A Guide to Sight & Sound’s Film Polls
Sight & Sound is a British film magazine that has been published by the British Film Institute since 1934.
In 1952, the magazine decided to poll a collection of critics on their top 10 films. The magazine then compiled the results, and published a list of the cumulative top 10, as well as runners up, in the Autumn 1952 issue. The magazine has conducted a similar poll every decade since then, with the next one set to come out in 2022.
In the first quarter of 2019, I took a course at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies titled “Sight & Sound: What Makes a Movie Great?” As a result, I took an interest in the list, and so I’ve decided to compile decades worth of the magazine’s polls for easy viewing.
The poll is by no means definitive, but it provides an interesting look into how critics have viewed films over the decades, as well as the ways in which directors assess films differently than critics.
I have compiled the results of the following Sight & Sound polls: the decennial critics’ poll, including the top 10 directors of each poll as determined by number of votes for their films (1952–2012); the decennial directors’ poll, including the top 10 directors of each poll as determined by number of votes for their films (1992–2012); the annual top 10 film list (2005–2018).
Notes on the polls
There’s a few things to take note of in order for the results to make sense.
First, the number of critics and directors surveyed for the decennial polls has varied each time.
For critics:
For directors:
As you can see, the number of both critics and directors polled increased greatly between 2002 and 2012, as the poll was opened to critics and directors from all over the world. In the 1952 issue of the poll, only critics from the following countries voted: Britain, France, United States, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. So, these early polls give a much better idea of what white, male critics thought than critics at large.
Second, the number of films included for each decennial poll also varies widely. This is due to how Sight & Sound decided to publish the results. From 1952 to 1982, they published a top 10, as well as a number of runners up that needed to receive a certain number of votes to be included. For example, in 1952 that number was 5 votes, while in 1972 it was 7.
In 1992, the magazine only published a top 10 list. In 2002, they reverted back to publishing a top 10, as well as runners up. Then, in 2012, they published a list of the top 100.
In each edition they also published top 10 lists from individual critics and directors, which theoretically you could tally up in order to create a list that extends beyond whatever limit they decided to impose on minimum votes. However, they rarely published top 10 lists from all of the critics or directors, so any self-tallying would be skewed because it would leave some directors and critics out. As such, I decided to just publish what the magazine did.
Third, not all of the polls started in 1952. Sight & Sound only started listing top directors by number of votes for their films in the decennial critic polls in 1962. The magazine started a separate poll for directors to vote on films in 1992, which has continued on a decennial basis since. The annual top 10 list only began in 2005.
Notes on presentation of polls
I listed all of the results in a single Google Sheets document in order for convenience and ability to easily compare results from each decade. You can either view it below, or directly at the source document. I highly suggest viewing the results on desktop either way, as they likely won’t work properly on mobile.
This document has 5 different tabs: an introduction for those who arrive at the document through a direct link; the decennial critics’ film list; the decennial directors’ film list; top directors as voted by critics and directors based off results in the decennial polls; the annual top 10 films as voted by critics.
The polls often have ties, as they’re based on number of votes. To indicate ties in the document, I’ve changed the text for the group of films that are tied to either red or blue. The colour is irrelevant, and is included solely to distinguish simultaneous groups of ties from each other. The spot the films are tied for is indicated by the spot the top film in the group holds.
To indicate ties in the tables listed below, I’ve included the ranking for the relevant films in brackets after the film’s year.
In terms of titles of the films, I tried to be consistent and keep the titles in the film’s original language, unless it’s better known under another name. However, there’s probably many exceptions, or cases where the film would be better categorized under a different title. If that’s the case, or if you spot any other errors, please reach out to me and I will make a correction. You can reach me on Twitter @DavideMastracci, or at davide.g.mastracci@gmail.com.
Finally, all of these results are coming directly from Sight & Sound resources themselves, and not any secondary sources. This means I’ve gone directly to the website, or in the case of older polls, to archived print editions. I’ve hyperlinked to these sources where available.
Here are the polls!
