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The first of the AFI 100 Years… series of cinematic milestones, AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies is a list of the 100 best American movies, as determined by the American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the film industry who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies. The 100-best list was unveiled in 1998.

Presentation Broadcast

A 145-minute presentation of the 100 films aired on CBS. A 460-minute version aired as a 10-part series on TNT, hosted by Jodie Foster, Richard Gere, Sally Field and narrated by James Woods. An updated version of the list, billed as a 10th Anniversary edition, aired on CBS on June 20, 2007, and was hosted by Morgan Freeman. The AFI website notes that, "Due to licensing restrictions, the telecasts of the AFI 100 Years...100 Series are not available for distribution or purchase on DVD or VHS."

Criteria

Films were judged according to the following criteria.

1. Feature length: Narrative format, at least 40 minutes long.
2. American film: English language, with significant creative and/or financial production elements from the United States. (Certain films, notably The Bridge on the River Kwai, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Lawrence of Arabia, were British-made but funded and distributed by American studios.)
3. Critical recognition: Formal commendation in print.
4. Major award winner: Recognition from competitive events including awards from organizations in the film community and major film festivals.
5. Popularity over time: Including figures for box office adjusted for inflation, television broadcasts and syndication, and home video sales and rentals.
6. Historical significance: A film's mark on the history of the moving image through technical innovation, visionary narrative devices or other groundbreaking achievements.
7. Cultural impact: A film's mark on American society in matters of style and substance.

List

Film	Release year	1998 rank	2007 rank	Change
Citizen Kane	1941	1	1	0
Casablanca	1942	2	3	1
The Godfather	1972	3	2	1
Gone with the Wind	1939	4	6	2
Lawrence of Arabia	1962	5	7	2
The Wizard of Oz	1939	6	10	4
The Graduate	1967	7	17	10
On the Waterfront	1954	8	19	11
Schindler's List	1993	9	8	1
Singin' in the Rain	1952	10	5	5
It's a Wonderful Life	1946	11	20	9
Sunset Boulevard	1950	12	16	4
The Bridge on the River Kwai	1957	13	36	23
Some Like It Hot	1959	14	22	8
Star Wars	1977	15	13	2
All About Eve	1950	16	28	12
The African Queen	1951	17	65	48
Psycho	1960	18	14	4
The General	1926	—	18	—
Chinatown	1974	19	21	2
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	1975	20	33	13
The Grapes of Wrath	1940	21	23	2
2001: A Space Odyssey	1968	22	15	7
The Maltese Falcon	1941	23	31	8
Raging Bull	1980	24	4	20
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	1982	25	24	1
Dr. Strangelove	1964	26	39	13
Bonnie and Clyde	1967	27	42	15
Apocalypse Now	1979	28	30	2
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington	1939	29	26	3
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre	1948	30	38	8
Annie Hall	1977	31	35	4
The Godfather Part II	1974	32	32	0
High Noon	1952	33	27	6
To Kill a Mockingbird	1962	34	25	9
It Happened One Night	1934	35	46	11
Midnight Cowboy	1969	36	43	7
The Best Years of Our Lives	1946	37	37	0
Double Indemnity	1944	38	29	9
Doctor Zhivago	1965	39	—	—
North by Northwest	1959	40	55	15
West Side Story	1961	41	51	10
Rear Window	1954	42	48	6
King Kong	1933	43	41	2
The Birth of a Nation	1915	44	—	—
A Streetcar Named Desire	1951	45	47	2
A Clockwork Orange	1971	46	70	24
Taxi Driver	1976	47	52	5
Jaws	1975	48	56	8
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs	1937	49	34	15
Intolerance	1916	—	49	—
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	1969	50	73	23
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	2001	—	50	—
The Philadelphia Story	1940	51	44	7
From Here to Eternity	1953	52	—	—
Amadeus	1984	53	—	—
All Quiet on the Western Front	1930	54	—	—
The Sound of Music	1965	55	40	15
MASH	1970	56	54	2
The Third Man	1949	57	—	—
Fantasia	1940	58	—	—
Rebel Without a Cause	1955	59	—	—
Nashville	1975	—	59	—
Raiders of the Lost Ark	1981	60	66	6
Vertigo	1958	61	9	52
Sullivan's Travels	1941	—	61	—
Tootsie	1982	62	69	7
Stagecoach	1939	63	—	—
Cabaret	1972	—	63	—
Close Encounters of the Third Kind	1977	64	—	—
The Silence of the Lambs	1991	65	74	9
Network	1976	66	64	2
The Manchurian Candidate	1962	67	—	—
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	1966	—	67	—
An American in Paris	1951	68	—	—
Shane	1953	69	45	24
The French Connection	1971	70	93	23
Forrest Gump	1994	71	76	5
Saving Private Ryan	1998	—	71	—
Ben-Hur	1959	72	100	28
The Shawshank Redemption	1994	—	72	—
Wuthering Heights	1939	73	—	—
The Gold Rush	1925	74	58	16
Dances with Wolves	1990	75	—	—
In the Heat of the Night	1967	—	75	—
City Lights	1931	76	11	65
American Graffiti	1973	77	62	15
All the President's Men	1976	—	77	—
Rocky	1976	78	57	21
The Deer Hunter	1978	79	53	26
The Wild Bunch	1969	80	79	1
Modern Times	1936	81	78	3
Spartacus	1960	—	81	—
Giant	1956	82	—	—
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans	1927	—	82	—
Platoon	1986	83	86	3
Titanic	1997	—	83	—
Fargo	1996	84	—	—
Duck Soup	1933	85	60	25
A Night at the Opera	1935	—	85	—
Mutiny on the Bounty	1935	86	—	—
Frankenstein	1931	87	—	—
12 Angry Men	1957	—	87	—
Easy Rider	1969	88	84	4
Patton	1970	89	—	—
The Sixth Sense	1999	—	89	—
The Jazz Singer	1927	90	—	—
Swing Time	1936	—	90	—
My Fair Lady	1964	91	—	—
Sophie's Choice	1982	—	91	—
A Place in the Sun	1951	92	—	—
The Apartment	1960	93	80	13
Goodfellas	1990	94	92	2
Pulp Fiction	1994	95	94	1
The Last Picture Show	1971	—	95	—
The Searchers	1956	96	12	84
Do the Right Thing	1989	—	96	—
Bringing Up Baby	1938	97	88	9
Blade Runner	1982	—	97	—
Unforgiven	1992	98	68	30
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner	1967	99	—	—
Toy Story	1995	—	99	—
Yankee Doodle Dandy	1942	100	98	2

2007 update notes

Twenty-three films from the original top 100 films list were removed in 2007:

• Doctor Zhivago (1965)
• The Birth of a Nation (1915)
• From Here to Eternity (1953)
• Amadeus (1984)
• All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
• The Third Man (1949)
• Fantasia (1940)
• Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
• Stagecoach (1939)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
• An American in Paris (1951)
• Wuthering Heights (1939)
• Dances with Wolves (1990)
• Giant (1956)
• Fargo (1996)
• Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
• Frankenstein (1931)
• Patton (1970)
• The Jazz Singer (1927)
• My Fair Lady (1964)
• A Place in the Sun (1951)
• Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

Four films released between 1996–2006 were added:

• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• Saving Private Ryan (1998)
• Titanic (1997)
• The Sixth Sense (1999)

Nineteen films made before 1996 were also added:

• The General (1926)
• Intolerance (1916)
• Nashville (1975)
• Sullivan's Travels (1941)
• Cabaret (1972)
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
• The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
• In the Heat of the Night (1967)
• All the President's Men (1976)
• Spartacus (1960)
• Sunrise (1927)
• A Night at the Opera (1935)
• 12 Angry Men (1957)
• Swing Time (1936)
• Sophie's Choice (1982)
• The Last Picture Show (1971)
• Do the Right Thing (1989)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• Toy Story (1995)

Criticisms

As with awards, the list of those who vote and the final vote tally are not released to the public, nor the criteria for how the 400 nominated films have been selected.

On June 26, 1998, the Chicago Reader published an article by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum which offers a detailed response to the movies in the AFI list, as well as criticism of the AFI's appropriation of British films, such as Lawrence of Arabia and The Third Man. Rosenbaum also produced an alternate list of 100 American movies that he felt had been overlooked by the AFI. Rosenbaum chose to present this alternative list alphabetically since to rank them according to merit would be "tantamount to ranking oranges over apples or declaring cherries superior to grapes."

The AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list includes five titles from Rosenbaum's list, and the accompanying promotional poster lists the titles in alphabetical order.

See also

• BFI Top 100 British films
• Films considered the greatest ever

References

1. 100 years, AFI website
2. Rosenbaum, Jonathan (June 26, 1998). "List-o-Mania: Or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love American Movies". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2008-06-03.

External links

• AFI 100 Years...100 Movies (1998 edition)
• AFI 100 Years...100 Movies (2007 edition)
• List of the 400 nominated movies (1998 edition)
• List of the 400 nominated movies (2007 edition)
• Filmsite.org article
• Montreal Mirror editorial
• SFM Entertainment page on the special; includes video clip

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• Lists of films
• AFI 100 Years... series