1001 films that will reward your time (2015 edition)
Here’s the latest iteration of my 1,001 personally recommended films. The list aims to give a rounded view of the rich and diverse heritage of the moving image, but also reflects my own tastes, of which I’ve become more trusting as I see more and more films I want to include. This time around, I’ve dropped a few titles regularly included on such lists, particularly mainstream Hollywood productions, to make room for lesser-known entries from other domains. The textbook classics and box office hits that remain are there not because of their critical or commercial status but because I have genuinely enjoyed and appreciated watching them and think you will too.
The result is I believe the most diverse and balanced list I’ve yet compiled. Though the English language and western European cinema are still, as often, overrepresented, I’ve done more justice than other canon-formers to, for example, early cinema, the avant garde and animation. You might not wholeheartedly enjoy everything on the list, but if you have at least a passing interest in the cinema beyond its ability merely to entertain, you should at least find each has something to offer in any combination of quality, technical innovation, thoughtfulness or originality.
Short subjects, one-off TV productions, mini-series, documentaries and other non-narrative and non-theatrical forms all find their place, though ongoing TV series are avoided as they’re difficult to judge against standalone productions. I’ve cheated a little to create more room by representing multi-part films, trilogies and so on with the first part to be released, and a note about the others.
I was first inspired to create this list while working my way through the films I hadn’t seen in the best-selling 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die and starting to question some of the choices. I’ve long since watched every film in every edition of that book, and in the current Sight and Sound Critics Top 250, and well over 80% of the titles in the They Shoot Pictures Don’t They Top 1,000 ‘list of lists’, so I can claim to be much more familiar with the ‘canon’ than I once was – and more confident about departing from it. Happy viewing!
The result is I believe the most diverse and balanced list I’ve yet compiled. Though the English language and western European cinema are still, as often, overrepresented, I’ve done more justice than other canon-formers to, for example, early cinema, the avant garde and animation. You might not wholeheartedly enjoy everything on the list, but if you have at least a passing interest in the cinema beyond its ability merely to entertain, you should at least find each has something to offer in any combination of quality, technical innovation, thoughtfulness or originality.
Short subjects, one-off TV productions, mini-series, documentaries and other non-narrative and non-theatrical forms all find their place, though ongoing TV series are avoided as they’re difficult to judge against standalone productions. I’ve cheated a little to create more room by representing multi-part films, trilogies and so on with the first part to be released, and a note about the others.
I was first inspired to create this list while working my way through the films I hadn’t seen in the best-selling 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die and starting to question some of the choices. I’ve long since watched every film in every edition of that book, and in the current Sight and Sound Critics Top 250, and well over 80% of the titles in the They Shoot Pictures Don’t They Top 1,000 ‘list of lists’, so I can claim to be much more familiar with the ‘canon’ than I once was – and more confident about departing from it. Happy viewing!
List activity
206 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
1001 titles