American Film Institute’s
10 Top 10
The American Film Institute (AFI) celebrated the centennial of cinema by airing a number of television specials, each honoring a different aspect of excellence in American film. On June 17, 2008 AFI broadcast a program entitled “10 Top 10—Top 10 American Films in 10 Film Genres.”
To determine the winners, AFI invited more than 1,500 leaders from across the American film community—screenwriters, directors, actors, producers, cinematographers, editors, executives, film historians and critics, among them—to choose from a list of nominated films compiled by AFI. The selected films (and their ranking) are listed below.
The
symbol appears next to those films which also received an Academy Award nomination (although this was not a requirement for inclusion on the list). Click on the name of one of those films to display more information about it. You can also click on the IMDb link to to open a new browser window or tabshowing information about the film from the Internet Movie Database. Or, click on a title in the column on the right to display the winners from another AFI program.
For more information, you can follow this link to the American Film Institute’s website.
| Adam’s Rib (1949) IMDb |
| Romantic Comedy: 7 | |
| Alien (1979) IMDb |
| Science Fiction: 7 | |
| All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) IMDb |
| Epic: 7 | |
| Anatomy of a Murder (1959) IMDb |
| Courtroom Drama: 7 | |
| Annie Hall (1977) IMDb |
| Romantic Comedy: 2 | |
| Back to the Future (1985) IMDb |
| Science Fiction: 10 | |
| Bambi (1942) IMDb |
| Animation: 3 | |
| Beauty and the Beast (1991) IMDb |
| Animation: 7 | |
| Ben-Hur (1959) IMDb |
| Epic: 2 | |
| Big (1988) IMDb |
| Fantasy: 10 | |
| Blade Runner (1982) IMDb |
| Science Fiction: 6 | |
| Blue Velvet (1986) IMDb |
| Mystery: 8 | |
| Bonnie and Clyde (1967) IMDb |
| Gangster: 5 | |
| Breaking Away (1979) IMDb |
| Sports: 8 | |
| Bull Durham (1988) IMDb |
| Sports: 5 | |
| Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) IMDb |
| Western: 7 | |
 | Caddyshack (1980) IMDb |
| Sports: 7 | |
| Cat Ballou (1965) IMDb |
| Western: 10 | |
| Chinatown (1974) IMDb |
| Mystery: 2 | |
| Cinderella (1950) IMDb |
| Animation: 9 | |
| City Lights (1931) IMDb |
| Romantic Comedy: 1 | |
| A Clockwork Orange (1971) IMDb |
| Science Fiction: 4 | |
| A Cry in the Dark (1988) IMDb |
| Courtroom Drama: 9 | |
| The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) IMDb |
| Science Fiction: 5 | |
| Dial M for Murder (1954) IMDb |
| Mystery: 9 | |
| E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) IMDb |
| Science Fiction: 3 | |
| Fantasia (1941) IMDb |
| Animation: 5 | |
| A Few Good Men (1992) IMDb |
| Courtroom Drama: 5 | |
| Field of Dreams (1989) IMDb |
| Fantasy: 6 | |
| Finding Nemo (2003) IMDb |
| Animation: 10 | |
| The Godfather (1972) IMDb |
| Gangster: 1 | |
| The Godfather Part II (1974) IMDb |
| Gangster: 3 | |
| Gone with the Wind (1939) IMDb |
| Epic: 4 | |
| GoodFellas (1990) IMDb |
| Gangster: 2 | |
| Groundhog Day (1993) IMDb |
| Fantasy: 8 | |
| Harold and Maude (1972) IMDb |
| Romantic Comedy: 9 | |
| Harvey (1950) IMDb |
| Fantasy: 7 | |
| High Noon (1952) IMDb |
| Western: 2 | |
| Hoosiers (1986) IMDb |
| Sports: 4 | |
| The Hustler (1961) IMDb |
| Sports: 6 | |
| In Cold Blood (1967) IMDb |
| Courtroom Drama: 8 | |
| Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) IMDb |
| Science Fiction: 9 | |
| It Happened One Night (1934) IMDb |
| Romantic Comedy: 3 | |
| It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) IMDb |
| Fantasy: 3 | |
| Jerry Maguire (1996) IMDb |
| Sports: 10 | |
| Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) IMDb |
| Courtroom Drama: 10 | |
| King Kong (1933) IMDb |
| Fantasy: 4 | |
| Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) IMDb |
| Courtroom Drama: 3 | |
| Laura (1944) IMDb |
| Mystery: 4 | |
| Lawrence of Arabia (1962) IMDb |
| Epic: 1 | |
| The Lion King (1994) IMDb |
| Animation: 4 | |
| Little Caesar (1930) IMDb |
| Gangster: 9 | |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) IMDb |
| Fantasy: 2 | |
| The Maltese Falcon (1931) IMDb |
| Mystery: 6 | |
| McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) IMDb |
| Western: 8 | |
| Miracle on 34th Street (1947) IMDb |
| Fantasy: 5 | |
| Moonstruck (1987) IMDb |
| Romantic Comedy: 8 | |
| National Velvet (1945) IMDb |
| Sports: 9 | |
| North by Northwest (1959) IMDb |
| Mystery: 7 | |
| The Philadelphia Story (1940) IMDb |
| Romantic Comedy: 5 | |
| Pinocchio (1940) IMDb |
| Animation: 2 | |
| The Pride of the Yankees (1942) IMDb |
| Sports: 3 | |
| The Public Enemy (1931) IMDb |
| Gangster: 8 | |
| Pulp Fiction (1994) IMDb |
| Gangster: 7 | |
| Raging Bull (1980) IMDb |
| Sports: 1 | |
| Rear Window (1954) IMDb |
| Mystery: 3 | |
| Red River (1948) IMDb |
| Western: 5 | |
| Reds (1981) IMDb |
| Epic: 9 | |
| Rocky (1976) IMDb |
| Sports: 2 | |
| Roman Holiday (1953) IMDb |
| Romantic Comedy: 4 | |
| Saving Private Ryan (1998) IMDb |
| Epic: 8 | |
| Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932) IMDb |
| Gangster: 6 | |
| Scarface (1983) IMDb |
| Gangster: 10 | |
| Schindler’s List (1993) IMDb |
| Epic: 3 | |
| The Searchers (1956) IMDb |
| Western: 1 | |
| Shane (1953) IMDb |
| Western: 3 | |
| Shrek (2001) IMDb |
| Animation: 8 | |
| Sleepless in Seattle (1993) IMDb |
| Romantic Comedy: 10 | |
| Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938) IMDb |
| Animation: 1 | |
| Spartacus (1960) IMDb |
| Epic: 5 | |
| Stagecoach (1939) IMDb |
| Western: 9 | |
| Star Wars IV: A New Hope (1977) IMDb |
| Science Fiction: 2 | |
| The Ten Commandments (1956) IMDb |
| Epic: 10 | |
| Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) IMDb |
| Science Fiction: 8 | |
| The Thief of Baghdad (1924) IMDb |
| Fantasy: 9 | |
| The Third Man (1950) IMDb |
| Mystery: 5 | |
| Titanic (1997) IMDb |
| Epic: 6 | |
| To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) IMDb |
| Courtroom Drama: 1 | |
| Toy Story (1995) IMDb |
| Animation: 6 | |
| 12 Angry Men (1957) IMDb |
| Courtroom Drama: 2 | |
| 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) IMDb |
| Science Fiction: 1 | |
| Unforgiven (1992) IMDb |
| Western: 4 | |
| The Usual Suspects (1995) IMDb |
| Mystery: 10 | |
| The Verdict (1982) IMDb |
| Courtroom Drama: 4 | |
| Vertigo (1958) IMDb |
| Mystery: 1 | |
| When Harry Met Sally . . . (1989) IMDb |
| Romantic Comedy: 6 | |
| White Heat (1949) IMDb |
| Gangster: 4 | |
| The Wild Bunch (1969) IMDb |
| Western: 6 | |
| Witness for the Prosecution (1957) IMDb |
| Courtroom Drama: 6 | |
| The Wizard of Oz (1939) IMDb |
| Fantasy: 1 |