Every ten years, Sight & Sound magazine asks thousands of critics and filmmakers to name the greatest films ever made. The 2022 poll, the most comprehensive in history, produced a list that shifted some classic rankings and introduced new names. Here are the films that consistently appear at the top.
The perennial top ten
Jeanne Dielman (Chantal Akerman, 1975) — Top of the 2022 poll. A three-and-a-half hour real-time portrait of a widowed housewife. One of the most influential films ever made about the invisible labour of women.
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) — Led the Sight & Sound poll for 50 consecutive years. Technically revolutionary and narratively complex, it remains a masterclass in storytelling and cinematography.
Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953) — A quietly devastating portrait of an elderly couple visiting their adult children. Regularly cited by directors as the film that changed how they understood cinema.
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) — A visual, philosophical and musical experience that still feels ahead of its time over fifty years later.
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) — Hitchcock's most personal film: a mystery that reveals itself as an obsession, a trauma and a meditation on desire and control.
Why these lists matter
The canon is not neutral — it reflects who has been given critical attention and who has been overlooked. The increasing diversity of critics in recent polls has shifted the list meaningfully. Jeanne Dielman's arrival at number one in 2022 was seen as a signal that the conversation is finally broadening.
