[kokkinos]

I have a slight preference for the first part, but part II would have comfortably made my list if it was eligible (see posts 51 and 52 in the poll thread).
It's essentially a '40s film, but going by BEA's rule of "international premiere date" - which is probably the safest and most sensible in "gray area" cases - it belongs in the '50s.
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Bob Dylan
Charles Mingus

[CA Dreamin]

I finally have a moment to comment here. I've seen 83/100 movies, with Children of Paradise as the highest ranked blind spot.

On past decade polls, I've always found patterns in the changes between the Version 1 and Version 2 lists, but this one was somewhat murky. The first big surprise when I was putting together the comparison post was the huge -62 drop for The Philadelphia Story, so I thought maybe we weren't so fond of screwball comedies this time around. Not true, because as I got further down the lists, His Girl Friday and Arsenic and Old Lace stayed to close to their previous rankings, while Sullivan's Travels, To Be Or Not To Be, and Lady Eve all saw their rankings significantly increase. So not sure what's behind that ranking shuffle.

Same thing with film noir. Two of V1's Top 10, Big Sleep and Maltese Falcon, dropped a large amount. As did Scarlet Street and Woman in the Window further down. At the same time, other noirs saw their rankings improve. Ex. Out of the Past, Lady From Shanghai, Gaslight. And there's a few new ones on lower half.

Actually, that reveals a pattern with two directors. Fritz Lang and Howard Hawks didn't do nearly as well on Version 2. All their entries on Version 1 either placed lower on V2, or missed the the list entirely.

Another pattern is from Italy. From what I see, every Italian film on V2 is higher than it was on V1.

And our winner for Best Director of the 1940s goes to...Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. With the films ranked #s 5, 6, 15, 17, 79, 84*, and 89...that adds up to 412 points. We can even omit Thief of Baghdad* (the one Pressburger was not a part of and Powell did not complete because the war interrupted production and they had to hire another director to finish it) because 395 points still clears Alfred Hitchcock, whose 6 representatives tally 385 points. Close call. Orson Welles and his 5 films tally 312 points, he takes the bronze medal. And props to him for directing the #1. Kane is king!

However, this data is only pulled from where films landed on the final list. It does not account for all films and their points earned from everyone's individual lists. That would take much more time to figure out, but could Hitchcock have won? It's possible because Hitchcock had other films that didn't make the final list that people might have voted for e.g. Lifeboat, Foreign Correspondent.

Anyway, great list! And great job everyone for putting it together!
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on such a winter's day

[Mercury]

Good spots and points CADreaming. Some interesting changes. I for one have become a massive Powell and pressburger fan in the intervening years and so I had almost all of their eligible films high. It was great seeing their masterpieces get so high up. Was surprised how close my number 1 Colonel Blimp got to The Red Shoes. I expected that one to be the only one in the top 20 not to mention top 10.
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-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!

[kokkinos]

Interesting observations. I guess it's always tricky to make connections between the two lists, because it's not clear if any change is a result of a shift in BEA's collective taste or if it's simply a matter of different people voting. Either way, I'm glad Italian cinema was one of the "winners". Can't say I feel strongly about noir, screwball or Hawks, so I don't really mind these changes. Too bad that Lang's films underperformed, but I'm pretty sure he'll do much better if/when we do the '30s and the '20s. Animation could be included in the "losers" as well. Similar rankings for Fantasia and Pinocchio, but Bambi dropped quite a bit and Dumbo left the list.

I have no idea how you calculated their totals, but I think it's fair to claim Powell and Pressburger had the best run of the '40s regardless - not trying to underestimate the stats, just saying it's one of those cases where it feels that numbers do tell the truth. Four stone-cold classics and a couple of very good/great films is up there with any filmmaker's résumé in any decade.

Your quest to find the best director made me wonder: which films would win BEA's awards of the decade? Based on our overall list, we can safely conclude that Citizen Kane would win Best Picture, Fantasia would win Best Animated Film and Bicycle Thieves would win Best International Film. If I had to make a rough estimation how the rest would play out, Kane would be a dead banker for - at least - Director, Editing and black-and-white Cinematography, though Ivan The Terrible deserves a shout in the latter category. Colour cinematography would go to a Powell/Pressburger film, probably Red Shoes, which would be the odds-on favourite for colour Production Design as well, while Children of Paradise would get the black-and-white equivalent. The Third Man should be the front-runner for Original Score, while Original Song could be either Meet Me in St. Louis (The Trolley Song) or Pinocchio (When You Wish Upon A Star). Special Effects would be given to the Thief of Bagdad and Makeup/Hairstyling to Beauty and The Beast. Actor in a Leading Role could go to any of Casablanca, It's a Wonderful Life or The Great Dictator. Actress in a Leading Role could be a funny race between Casablanca and Notorious, although Late Spring could be a dark horse. Actor/Actress in a supporting role would likely be awarded to the Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Walter Huston) and Rebecca (Judith Anderson) respectively. Adapted Screenplay would be a close call between Bicycle Thieves and Casablanca - maybe Brief Encounter and It's a Wonderful Life would also be in the mix. Citizen Kane would edge out Sullivan's Travels for Original Screenplay. I put this together off the top of my head, so I must have missed some obvious picks. To anyone that took the time to read all that and has a different opinion on any of them, please feel free to jump in.
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Bob Dylan
Charles Mingus

[CA Dreamin]

@Mercury - I think I had seen three Powell/Pressburger films when we did the first 40s list. Saw all the other major ones since then. Quite a run they had in the 40s.

@kokkinos - In the past polls, it felt easy spotting differences between the older and newer versions. Maybe with the 40s, it's so far in the past, the canon doesn't change all that much. Though there are shifts in both collective taste, and the users who're voting.

It's hard to say why Fritz Lang's films didn't do as well this time. For the 1930s, I'm sure M will hold serve, but not sure about his other films. Animation has been falling out of favor for awhile. We've been doing Version 2s of these decade lists for years. In every one of them, animated films did worse than their Version 1 counterparts. We're all discovering new films, and that's a big part of it, but I also think it's possible we're soured by what Disney has been doing in recent years, and we may be subconsciously knocking their movies down a peg. Personally I never considered Fantasia, Pinocchio, nor Bambi for my personal list because frankly I don't care much for them. Dumbo, however...I like the movie and I had that on my list, but removed it before finalizing because I simply didn't want to rep the Mouse House.

[Hayden]

[AfterHours]

@ Kokkinos

Welles as Kane deserves strong (very strong) consideration as the decade’s (and among histories’) greatest lead performances. It’s certainly more singular, unique and nuanced than maybe the more “Oscar” obvious performances you list. In its personal depth and character expanse and detail it can be argued to be a key development or example of the sort of thing method actors were more and more striving for from the early 50s onward in particular (even if Welles himself technically wasn’t a method actor).

Every scene he is a “different person” (even often, every shot/angle), the whole a “chaos of personalities/feelings/thoughts/attitudes”. He accomplishes the extraordinary feat of expressing a huge multitude of emotions and characteristics over a life time, realistically and with conviction, but also (appropriately to the character) with an ‘inner emptiness’, solitude, loneliness, disassociation somehow conveyed simultaneously (both “empty gesture” and “emotionally concentrated” in the same moment, a dichotomy and inner struggle between). It is in essence also a virtual encyclopedia of performance technique, in direct alignment to its cinematic and expressive virtuosity (the film also a perfectly fused “encylopedia” of cinematic language, editing, etc).
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Best Classical
Best Films
Best Paintings

[kokkinos]

[Hayden]

Hello everyone— not sure where else to post this—

I'm hoping to get started with the '25 poll soon— typically it's the weekend of or after the Oscars—

This is the first time since 2020 that I've considered perhaps trimming our typical annual 50-count list down to a smaller number like 30 or 40 (meaning, submission entries would be trimmed to that number as well)— I'll most likely talk myself out of it, I'm a sucker for uniformity— but I'm wondering if there's any likemindedness on this possibility?—

Perhaps I'm being blind, but I feel like the expectation for individuals to whip up a solid 50-entry personal list is unlikely when looking at the playing field. If BEA disagrees, of course we'll go ahead with a top 50, as usual, but if there's any interest in cutting the list down to a tighter 30 or 40, please let me know.

Otherwise, I'd like to get the poll up next week—

Just a thought/option— I'm not persuading/swaying either way—
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Doubles & Conch

[Applerill]

I actually found 2025 to be an amazing year for cinema, especially at the multiplex. Maybe part of this is seeing more movies theatrically, but my top 50 was absolutely packed to the point where I couldn’t watch any more releases in fear of kicking stuff off lol.

https://boxd.it/Ga6fq