Sight & Sound, a magazine of the British Film Institute has polled critics, writers, academics, and film directors every ten years for the past 50 years. Lists showing which movies and directors stand the test of time are produced from the polls. The catagories are "Critics Top 10 Directors", "Directors Top 10 Directors", "The Critics Top 10 Films", and "The Directors Top 10 Films".

2002 "Critics Top 10 Directors":

• 1. Orson Welles
• 1. Alfred Hitchcock
• 3. Jean-Luc Godard
• 4. Jean Renoir
• 5. Stanley Kubrick
• 6. Akira Kurosawa
• 7. Federico Fellini
• 8. John Ford
• 9. Sergei Eisenstein
• 10. Francis Ford Coppola
• 10. Yasujiro Ozu

The only Western to appear on the "Critics Top 10 Films" list was The Searchers in 1982 and 1992. No Westerns were chosen in 1952, 1962, 1972, or 2002.

Following are the "Critics Top 10 Films" for the past 50 years:

1952:

• 1. Bicycle Thieves (De Sica)
• 2. City Lights (Chaplin)
• 2. The Gold Rush (Chaplin)
• 4. Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)
• 5. Intolerance (Griffith)
• 5. Louisiana Story (Flaherty)
• 7. Greed (von Stroheim)
• 7. Le Jour se lève (Carné)
• 7. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
• 10. Brief Encounter (Lean)
• 10. Le Million (Clair)
• 10. La Règle du jeu (Renoir)

1962:

• 1. Citizen Kane (Welles)
• 2. L'avventura (Antonioni)
• 3. La Règle du jeu (Renoir)
• 4. Greed (von Stroheim)
• 4. Ugetsu Monogatari (Mizoguchi)
• 6. Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)
• 7. Bicycle Thieves (De Sica)
• 7. Ivan the Terrible (Eisenstein)
• 9. La terra trema (Visconti)
• 10. L'Atalante (Vigo)

1972:

• 1. Citizen Kane (Welles)
• 2. La Règle du jeu (Renoir)
• 3. Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)
• 4. 8 1/2 (Fellini)
• 5. L'avventura (Antonioni)
• 5. Persona (Bergman)
• 7. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
• 8. The General (Keaton)
• 8. The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles)
• 10. Ugetsu Monogatari (Mizoguchi)
• 10. Wild Strawberries (Bergman)

1982:

• 1. Citizen Kane (Welles)
• 2. La Règle du jeu (Renoir)
• 3. Seven Samurai (Kurosawa)
• 3. Singin' in the Rain (Kelly, Donen)
• 5. 8 1/2 (Fellini)
• 6. Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)
• 7. L'avventura (Antonioni)
• 7. The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles)
• 7. Vertigo (Hitchcock)
• 10. The General (Keaton)
• 10. The Searchers (Ford)

1992:

• 1. Citizen Kane (Welles)
• 2. La Règle du jeu (Renoir)
• 3. Tokyo Story (Ozu)
• 4. Vertigo (Hitchcock)
• 5. The Searchers (Ford)
• 6. L'Atalante (Vigo)
• 6. Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)
• 6. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
• 6. Pather Panchali (S. Ray)
• 10. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)

2002:

• 1. Citizen Kane (Welles)
• 2. Vertigo (Hitchcock)
• 3. La Règle du jeu (Renoir)
• 4. The Godfather & The Godfather Part 2 (Coppola)
• 5. Tokyo Story (Ozu)
• 6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
• 7. Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)
• 8. Sunrise (Murnau)
• 9. 8 1/2 (Fellini)
• 10. Singing in the Rain (Kelly, Donen)