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The Best Movies Ever

At Cult Fiction we decided to publish a completely biased list of the best movies per year since the invention of the motion picutre. Several classics were omitted because we haven’t seen them yet or because we prefer an obscure cult film over an Oscar winning giant.

The Oscars, the Golden Globes and the SAGs

The Oscars, the Golden Globes and the SAGs

Some years are left blank because we haven’t seen any movie worth mentioning made that year. Some years spawned many great movies so it was hard to choose.

If we were to recreate the list tomorrow, several other movies would be listed, so we are occasionally going to update the list. Right now, Wuthering Heights won from Gone With The Wind, but frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.

If you can’t agree with any of our laureates, feel free to inform us why a certain movie should of should not be included in the list using our contact page.

The best movies per year

Year Best movie Director
2024 The Zone of Interest Jonathan Glazer
2023 Oppenheimer Christopher Nolan
2022 The Batman Matt Reeves
2021 Dune Denis Villeneuve
2020 Tenet Christopher Nolan
2019 Parasite (Gisaengchung) Bong Joon Ho
2018 Isle of Dogs Wes Anderson
2017 Baby Driver Edgar Wright
2016 The Invisible Guest (Contratiempo) Oriol Paulo
2015 Creed Ryan Coogler
2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson
2013 Nebraska Alexander Payne
2012 Moonrise Kingdom Wes Anderson
2011 Drive Nicolas Winding Refn
2010 Incendies Denis Villeneuve
2009 Mr. Nobody Jaco Van Dormael
2008 The Dark Knight Christopher Nolan
2007 No Country for Old Men Ethan & Joel Coen
2006 Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
2005 Sin City Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller
2004 Napoleon Dynamite Jared Hess
2003 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 Quentin Tarantino
2002 Cidade de Deus (City of God) Fernando Meirelles
2001 Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulin (Amélie) Jean-Pierre Jeunet
2000 American Psycho Mary Harron
1999 Fight Club David Fincher
1998 The Big Lebowski Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
1997 Boogie Nights Paul Thomas Anderson
1996 Fargo Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
1995 Braveheart Mel Gibson
1994 Pulp Fiction Quentin Tarantino
1993 Groundhog Day Harold Ramis
1992 Reservoir Dogs Quentin Tarantino
1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day James Cameron
1990 Edward Scissorhands Tim Burton
1989 Do The Right Thing Spike Lee
1988 Spoorloos (The Vanishing) George Sluizer
1987 RoboCop Paul Verhoeven
1986 Blue Velvet David Lynch
1985 Back to the Future Robert Zemeckis
1984 The Terminator James Cameron
1983 Scarface Brian De Palma
1982 Blade Runner Ridley Scott
1981 Blow Out Brian De Palma
1980 The Shining Stanley Kubrick
1979 Alien Ridley Scott
1978 Halloween John Carpenter
1977 Annie Hall Woody Allen
1976 Taxi Driver Martin Scorsese
1975 Monty Python and the Holy Grail Terry Jones & Terry Gilliam
1974 The Godfather: Part II Francis Ford Coppola
1973 The Exorcist William Friedkin
1972 The Godfather Francis Ford Coppola
1971 A Clockwork Orange Stanley Kubrick
1970 Beneath the Planet of the Apes Ted Post
1969 Midnight Cowboy John Schlesinger
1968 Once Upon a Time in the West Sergio Leone
1967 The Graduate Mike Nichols
1966 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Sergio Leone
1965 For a Few Dollars More Sergio Leone
1964 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Stanley Kubrick
1963 The Sword in the Stone (Disney film) Wolfgang Reitherman
1962 Harakiri Masaki Kobayashi
1961 West Side Story Jerome Robbins & Robert Wise
1960 Psycho Alfred Hitchock
1959 Ben-Hur William Wyler
1958 Vertigo Alfred Hitchock
1957 12 Angry Men Sidney Lumet
1956 The Killing Stanley Kubrick
1955 The Seven Year Itch Billy Wilder
1954 Rear Window Alfred Hitchock
1953 The Wages of Fear (Le salaire de la peur) Henri-Georges Clouzot
1952 Singin’ in the Rain Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
1951 A Streetcar Named Desire Elia Kazan
1950 The Postman Always Rings Twice Tay Garnett
1949 The Third Man Carol Reed
1948 Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di Biciclette) Vittorio De Sica
1947 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Norman Z. McLeod
1946 Notorious Alfred Hitchock
1944 Double Indemnity Billy Wilder
1942 Casablanca Michael Curtiz
1941 Citizen Kane Orson Welles
1940 The Great Dictator Charlie Chaplin
1939 Wuthering Heights William Wyler
1938 Bringing up Baby Howard Hawks
1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs David Hand
1936 Modern Times Charlie Chaplin
1933 King Kong Merian C. Cooper
1931 M Fritz Lang
1929 Un chien andalou Luis Buñuel
1927 Metropolis Fritz Lang
1926 The General Buster Keaton
1925 Battleship Potemkin Sergei Eisenstein
1922 Nosferatu F.W. Murnau
1921 The Kid Charlie Chaplin
1920 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Robert Wiene
1903 The Great Train Robbery Edwin S. Porter
1902 A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune) Georges Méliès