What this Site is and How to Use It

What this Site is:

Welcome to my site.  The goal of it is to provide tracking lists of movies for people to refer to or to use for themselves.  Many people are using one list or another for recommendations on movies to see.  They will be able to find most of them here.

News and Updates

This post will contain notes on what corrections, updates, and expansions I have made to any of the lists and other posts.  If you have not visited in a while, check here to see what may have changed.

January 1, 2016 - I have embedded the latest IMDB Year Ending Top 250 Weighted Ranking list.  It now incorporates 20 years into the rankings.  There are now 670 unique movies on the list.

September 26, 2015 - I have uploaded the newest 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die list with the 2015 additions made to it.

March 1, 2015 - I have embedded the 2015 They Shoot Pictures Don't They list, along with new lists of the films formerly on it, and the next 1,000 films ranked after the first 1,000.  I also embedded up to date lists for the Oscars and Golden Globes.  Finally, I added Empire's Top 301 Films of All Time list in the Publishing post.  I still need to update the lists for the Countries, the Festivals, and the Miscellaneous movies lists with the latest winners.

January 1, 2015 - I have embedded the latest IMDB Year Ending Top 250 Weighted Ranking list.  It now incorporates a 17th year into the rankings.  There are now 564 unique movies on the list.

October 21, 2014 - I uploaded the newest version of the 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die with the latest additions for 2014.

1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (and Related Genre Lists)

The book 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die was first published in 2003.  Each year a few more movies are added to the list.  (The total now stands at 1,167).  Some people are making attempts to see every movie in the book.  You can read much more about it, as well as the blog club that has been formed to review movies from this book, by reading my post on it here.

They Shoot Pictures Don’t They

The They Shoot Pictures Don’t They Top 1,000 movies list is the one on this site that is most heavily weighted towards “critics’ films”.  (For the other end of the spectrum see some of the entries in the Miscellaneous post.)  Like the 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die list, this one has also spurred people to see if they can complete the entire thing.

20 Year Weighted and Consolidated IMDB Top 250 List (1996 – 2015)

Of all the tracking lists on this site, this one is a unique creation of my own.  I first discovered IMDB back in 1997.  At the end of the year 1998 I printed off the Top 250 list in order to have as a list of recommended movies to possibly see in the coming year.  I have continued to do this at every year end since.  I have also found year end lists for 1996 and 1997.  The result is a look back at the past and the trends among the movies that have made up the list.

American and British Film Institute (AFI and BFI) Lists

Both the American and British Film institutes have published lists of the best movies their respective countries have to offer.  I have compiled those various lists into tracking spreadsheets.  Please note that the AFI included a few foreign movies with an American co-production and the BFI included films that were “culturally British”.

Oscars and Golden Globes

The Academy Awards are the oldest film awards in the business.  The Oscar has been getting handed out since 1929.  The Golden Globes have been handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association since 1944.  While the same film is often selected as the best by both organizations, there are also significant differences from time to time.  The Golden Globes also split comedies and dramas into separate categories to ensure that comedies don’t get overlooked.

Film Awards from Countries Outside the United States

There are 25 different countries represented here, as well as two pan-continental film awards.  I tried to track down any country that had had a regular film awards process for more than the last few years. 

Film Festivals

It feels as if at some point every town with a film projector and some spare money in the budget has hosted a film festival.  I had to limit what festivals I included otherwise I would have never gotten this site off the ground.  I have transcribed the Best Film winners from the five festivals that seem to have the largest impact on movie lovers and critics.  I realize this is completely subjective on my part.  If you feel there is an egregious omission, please let me know.

Publishing Company Lists

Various publications have taken it upon themselves to issue lists of the best films ever made.  Included in this post are lists from The New York Times, Time Magazine, Time Out, Entertainment Weekly, Sight & Sound, and Empire Magazine.  If you know of others that you feel would be good to include, please let me know in the comments. 

Miscellaneous Film Lists

This post contains a wide variety of film lists.  Check out the popular movies in the People’s Choice Awards.  It’s not always about best movies; see how many of the Razzie winning films you’ve watched.  Looking for some substance?  Try the Independent Spirit Awards.  There are several more lists here beyond those.  There’s a little something for everybody.

Critics' Lists

This post will contain list of top films from individual critics.  Right now only Roger Ebert is represented.