While we’ve known the results of individual ballots has given data-crunching cinephiles a new opportunity to dive deeper. We have Letterboxd lists detailing all 4,400+ films that received at least one vote and another expanding the directors poll, spreadsheets calculating every entry, and now a list ranking how many votes individual directors received for their films.
Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman (whose Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles ousted Vertigo for the top spot in the critics’ poll) is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.
Check out the list below, along with number of total votes.
33. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly (103) 32. Kenji Mizoguchi (106) =30. Roberto Rossellini (108) =30. Dziga Vertov (108) 29. Michelangelo Antonioni (109) 28. Luis Buñuel (111) 27. Fritz Lang (120) 26. Charlie Chaplin (123) 25. Abbas Kiarostami (134) 24. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger (139) 23. F.W. Murnau (142) 22. Howard Hawks (144) 21. Claire Denis (157) 20. Frederico Fellini (152) 19. Billy Wilder (158) 18. Robert Bresson (163) 17. Carl Theodor Dreyer (167) 16. Jean Renoir (168) 15. Martin Scorsese (169) 14. Andrei Tarkovsky (172) 13. Akira Kurosawa (185) 12. John Ford (187) =10. Wong Kar Wai (194) =10. Ingmar Bergman (194) 9. Agnès Varda (195) 8. David Lynch (211) 7. Francis Ford Coppola (212) 6. Orson Welles (232) 5. Jean-Luc Godard (238) 4. Stanley Kubrick (255) 3. Yasujirō Ozu (261) 2. Chantal Akerman (314) 1. Alfred Hitchcock (437)
Over at criterionforum, swo17 also combined the votes of the directors and critics poll if you only count ballots that included at least one film as old as from the 1920s (eliminating about 65% of submitted lists) to tabulate a new overall top 100:
1. Man with a Movie Camera 2. Sunrise 3. Vertigo 4. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles 5. The Passion of Joan of Arc 6. Citizen Kane 7. Tokyo Story 9. 2001: A Space Odyssey 9. The Rules of the Game 10. Battleship Potemkin (tie) In the Mood for Love 12. Sherlock Jr. 13. Close-up 14. Seven Samurai (tie) The Searchers (tie) Mulholland Dr. 17. Persona 18. Metropolis (tie) Beau travail 20. Au hasard Balthazar (tie) Shoah 22. The General (tie) L’Atalante (tie) Singin’ in the Rain 25. Meshes of the Afternoon (tie) Late Spring (tie) The Godfather 28. Ordet 29. À bout de souffle 30. M (tie) Playtime 32. Pather Panchali (tie) Cléo from 5 to 7 34. 8½ 35. The Battle of Algiers (tie) Apocalypse Now 37. Mirror 38. Andrei Rublev 39. Do the Right Thing 40. Un chien andalou (tie) The Night of the Hunter (tie) Stalker 43. Bicycle Thieves (tie) Rashomon (tie) Psycho 46. Modern Times (tie) Taxi Driver 48. City Lights (tie) Rear Window (tie) The 400 Blows (tie) Sans soleil 52. The Leopard (tie) La Maman et la Putain 54. To Be or Not to Be (tie) Ugetsu monogatari (tie) North by Northwest (tie) L’avventura (tie) La Jetée (tie) Le Mépris (tie) Pierrot le fou (tie) Daisies 62. Madame de… (tie) Wanda (tie) Barry Lyndon (tie) Killer of Sheep 66. Nosferatu (tie) Greed (tie) Napoléon (tie) A Man Escaped (tie) Imitation of Life (tie) The Spirit of the Beehive (tie) News from Home 73. La Grande Illusion (tie) Some Like It Hot (tie) Fear Eats the Soul (tie) Histoire(s) du Cinéma (tie) Daughters of the Dust 78. The Third Man (tie) Sunset Blvd. (tie) Sansho the Bailiff (tie) Journey to Italy (tie) The Seventh Seal (tie) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (tie) A Brighter Summer Day (tie) Sátántangó (tie) The Gleaners and I 87. Intolerance (tie) Bringing Up Baby (tie) Only Angels Have Wings (tie) The Red Shoes (tie) The House Is Black (tie) Once Upon a Time in the West (tie) Blade Runner (tie) My Neighbour Totoro (tie) The Piano (tie) Tropical Malady 97. Trouble in Paradise (tie) Touch of Evil (tie) Pickpocket (tie) La dolce vita (tie) Black Girl (tie) The Conformist (tie) Touki bouki (tie) Céline and Julie Go Boating (tie) Goodbye, Dragon Inn
Explore more insights into the top 250 here.
Jordan Raup is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Film Stage and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic. Track his obsessive film-watching on Letterboxd.