LONDON — When the movie producer Emeric Pressburger told the director Michael Powell that he planned to shoot a very long opening title sequence for their 1945 film “I Know Where I’m Going,” which would tell the story of the heroine’s life up until the action started, the response was not encouraging. “Are you sure it won’t empty the cinema?” Powell said nervously.

It didn’t. As well as telling the audience everything they needed to know about Joan (that’s the heroine), Pressburger’s mini-biopic is a graphic coup that cleverly embeds the credits for the cast and crew in each scene, by chalking one on the blackboard in a nursery, and painting another on the side of a truck. Far from emptying the cinema, his opening sequence prepares the audience for the film and enhances the experience of seeing it, just as well-designed titles should do.

If only all movie title sequences were as adroit as Pressburger’s. Sadly they are not. Yet every year, some films are graced by stellar titles and, with less than a week to go to the Academy Award ceremony, here is my (wholly subjective and entirely unofficial) shortlist for the Oscar for Best Film Titles.