Ever since I was a teenager, I tried to see all the important films. For 22 years I was a film programmer at Vera Zienema. In 2005 I created a list of my favorite movies. At that time, the list contained 300 films. Now, it contains about 500 films. If you go through the list you will notice that some directors appear several times: Akira Kurosawa (7 times), Stanley Kubrick (6 times), Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard (5 times), Ingmar Bergman, Luis Bunuel, Charles Chaplin, Joel Coen, Michael Haneke, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Roman Polanski, Satyajit Ray, Billy Wilder (4 times), and about twenty directors, including Orson Welles and Yorgos Lanthimos (3 times).
There are still about 10 older movies that I am looking forward to seeing. The other movies on my watchlist are more recent.
- Citizen Kane (Orson Welles 1941 USA) *
- Boyhood (Richard Linklater 2014 USA)
- Orphée (Jean Cocteau 1949 FRA)
- Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch 1984 USA) *
- Kazdy den odvahu / Courage for Every Day (Evald Schorm 1964 CZE)
- Suna no onna / Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara 1961 JAP) *
- Blue Velvet (David Lynch 1986 USA) *
- A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick 1971 GBR) *
- Clean, Shaven (Lodge Kerrigan 1994 USA) *
- Aparajito / The Unvanquished (Satyajit Ray 1956 IND)
- The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin 1925 USA) *
- Shadows (John Cassavettes 1960 USA) *
- Im Lauf der Zeit (Wim Wenders 1976 DEU)
- La règle du jeu (Jean Renoir 1939 FRA) *
- Belle de jour (Luis Bunuel 1967 ESP)
- Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey 1962 USA) *
- L’atalante (Jean Vigo 1934 FRA)
- Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau 1927 USA)
- The Tree of Life (Terence Malick 2011 USA)
- Andrei Rublyov (Andrei Tarkovski 1969 RUS)
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford 1962 USA)
- Casablanca (Michael Curtiz 1942 USA) *
- Oldboy (Park Chan-Wook 2003 KOR) *
- Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders 1984 USA) *
- Gummo (Harmony Korine 1997 USA)
- Vive l’amour (Tsai Ming-liang 1994 TWN)
- Les parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy 1964 FRA)
- Morte a Venezia (Luchino Visconti 1974 ITA) *
- Napoléon (Abel Gance 1927 FRA)
- Touch of Evil (Orson Welles 1958 USA) *
- Pierrot le fou (Jean Luc Godard 1965 FRA)
- Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino 2004 USA) *
- Bronenosets Potyomkin (Sergei Eisenstein 1925 RUS)
- Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman 1982 SWE)
- Fargo (Joel Coen 1996 USA) *
- Tokyo monogatari / Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu 1953 JAP) *
- La passion de Jeanne d’Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer 1928 FRA)
- The Third Man (Carol Reed 1949 GBR) *
- The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola 1972 USA)
- Nóz w wodzie / Knife in the Water (Roman Polanski 1962 POL) *
- Le samouraï (Jean Pierre Melville 1967 FRA) *
- High Noon (Fred Zinneman 1952 USA) *
- Les quatre cents coups (Francois Truffaut 1959 FRA) *
- Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa 1980 JAP)
- Il gattopardo (Luchino Visconti 1963 ITA)
- Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock 1954 USA) *
- Heya / The Room (Sion Sono 1992 JAP)
- Repulsion (Roman Polanski 1965 GBR) *
- Ladri di biciclette (Vittorio De Sica 1948 ITA)
- Zéro de conduite (Jean Vigo 1933 FRA)
- Kiga kaikyo / Fugitive from the Past (Tomu Uchida 1965 JAP)
- Elephant (Gus van Sant 2003 USA) *
- Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos 2023 GBR)
- Dodes’kaden (Akira Kurosawa 1970 JAP) *
- Greed (Erich von Stroheim 1924 USA)
- L’argent (Robert Bresson 1983 FRA)
- On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan 1954 USA) *
- Dorogie tovarishchi / Dear Comrades! (Andrey Konchalovskiy 2020 RUS)
- Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer 1954 DNK)
- Ugetsu monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi 1956 JAP)
- Amour (Michael Haneke 2012 FRA)
- Moonlight (Barry Jenkins 2016 USA)
- The Crowd (King Vidor 1928 USA)
- Blood Simple (Joel Coen 1984 USA) *
- 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet 1957 USA) *
- Teströl és lélekröl / On Body and Soul (Ildikó Enyedi 2017 HUN)
- The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin 1940 USA) *
- A bout de souffle (Jean Luc Godard 1960 FRA) *
- The Godfather: Part II (Francis Ford Coppola 1974 USA)
- Ôdishon / Audition (Miike Takashi 1999 JAP) *
- Smultronstället / Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman 1957 SWE)
- Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer 1949 GBR) *
- East of Eden (Elia Kazan 1955 USA)
- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying … (Stanley Kubrick 1964 USA) *
- Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (John McNaughton 1987 USA) *
- Kaos (Paolo & Vitorio Taviani 1984 ITA) *
- Les Diaboliques (Henri Georges Clouzot 1955 FRA)
- Fukushû suruwa wareniari / Vengeance is Mine (Shohei Imamura 1979 JAP) *
- Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song (Melvin von Peebles 1971 USA)
- Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda 1962 FRA)
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Milos Forman 1975 USA)
- Der letzte Mann (F.W. Murnau 1924 DEU)
- Porcile (Pier Paolo Pasolini 1969 ITA)
- Rabid (David Cronenberg 1977 CAN) *
- La vie d’Adèle / Blue Is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche 2013 FRA)
- Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett 1978 USA)
- The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier 2021 NOR)
- Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino 2003 USA) *
- Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa 1961 JAP) *
- Le trou (Jacques Becker 1960 FRA) *
- The Sadist (James Landis 1963 USA) *
- Salt of the Earth (Herbert Biberman 1953 USA) *
- Begotten (E. Elias Merhige 1989 USA)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson 2003 NZL) *
- Spoorloos / The Vanishing (George Sluizer 1988 NLD) *
- The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola 1974 USA) *
- Braindead (Peter Jackson 1992 NZL)
- Down by Law (Jim Jarmusch 1986 USA) *
- A Fei jing juen / Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-wai, 1991 HKG) *
- Me and You and Everyone We Know (Miranda July 2005 USA) *
- Les yeux sans visage (George Franju 1960 FRA)
- Umberto D (Vittorio De Sica 1951 ITA) *
- Le Procès / The Trial (Orson Welles 1962 FRA) *
- Roma (Alfonso Cuaron 2018 MEX)
- Tár (Todd Field 2022 USA)
- Les misérables (Ladj Ly 2019 FRA)
- Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino 1994 USA) *
- Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako 2014 MRT)
- The Big Short (Adam McKay 2015 USA)
- Inside Out (Pete Docter & Ronnie Del Carmen 2015 USA)
- Juno (Jason Reitman 2007 USA)
- Peeping Tom (Michael Powell 1960 GBR)
- Que viva Mexico (Grigori Alexsandrov & Sergei Eisenstein 1932 MEX)
- La Chinoise (Jean Luc Godard 1967 FRA)
- La grande bellezza (Paolo Sorrentino 2013 ITA)
- Il Grido (Michelangelo Antonioni 1957 ITA)
- Suchwiin bulmyeong / Address Unknown (Kim Ki-Duk 2001 KOR)
- Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola 1982 USA) *
- Milk (Gus van Sant 2008 USA)
- Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Luchino Visconti 1960 ITA) *
- Bir zamanlar Anadolu’da / Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan 2011 TUR)
- L’argent (Marcel L’Herbier 1928 FRA)
- Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade 2016 DEU)
- Minoes (Vincent Bal 2001 NLD) *
- Metropolis (Fritz Lang 1927 DEU)
- Speaking Parts (Atom Egoyan 1989 CAN)
- Tales from the Gimli Hospital (Guy Maddin 1988 CAN)
- Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger 1943 GBR)
- La graine et le mulet (Abdel Kechiche 2007 FRA)
- Freaks (Tod Browning 1932 USA) *
- Abel (Alex van Warmerdam 1986 NLD)
- Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger 1964 USA)
- Laws of Gravity (Nick Gomez 1993 USA)
- First man (Damien Chazelle 2018 USA)
- Mephisto (Itsvan Szabo 1981 HUN)
- Now, Voyager (Irving Rappe 1942 USA)
- Mer dare / Our century (Artur Pelesjan 1975 RUS)
- Los santos innocentes (Mario Camus 1985 ESP)
- Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick 1957 USA)
- Krótki film o zabijaniu / A Short film about Killing (Krzystzof Kieslowski 1988 POL)
- Cul-de-sac (Roman Polanski 1966 GBR)
- Past Lives (Celine Song 2023 USA)
- The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (Peter Greenaway 1989 GBR)
- Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood 1992 USA)
- Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder 1957 USA)
- The Elephant Man (David Lynch 1980 USA) *
- Europa (Lars von Trier 1991 DNK)
- Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwoord 2006 USA)
- Vortex (Gaspar Noé 2022 FRA)
- Querelle (Rainer Werner Fassbinder 1982 DEU)
- Police (Maurice Pialat 1985 FRA)
- In a Lonely Place (Nicolas Ray 1950 USA)
- Krug vtoroj / The Second Circle (Aleksandr Sokurov 1990 RUS)
- Amator (Krystzof Kieslowski 1980 POL)
- Sinnui yauman / Chinese Ghost Story (Ching Siu-Tung 1987 HKG)
- Carrie (Brian de Palma 1976 USA) *
- Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone 1984 USA)
- Tretya meshchanskaya / Bed and sofa (Abram Room 1927 RUS)
- An Angel at My Table (Jane Campion 1990 AUS)
- The Revenant (Alejandro G. Iñárritu 2015 USA)
- Gomorra (Matteo Garrone 2008 ITA)
- The Brood (David Cronenberg 1979 CAN) *
- Roma, città aperta (Roberto Rossellini 1947 ITA)
- Kuhle Wampe: oder: Wem gehört die Welt? (Slatan Dudow 1932 DEU)
- All the President’s Men (Alan J. Pakula 1976 USA)
- Get out (Jordan Peele 2017 USA)
- C’est arrivé près de chez vous (Remy Belvaux et al. 1992 BEL) *
- Casque d’or (Jacques Becker 1952 FRA)
- Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach 2019 USA)
- 4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile (Christian Mungiu 2007 ROM)
- Turist / Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund 2014 SWE)
- Kuroi ame / Black Rain (Shohei Imamura 1989 JAP)
- Üç maymun / Three Monkeys (Nuri Bilge Ceylan 2008 TUR)
- Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky 2000 USA) *
- Good Night, and Good Luck (George Clooney 2005 USA)
- Capote (Bennett Miller 2005 USA)
- Modern Times (Charles Chaplin 1936 USA)
- Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn 11 USA)
- The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos 2015 GBR)
- Los delincuentes (Rodrigo Moreno 2023 ARG)
- Girl (Lukas Dhont 2018 BEL)
- The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold 1957 USA)
- Office Killer (Cindy Sherman 1997 USA)
- Monanieba / Confession (Tengiz Aboeladze 1987 GEO)
- Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur 1958 GBR)
- C’era una volta il West (Sergio Leone 1968 ITA) *
- 45 Years (Andrew Haigh 2015 GBR)
- The Limey (Steven Soderbergh 1999 USA)
- Under the Vulcano (John Huston 1984 USA)
- Buffalo’66 (Vincent Gallo 1998 USA) *
- Week-end (Jean Luc Godard 1967 FRA)
- Un condamné a mort s’est échappé (Robert Bresson 1956 FRA)
- Seom / The Isle (Kim Ki-Duk 2000 KOR) *
- Tôkyô nagaremono / Tokyo Drifter (Suzuki Seijun 1966 JAP)
- All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh 2023 GBR)
- Låt den rätte komma in / Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson 2008 SWE)
- Shinboru / Symbol (Hitoshi Matsumoto 2009 JAP)
- La La Land (Damien Chazelle 2016 USA)
- Kavkazskij plennik / Prisoner of the Mountains (Sergei Bodrov 1996 RUS)
- Oblomov (Nikita Michalkov 1979 RUS)
- Le conseguenze dell’amore (Paolo Sorrentino 2004 ITA)
- L’événement / Happening (Audrey Diwan 2021 FRA)
- The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean 1957 USA)
- Land and Freedom (Ken Loach 1995 GBR)
- Procès de Jeanne d’Arc (Robert Bresson 1961 FRA)
- Tokyo boshoku / Tokyo Twilight (Yasujiro Ozu 1957 JAP)
- Alice in den Städten (Wim Wenders 1974 DEU)
- Mahanagar / The Big City (Satyajit Ray 1964 IND)
- À nous la liberté (René Clair 1931 FRA)
- I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Mervyn LeRoy 1932 USA)
- Tian bian yi duo yun / The Wayward Cloud (Tsai Ming-liang 2005 TWN)
- Gisaengchung / Parasite (Bong Joon Ho 2019 KOR)
- Far from Heaven (Todd Haynes 2002 USA)
- Selma (Ava DuVernay 2014 USA)
- Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola 1979 USA)
- The Shining (Stanley Kubrick 1980 USA)
- Czlowiek z marmuru / Man of Marble (Andrzej Wajda 1977 POL)
- E.T. (Steven Spielberg 1982 USA)
- Poison (Todd Haynes 1991 USA)
- Duo-Sang / A Borrowed Life (Wu Nien-Jen 1994 TWN)
- The Fly (David Cronenberg 1986 USA)
- Xich lo / Cyclo (Tran Anh Hung 1995 VNM) *
- Dni zatmeniya / Days of the Eclipse (Aleksandr Sokurov 1988 SU)
- Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman 2020 USA)
- Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby 1971 USA)
- Démanty noci / Diamonds of the Night (Jan Nemec 1964 CZE)
- The Funeral (Abel Ferrara 1996 USA)
- Trys dienos (Sharunas Bartas 1991 LIT)
- Il grande silenzio (Sergio Corbucci 1968 ITA)
- Buongiorno, notte (Marco Bellochio 2003 ITA)
- Astenicheskij sindrom (Kira Muratova 1989 SU)
- Leave No Trace (Debra Granik 2018 USA)
- L’armée des ombres / Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville 1969 FRA)
- Bloody Sunday (Paul Greengrass 2002 GBR)
- Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa 1952 JAP)
- Suna no utsuwa / The Castle of Sand (Yoshitaro Nomura 1974 JAP) *
- Caché (Michael Haneke 2005 FRA)
- Knoflíkári (Petr Zelenka 1997 CZE)
- Kôraku zaru / Monkeys in Paradise (Kenchi Iwamato 1993 JAP)
- Szürkület (György Fehér 1990 HUN)
- You Can Count on Me (Kenneth Lonergan 2000 USA)
- Viskningar och rop (Ingmar Bergman 1972 SWE)
- The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (Joseph Sargent 1974 USA)
- Rok spokojnego slonca / The Year of the Quiet Sun (Krzysztof Zanussi 1984 POL)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson 2001 NZL) *
- Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Steven Soderbergh 1989 USA)
- Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick 1960 USA)
- Vojna i mir / War and Peace (Sergei Bondarchuk 1968 RUS)
- Ha-Chayim Al-Pi Agfa / Life according to Agfa (Assi Dayan 1992 ISR)
- Interstellar (Christopher Nolan 2014 USA)
- Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan 2023 USA)
- Safety Last! (Sam Taylor 1923 USA)
- Life Is Cheap… But Toilet Paper Is Expensive (Wayne Wang 1989 USA)
- Le Dernier métro (François Truffaut 1980 FRA)
- Fröken Julie (Alf Sjöberg 1951 SWE)
- Persona (Ingmar Bergman 1966 SWE) *
- Professione: reporter (Michelangelo Antonioni 1975 USA)
- Hana-bi (Takeshi Kitano 1997 JAP)
- Tengoku to jigoku / High and Low (Akira Kurosawa 1963 JAP)
- The Green Fog (Guy Maddin, Evan & Galen Johnson 2017 USA)
- Un prophète (Jacques Audiard 2009 FRA)
- The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow 2008 USA)
- Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven 1997 USA)
- Sombre (Philippe Grandrieux 1998 FRA)
- Mauvais sang (Leos Carax 1986 FRA)
- Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow 2012 USA)
- Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore-eda 2018 JAP)
- Smoke (Wayne Wang 1994 USA)
- BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee 2018 USA)
- Secrets and Lies (Mike Leigh 1996 GBR)
- État de siège (Constantin Costa-Gavras 1972 FRA)
- Aftersun (Charlotte Wells 2022 GBR)
- Gegen die Wand (Fatih Akin 2004 DEU)
- Viridiana (Luis Bunuel 1961 ESP)
- Wild Guitar (Ray Dennis Steckler 1962 USA)
- Creature with the Atom Brain (Edward Cahn 1955 USA)
- The Thief of Bagdad (Berger, Powell & Wheland 1940 GBR)
- The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton 1955 USA)
- The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer 23 USA)
- Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (Robert Gaffney 1965 USA)
- Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen 1952 USA)
- Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson 1970 USA)
- Fantastic Mr Fox (Wes Anderson 2009 USA) *
- Argo (Ben Affleck 2012 USA)
- Le salaire de la peur (Henri-Georges Clouzot 1953 FRA)
- Aleksandr Nevsky (Sergei Eisenstein 1938 RUS)
- Una giornata particolare (Ettore Scola 1977 ITA) *
- Rashômon (Akira Kurosawa 1950 JAP)
- Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese 1976 USA)
- Onibaba (Kaneto Shindô 1964 JAP)
- The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro 2017 USA)
- The Dead (John Huston 1985 USA)
- The Unknown (Tod Browning 1927 USA)
- Ko to tamo peva / Who’s Singing Over There? (Slobodan Sijan 1980 YUG)
- The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder 1945 USA)
- Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (F.W. Murnau 1922 DEU)
- Zemlya / Earth (Alexander Dovzhenko 1930 RUS)
- Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray 1955 IND)
- Shichinin no samurai / The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa 1954 JAP)
- Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder 1959 USA) *
- Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris 2006 USA) *
- De Noorderlingen / The Northerners (Alex van Warmerdam 1992 NLD)
- Du levande / You the Living (Roy Andersson 2007 SWE)
- City Lights (Charles Chaplin 1931 USA)
- El Ángel exterminador (Luis Bunuel 1962 ESP)
- Titane (Julia Ducournau 2021 FRA)
- Fight Club (David Fincher 1999 USA)
- The Searchers (John Ford 1956 USA)
- Hadaka no shima / Naked Island (Kaneto Shindô 1961 JAP)
- Irréversible (Gaspar Noé 2002 FRA)
- La Belle et la bête (Jean Cocteau 1946 FRA)
- Laura (Otto Preminger 1944 USA)
- Beasts That Cling to the Straw (Kim Yong-Hoon 2020 KOR)
- Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges 1941 USA) *
- ‘Round Midnight (Bertrand Tavernier 1986 FRA)
- Hunger (Steve McQueen 2008 GBR)
- Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel 1972 FRA)
- Les quatre aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle (Eric Rohmer 1986 FRA)
- Novecento (Bernardo Bertolucci 1976 ITA)
- The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen 1998 USA) *
- 1917 (Sam Mendes 2019 GBR)
- The War Zone (Tim Roth 1998 GBR)
- Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach 2019 GBR)
- Risttuules / In the Crosswind (Martti Helde 2014 EST)
- Sound of Metal (Darius Marder 2019 USA)
- Short Term 12 (Destin Daniel Cretton 2013 USA)
- Lásky jedné plavovlásky / The Loves of a Blonde (Milos Forman 1965 CZE)
- In This World (Michael Winterbottom 2003 GBR)
- Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder 1950 USA)
- J’accuse! (Abel Gance 1919 FRA)
- Japón (Carlos Reyagadas 2002 MEX)
- Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson 2017 USA)
- Family Viewing (Atom Egoyan 1987 CAN)
- Ni neibian jidian / What Time Is It There? (Tsai Ming-liang 2001)
- Spalovac mrtvol / The Cremator (Juraj Herz 1969 CZE)
- Dare mo shiranai / Nobody Knows (Hirokazu Kore-Eda 2004 JAP)
- Failan (Hae-sung Song 2001 KOR) *
- Keane (Lodge Kerrigan 2004 USA)
- El laberinto del fauno (Guillermo del Toro 2006 MEX)
- Prick up your ears (Stephen Frears 1987 GBR)
- Beiqing chengshi / City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-hsien 1989 TWN)
- Onna ga kaidan wo agaru toki / When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Mikio Naruse 1960 JAP)
- Bacurau (Juliano Dornelles & Kleber Mendonça Filho 2019 BRA)
- De smaak van water / The Taste of Water (Orlow Seunke 1982 NLD)
- The Deerhunter (Michael Cimino 1978 USA)
- Shame (Steve McQueen 2011 GBR)
- The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg 2019 GBR)
- Czlowiek z zelaza / Man of Iron (Andrzej Wajda 1981 POL)
- Ja zuster, nee zuster / Yes Nurse ! No Nurse ! (Pieter Kramer 2002 NLD)
- Suspiria (Dario Argento 1976 ITA)
- Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese 1980 USA)
- Raw (Julia Ducournau 2016 FRA)
- Heli (Amat Escalante 2013 MEX)
- Happiness (Todd Solondz 1998 USA)
- In the Valley of Elah (Paul Haggis 2007 USA)
- Alphaville (Jean Luc Godard 1965 FRA)
- Apur Sansar / The World of Apu (Satyajit Ray 1958 IND)
- Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper 1969 USA)
- Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick 1975 GBR)
- Noche de fuego / Prayers for the Stolen (Tatiana Huezo 2021 MEX)
- My Life Without Me (Isabel Coixet 2003 USA)
- Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich 2010 USA)
- Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini 1962 ITA) *
- Un uomo da brucciare (Valentino Orsini, Paolo & Vitorio Taviani 1962 ITA)
- Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah 1962 USA)
- The General (Buster Keaton 1927 USA)
- Saul fia / Son of Saul (László Nemes 2015 HUN)
- Vase de Noces (Thierry Zeno 1974 BEL)
- Yol (Serif Gören & Yilmaz Güney 1982 TUR)
- Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger 1969 USA)
- Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn 1967 USA)
- No Country for Old Men (Joel Coen 2007 USA)
- Anora (Sean Baker 2024 USA)
- Hanyo / The Housemaid (Ki-Young Kim 1960 KOR)
- Paranoia (Adriaan Ditvoorst 1967 NLD)
- Blast of Silence (Allen Baron 1961 USA)
- Deliverance (John Boorman 1972 USA)
- Don Kikhot (Grigori Kozintsev 1957 RUS)
- Paradise Now (Hany Abu-Assad 2005 ISR)
- Babel (Alejandro González Iñárritu 2006 USA) *
- Himmel oder Hölle (Wolfgang Murnberger 1990 AUT)
- The Square (Ruben Östlund 2017 SWE)
- Red Road (Andrea Arnold 2006 GBR)
- Wetherby (David Hare 1985 GBR)
- Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges 1955 USA)
- Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood 2008 USA)
- The Station Agent (Thomas McCarthy 2003 USA)
- In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison 1967 USA)
- Interiors (Woody Allen 1978 USA)
- The Killing Fields (Roland Joffé 1984 USA)
- Ed Wood (Tim Burton 1994 USA)
- Obchod na korze / The Shop on Main Street (Ján Kadár & Elmar Klos 65 CZE)
- Beau travail (Claire Denis 1999 FRA)
- Chong qing sen lin / Chunking Express (Wong Kar-wai 1994 HKG)
- Holy Motors (Leos Carax 2012 FRA)
- Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson 2021 USA)
- Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch 2005 USA)
- Code inconnu (Michael Haneke 2000 FRA)
- Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson 2012 USA)
- Jackie (Pablo Larrain 2016 USA)
- Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow 2004 HKG)
- L’enfant (Jean Pierre & Luc Dardenne 2005 BEL)
- The World According to Garp (George Roy Hill 1982 USA)
- Walk the Line (James Mangold, 2005 USA)
- Sometimes I Think about Dying (Rachel Lambert 2023 USA)
- The Bank Dick (Edward Cline 1940 USA)
- Still Walking (Hirokazu Kore-eda 2008 JAP)
- Die Blechtrommel (Volker Schlöndorff 1979 DEU)
- The Guard (John Michael McDonagh 2011 IRL)
- The African Queen (John Huston 1951 USA)
- Adam’s Rib (George Cukor 1949 USA)
- Hotel Rwanda (Terry George 2004 GBR)
- Mang jing / Blind shaft (Li Yang 2003 CHN)
- Pixote: a lei do mais fraco (Hector Babenco 1981 BRA)
- Marty (Delbert Mann 1955 USA)
- The Day of the Jackal (Fred Zinnemann 1973 USA)
- My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears 1985 GBR)
- Jagten (Thomas Vinterberg 2012 DNK)
- Mommy (Xavier Dolan 2014 CAN)
- Uncut Gems (Benny & Josh Safdie 2019 USA)
- No (Pablo Larrain 2012 CHL)
- The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-Hsien 2015 CHN)
- The Red Turtle (Michael Dudok de Wit 2016 FRA)
- The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen 1985 USA)
- Lust for Life (Vincente Minnelli 1956 USA)
- Ordinary People (Robert Redford 1980 USA)
- Kiss of the Spider Woman (Hector Babenco 1985 BRA)
- Julia (Fred Zinnemann 1977 USA)
- Tong nien wang shi / The Time to Live and the Time to Die (Hou Hsiao-hsien 1985 TWN)
- Rosetta (Jean Pierre & Luc Dardenne 1999 BEL)
- Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik 2010 USA)
- Quo Vadis, Aida? (Jasmila Zbanic 2020 BOS)
- The Bourne Ultimatum (Paul Greengrass 2007 USA) *
- Glue (Alexis Dos Santos 2006 ARG)
- R.M.N. (Christian Mungiu 2022 ROM)
- Frost/Nixon (Ron Howard 2008 USA)
- Kick-Ass (Matthew Vaughn 2010 USA)
- Le notti di Cabiria (Federico Fellini 1957 ITA)
- Wadjda (Haifaa Al-Mansour 2012 SAU)
- Mooladé (Ousmane Sembene 2004 SEN)
- A tanú / Witness (Péter Bacsó 1969 HUN) *
- Volver (Pedro Almódovar 2006 ESP)
- Disgrace (Steve Jacobs 2009 USA)
- Linha de passé (Walter Salles & Daniele Thomas 2008 BRA)
- The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan 2008 USA)
- There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson 2007 USA)
- Izgnanie / The Banishment (Andrei Zvjaginstev 2007 RUS)
- Avatar (James Cameron 2009 USA)
- Persepolis (Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi 2007 IRN)
- Le voyage du ballon rouge (Hou Hsiao-hsien 2007 TWN)
- WALL-E (Andrew Stanton 2008 USA)
- Entre les murs (Laurent Cantet 2008 FRA)
- Sanshô Dayû / Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi 1954 JAP)
- You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay 2017 USA)
- Pieces of a Woman (Kornél Mundruczó 2020 USA)
- Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky 2010 USA)
- Hugo (Martin Scorsese 2011 USA)
- Mary & Max (Adam Elliot 2008 AUS)
- El abrazo de la serpiente (Ciro Guerra 2015 VEN)
- De helaasheid der dingen (Felix van Groeningen 2009 BEL)
- Buda as sharm foru rikht / Buddha Collapsed out of Shame (Hana Makhmalbaf 2008 IRN)
- Night of the Living Dead (George Romero 1968 USA) *
- Arrival (Denis Villeneuve 2016 USA)
- The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky 2008 USA)
- De veroordeling (Sander Burger 2021 NLD)
- The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski 2010 GBR)
- Das weisse Band (Michael Haneke 2009 AUT)
- The Social Network (David Fincher 2010 USA)
- Lebanon (Samuel Maoz 2009 ISR)
- Alamar (Pedro González-Rubio 2009 MEX)
- Intouchables (Olivier Nakache & Eric Toledano 2011 FRA)
- This is England ’86 (Shane Meadows 2010 GBR)
- Jodaeiye Nader az Simin / A Separation (Asghar Farhadi 2011 IRN)
- De rouille et d’os (Jacques Audiard 2012 FRA)
- An Cailín Ciúin / The Quiet Girl (Colm Bairéad 2022 IRL)
- It’s a Gift (Norman Z. McLeod 1934 USA)
- Kiss of Death (Henry Hathaway 1947 USA)
- Ballad of a Soldier / Ballada o soldate (Grigoryi Chukray 1959 RUS)
- Blancanieves (Pablo Berger 2012 ESP)
- Da xiang xi di er zuo / An Elephant Sitting Still (Bo Hu 2018 CHN)
- Di jiu tian chang / So Long, My Son (Xiaoshuai Wang 2019 CHN)
- The Cave of the Yellow Dog (Byambasuren Davaa 2005 DEU)
- (500) Days of Summer (Mark Webb 2009 USA)
- Zielona granica / Green Border (Agnieszka Holland 2023 POL)
- Cargo 200 (Aleksei Balabanov 2007 RUS)
- Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (Fritz Lang 1922 DEU)
- Tian zhu ding / A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke 2013 CHN)
- The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos 2018 GBR)
- The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh 2022 IRL)
- Il deserto dei Tartari (Valerio Zurlini 1976 ITA)
- Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron 2013 USA)
- A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson 2014 SWE)
- Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie 2016 USA)
- The Salesman (Asghar Farhadi 2016 IRN)
- The Sisters Brothers (Jacques Audiard 2018 USA)
- 120 battements par minute / BPM (Robin Campillo 2017 FRA)
- La loi du marché / The Measure of a Man (Stéphane Brizé 2015 FRA)
- Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch 1932 USA)
- Durak / The Fool (Yuriy Bykov 2014 RUS)
- The Rider (Chloé Zhao 2017 USA)
- La kermesse héroïque / Carnival in Flanders (Jacques Feyder 1935 FRA)
- Isle of Dogs (Wes Anderson 2018 USA)
- Pájaros de verano / Birds of Passage (Cristina Gallego & Ciro Guerra 18 COL)
- Portrait de la jeune fille en feu / Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma 2019 FRA)
- Pursued (Raoul Walsh 1947 USA)
- Minari (Lee Isaac Ching 2020 USA)
- Awaara (Raj Kapoor 1951 IND)
- Little women (Greta Gerwig 2019 USA)
- Mne dvadtsat let / I Am Twenty / Ilyich’s Gate (Marlen Khutsiev 1965 RUS)
- The assistant (Kitty Green 2019 USA)
- Un monde (Laura Wandel 2021 BEL)
- Medium Cool (Haskell Wexler 1969 USA)
- Holy Spider (Ali Abbasi 2022 IRN)
- Shônen / Boy (Nagisa Ôshima 1969 JAP)
- Un autre monde (Stéphane Brizé 2021 FRA)
- Ohikkoshi / Moving (Shinji Sômai 1993 JAP)