True crime documentaries and docuseries. Updated regularly.
Last update: 4/20/2024
This isn't intended to be a comprehensive list. I'm just going to be periodically updating this list with titles from the following IMDB search parameters:
UPDATED: 4/23/24
amazon movies
Every year there are a huge number of movies that fly right under the radar of the average movie fan. movies that are great but just not that well known.
There are plenty of movie gems out there and hopefully this list will help you find some.
Feel free to submit new movies in the comments below.
This list contains movies/documentaries and short films. The list was originally created on IMDb. http://goo.gl/gHles
The top films in the 2012 Sight and Sound Poll from the combined votes of 846 critics and 359 directors. Contains films with 3 or more votes. In order by number of votes.
The following is a list of positions and the number of corresponding votes. 21-22 (66 votes), 27-28 (55 votes), 29-30 (54 votes), 36-37 (46 votes), 39-42 (44 votes), 43-46 (43 votes), 47-50 (41 votes), 51-52 (40 votes), 53-55 (39 votes), 56-57 (38 votes), 59-60 (35 votes), 62-74 (33 votes), 75-77 (32 votes), 78-79 (31 votes), 82-88 (28 votes), 89-90 (27 votes), 91-93 (26 votes), 94-99 (25 votes), 100-103 (24 votes), 104-106 (23 votes), 107-110 (22 votes), 111-118 (21 votes), 119-127 (20 votes), 128-139 (19 votes), 140-146 (18 votes), 147-153 (17 votes), 154-166 (16 votes), 167-182 (15 votes), 183-193 (14 votes), 194-206 (13 votes), 207-228 (12 votes), 229-243 (11 votes), 244-271 (10 votes), 272-302 (9 votes), 303-330 (8 votes), 331-375 (7 votes), 376-423 (6 votes), 424-497 (5 votes), 498-624 (4 votes), 625-817 (3 votes)
Source: http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012
The greatest films ever made, as voted by MUBI’s global community of film lovers.
https://mubi.com/lists/the-top-1000
This isn't intended to be a comprehensive list. I'm just going to be periodically updating this list with titles from the following IMDB search parameters:
https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?genres=documentary,sport
UPDATED: 4/17/24
This is it. The end of the lists. Finally! So the other day I posted the best documentaries of the decade as selected by a group of acclaimed documentary filmmakers. Now, we’ve got The Documentary Blog’s own top 50 docs of the decade. I was originally aiming for 25 but I just couldn’t cut it down, so 50 will have to do. Let me stress that this list represents my own personal opinion and nothing more. Hopefully some people can use this as a starting point to check out some great films. Feel free to share your own lists in the comments and let me know what I missed! One thing’s for sure; it has been a great decade for documentaries!"
Source: http://www.thedocumentaryblog.com/index.php/2010/01/05/the-documentary-blogs-top-25-documentaries-of-the-decade/. TDB is Jay Cheel who is a Co-Host of the Filmjunk-Podcast.
Since the 2015 TSPDT has released a companion to their greatest 1000 films, consisting of the films ranked 1001-2000. This list contains the most recent version of this list, with all the previous lists in the history.
Source: http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_films1001-2000.htm
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature (Winners & Nominees)
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts' Best British Film Award, originally given from 1948 to 1968. In 1993, an award for Best British Film was restored with the creation of the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film, named after the important British film director.
Source:
Years 1931-2018 come from:
The New York Times: Book of Movies
the essential 1,000 films to see
2019 ed
Years after 2018 come from NYT website.
work in progress
There are discrepancies between the website and the book, particular for years after 2003. Please leave a comment for any errors you find.
Movies with a perfect Tomatometer Score
From the book by Jennifer Eiss. The list is arranged by chapter. Each chapter starts with a top 10 (in alphabetical order), followed by the "best of the rest" (in alphabetical order).
#1-83: Dramatic Situatons
#84-133: Gripping Tales
#134-165: Lights, Camera…!
#166-228: Visionary Universes
#229-280: Criminal Underworlds
#281-360: Tales of Terror
#361-432: Cult Humor
#433-453: The Wild Wild West
#454-502: Film Lab
Source: https://www.amazon.com/500-Essential-Cult-Movies-Ultimate/dp/1402774869
Rotten Tomatoes - Best of year
A list of films John Waters has referenced in his interviews, books, commentaries, and other work as influential to his career or that he is a fan of otherwise.
Includes all of the films ranked in his yearly 'Artforum: Best Of' year-end lists. (https://joeclark.org/dossiers/johnwaters.html)
This list is a work in progress, by no means a complete reference.
Cross referenced at
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls044203105/ (with JW quotes pertaining to each title)
List compiled from: https://www.vogue.com/article/best-documentaries-of-all-time
Ranked as in the list
1: 13th (2016)
2: A Poem Is a Naked Person (2015)
3: The Act of Killing (2012)
4: American Factory (2019)
5: American Movie (1999)
6: Amy (2015)
7: Bill Cunningham New York (2010)
8: Blackfish (2013)
9: Bowling for Columbine (2002)
10: Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
11: Burden of Dreams (1982)
12: Cameraperson (2016)
13: Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
14: Crumb (1994)
15: Citizenfour (2014)
16: City of Gold (2015)
17: Cusp (2021)
18: Dark Money (2018)
19: Disclosure (2020)
20: Don’t Look Back (1967)
21: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)
22: Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)
23: F for Fake (1973)
24: The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003)
25: Gimme Shelter (1970)
26: The Gleaners and I (2000)
27: Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015)
28: Grey Gardens (1975)
29: Grizzly Man (2005)
30: Harlan County, USA (1976)
31: Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991)
32: Hoop Dreams (1994)
33: How to Survive a Plague (2012)
34: I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
35: Jane (2017)
36: Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
37: Kate Plays Christine (2016)
38: Kedi (2016)
39: Koyaanisqatsi (1982)
40: Man on Wire (2008)
41: McQueen (2018)
42: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004)
43: My Octopus Teacher (2020)
44: Nanook of the North (1922)
45: Night and Fog (1956)
46: O.J.: Made in America (2016)
47: Original Cast Album: Company (1970)
48: Paris Is Burning (1990)
49: Pina (2011)
50: The Queen of Versailles (2012)
51: Restrepo (2010)
52: Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (2018)
53: Salesman (1969)
54: Searching for Sugarman (2012)
55: Senna (2010)
56: The September Issue (2009)
57: Sherman’s March (1985)
58: Shoah (1985)
59: Spellbound (2002)
60: Stories We Tell (2012)
61: Super Size Me (2004)
62: The Thin Blue Line (1988)
63: The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
64: Twenty Feet from Stardom (2013)
65: The Up Series (1964–)
66: Waltz With Bashir (2008)
67: The War Room (1993)
68: Weiner (2016)
69: West of Memphis (2012)
70: When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Parts (2006)
71: Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018)
New millennium, new technology. Film cameras were the standard way to shoot a movie for over a century, and now they to had to make space for upstart digital. Without digital cameras, zombies would’ve stayed dead; 28 Days Later was only possible with how quick and easy it is to set up with them. Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) and Neill Blomkamp (District 9) certainly benefited from the new technology.
Movies were also used to absorb our collective trauma. We escaped into magic and wonder in the months after 9/11 with Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, while we celebrated the end of the Great Recession by getting the hell off this planet with Avatar. And speaking of those series, we didn’t want their installments taking up all the spots on this list, so one movie representing the whole franchise was chosen for those worthy.
And your vast comic-book trivia knowledge became a social asset, not a bullseye for beatings. Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and Spider-Man 2 opened up new ways of connected storytelling (and money making). And it wasn’t just superheroes making the leap to the mainstream. Fanboy culture, the internet, and sites like the one you’re reading now helped bring “genre” movies to the cultural forefront: zombies (28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead), sci-fi (Avatar, Serenity), horror (The Descent, Saw), and fantasy (Pan’s Labyrinth).
Meanwhile, under-served voices started to make some noise in the mainstream with films led by females (Mean Girls, Whale Rider, Bend It Like Beckham, Twilight), made African-American filmmakers (Love & Basketball, Barbershop), and featuring Asian-American stars (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Better Luck Tomorrow). And that’s not including the increasingly easy access to international material like City of God and Let the Right One In.
And we still haven’t touched upon Pixar’s golden age (WALL-E, Finding Nemo), Hollywood finding the formula for comedies perfectly balanced between smart and dumb (The Hangover, The 40-Year Old Virgin), or that the Fast & Furious series got its humble beginnings here. A lot happened in this decade: Discover it all with the 140 Essential Movies of the 2000s!
Source: https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/essential-2000s-movies/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_actual_events
The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films list serves as a companion to the They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? 1,000 Greatest Films of all time list which, - by its nature - tends to have very few films from the 21st century in it. The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films list attempts to highlight and honour this century's most critically revered films and act as a sort of 'resting bay' for many great films that are likely to be included in the 1,000 Greatest Films list sooner or later.
Source: http://www.theyshootpictures.com/21stcentury.htm
True Crime
by Ravyn Jazper-HawkeVIP 4