What is the greatest film of all time? The newest and most diverse edition of Sight and Sound magazine attempts to offer some answers. Over 1,600 critics around the world were polled to determine the top 100 movies in history. The finished product is less of a crafted list and more of a bevy of amazing cinema, more internationally inclusive than ever yet still overly Western. 

With thousands of movies released in the last century and a half, debating which film wears the all-time crown is a herculean labor. Considering that critical acclaim, societal impact, craft, acting and directing prowess or any other categories of comparison are all relatively unquantifiable, these conversations will undoubtedly continue for eternity.

However, moving past how “correct” any of these rankings are, an analysis of not only the films on the list but the list’s contributors and its changes over time contains valuable information on shifts in critical and popular reception. This is especially true for the new Sight & Sound’s List of 100 Greatest Films.

Sight and Sound is a magazine released by the British Film Institute (BFI) that has surveyed a group of movie critics every 10 years since 1952 to determine the top 100 films of all time. Each reviewer puts forth their own top 10 films, defining “greatest of all time” in their own way. 

Because the list is only compiled every ten years, there are often stark changes symbolizing the prioritization of certain types of films and film movements at different times. This was certainly the case for its most recent poll. 

Receiving longtime criticism for its undiverse contributors, BFI expanded their pool of critics from roughly 150 to around 850 in 2012 and again to over 1600 in 2022, resulting in the most diverse list to date.

In 2012, despite polling the largest collection of critics up to that point, Sight and Sound’s top 100 only contained two women-directed films: Chantal Akerman’s “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles” and Claire Denis’s “Beau Travail.” In 2022, the number of women-directed films not only rose to eleven, but also found Akerman’s masterwork jumping from #36 to #1. 

Additionally, the number of films from Black directors increased from one to seven, and for the first time the list included films from Thailand, Czech Republic and South Korea. These are certainly improvements, yet the list, despite being more diverse than ever, still overrepresented Western films. While Classic Hollywood and French New Wave movies both lost weight in the critical pool, America and France still represented more inclusions than any of the sixteen other countries included. 

This list does not resemble a traditional or mainstream movie collection like IMDB’s Top 250. As it only polls specifically selected critics, its additions are often foreign or avant-garde. “Jeanne Dielmann,” the new number one pick, is both, spending its 220 minute runtime detailing the daily chores of a French single mother as she slowly loses control over her life. 

Despite its erudite reputation, Sight and Sound’s Top 100 should not be written off as an inaccessible collection of movies from a pretentious corp of filmmakers and critics. Indiewire editor and list contributor Kate Erbland said that the list represents the ever-changing tastes of critics in a historical manner.

“It is not that I think these lists are somehow forgettable, but they are ephemeral,” Erbland wrote in the article. “All of this is changeable, all of it is transitory, and that is a great thing.” 

Sight and Sound’s team does not claim preeminent status on the zeitgeist, just as its greatest list is neither definitive nor permanent — especially considering how much it has changed within the last ten years. 

It is a good sign that films from diverse backgrounds and subject matter from all creators are starting to be given the respect and attention they deserve. “Get Out,” one of the most popular and well respected horror films of the last ten years takes its place alongside “Sátántangó,” a seven hour Hungarian work about the inhabitants of a small hamlet around the time of the fall of communism. 

Considering its disparate additions, the list is less of a rigid ranking than a loose collection of amazing cinema. Sight and Sound awards moviegoers with an opportunity to experience new and different films they may not have otherwise heard of. 

Thus, when that inevitable “What should I watch next?” question resurfaces, Sight and Sound has your answer.