Movies I left off the list of my favorite movie(s) of each year from 1920 to 2020

Now that I’ve finished posting my favorite movie of each year from 1920 to 2020, here’s an incomplete list of acclaimed movies I’ve seen but decided not to put on the list. I mean this in a spirit of respect for these movies, because I know many of you out there love them. The point is not to criticize, but just to offer more context for my choices.

Movies with an asterisk (*) were nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture; winners have two asterisks (**). Movies with the 🌿 emoji won the Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari [German: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari] (1920)

The Last Laugh [German: Der Letzte Mann] (1924)

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Bed and Sofa [Russian: Третья Мещанская] (1927)

The Cameraman (1928)

Lonesome (1928)

Anna Christie (1930)

The Public Enemy (1931)

The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)

Scarface (1932)

Three on a Match (1932)

Of Human Bondage (1934)

The Thin Man* (1934)

My Man Godfrey (1936)

History Is Made at Night (1937)

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Ninotchka* (1939)

The Grapes of Wrath* (1940)

The Letter (1940)

The Philadelphia Story* (1940)

The Lady Eve (1941)

Random Harvest (1942)

The Talk of the Town* (1942)

To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Jane Eyre (1943)

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Brief Encounter 🌿 (1945)

The Blue Dahlia (1946)

The Killers (1946)

The Red House (1947)

Johnny Belinda* (1948)

Key Largo (1948)

Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)

The Third Man 🌿 (1949)

Night and the City (1950)

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

Pickup on South Street (1953)

On the Waterfront** (1954)

Sabrina (1954)

Marty** 🌿 (1955)

The Bad Seed (1956)

The Searchers (1956)

An Affair to Remember (1957)

The Seventh Seal [Swedish: Det Sjunde Inseglet] (1957)

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

The 400 Blows [French: Les Quatre Cents Coups] (1959)

Floating Weeds [Japanese: Ukikusa]   浮草  (1959)

Breathless [French: À Bout de Souffle] (1960)

The Cloud-Capped Star [Bengali: Meghe Dhaka Tara]   মেঘে ঢাকা তারা  (1960)

The Housemaid [Korean: Hanyeo]   하녀 (1960)

Victim (1961)

Days of Wine and Roses (1962)

Lonely Are the Brave (1962)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Billy Liar (1963)

The Executioner [Spanish: El Verdugo] (1963)

Love with the Proper Stranger (1963)

The Night of the Iguana (1964)

Closely Watched Trains [Czech: Ostře Sledované Vlaky] (1966)

The Graduate* (1967)

if.... 🌿 (1968)

Claire’s Knee [French: Le Genou de Claire] (1970)

The Red Circle [French: Le Circle Rouge] (1970)

Klute (1971)

Aguirre, the Wrath of God [German: Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes] (1972)

The Long Goodbye (1973)

Paper Moon (1973)

The Passenger (1975)

Network* (1976)

Saturday Night Fever (1977)

Autumn Sonata [Swedish: Höstsonaten] (1978)

An Unmarried Woman* (1978)

Ordinary People** (1980)

Body Heat (1981)

Blade Runner (1982)

Tootsie* (1982)

Local Hero (1983)

The Breakfast Club (1985)

Lost in America (1985)

Prizzi’s Honor* (1985)

A Room with a View* (1985)

Blue Velvet (1986)

River’s Edge (1986)

Radio Days (1987)

Say Anything … (1989)

Close-Up [Persian:]   کلوزآپ ، نمای نزدیک  (1990)   

Metropolitan (1990)

Barton Fink 🌿 (1991)

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

In the Soup (1992)

Groundhog Day (1993)

Short Cuts (1993)

True Romance (1993)

Clerks (1994)

The Last Seduction (1994)

Heat (1995)

Sense and Sensibility* (1995)

The Usual Suspects (1995)

As Good As It Gets* (1997)

The Ice Storm (1997)

Life Is Beautiful* [Italian: La Vita è Bella] (1998)

Election (1999)

American Beauty** (1999)

Magnolia (1999)

High Fidelity (2000)

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Amélie [French] (2001)

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

The Good Girl (2002)

Lost in Translation* (2003)

3-Iron [Korean: Bin-jip]   빈집  (2004)

I Heart Huckabees (2004)

Sideways* (2004)

Little Miss Sunshine* (2006)

Waitress (2007)

Rachel Getting Married (2008)

Summer Hours [French: L’heure d’été] (2008)

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Another Year (2010)

Meek’s Cutoff (2010)

Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)

The Descendants* (2011)

Midnight in Paris* (2011)

Django Unchained* (2012)

Philomena* (2013)

Nightcrawler (2014)

Carol (2015)

Manchester by the Sea* (2016)

Elle [French] (2016)

Phantom Thread* (2017)

The Shape of Water** (2017)

Cold War [Polish: Zimna Wojna] (2018)

Shoplifters 🌿 [Japanese: Manbiki Kazoku]   万引き家族  (2018)

Click here for the full list of my favorite movie(s) of each year from 1920 to 2020.