Films from the last 10 years have not been included on this list, and will be eligible in future updates when the moratorium has passed.
| Film | Cinematographer | Year |
| 1. 2001: A Space Odyssey | Geoffrey Unsworth, John Alcott | 1968 |
| 2. Barry Lyndon | John Alcott | 1975 |
| 3. Lawrence of Arabia | Freddie Young | 1962 |
| 4. Days of Heaven | Néstor Almendros, Haskell Wexler | 1978 |
| 5. Tokyo Story | Yūharu Atsuta | 1953 |
| 6. Citizen Kane | Gregg Toland | 1941 |
| 7. The Tree of Life | Emmanuel Lubezki | 2011 |
| 8. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover | Sacha Vierny | 1989 |
| 9. The Searchers | Winton C. Hoch | 1956 |
| 10. Sunrise | Charles Rosher, Karl Struss | 1927 |
| 11. Blade Runner | Jordan Cronenweth | 1982 |
| 12. Last Year at Marienbad | Sacha Vierny | 1961 |
| 13. In the Mood for Love | Christopher Doyle, Mark Lee Ping-Bing | 2000 |
| 14. Raging Bull | Michael Chapman | 1980 |
| 15. The Leopard | Giuseppe Rotunno | 1963 |
| 16. The Conformist | Vittorio Storaro | 1970 |
| 17. Stalker | Alexander Knyazhinsky, Leonid Kalashnikov, Georgy Rerberg | 1979 |
| 18. Apocalypse Now | Vittorio Storaro | 1979 |
| 19. Persona | Sven Nykvist | 1966 |
| 20. Nostalghia | Giuseppe Lanci | 1983 |
| 21. I Am Cuba | Sergey Urusevsky | 1964 |
| 22. Cries and Whispers | Sven Nykvist | 1972 |
| 23. The Passion of Joan of Arc | Rudolph Maté | 1928 |
| 24. Fanny and Alexander | Sven Nykvist | 1982 |
| 25. Suspiria | Luciano Tovoli | 1977 |
| 26. Children of Men | Emmanuel Lubezki | 2006 |
| 27. Heaven’s Gate | Vilmos Zsigmond | 1980 |
| 28. Vertigo | Robert Burks | 1958 |
| 29. Hero | Christopher Doyle | 2002 |
| 30. Seven Samurai | Asakazu Nakai | 1954 |
| 31. 8 1/2 | Gianni Di Venanzo | 1963 |
| 32. The Third Man | Robert Krasker | 1949 |
| 33. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari | Willy Hameister | 1920 |
| 34. Rashomon | Kazuo Miyagawa | 1950 |
| 35. The Revenant | Emmanuel Lubezki | 2015 |
| 36. Touch of Evil | Russell Metty | 1958 |
| 37. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg | Jean Rabier | 1964 |
| 38. The Thin Red Line | John Toll | 1998 |
| 39. The End of Summer | Asakazu Nakai | 1961 |
| 40. La Dolce Vita | Otello Martelli | 1960 |
| 41. Three Colours: Blue | Sławomir Idziak | 1993 |
| 42. A Short Film About Killing | Sławomir Idziak | 1988 |
| 43. Taxi Driver | Michael Chapman | 1976 |
| 44. The Godfather Part II | Gordon Willis | 1974 |
| 45. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford | Roger Deakins | 2007 |
| 46. High and Low | Asakazu Nakai, Takao Saito | 1963 |
| 47. Red Desert | Carlo di Palma | 1964 |
| 48. The Godfather | Gordon Willis | 1972 |
| 49. Metropolis | Karl Freund, Günther Rittau | 1927 |
| 50. Lola Montès | Christian Matras | 1955 |
| 51. The New World | Emmanuel Lubezki | 2005 |
| 52. Ikiru | Asakazu Nakai | 1952 |
| 53. The Turin Horse | Fred Kelemen | 2011 |
| 54. Once Upon a Time in the West | Tonino Delli Colli | 1968 |
| 55. Sátántangó | Gábor Medvigy | 1994 |
| 56. Playtime | Jean Badal, Andréas Winding | 1967 |
| 57. Songs from the Second Floor | István Borbás, Jesper Klevenas, Robert Komarek | 2000 |
| 58. The Shining | John Alcott | 1980 |
| 59. Early Summer | Yūharu Atsuta | 1951 |
| 60. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly | Tonino Delli Colli | 1966 |
| 61. Gone with the Wind | Ernest Haller, Lee Garmes | 1939 |
| 62. Napoleon | Jules Kruger | 1927 |
| 63. Chungking Express | Christopher Doyle, Andrew Lau | 1994 |
| 64. The Red Shoes | Jack Cardiff | 1948 |
| 65. Werckmeister Harmonies | Milós Gurbán, Erwin Lanzensberger, Gábor Medvigy, Emil Novák, Patrick de Ranter, Rob Tregenza, Jörg Widmer | 2000 |
| 66. The Rules of the Game | Jean Bachelet | 1939 |
| 67. L’Avventura | Aldo Scavarda | 1960 |
| 68. Bicycle Thieves | Carlo Montuori | 1948 |
| 69. Goodfellas | Michael Ballhaus | 1990 |
| 70. Birdman | Emmanuel Lubezki | 2014 |
| 71. 2046 | Christopher Doyle, Lai Yiu-fai, Kwan Pun-leung | 2004 |
| 72. A Zed and Two Noughts | Sacha Vierny | 1985 |
| 73. The Trial | Edmond Richard | 1962 |
| 74. The Double Life of Veronique | Sławomir Idziak | 1991 |
| 75. The Magnificent Ambersons | Stanley Cortez | 1942 |
| 76. The Grand Budapest Hotel | Robert Yeoman | 2014 |
| 77. The Sacrifice | Sven Nykvist | 1986 |
| 78. The Bad Sleep Well | Yuzuru Aizawa | 1960 |
| 79. Grand Illusion | Christian Matras | 1937 |
| 80. The Ballad of Narayama | Hiroyuki Kusuda | 1958 |
| 81. Three Colours: Red | Piotr Sobociński | 1994 |
| 82. The Last Laugh | Karl Freund | 1924 |
| 83. The Blue Angel | Günther Rittau | 1930 |
| 84. Brazil | Roger Pratt | 1985 |
| 85. Andrei Rublev | Vadim Yusov | 1966 |
| 86. Mirror | Georgy Rerberg | 1975 |
| 87. Black Narcissus | Jack Cardiff | 1947 |
| 88. The Cranes Are Flying | Sergey Urusevsky | 1957 |
| 89. Die Nibelungen | Carl Hoffmann, Günther Rittau, Walter Ruttmann | 1924 |
| 90. The Earrings of Madame de… | Christian Matras | 1953 |
| 91. Naked | Dick Pope | 1993 |
| 92. The Royal Tenenbaums | Robert Yeoman | 2001 |
| 93. The Seventh Seal | Gunnar Fischer | 1957 |
| 94. Punch-Drunk Love | Robert Elswit | 2002 |
| 95. A Brighter Summer Day | Chang Hui-kung, Li Long-yu | 1991 |
| 96. Ran | Takao Saito, Masaharu Ueda, Asakazu Nakai | 1985 |
| 97. Juliet of the Spirits | Gianni Di Venanzo | 1965 |
| 98. Manhattan | Gordon Willis | 1979 |
| 99. Paths of Glory | Georg Krause | 1957 |
| 100. A Clockwork Orange | John Alcott | 1971 |
You really need to see Tess. This is a humongous miss.
I’ve heard it is beautiful, but the lack of justification doesn’t support your case that it is a big miss. You make a better argument for The Servant than Tess.
I didn’t think this film needs an explanation. It won the Oscar for Cinematography and is a marvel in photography and using natural daylight (especially around sunrise).
The Servant would easily make my list. It’s just magnificent and innovative cinematography. It’s absolutely stunning to look at.
So my guess is you haven’t seen The Servant either?
I have seen The Servant and it was considered. Regarding Tess – excellent cinematography should be easy to be easy to defend, and I have trouble accepting that any film is above discussion. I guess I was just expecting something more than a dismissal and sidestep with such a big call being made. Praising the natural daylight is getting a bit closer to the point, but pointing to awards isn’t solid evidence.
I think the photography in The Servant is amazing. So many great shots with mirrors, using angles to depict the power complex, beautiful photography in the park in the opening and recurring few times etc.
I love this list because it could also double as a reasonable best 100 of all time if you wanted to pass it off as this, goes to show how cinematography dominates.
If I did my own I’d have Dunkirk, The Age of Innocence; No Country for Old Men, Tess, The Servant, 1900, Dick Tracy, The Last Emperor and Rocco and his Brothers all thrown around at least.
Strong contenders, Dunkirk has a solid shot when this is updated in 2027. What do you think is the argument for No Country for Old Men? It’s been a while and I could be underrating its cinematography, but I don’t remember it as one of Deakins’ more beautiful films.
Everytime I watch it I end up thinking it’s very overlooked for the cinematography, partly because the most iconic and memorable scenes are dialogue and acting driven in plainer locations. The outdoor opening hunting and the shot of the large tree with the corpse are beautiful. I think a lot of the nighttime exterior work in the city was stunning too with the neon lights. Even some of the interior hotel scenes had dark Fincher-like lighting if I remember correctly.