Film Canon

Directors

Critics Lists

Listal's Favorite Movies of Each Decade

Lists made by regular movie goers

The essential film lists.
Recommendations are appreciated. I'm focusing on lists by critics and directors, and polls of film types and regular movie goers. I might add the Time Out list if I read it.

The most important canon film lists are from the British Film Institute's poll of directors and critics that goes on every 10 years; it's called the Sight & Sound list and it's the most highly weighted poll in the TSPDT list.

The World Cinema lists of lists is the best collection of original film lists made by Listal users. I made a lists of film genre lists made by Listal users, but it's not nearly as good as the world cinema list.

Roger Ebert's essay on great movies is worth reading.

I recommend this essay (PDF) about film canon by Paul Schrader, the writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.

I plan on reading critic Jonathan Rosenbaum's book Essential cinema: on the Necessity of Film Canons (a preview is on Google); his articles are on his website.

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