In February 2011 Time Out surveyed 150 film industry experts to produce its list of "The 100 best British films." Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now topped the list.[1][2] An updated list was published in May 2021, retaining the same rankings but adding four films (The Souvenir, Scum, God's Own Country, and Dunkirk) in place of Listen to Britain, Penda's Fen, I'm All Right Jack, and School for Scoundrels.[3]
List breakdown edit
- The 1960s came out as the most popular decade, with 19 films (the 1940s and 1970s each had 17 films), and the most popular years were 1968, 1970, 1980, and 1999, with four films each. The earliest films chosen were from 1929 (Blackmail, Piccadilly, and A Cottage on Dartmoor). The most recent film was from 2009 (Fish Tank).
- The most popular director was Michael Powell, with seven films, six of which were directed with Emeric Pressburger as the team of Powell and Pressburger ("The Archers").[4] Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, Mike Leigh, and Nicolas Roeg had four films each. Seven of the films were produced by Ealing Studios.
Top 10 edit
| Rank | Title | Year | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Don't Look Now | 1973 | Nicolas Roeg |
| 2 | The Third Man | 1949 | Carol Reed |
| 3 | Distant Voices, Still Lives | 1988 | Terence Davies |
| 4 | Kes | 1969 | Ken Loach |
| 5 | The Red Shoes | 1948 | Powell and Pressburger |
| 6 | A Matter of Life and Death | 1946 | Powell and Pressburger |
| 7 | Performance | 1970 | Nicolas Roeg Donald Cammell |
| 8 | Kind Hearts and Coronets | 1949 | Robert Hamer |
| 9 | If.... | 1968 | Lindsay Anderson |
| 10 | Trainspotting | 1996 | Danny Boyle |