Chantal Akerman’s ‘Jeanne Dielman’ Tops Sight & Sound’s 2022 Greatest Films Poll
In a significant shift within international film criticism, Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) has been named the winner of Sight and Sound magazine’s prestigious Greatest Films of All Time Critics’ poll 2022. This marks the first instance a film directed by a woman has secured the number one position since the poll began in 1952, making waves in discussions about the Most Famous Movies 2022 recognized for their cinematic importance.
Akerman’s film dramatically climbed from 36th place in the 2012 poll to claim the top spot a decade later. The renowned once-a-decade poll, now in its eighth iteration by Sight and Sound, was its most ambitious yet. Over 1,600 leading international film critics, academics, distributors, writers, curators, archivists, and programmers participated, nearly doubling the number of voters from 2012.
How the Top 10 Greatest Movies Changed in 2022
The 2012 champion, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), now holds the second position. Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941), which previously reigned at number one for half a century, is ranked third, followed by Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story (1953) at fourth. The top 10 saw significant movement, with three additional films entering this elite group: Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love (2001) surged to fifth place from 24th in 2012, Claire Denis’s Beau travail (1998) landed at seventh (up from 78th), and David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. (2001) secured the eighth spot (up from 28th).
Sight and Sound magazine cover featuring Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, ranked second in the 2022 poll
The complete results, including commentary on the 100 Greatest Films of All Time, are detailed in the Winter double issue of Sight and Sound, available from December 5th.
A Historic Shift: ‘Jeanne Dielman’ Takes the Crown
Hailed by Le Monde in January 1976 as “the first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of the cinema,” Akerman’s hypnotic Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles meticulously documents the daily routine of a middle-aged widow (Delphine Seyrig) over three days. Akerman was just 25 when she directed this experimental and groundbreaking film, which has sparked decades of analysis and debate.
”Jeanne Dielman challenged the status quo when it was released in 1975 and continues to do so today,” stated Sight and Sound editor in chief Mike Williams. “It’s a landmark feminist film, and its position at the top of list is emblematic of better representation in the top 100 for women filmmakers… Jeanne Dielman’s success reminds us that there is a world of under-seen and under-appreciated gems out there to be discovered…”
“As well as being a compelling list, one of the most important elements is that it shakes a fist at the established order,” commented Jason Wood, the BFI’s executive director of public programmes and audiences. “Canons should be challenged and interrogated… it’s so satisfying to see a list that feels quite radical in its sense of diversity and inclusion.”
Delphine Seyrig as the title character in Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), the top film in the 2022 Sight & Sound poll
Expert Voices on the Landmark Result
Filmmaker Joanna Hogg reflected: “It’s incredible news that Jeanne Dielman has topped the Critics’ poll… I’m sure Chantal Akerman would be happy to know the importance of this film has been recognised… What’s important to remember – whatever Chantal thought of the film… it’s been an incredibly influential piece of filmmaking… In a way this film winning represents not just specifically the importance of Jeanne Dielman but the importance of Chantal Akerman as a filmmaker.”
Laura Mulvey, Professor of Film Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, added: “Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 rue de Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles has topped the Sight and Sound ten best list in its own right and in recognition of a supreme cinematic achievement… Jeanne Dielman stood out as something completely new and unexpected… Akerman’s unwavering… adherence to a female perspective… combined with her uncompromising and completely coherent cinema to produce a film that was both feminist and cinematically radical… One might say that it felt as though there was a before and an after Jeanne Dielman…”
Mulvey concluded, “The arrival of Jeanne Dielman… at the top of the 2022 Sight and Sound poll signals an amazing shift in critical taste… the film will attract a new audience… held enthralled by the extraordinarily daring cinema of a great woman director.”
Inside the 2022 Sight & Sound Poll
The 2022 Critics’ poll, a benchmark in global film culture since 1952, engaged its widest and most diverse group of participants ever. Over 1,600 voters from around the world contributed their top 10 lists, selecting from over 4,000 films in total. This expansion from 846 voters in 2012 reflects several factors, including a more diverse voting body and the growing influence of international film commentary online. Increased access to a broader range of films via streaming services, boutique home media releases, dedicated movie channels, and curated screenings has also likely contributed to a more cine-literate pool of contributors. Voters were encouraged to interpret ‘Greatest’ based on their own criteria, considering historical importance, aesthetic merit, or personal impact.
Increased Representation in the Top 100
The larger, more diverse electorate appears to have significantly impacted the diversity of the top 100 films. In 2012, only two films by women directors were present (Jeanne Dielman and Beau travail). The 2022 list features 11 films by female filmmakers, with four in the top 20. New entries include Agnès Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7 (#14) and The Gleaners and I (#67), Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon (co-directed with Alexander Hammid, #16), Vera Chytilová’s Daisies (#28), Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire (#30), Barbara Loden’s Wanda (#48), Jane Campion’s The Piano (#50), Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust (#60), and Akerman’s second entry, News from Home (#52).
Juan teaches Little to swim in a scene from Barry Jenkins' Moonlight (2016), one of the diverse films featured in the Sight & Sound Top 100
Representation for Black filmmakers also increased significantly. While 2012 saw only Djibril Diop Mambéty’s Touki Bouki (#93), the 2022 poll includes seven titles. Touki Bouki climbed to 67th place, joined by Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (#24), Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep (#43), Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust (joint #60), Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight (joint #60), Jordan Peele’s Get Out (joint #95), and Ousmane Sembène’s Black Girl (joint #95).
The list also reflects more recent cinema, with nine films from the last two decades making the top 100, up from two in 2012. Newcomers include Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite (#90), Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (#75), and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady (joint #95), alongside The Gleaners and I, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Moonlight, and Get Out.
George O'Brien embraces Margaret Livingston in F.W. Murnau's silent classic Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), ranked in the top 20
Silent cinema remains represented with nine films in the top 100, including two in the top 20: F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (#11) and Dziga Vertov’s documentary Man with a Movie Camera (#9). Other silent era inclusions are works by Dreyer, Chaplin, Keaton, Eisenstein, and Lang. Conversely, several notable films dropped out of the top 100, including works by Stroheim, Griffith, Buñuel, Renoir, Welles (The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil), Powell and Pressburger (Colonel Blimp), Carné, Lean, Antonioni, Peckinpah, Herzog, Polanski, Coppola (The Godfather Part II), Altman, and Scorsese (Raging Bull).
The Critics’ Top 20 Greatest Films of All Time
- Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
- Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
- Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
- Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
- In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2001)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
- Beau travail (Claire Denis, 1998)
- Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001)
- Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov,1929)
- Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1951)
- Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
- The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
- La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, 1939)
- Cléo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)
- The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
- Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, 1943)
- Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1989)
- Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
- Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
- Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
Directors vs. Critics: The Filmmakers’ Choice
Alongside the critics’ selections, Sight and Sound conducted a parallel poll among filmmakers. A record 480 directors from around the world, including prominent names like Martin Scorsese, Barry Jenkins, Sofia Coppola, Bong Joon Ho, Lynne Ramsay, and Mike Leigh, participated. Their collective choice for the Greatest Film of All Time was Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
An iconic shot of an astronaut and pod in space from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), voted the greatest film by directors in the 2022 poll
In the Directors’ poll, Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane placed second, with Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather at number three. The Critics’ Poll winner, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, tied for fourth place with the 2012 Directors’ Poll leader, Tokyo Story. Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo ranked sixth alongside Federico Fellini’s 8½. The directors’ top ten was completed by Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mirror, Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love, Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, and Abbas Kiarostami’s Close-Up, all sharing ninth place.
Discovering the Greatest Films
Sight and Sound, the BFI’s internationally respected film magazine, has been a leading voice in film commentary since 1932. BFI Southbank plans to screen the full list of the 100 Greatest Films of All Times throughout January, February, and March. Furthermore, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles became available exclusively on BFI Player Subscription from December 1st, marking its UK streaming debut. UK audiences can also explore over 40 titles from the Critics’ top 100 poll via BFI Player on both rental and subscription services.
The 2022 Sight and Sound poll results represent a watershed moment in film history appreciation, crowning a new champion in Jeanne Dielman and highlighting a significant move towards recognizing a more diverse range of filmmakers and cinematic achievements. The poll not only reshapes the established film canon but also invites audiences worldwide to discover or revisit these landmark works, ensuring the conversation around the greatest and most famous movies continues to evolve. You can explore the full poll results here.
