‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ named the greatest movie of all time by 480 filmmakers
Stanley Kubrick’s iconic 1968 sci-fi 2001: A Space Odyssey has been voted as the greatest movie of all time by 480 filmmakers in the decennial poll by Sight and Sound.
Carried out every decade since 1992, the poll collates the opinions of the world’s leading directors and has grown in scope ever since its inception. Whilst just 101 directors took part in 1992, this swelled to 358 in 2012 and then to 480 in the most recent undertaking. Taking into account experimental, mainstream and arthouse flicks, the list includes old classics and contemporary greats.
Included in the many directors that voted were the likes of Martin Scorsese, Edgar Wright, Joanna Hogg, Guillermo del Toro, Michael Mann, Barry Jenkins, Bong Joon Ho and Mia Hansen-Løve.
Kubrick’s film toppled Yasujirō Ozu’s 1953 classic Tokyo Story, which claimed number one in 2012. Released in the late 1960s, Kubrick’s masterpiece is beloved by both critics and fans alike and is recognised as one of the most significant science fiction movies of all time, informing the future of the genre for decades to come.
Inspiring the likes of Christopher Nolan, Denis Villeneuve and many more, the true beauty of 2001 is in its inherent mystery, with the filmmaker famously tight-lipped as to the true meaning of the intricacies of his work. Whilst Kubrick flirts with humanity’s first contact with an alien lifeform, we never actually see an alien in the traditional sense, nor are we given any explanation for the story at hand that follows a group of astronauts and a sophisticated technological system named HAL 9000 on a mission to Jupiter.
Take a look at the trailer for the classic movie, along with the rest of the top 100 movies of all time, as voted by filmmakers, below.
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