Sight & Sound  

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Sight and Sound is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade Sight and Sound Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing since 1952.

The Sight and Sound Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time

Since 1952, Sight and Sound has asked an international group of film professionals every decade to vote for the ten films they consider the greatest of all time. Until 1992, the votes of the invited critics and directors were compiled to make one list. However, since 1992, directors have been invited to participate in a separate poll.

The Sight and Sound accolade has come to be regarded as one of the most important of the "greatest ever film" polls. The critic Roger Ebert described it as "by far the most respected of the countless polls of great movies—the only one most serious movie people take seriously."

Sight and Sound first ran the poll in 1952 following publication earlier in the year of a list of the Top Ten Films, headed by Battleship Potemkin, based on a poll of mostly directors conducted by the committee of the Festival Mondial du Film et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique.

Following publication of that poll, Sight and Sound decided to poll film critics for their choices and announced the results in their next issue. 85 critics from Britain, France, the United States, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were asked but only 63 responded including Lindsay Anderson, Lotte H. Eisner, Curtis Harrington, Henri Langlois, Friedrich Luft, Claude Mauriac, Dilys Powell, Jean Queval, Terry Ramsaye, Karel Reisz, G. W. Stonier (under the name William Whitehead) and Archer Winsten. Most critics found the question unfair. The first poll was topped by Bicycle Thieves with 25 out of 63 votes and contained six silent films.

The five subsequent polls (1962–2002) were won by Citizen Kane (which finished 13th in 1952).

In 1992, an additional poll of 101 directors took place, with Citizen Kane also receiving the most votes. It also received the most votes from directors in 2002.

For the 2012 poll, Sight and Sound listened to decades of criticism about the lack of diversity of its poll participants and made a huge effort to invite a much wider variety of critics and filmmakers from around the world to participate, taking into account gender, ethnicity, race, geographical region, socioeconomic status, and other kinds of underrepresentation. The list of critics polled expanded significantly from 145 to 846 and Citizen Kane only received the second highest number of votes, with Vertigo receiving the most. The directors' poll also expanded from 108 to 358 directors and Tokyo Story received the most votes with Citizen Kane receiving the joint second-most together with 2001: A Space Odyssey.

In 2022, the number of critics polled increased even further from 846 to 1,639 and Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles received the most votes, the first film to top the list directed by a female director. Vertigo received the second most and Citizen Kane third. 2001: A Space Odyssey topped the directors' poll for the first time with Citizen Kane in second place and Tokyo Story in joint fourth together with Jeanne Dielman.

La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game) appeared in the first seven of the magazine's decennial polls. Citizen Kane has appeared in the last seven.

In the 2012 poll, 2,045 different films received at least one mention from one of the 846 critics. Among the directors that participated in 2012 are Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Ken Loach and Francis Ford Coppola.

Critics' Top Ten Poll

1952

1. Bicycle Thieves (25 mentions)
2. City Lights (19 mentions)
3. The Gold Rush (19 mentions)
4. Battleship Potemkin (16 mentions)
5. Intolerance (12 mentions)
6. Louisiana Story (12 mentions)
7. Greed (11 mentions)
8. Le Jour Se Lève (11 mentions)
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (11 mentions)
10. Brief Encounter (10 mentions)
11. The Rules of the Game (10 mentions)
12. Le Million (10 mentions)

Closest runners-up: Citizen Kane, La Grande Illusion, and The Grapes of Wrath. (9 mentions apiece)

1962

1. Citizen Kane (22 mentions)
2. L'Avventura (20 mentions)
3. The Rules of the Game (19 mentions)
4. Greed (17 mentions)
5. Ugetsu (17 mentions)
6. Battleship Potemkin (16 mentions)
7. Bicycle Thieves (16 mentions)
8. Ivan the Terrible (16 mentions)
9. La Terra Trema (14 mentions)
10. L'Atalante (13 mentions)

Closest runners-up: Hiroshima mon amour, Pather Panchali and Zero for Conduct. (11 mentions apiece)

The number of silent films on the list reduced from six to two.

Films directed by Sergei Eisenstein received the most votes with 46 followed by Charles Chaplin with 43 and Jean Renoir with 35.

1972

1. Citizen Kane (32 mentions)
2. The Rules of the Game (28 mentions)
3. Battleship Potemkin (16 mentions)
4. 8½ (15 mentions)
5. L'Avventura (12 mentions)
6. Persona (12 mentions)
7. The Passion of Joan of Arc (11 mentions)
8. The General (10 mentions)
9. The Magnificent Ambersons (10 mentions)
10. Ugetsu (9 mentions)
11. Wild Strawberries (9 mentions)

Closest runners-up: The Gold Rush, Hiroshima mon amour, Ikiru, Ivan the Terrible, Pierrot le Fou, and Vertigo. (8 mentions apiece)

1982

1. Citizen Kane (45 mentions)
2. The Rules of the Game (31 mentions)
3. Seven Samurai (15 mentions)
4. Singin' in the Rain (15 mentions)
5. 8½ (14 mentions)
6. Battleship Potemkin (13 mentions)
7. L'Avventura (12 mentions)
8. The Magnificent Ambersons (12 mentions)
9. Vertigo (12 mentions)
10. The General (11 mentions)
11. The Searchers (11 mentions)

Closest runners-up: 2001: A Space Odyssey and Andrei Rublev. (10 mentions apiece)

1992

1. Citizen Kane (43 mentions)
2. The Rules of the Game (32 mentions)
3. Tokyo Story (22 mentions)
4. Vertigo (18 mentions)
5. The Searchers (17 mentions)
6. L'Atalante (15 mentions)
7. The Passion of Joan of Arc (15 mentions)
8. Pather Panchali (15 mentions)
9. Battleship Potemkin (15 mentions)
10. 2001: A Space Odyssey (14 mentions)

Closest runners-up: Bicycle Thieves and Singin' in the Rain. (10 mentions apiece)

2002

1. Citizen Kane (46 mentions)
2. Vertigo (41 mentions)
3. The Rules of the Game (30 mentions)
4. The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (23 mentions)
5. Tokyo Story (22 mentions)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (21 mentions)
7. Battleship Potemkin (19 mentions)
8. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (19 mentions)
9. 8½ (18 mentions)
10. Singin' in the Rain (17 mentions)

Closest runners-up: Seven Samurai and The Searchers. (15 mentions apiece)

2012

A new rule was imposed for this ballot: related films that are considered part of a larger whole (e.g. The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Krzysztof Kieślowski's Three Colors trilogy and Dekalog, or Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy) were to be treated as separate films for voting purposes.

1. Vertigo (191 mentions)
2. Citizen Kane (157 mentions)
3. Tokyo Story (107 mentions)
4. The Rules of the Game (100 mentions)
5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (93 mentions)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (90 mentions)
7. The Searchers (78 mentions)
8. Man with a Movie Camera (68 mentions)
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (65 mentions)
10. 8½ (64 mentions)

Closest runner-up: Battleship Potemkin. (63 mentions)

2022

The number of participants in this poll nearly doubled to 1,639. Chantal Akerman became the first woman director to win the poll with her 1975 film Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. The poll reflected greater diversity than previous years with the number of films made by Black film makers increasing from one in 2012 to seven this year and the number made by female film makers increasing from two in 2012 to eleven.

480 directors took part and selected Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey as their greatest film.

1. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
2. Vertigo
3. Citizen Kane
4. Tokyo Story
5. In the Mood for Love
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
7. Beau Travail
8. Mulholland Drive
9. Man with a Movie Camera
10. Singin' in the Rain

Closest runners-up: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

Directors' Top Ten Poll

1992

1. Citizen Kane
2. 8½
3. Raging Bull
4. La Strada
5. L'Atalante
6. The Godfather
7. Modern Times
8. Vertigo
9. The Godfather Part II
10. The Passion of Joan of Arc
11. Rashomon
12. Seven Samurai

2002

1. Citizen Kane (42 mentions)
2. The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (28 mentions)
3. 8½ (19 mentions)
4. Lawrence of Arabia (16 mentions)
5. Dr. Strangelove (14 mentions)
6. Bicycle Thieves (13 mentions)
6. Raging Bull (13 mentions)
6. Vertigo (13 mentions)
9. Rashomon (12 mentions)
9. The Rules of the Game (12 mentions)
9. Seven Samurai (12 mentions)

2012

1. Tokyo Story (48 mentions)
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (42 mentions)
2. Citizen Kane (42 mentions)
4. 8½ (40 mentions)
5. Taxi Driver (34 mentions)
6. Apocalypse Now (33 mentions)
7. The Godfather (31 mentions)
7. Vertigo (31 mentions)
9. Mirror (30 mentions)
10. Bicycle Thieves (29 mentions)

2022

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. Citizen Kane
3. The Godfather
4. Tokyo Story
4. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
6. Vertigo
6. 8½
8. Mirror
9. Persona
9. In the Mood for Love
9. Close-Up

The Greatest Directors of All Time

This list was put together by assembling the directors of the individual films that the critics and the directors polled voted for. 2002 was the only year Sight & Sound compiled the list.

Critics' Top Ten Poll

2002

1. Orson Welles
2. Alfred Hitchcock
3. Jean-Luc Godard
4. Jean Renoir
5. Stanley Kubrick
6. Akira Kurosawa
7. Federico Fellini
8. John Ford
9. Sergei Eisenstein
10. Francis Ford Coppola
10. Yasujiro Ozu

Directors' Top Ten Poll

2002

1. Orson Welles
2. Federico Fellini
3. Akira Kurosawa
4. Francis Ford Coppola
5. Alfred Hitchcock
6. Stanley Kubrick
7. Billy Wilder
8. Ingmar Bergman
9. David Lean
9. Jean Renoir
9. Martin Scorsese

Greatest Documentaries of All Time

2014

1. Man with a Movie Camera (100 votes)
2. Shoah (68 votes)
3. Sans Soleil (62 votes)
4. Night and Fog (56 votes)
5. The Thin Blue Line (49 votes)
6. Chronique d'un été (32 votes)
7. Nanook of the North (31 votes)
8. The Gleaners and I (27 votes)
9. Dont Look Back (25 votes)
9. Grey Gardens (25 mentions)

Greatest film books

In 2010, Sight & Sound conducted a poll to find the greatest book written on film.

• First place: David Thomson's The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (1975)
• Second place: Robert Bresson's Notes on the Cinematographer (1975), Andrew Sarris's The American Cinema (1968), and François Truffaut's Hitchcock/Truffaut (1966)
• Fifth place: André Bazin's What is Cinema? (1958-1962)

See also

• Cahiers du Cinéma 's Annual Top Ten Films
• Empire magazine
• The Film Daily annual critics' poll
• List of film periodicals
• List of films considered the best
• The Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2012
• The Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2022