Martin Scorsese’s updated list of the 15 greatest movies of all time
The greatest movies of all time, as voted for by the great Martin Scorsese, Edgar Wright, Joanna Hogg, Guillermo del Toro, Barry Jenkins and Bong Joon Ho, have recently been released online in Sight and Sound’s decennial poll, with Stanley Kubrick’s classic sci-fi 2001: A Space Odyssey topping the 2022 list. In addition, a breakdown of who voted for which films have also been released, with Scorsese’s updated picks taking pride of place among the collection of other filmmakers.
The director of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas and more, has long lent his opinion to the Sight and Sound poll, which asks hundreds of filmmakers from across the world to vote on their picks for the greatest movies of all time, with the highest average choices being included. Voting in the 2012 poll, Scorsese named 12 classic movies, including Federico Fellini’s 8 ½, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, John Ford’s The Searchers and Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, with the director only adding three additional choices for his 2022 picks.
The first of his new choices is the 1951 movie Diary of a Country Priest, directed by the great French filmmaker Robert Bresson, the same filmmaker behind such classics as Au Hasard Balthazar, A Man Escaped and Pickpocket. Released before each of these aforementioned films, Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest was one of his first masterpieces, with the movie following a young priest who takes over the parish at Ambricourt whilst fighting a strange stomach pain.
A second addition to his list came in the form of Akira Kurosawa’s touching 1952 drama Ikiru, a charming and deeply human tale about a man who tries to find the meaning of life after discovering he has terminal cancer. Though Kurosawa is better known for his classic samurai flicks Yojimbo, Ran, and Seven Samurai, Ikiru is one of his most accomplished dramas, with the film having been recently remade by Oliver Hermanus in 2022s Living.
There’s something to be said for Kurosawa’s attention to detail in this gentle human analysis of a life in turmoil and attempted absolution. Indeed, there are truly few better endings in cinema history than seeing the protagonist sway gently on a swing of his own creation as snow softly falls before him, “for there is no such thing as tomorrow, after all”.
Finally, the third film to join Scorsese’s pantheon of greats is the 1955 fantasy Ordet, helmed by the Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer. Too often omitted from the conversation regarding the greatest directors of all time, Dreyer is responsible for a number of early classics, including 1928s The Passion of Joan of Arc and 1932s Vampyr, but his 1955 fantasy-drama Ordet, following the Borgen family who is forced to deal with inner conflicts and religious truth in a devout community in a remote part of Jutland.
This trio of world cinema greats joins Scorsese’s 12 other classics, which include other innovative cinema icons, including Andrzej Wajda, Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini, Jean Renoir, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Check out the full list of Scorsese’s picks for the 15 greatest movies of all time below.
Martin Scorsese names the 15 greatest movies of all time
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
- 8 ½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)
- Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda, 1958)
- Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
- Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson, 1951)
- Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
- The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963)
- Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1955)
- Paisà (Roberto Rossellini, 1946)
- The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
- The River (Jean Renoir, 1951)
- Salvatore Giuliano (Francesco Rosi, 1962)
- The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
- Ugetsu Monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
- Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
