The MFF Top 100: The Best Films of All Time According to Critics and Audiences

I love coming up with hybrid lists that feature combined critic and audience scores. There is something about combining critic/audience scores that makes me feel like a nerdy rebel. No one will ever agree on any list, but if you combine them together they form a Frankensteined creation that looks unruly but feels right. If you’ve been following MFF for some time you’ve read some random lists that highlight all things 21st century and horror franchises. I’ve been on a massive AFI top 100 tear as of late and it got me thinking about the highest rated films of all time. There was a fantastic Reddit post last year that reconfigured the top films into a massive list of 1,001. The results were really cool, and I loved the conversations it sparked. With this post I decided to take a less elegant angle and simply combine the lists I love. My hope is the 100 movies represent all facets of film making and judging by #50-55 it turned out pretty good.

50. Spirited Away (2001) – Top critic/audience rated film of the 21st century – Check out the list

51. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

52. Inside Out (2015)

53. Alien (1979)

54. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)

55. Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Spirited Away is the #1 ranked critc/audience ranked film of the 21st century!

According to Empire, the number one sci-fi moment of all time is Hal shutting down in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Here is what I did. I found seven fantastic lists that represent the best according to critics and audiences. I started with the #1 on each list and worked my through them. The 100 films below showcase the top movies in all of the lists. Many of these films appeared in more than one list so I just used the best ranking for each

Here is the order of the top 100.

#1 = #1 AFI’s 100 Greatest America Films of All Time – Citizen Kane

# 2 = #1 – The 500 Greatest Movies of all Time – Empire – The Godfather

#3 = #1 – IMDb Top 250 – The Shawshank Redemption

#4 = #1 – 1,001 “Greatest” Movies of all Time – Reddit – The Godfather was the #1 pick, but it was #1 on Empire’s list. Thus, the #2 Seven Samurai jumped into the #4 spot – Once again it isn’t pretty but it gets the job done.

#5 = #1 – Top 100 Movies of all Time – Rotten Tomatoes – The Wizard of Oz

#6 = #1 – The 2015 Reddit Top 250 – Pulp Fiction

#7 = #1 – They Shoot Pictures Don’t They? – The 1,000 Greatest Films – Vertigo

#8 = #2 on AFI’s list. The list repeats like so.

This list isn’t elegant but it showcases an eclectic bunch of films that can appeal to cinephiles, critics and modern cinema lovers.

Citizen Kane (1941) The Godfather (1972) The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Seven Samurai (1954) The Wizard of Oz (1939) Pulp Fiction (1994) Vertigo (1958) Casablanca (1942) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) The Godfather Part II (1974) 12 Angry Men (1957) The Third Man (1949)