Year By Year: Favourites

By: Trolley Freak

A list of my favourite films and runners-up for each year from 1919 onwards, likely to change the more films I see…

The Apartment (1960)

1919 Broken Blossoms (Dir: D.W. Griffith) Runner-Up: Ask Father (Dir: Hal Roach)
1920 Number, Please? (Dir: Hal Roach/Fred C. Newmeyer) Runner-Up: One Week (Dir: Buster Keaton)
1921 Never Weaken (Dir: Fred C. Newmeyer) Runner-Up: The Kid (Dir: Charlie Chaplin)
1922 Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (Dir: Fritz Lang) Runner-Up: Cops (Dir: Buster Keaton/Edward F. Cline)
1923 Safety Last! (Dir: Fred C. Newmeyer/Sam Taylor)
1924 Sherlock Jr. (Dir: Buster Keaton) Runner-Up: The Last Laugh (Dir: F.W. Murnau)

Safety Last! (1923)

1925 Faces Of Children (Dir: Jacques Feyder) Runner-Up: Grass: A Nation’s Battle For Life (Dir: Merian C. Cooper/Ernest B. Schoedsack)
1926 The General (Dir: Buster Keaton/Clyde Bruckman)
1927 Sunrise (Dir: F.W. Murnau) Runner-Up: Metropolis (Dir: Fritz Lang)
1928 The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer) Runner-Up: Steamboat Bill Jr. (Dir: Buster Keaton/Charles Reisner)
1929 Tokyo March (Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi) Runner-Up: Big Business (Dir: James W. Horne)

The General (1926)

1930 The Blue Angel (Dir: Josef von Sternberg) Runner-Up: Under The Roofs Of Paris (Dir: René Clair)
1931 M (Dir: Fritz Lang) Runner-Up: Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (Dir: Rouben Mamoulian)
1932 The Music Box (Dir: James Parrott) Runner-Up: The Most Dangerous Game (Dir: Ernest B. Schoedsack/Irving Pichel)
1933 King Kong (Dir: Merian C. Cooper/Ernest B. Schoedsack) Runner-Up: The Invisible Man (Dir: James Whale)
1934 It Happened One Night (Dir: Frank Capra) Runner-Up: The Thin Man (Dir: W.S. Van Dyke)

King Kong (1933)

1935 Toni (Dir: Jean Renoir) Runner-Up: The 39 Steps (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock)
1936 A Day In The Country (Dir: Jean Renoir) Runner-Up: The Lower Depths (Dir: Jean Renoir)
1937 The Prisoner Of Zenda (Dir: John Cromwell) Runner-Up: Humanity And Paper Balloons (Dir: Sadao Yamanaka)
1938 Port Of Shadows (Dir: Marcel Carné) Runner-Up: La Bête Humaine (Dir: Jean Renoir)
1939 Only Angels Have Wings (Dir: Howard Hawks) Runner-Up: The Wizard Of Oz (Dir: Victor Fleming)

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

1940 The Shop Around The Corner (Dir: Ernst Lubitsch) Runner-Up: Rebecca (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock)
1941 The Maltese Falcon (Dir: John Huston) Runner-Up: Citizen Kane (Dir: Orson Welles)
1942 Casablanca (Dir: Michael Curtiz) Runner-Up: To Be Or Not To Be (Dir: Ernst Lubitsch)
1943 Shadow Of A Doubt (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock) Runner-Up: Day Of Wrath (Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer)
1944 Double Indemnity (Dir: Billy Wilder) Runner-Up: To Have And Have Not (Dir: Howard Hawks)

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

1945 Children Of Paradise (Dir: Marcel Carné) Runner-Up: Rome, Open City (Dir: Roberto Rossellini)
1946 It’s A Wonderful Life (Dir: Frank Capra) Runner-Up: Shoeshine (Dir: Vittorio De Sica)
1947 Black Narcissus (Dir: Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger) Runner-Up: Odd Man Out (Dir: Carol Reed)
1948 The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (Dir: John Huston) Runner-Up: La Terra Trema (Dir: Luchino Visconti)
1949 The Third Man (Dir: Carol Reed) Runner-Up: Bitter Rice (Dir: Giuseppe de Santis)

The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948)

1950 Rashômon (Dir: Akira Kurosawa) Runner-Up: Sunset Boulevard (Dir: Billy Wilder)
1951 The River (Dir: Jean Renoir) Runner-Up: Ace In The Hole (Dir: Billy Wilder)
1952 Ikiru (Dir: Akira Kurosawa) Runner-Up: The Life Of Oharu (Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi)
1953 Tokyo Story (Dir: Yasujirô Ozu) Runner-Up: Ugetsu (Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi)
1954 Rear Window (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock) Runner-Up: Sansho The Bailiff (Dir: Kenji Mizoguchi)

Rear Window (1954)

1955 The Night Of The Hunter (Dir: Charles Laughton) Runner-Up: Floating Clouds (Dir: Mikio Naruse)
1956 Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (Dir: Don Siegel) Runner-Up: A Man Escaped (Dir: Robert Bresson)
1957 Twelve Angry Men (Dir: Sidney Lumet) Runner-Up: Throne Of Blood (Dir: Akira Kurosawa)
1958 Touch Of Evil (Dir: Orson Welles) Runner-Up: A Time To Love And A Time To Die (Dir: Douglas Sirk)
1959 Some Like It Hot (Dir: Billy Wilder) Runner-Up: North By Northwest (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock)

The Night Of The Hunter (1955)

1960 The Apartment (Dir: Billy Wilder) Runner-Up: Le Trou (Dir: Jacques Becker)
1961 Yojimbo (Dir: Akira Kurosawa) Runner-Up: The End Of Summer (Dir: Yasujirô Ozu)
1962 Harakiri (Dir: Masaki Kobayashi) Runner-Up: An Autumn Afternoon (Dir: Yasujirô Ozu)
1963 High And Low (Dir: Akira Kurosawa) Runner-Up: The Great Escape (Dir: John Sturges)
1964 Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (Dir: Stanley Kubrick) Runner-Up: The Naked Kiss (Dir: Sam Fuller)

Yojimbo (1961)

1965 A Fugitive From The Past (Dir: Tomu Uchida) Runner-Up: Red Beard (Dir: Akira Kurosawa)
1966 The Battle Of Algiers (Dir: Gillo Pontecorvo) Runner-Up: Red Angel (Dir: Yasuzo Masumura)
1967 Samurai Rebellion (Dir: Masaki Kobayashi) Runner-Up: Bonnie And Clyde (Dir: Arthur Penn)
1968 Planet Of The Apes (Dir: Franklin J. Schaffner) Runner-Up: Once Upon A Time In The West (Dir: Sergio Leone)
1969 My Night At Maud’s (Dir: Éric Rohmer) Runner-Up: Army Of Shadows (Dir: Jean-Pierre Melville)

Planet Of The Apes (1968)

1970 The Conformist (Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci) Runner-Up: Claire’s Knee (Dir: Éric Rohmer)
1971 McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Dir: Robert Altman) Runner-Up: The Merchant Of Four Seasons (Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
1972 The Godfather (Dir: Francis Ford Coppola) Runner-Up: Cries And Whispers (Dir: Ingmar Bergman)
1973 Don’t Look Now (Dir: Nicolas Roeg) Runner-Up: Day For Night (Dir: François Truffaut)
1974 Ali: Fear Eats The Soul (Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder) Runner-Up: Alice In The Cities (Dir: Wim Wenders)

Don’t Look Now (1973)

1975 Jaws (Dir: Steven Spielberg) Runner-Up: Barry Lyndon (Dir: Stanley Kubrick)
1976 The Ascent (Dir: Larisa Shepitko) Runner-Up: Kings Of The Road (Dir: Wim Wenders)
1977 Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (Dir: Steven Spielberg) Runner-Up: The American Friend (Dir: Wim Wenders)
1978 Halloween (Dir: John Carpenter) Runner-Up: Superman (Dir: Richard Donner)
1979 Alien (Dir: Ridley Scott) Runner-Up: 10 (Dir: Blake Edwards)

Jaws (1975)

1980 Berlin Alexanderplatz (Dir: Rainer Werner Fassbinder) Runner-Up: The Elephant Man (Dir: David Lynch)
1981 Raiders Of The Lost Ark (Dir: Steven Spielberg) Runner-Up: Gregory’s Girl (Dir: Bill Forsyth)
1982 Blade Runner (Dir: Ridley Scott) Runner-Up: Fanny And Alexander (Dir: Ingmar Bergman)
1983 Local Hero (Dir: Bill Forsyth) Runner-Up: Heat And Dust (Dir: James Ivory)
1984 This Is Spinal Tap (Dir: Rob Reiner) Runner-Up: Paris, Texas (Dir: Wim Wenders)

The Elephant Man (1980)

1985 Ran (Dir: Akira Kurosawa) Runner-Up: Come And See (Dir: Elem Klimov)
1986 Stand By Me (Dir: Rob Reiner) Runners-Up: Jean De Florette/Manon Of The Spring (Dir: Claude Berri)
1987 Planes, Trains & Automobiles (Dir: John Hughes) Runner-Up: No Way Out (Dir: Roger Donaldson)
1988 Grave Of The Fireflies (Dir: Isao Takahata) Runner-Up: Frantic (Dir: Roman Polanski)
1989 Crimes And Misdemeanors (Dir: Woody Allen) Runner-Up: The War Of The Roses (Dir: Danny DeVito)

Ran (1985)

1990 Misery (Dir: Rob Reiner) Runner-Up: Goodfellas (Dir: Martin Scorsese)
1991 JFK (Dir: Oliver Stone) Runner-Up: The Silence Of The Lambs (Dir: Jonathan Demme)
1992 Reservoir Dogs (Dir: Quentin Tarantino) Runner-Up: Glengarry Glen Ross (Dir: James Foley)
1993 Groundhog Day (Dir: Harold Ramis) Runner-Up: The Wrong Trousers (Dir: Nick Park)
1994 Pulp Fiction (Dir: Quentin Tarantino) Runner-Up: Chungking Express (Dir: Wong Kar-wai)

JFK (1991)

1995 Maborosi (Dir: Hirokazu Kore-eda) Runner-Up: Toy Story (Dir: John Lasseter)
1996 Trainspotting (Dir: Danny Boyle) Runner-Up: Fargo (Dir: Joel & Ethan Coen)
1997 Fireworks (Dir: Takeshi Kitano) Runner-Up: The Ice Storm (Dir: Ang Lee)
1998 The Truman Show (Dir: Peter Weir) Runner-Up: A Simple Plan (Dir: Sam Raimi)
1999 American Beauty (Dir: Sam Mendes) Runner-Up: Eyes Wide Shut (Dir: Stanley Kubrick)

The Truman Show (1998)

2000 Thirteen Days (Dir: Roger Donaldson) Runner-Up: Cast Away (Dir: Robert Zemeckis)
2001 Mulholland Drive (Dir: David Lynch) Runner-Up: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Dir: Steven Spielberg)
2002 Far From Heaven (Dir: Todd Haynes) Runner-Up: About Schmidt (Dir: Alexander Payne)
2003 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Dir: Quentin Tarantino) Runner-Up: Touching The Void (Dir: Kevin Macdonald)
2004 2046 (Dir: Wong Kar-wai) Runner-Up: Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (Dir: Quentin Tarantino)

Mulholland Drive (2001)

2005 Brokeback Mountain (Dir: Ang Lee) Runners-Up: Hidden (Dir: Michael Haneke)
2006 The Lives Of Others (Dir: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck) Runner-Up: It’s Winter (Dir: Rafi Pitts)
2007 Lust, Caution (Dir: Ang Lee) Runner-Up: No Country For Old Men (Dir: Joel & Ethan Coen)
2008 In Bruges (Dir: Martin McDonagh) Runner-Up: The Dark Knight (Dir: Christopher Nolan)
2009 The Road (Dir: John Hillcoat) Runner-Up: Up (Dir: Pete Docter)

The Lives Of Others (2006)

2010 The Illusionist (Dir: Sylvain Chomet) Runner-Up: 127 Hours (Dir: Danny Boyle)
2011 Shame (Dir: Steve McQueen) Runner-Up: The Adventures Of Tintin (Dir: Steven Spielberg)
2012 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Dir: Peter Jackson)
2013

To be updated…