TSPDT

Dear film and list lovers, welcome to the 17th version of the 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films.

The 21st Century’s Most Acclaimed Films is an annually updated amalgamation of critics' end-of-year, end-of-decade, all-time, and miscellaneous lists/ballots relating to films released from 2000 onwards. It contains, based on TSPDT's calculations, the 1,000 leading films (critically-speaking) from 2000 to 2023. It has been compiled from the multiple lists/ballots of 5,456 critics/sources.

In terms of notable movements this year, there were 42 changes to the top 1,000, with half of the incoming films hailing from 2023. The top-ten held firm and there was only one change to the top-hundred (Code Unknown replaced The Son). There were only six changes to the top-250, with Killers of the Flower Moon, Fallen Leaves, Ratatouille, Drive, We Need to Talk About Kevin and Cold War replacing The Triplets of Belleville, Saraband, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Waiting for Happiness, Waking Life and last year's highest entrant Everything Everywhere All at Once.

The overall starting list now encompasses 11,344 films and can be viewed here.

The 10 Most Acclaimed Films of the 21st Century
1. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE Wong Kar-wai
2. MULHOLLAND DR. David Lynch
3. YI YI Edward Yang
4. SPIRITED AWAY Hayao Miyazaki
5. THERE WILL BE BLOOD Paul Thomas Anderson
6. TROPICAL MALADY Apichatpong Weerasethakul
7. PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE Céline Sciamma
8. THE TREE OF LIFE Terrence Malick
9. MOONLIGHT Barry Jenkins
10. THE GLEANERS & I Agnès Varda

Directors with the Most Films in the 21st Century List:
11 - Hong Sang-soo
8 - Claire Denis, Lav Diaz, Martin Scorsese
7 - Wes Anderson, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Jia Zhangke, Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Apichatpong Weerasethakul
6 - Paul Thomas Anderson, Andrea Arnold, David Cronenberg, Clint Eastwood, Jean-Luc Godard, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Spike Lee, Jafar Panahi, Kelly Reichardt, Tsai Ming-liang, Denis Villeneuve
5 - Pedro Almodóvar, Olivier Assayas, Bong Joon-ho, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Pedro Costa, Alfonso Cuarón, James Gray, Michael Haneke, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Abbas Kiarostami, Hirokazu Koreeda, Yorgos Lanthimos, Richard Linklater, Steve McQueen, Park Chan-wook, Alexander Payne, Céline Sciamma, Steven Soderbergh, Gus Van Sant, Lars von Trier, Frederick Wiseman

Breakdown of the 1,000 Films by Year:
2000 = 56
2001 = 50
2002 = 64
2003 = 51
2004 = 67
2005 = 40
2006 = 55
2007 = 50
2008 = 49
2009 = 38
2010 = 46
2011 = 44
2012 = 41
2013 = 36
2014 = 44
2015 = 37
2016 = 38
2017 = 36
2018 = 30
2019 = 38
2020 = 21
2021 = 23
2022 = 25
2023 = 21

Breakdown of the 1,000 Films by Decade:
2000s = 520
2010s = 390
2020s = 90

Breakdown of the 1,000 Flms by Country:
381 - USA
117 - France
96 - UK
32 - South Korea
29 - Japan
24 - China
22 - Germany
21 - Italy
20 - Canada
19 - Spain
15 - Iran
14 - Argentina, Portugal
13 - Russia
11 - Sweden
10 - Austria, Brazil, Romania
9 - Australia, Denmark, Ireland, Mexico, Taiwan
8 - Philippines
7 - Finland, Hong Kong, India, Thailand
6 - New Zealand
5 - Belgium, Turkey
4 - Hungary
3 - Chile, Colombia, Greece, Indonesia, Poland, Switzerland
2 - Cambodia, Netherlands, Norway
1 - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chad, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, Iraq, Israel, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Nepal, North Macedonia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Ukraine, Uruguay

Top Climbers Within the 1,000
Showing Up (2022), 828 to 313 (up 515)
Edge of Tomorrow (2014), 954 to 672 (up 282)
Man on Fire (2004), 838 to 577 (up 261)
Compartment No. 6 (2021), 952 to 702 (up 250)
I, Daniel Blake (2016), 818 to 573 (up 245)

Highest Entrants Into the 1,000
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), ranked 196
Fallen Leaves (2023), ranked 218
The Zone of Interest (2023), ranked 292
May December (2023), ranked 293
Anatomy of a Fall (2023), ranked 336

Biggest Sliders Within the 1,000
Crimes of the Future (2022), 648 to 935 (down 287)
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? (2021), 755 to 986 (down 231)
Triangle of Sadness (2022), 720 to 949 (down 229)
Decision to Leave (2022), 404 to 615 (down 211)
The Dreamers (2003), 677 to 887 (down 210)

Biggest Sliders from the 1,000
Top Gun: Maverick (2022), formerly ranked 823
Benediction (2021), formerly ranked 855
Turning Gate (2002), formerly ranked 877
Vortex (2021), formerly ranked 885
Pig (2021), formerly ranked 886

TSPDT's 50 Most Critically-Acclaimed Films of 2023 (Based only on 2023 end-of-year ballots)
1. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON Martin Scorsese
2. FALLEN LEAVES Aki Kaurismäki
3. MAY DECEMBER Todd Haynes
3. THE ZONE OF INTEREST Jonathan Glazer
5. ANATOMY OF A FALL Justine Triet
6. DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD Radu Jude
7. PAST LIVES Celine Song
8. OPPENHEIMER Christopher Nolan
9. POOR THINGS Yorgos Lanthimos
9. SHOWING UP Kelly Reichardt
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11. AFIRE Christian Petzold
11. BARBIE Greta Gerwig
13. CLOSE YOUR EYES Victor Erice
14. ASTEROID CITY Wes Anderson
15. PASSAGES Ira Sachs
16. THE DELINQUENTS Rodrigo Moreno
17. TRENQUE LAUQUEN Laura Citarella
18. THE BOY AND THE HERON Hayao Miyazaki
19. MUSIC Angela Schanelec
20. OUR BODY Claire Simon
21. MENUS-PLAISIRS - LES TROISGROS Frederick Wiseman
22. ALL OF US STRANGERS Andrew Haigh
23. THE HOLDOVERS Alexander Payne
24. LA CHIMERA Alice Rohrwacher
24. THE KILLER David Fincher
26. PACIFICTION Albert Serra
27. YOUTH (SPRING) Wang Bing
28. ABOUT DRY GRASSES Nuri Bilge Ceylan
28. THE HUMAN SURGE 3 Eduardo Williams
30. PRISCILLA Sofia Coppola
30. SAINT OMER Alice Diop
32. THE TASTE OF THINGS Tran Anh Hung
32. TÓTEM Lila Avilés
34. DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Verena Paravel
34. DRY GROUND BURNING Joana Pimenta & Adirley Queirós
36. EVIL DOES NOT EXIST Ryusuke Hamaguchi
37. UNREST Cyril Schäublin
38. TÁR Todd Field
39. ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET. Kelly Fremon Craig
40. LAST SUMMER Catherine Breillat
41. RETURN TO SEOUL Davy Chou
41. A THOUSAND AND ONE A.V. Rockwell
43. ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT Raven Jackson
43. THE BEAST Bertrand Bonello
43. ROTTING IN THE SUN Sebastián Silva
43. THE TRIAL Ulises de la Orden
47. BEAU IS AFRAID Ari Aster
47. THE DAUGHTERS OF FIRE Pedro Costa
47. SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers & Justin K. Thompson
50. IN WATER Hong Sang-soo

Please Note-: There is no intended correlation between the 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films and the 1,000 Greatest Films. You will note that the rankings for 21st Century films within the 1,000 Greatest Films do not align* with the rankings within this listing. The core difference is that this listing incorporates end-of-year critics' ballots, whereas the 1,000 Greatest Films does not.

*It should be noted, however, that the 16 highest-ranked 21st Century films from both lists do in fact align, with a just a few positional differences.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to the compilation of this edition (and previous editions for that matter) and to everyone who has contacted me with their ongoing support. Your enthusiasm and assistance is very much appreciated. Please email your feedback (good, bad, or ugly) to bill@theyshootpictures.com.

Begin browsing the 2024 edition of The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films.