Filmmakers’ Greatest Documentaries of All Time
The greatest documentaries ever made, as voted by 103 directors.
The top 30
1. Man with a Movie Camera
Dziga Vertov, USSR 1929
25 votes
2. Sans soleil
Chris Marker, France 1982
20 votes
3. The Thin Blue Line
Errol Morris, USA 1989
19 votes
=4. Shoah
Claude Lanzmann, France 1985
16 votes
=4. Night and Fog
Alain Resnais, France 1955
16 votes
=6. Salesman
Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, USA 1968
12 votes
=6. Titicut Follies
Frederick Wiseman, USA 1967
12 votes
=8. Dont Look Back
D.A. Pennebaker, USA 1967
11 votes
=8. Man of Aran
Robert Flaherty, UK 1934
11 votes
=8. Nanook of the North
Robert Flaherty, USA 1922
11 votes
=11. Belovy
Viktor Kossakovsky, Russia 1994
9 votes
=11. Chronicle of a Summer
Jean Rouch & Edgar Morin, France 1961
9 votes
=11. Grey Gardens
Albert and David Maysles, Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer, USA 1975
9 votes
=14. Burden of Dreams
Les Blank, USA 1982
8 votes
=14. Darwin’s Nightmare
Hubert Sauper, Austria/Germany/Belgium/France/Netherlands 2004
8 votes
=14. Hoop Dreams
Steve James, USA 1994
8 votes
=14. Le Sang des bêtes
Georges Franju, France 1948
8 votes
=14. Seasons
Artavazd Pelechian, USSR/Armenia 1975
8 votes
=19. The Battle of Chile
Patricio Guzméan, Chile/Cuba 1975-78
7 votes
=19. The Gleaners and I
Agnès Varda, France 2000
7 votes
=19. Grizzly Man
Werner Herzog, USA 2005
7 votes
=19. Koyaanisqatsi
Godfrey Reggio, USA 1983
7 votes
=19. Roger & Me
Michael Moore, USA 1989
7 votes
=19. Sherman’s March
Ross McElwee, USA 1985
7 votes
=19. Triumph of the Will
Leni Riefenstahl, Germany 1935
7 votes
=19. Welfare
Frederick Wiseman, USA 1975
7 votes
=19. When We Were Kings
Leon Gast, USA 1996
7 votes
=28. The Act of Killing
Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and anonymous, Denmark/Finland/UK/Germany/Netherlands/Norway/Poland/Sweden 2012
6 votes
=28. Gimme Shelter
Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, USA 1970
6 votes
=28. Harlan County U.S.A.
Barbara Kopple, USA 1976
6 votes
=28. Land without Bread
Luis Buñuel, Spain 1933
6 votes
=28. Leviathan
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, France/UK/USA 2012
6 votes
=28. Little Dieter Needs to Fly
Werner Herzog, UK/Germany 1997
6 votes
=28. The Sorrow and the Pity
Marcel Ophüls, Switzerland 1969
6 votes
=28. West of the Tracks
Wang Bing, China 2002
6 votes