American Cinematographer nominates the top 50 best shot films of the last decade
The American Film Institute nominated the top 50 best shot films of the last decade.
Amélie was awarded the #1 spot as the best cinematography of the past decade. I know aesthetics is very much a matter of personal taste, but I couldn’t agree more. For my money Amélie is one of the most beautifully shot films I’ve seen to date. Here’s the complete list.
Amélie was awarded the #1 spot as the best cinematography of the past decade. I know aesthetics is very much a matter of personal taste, but I couldn’t agree more. For my money Amélie is one of the most beautifully shot films I’ve seen to date. Here’s the complete list.
- 1. Amélie
- 2. Children of Men
- 3. Saving Private Ryan
- 4. There Will Be Blood
- 5. No Country for Old Men
- 6. Fight Club
- 7. The Dark Knight
- 8. Road to Perdition
- 9. Cidade de Deus (City of God)
- 10. American Beauty
- 11. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
- 12. Tie: In the Mood for Love
- 12. Tie: Pan’s Labyrinth
- 13. The Lord of the Rings trilogy
- 14. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- 15. Gladiator
- 16. The Matrix
- 17. The Thin Red Line
- 18. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
- 19. Slumdog Millionaire
- 20. Tie: Eyes Wide Shut
- 20. Tie: Requiem for a Dream
- 21. Kill Bill
- 22. Moulin Rouge
- 23. The Pianist
- 24. Hero
- 25. Black Hawk Down
- 26. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
- 27. Babel
- 28. Lost in Translation
- 29. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
- 30. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- 31. The Man Who Wasn’t There
- 32. The New World
- 33. Sin City
- 34. Atonement
- 35. Munich
- 36. The Prestige
- 37. Memoirs of a Geisha
- 38. The Aviator
- 39. Zodiac
- 40. The Insider
- 41. Gangs of New York
- 42. Tie: Brokeback Mountain
- 42. Tie: The Fountain
- 43. The Fall
- 44. The Passion of the Christ
- 45. Snow Falling on Cedars
- 46. House of Flying Daggers
- 47. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
13 Responses
This is a great post, thanks for this! I just put a link up to it on my blog.
But many of those movies are from the nineties…
The poll is a follow-up to one published in AC in March ’99 in honor of the ASC’s 80th anniversary; that vote covered the best-shot movies of 1894-1997. For the new poll, AC asked subscribers to nominate 10 films released between 1998 and 2008 that they believed had the best cinematography.
Oh… Thanks for the info.
Your list of the Top 50 best shot films ends at 47. I’m no math major, but something doesn’t add up?
Ha. Well me neither but there are three ties. #12, #20, and #42 are ties. 50 films altogether.
This list is riddled of contradictions or incongruities, besides poor of sights. The fact that include a Brazilian and some Chinese films is not reason to forgive the exclusion of The Best Authors of World Cinematography as Haneke (none title here exceeds Das Weiss Band, LVT’s Melancholia & Antichrist at beauty are amazing, Kiarostami’s 10 & Copie Conforme technically & visually own Cinematography superior….
As always, american list is riddled of nationalist favoritism that decrease credibility to this kind of exercises.
Regards.
Well this is a list of the best shot films released between 1998 and 2008 so Das Weiss Band, Melancholia and Antichrist weren’t released until 2009 or later. Also, its not a list of the greatest American cinematography. There is a magazine called “American Cinematographer” and this is their list. It doesn’t have anything to do with America really. The number one film on the list is a French film shot by a French cinematographer.
Now, I won’t argue that there may be some poor choices. For instance: Sky Captain? One of the top 50 best shot films in a ten year period? I don’t know about that.
But, the most important thing to realize is that aesthetics is very subjective. What I may find a beautiful film, you may not. So while I might disagree that certain films shouldn’t have made the list I’m not going to make a big deal about it because its a pretty pointless endeavor.
I would love to add Andrzej Bartkowiak to this list,
for “Falling Down” and the first ‘Speed”
”Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” doesn’t deserve a place in this list. I’m surprised they even considered it. I don’t understand why ”There Will Be Blood” is so high on the list no do I understand the love for its cinematography. It is interesting to note that only 9 of the listed films won the Academy Award for Cinematography and the top 2 weren’t among them. I’m also surprised but satisfied that films like ”The Matrix”, ”The Fall”, ”The Fountain” and ”Hero” which were not even nominated for the award at the Academy Awards are listed.
”Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” doesn’t deserve a place in this list. I’m surprised they even considered it. I don’t understand why ”There Will Be Blood” is so high on the list no do I understand the love for its cinematography. It is interesting to note that only ”Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” is not listed out of all the cinematography winners of the decade. I’m also surprised but satisfied that films like ”The Matrix”, ”The Fall”, ”The Fountain” and ”Hero” which were not even nominated for the award at the Academy Awards are listed.
Where is apocalypse now and the silence of the lambs?
They are not part of the last decade.