The Sight and Sound GREATEST FILMS OF ALL-TIME POLL will be revealed in the Winter 2022/2023 issue, which goes on sale in early December 2022. Results will likely be published online by the end of November.
The results of this once-a-decade film critics and directors poll are highly anticipated. We want to know if Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” will keep the top spot after dethroning near-five decade champion “Citizen Kane” in 2012.
Given how much not just the world, but film criticism and culture, has changed these last 10 years, I expect some of the biggest and most drastic changes in the poll’s history to occur within the results. One would expect more black-directed films to appear in the top 500, probably a major bump for Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” and more female filmmakers present as well, I’m thinking Jane Campion’s “The Piano” gets a boost.
I wrote on 06.15.22:
Every 10 years, starting in 1952, Sight & Sound has reached out to filmmakers, academics, and critics all over the world to try to determine the current consensus on the greatest films ever made. Their 2012 poll is most definitely a blueprint that every cinephile should start with.
A popular question of late has been: "When are the 2022 results going to get published?" It turns out that the poll’s results will be unveiled in print and online this coming November. Ballots haven’t even been sent out yet.
The last S&S poll was also the first time Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” failed to take the number one spot on either the Critics or Director’s lists. Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” dethroned ‘Kane,’ a film that held the top spot for almost three decades. “Vertigo” beat ‘Kane’ 191 to 157 votes.
Will there be a new number 1? At this point, I don’t think ‘Kane’ will gain back the top spot. Instead, based on the film's steady rise over the last decade, I'm almost inclined to believe that Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” could be our new #1, solely based on its sheer growing influence alone; Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood” both owe a major debt of gratitude to Kubrick’s magnum opus.
Speaking of “There Will Be Blood” and “The Tree of Life,” will this be the year both of these modern-day masterpieces crack the top 100? One film that is definitely bound to skyrocket is Spike Lee's “Do the Right Thing,” which has managed to gain significant relevance in the era of “Black Lives Matter,” not to mention it was named Best Film of the 1980s in a recent poll of ours.
If I do end up getting a ballot this year, I would have to assume that “The Godfather,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Vertigo,” “The Rules of the Game,” “The Searchers,” “Sunrise,” “L’Avventura,” “Mulholland Drive,” and “Bicycle Thieves” would all figure prominently on my final list.
I can confirm that Joel Coen’s “Jack of Spades” is based on Frances Frederica Montrésor’s 1901 novel “The Alien: A Story of Middle Age.” It’s a ghost story. A gothic mystery.