “Memento” (Christopher Nolan, 2000)
26. “25th Hour” (Spike Lee, 2002)
27. “The Social Network” (David Fincher, 2010)
28. “Talk to Her” (Pedro Almodóvar, 2002)
29. “WALL-E” (Andrew Stanton, 2008)
30. “Oldboy” (Park Chan-wook, 2003)
31. “Margaret” (Kenneth Lonergan, 2011)
32. “The Lives of Others” (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)
33. “The Dark Knight” (Christopher Nolan, 2008)
34. “Son of Saul” (Laszlo Nemes, 2015)
35. “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (Ang Lee, 2000)
36. “Timbuktu” (Abderrahmane Sissako, 2014)
37. “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010)
38. “City of God” (Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, 2002)
39. “The New World” (Terrence Malick, 2005)
40. “Brokeback Mountain” (Ang Lee, 2005)
41. “Inside Out” (Pete Docter, 2015)
42. “Amour” (Michael Haneke, 2012)
43. “Melancholia” (Lars von Trier, 2011)
44. “12 Years a Slave” (Steve McQueen, 2013)
45. “Blue Is the Warmest Color” (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)
46. “Certified Copy” (Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)
47. “Leviathan” (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014)
48. “Brooklyn” (John Crowley, 2015)
49. “Goodbye to Language” (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
50. “The Assassin” (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2015)
51. “Inception” (Christopher Nolan, 2010)
52. “Tropical Malady” (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004)
53. “Moulin Rouge!” (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)
54. “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011)
55. “Ida” (Paweł Pawlikowski, 2013)
56. “Werckmeister Harmonies” (Bela Tarr, director; Ágnes Hranitzky, co-director, 2000)
57. “Zero Dark Thirty” (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)
58. “Moolaade” (Ousmane Sembène, 2004)
59. “A History of Violence” (David Cronenberg, 2005)
60. “Syndromes and a Century” (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006)
61. “Under the Skin” (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
62. “Inglourious Basterds” (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)
63. “The Turin Horse” (Bela Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky, 2011)
64. “The Great Beauty” (Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)
65. “Fish Tank” (Andrea Arnold, 2009)
66. “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring” (Kim Ki-duk, 2003)
67. “The Hurt Locker” (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008)
68. “The Royal Tenenbaums” (Wes Anderson, 2001)
69. “Carol” (Todd Haynes, 2015)
70. “Stories We Tell” (Sarah Polley, 2012)
71. “Tabu” (Miguel Gomes, 2012)
72. “Only Lovers Left Alive” (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
73. “Before Sunset” (Richard Linklater, 2004)
74. “Spring Breakers” (Harmony Korine, 2012)
75. “Inherent Vice” (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
76. “Dogville” (Lars von Trier, 2003)
77. “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Julian Schnabel, 2007)
78. “The Wolf of Wall Street” (Martin Scorsese, 2013)
79. “Almost Famous” (Cameron Crowe, 2000)
80. “The Return” (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2003)
81. “Shame” (Steve McQueen, 2011)
82. “A Serious Man” (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2009)
83. “A.I. “Artificial Intelligence” (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
84. “Her” (Spike Jonze, 2013)
85. “A Prophet” (Jacques Audiard, 2009)
86. “Far From Heaven” (Todd Haynes, 2002)
87. “Amelie” (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
88. “Spotlight” (Tom McCarthy, 2015)
89. “The Headless Woman” (Lucrecia Martel, 2008)
90. “The Pianist” (Roman Polanski, 2002)
91. “The Secret in Their Eyes” (Juan Jose Campanella, 2009)
92. “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (Andrew Dominik, 2007)
93. “Ratatouille” (Brad Bird, 2007)
94. “Let the Right One In” (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)
95. “Moonrise Kingdom” (Wes Anderson, 2012)
96. “Finding Nemo” (Andrew Stanton, 2003)
97. “White Material” (Claire Denis, 2009)
98. “Ten” (Abbas Kiarostami, 2002)
99. “The Gleaners and I” (Agnès Varda, 2000)
100. “Carlos” (Olivier Assayas, 2010)
100. “Requiem for a Dream” (Darren Aronofsky, 2000)
100. “Toni Erdmann” (Maren Ade, 2016)
