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Sight and Sound Poll
It is the most respected of guides: a census of cinema’s best, as voted for by the most respected names in the business. Here's a selection.
For this poll, Scorsese, Coppola and Woody Allen joined Miranda July, Roy Andersson, Mia Hansen-Løve and 350 others to nominate the Greatest Films of All Time. This selection all feature in the Top 250.

Aguirre - Wrath of GodAguirre - Wrath of God
Historical drama197294 minsDirector: Werner Herzog
This early masterpiece from Werner Herzog stars Klaus Kinski as a power-crazed explorer in sixteenth-century South America who leads a band of conquistadors through the Amazon in search of El Dorado.

A Man EscapedA Man Escaped
Drama1956101 minsDirector: Robert Bresson
Robert Bresson’s riveting tale of a Gestapo prisoner determined to regain his freedom, based on real events.

L'AtalanteL'Atalante
Drama193489 minsDirector: Jean Vigo
Newlyweds begin their life together on a working barge in this luminous romance, the only full-length feature film by director Jean Vigo.

L'avventuraL'avventura
Drama1960137 minsDirector: Michelangelo Antonioni
Antonioni’s masterpiece of modern alienation, with Monica Vitti as the young woman searching for her friend who's inexplicably disappeared.

The GeneralThe General
Comedy192679 minsSilentDirector: Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton's masterpiece is widely and rightly regarded as one of the greatest comedies ever made.

8½8½
Drama1963138 minsDirector: Federico Fellini
Fellini triumphantly conjured himself out of writer's block with this magnum opus about a film director experiencing his own creative crisis.

Sherlock Jr.Sherlock Jr.
Comedy192445 minsDirector: Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton's superb, sophisticated silent comedy in which he dreams himself into the movie he's watching, in order to win back his girl.

The Passion of Joan of ArcThe Passion of Joan of Arc
Biopic192780 minsSilentDirector: Carl Th. Dreyer
An incontestable masterpiece of silent cinema, Carl Dreyer's deeply moving biopic features one of the most powerful performances ever captured on film.

Tokyo StoryTokyo Story
Drama1953136 minsDirector: Yasujirō Ozu
A constant fixture in critics' polls, Yasujiro Ozu's most enduring masterpiece is a beautifully nuanced exploration of filial duty, expectation and regret.

The Colour of PomegranatesThe Colour of Pomegranates
Animation & Artists Moving Image196880 minsDirector: Sergei Paradjanov
The film that Martin Scorsese compared to ‘opening a door and walking into another dimension, where time has stopped and beauty has been unleashed’.

Seven SamuraiSeven Samurai
Drama1954207 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Farmers hire a band of samurai to defend them against marauding bandits in Kurosawa’s influential epic, a touchstone for action movies ever since.

MetropolisMetropolis
Science Fiction1927150 minsSilentDirector: Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang’s expressionist, dystopian vision is one of the first science fiction feature films, and is arguably the most influential.

The Battle of AlgiersThe Battle of Algiers
Drama1966121 minsDirector: Gillo Pontecorvo
Gillo Pontecorvo’s masterpiece about the last years of French colonial rule in Algeria, seen from the perspective of both the revolutionaries and the French authorities.

Fanny and AlexanderFanny and Alexander
Drama1982181 minsDirector: Ingmar Bergman
Bergman’s magisterial and sumptuous portrait of a 20th-century Swedish family.

Shoah (First Era)Shoah (First Era)
Documentary1985274 minsDirector: Claude Lanzmann
Claude Lanzmann's monumental chronicle of the Holocaust has been acclaimed by many as the greatest documentary ever made.

Shoah (Second Era)Shoah (Second Era)
Documentary1985293 minsDirector: Claude Lanzmann
Claude Lanzmann's monumental chronicle of the Holocaust has been acclaimed by many as the greatest documentary ever made.

The Seventh SealThe Seventh Seal
Fantasy195796 minsDirector: Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman’s best-known film is a brilliant allegorical drama starring Max von Sydow as a knight trying to elude his own death.

Late SpringLate Spring
Drama1949108 minsDirector: Yasujirō Ozu
Yasujiro Ozu's influential masterpiece is a tender meditation on family politics, sacrifice and the status quo.

Journey to ItalyJourney to Italy
Drama195486 minsDirector: Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini's acerbic but finally very moving masterpiece about marital crisis boasts great performances from Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders

RashomonRashomon
Crime195088 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Credited with bringing Japanese cinema to worldwide audiences, Akira Kurosawa’s breakthrough tells the story of a murder in the woods from four differing perspectives.

Fear Eats the SoulFear Eats the Soul
Melodrama197493 minsDirector: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Fassbinder’s international breakthrough, this unconventional love story combines lucid social analysis with devastating emotional power.

Celine and Julie Go BoatingCeline and Julie Go Boating
Drama1974194 minsDirector: Jacques Rivette
Jacques Rivette’s biggest commercial hit is an exhilarating combination of theatricality, paranoia and ‘la vie parisienne’, around an entrancing examination of making and watching films.

MM
Crime1931111 minsDirector: Fritz Lang
Peter Lorre is unforgettable as the compulsive child murderer on the run from both police and criminals alike, in Fritz Lang’s seminal crime film.

Distant Voices, Still LivesDistant Voices, Still Lives
Biopic198884 minsDirector: Terence Davies
Terence Davies' debut feature is a remarkable evocation of working-class family life in the 40s and 50s and a visionary exploration of memory.

PaisàPaisà
War1946126 minsDirector: Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini’s ambitious and enormously moving follow-up to his breakthrough Rome, Open City.

Germany, Year ZeroGermany, Year Zero
War194873 minsDirector: Roberto Rossellini
The concluding part of Roberto Rossellini’s celebrated War Trilogy, set amid the war-torn ruins of Berlin.

Rome, Open CityRome, Open City
War1945103 minsDirector: Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini’s landmark of Italian neorealism often cited as one of the greatest films ever made.

Wild StrawberriesWild Strawberries
Drama195788 minsDirector: Ingmar Bergman
Victor Sjöström is magnificent as the crabby professor taking a nostalgic road trip with his daughter-in-law, in Ingmar Bergman's elegiac masterpiece.

Bicycle ThievesBicycle Thieves
Drama194889 minsDirector: Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio De Sica’s story of a father and son searching for a stolen bicycle on the streets of Rome is a classic of post-war Italian cinema.

L'Age D'OrL'Age D'Or
Animation & Artists Moving Image193063 minsDirector: Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali unite for this masterpiece of cinematic surrealism remains as brilliantly witty and shocking as ever, more than 80 years on.

More Sight & Sound Poll films in our Rentals collection.