Sight and Sound Reveals Entire Top 250: ‘The Thing,’ ‘The Matrix,’ and ‘Magnolia’ Among New Entries

UPDATE: Last-minute addition by S&S, David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: The Return” is at #152. Rejoice!

BFI/Sight and Sound have just released the full top 250 of their prestigious per-decade film poll. I can’t highlight everything, but here you’ll get to see the full rundown.

What I will say is that the younger pool of voters has clearly changed everything. It’s quite something how drastically different the list looks when compared to the last one.

The most shocking newcomers for me are John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (#118) and The Wachowski’s “The Matrix” (#122). I mean, wow. I love both of these films, but did not expect them to make the list, let alone be so high. I always thought they’d just be creatures of the IMDb Top 250 and that’s it.

“Sambizanga,” “Watermelon Women”, “West Indies”, “Orlando” and “Paris is Burning” seem to be the biggest jumps from the last poll.

Other surprising new entries: Michael Mann’s “Heat” (#169) and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Magnolia” (#185), two highly influential films that were probably pushed hard by the millennial voting contingent.

And, would you look at that, Celine Sciamma clearly has a major fan club within this poll. Her “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” already shocked people months ago by finishing at #30 but now we also have her pandemic-released “Petite Maman” (#225) entering the fray.

In the top 250, there are 8 films from the last ten years and two were directed by Celine Sciamma. The amount of modern-day films in the 2022 edition of this poll goes against past traditions, but that was to be expected with the expansion of voters.

There are no films from the Coen Brothers in the top 250. It could have to do with a lack on consensus as to what their greatest film is. Is it “No Country For Old Men”? “Fargo”? “Inside Llewyn Davis”? “The Big Lebowski”?

Films from the past decade were actually aplenty: Jonathan Glazer’s “Under the Skin” (#169), Lucrecia Martel’s “Zama” (#196), George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” (#196), Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” (#196), Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Uncle Boonmee” (#196), Lars Von Trier’s “Melancholia” (#211).

Other noteworthy 21st Century inclusions: Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood” (#122), Lucrecia Martel’s “The Headless Woman” (#196), Patricio Guzman’s “Nostalgia For Light” (#243), Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Syndromes and a Century” (#243), and Tsai Ming-liang’s “Goodbye, Dragon Inn” (#108).

Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” is actually tied for 243rd place. Roman Polanski made it with “Chinatown” (#146).

Some of the films that were conspicuously absent from the original list, but that made it beyond the top 100 include Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” (#129), Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” (#129), Robert Altman’s “Nashville” (#114), Orson Welles’ “Touch of Evil” (#108), Robert Bresson’s “Pickpocket” (#136), Jean Renoir’s “La Grande Illusion” (146), David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia” (#133), Carl Dreyer’s “Gertrud” (#136) and Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather Part Two” (#108).

Also, it has to be noted, absolutely zero Haneke in the top 250. For a filmmaker that was as celebrated as he was, just a few years ago, to not get any recognition here is quite surprising.