Most Deserving AFI 100 Movies Addition
by urbanemovies | created - 16 Jan 2016 | updated - 27 Feb 2023 | PublicThe American Film Institute released its inaugural 100 Years ... 100 Movies list in 1998. The list spawned a dozen other top 100 lists over the years and a revised 10th Anniversary Edition in 2007. An anticipated 20th anniversary list could include new films from the past decade or previously overlooked classic movies. AFI used a panel of 1500 cinephiles to choose 100 American films based on critical recognition, award wins, popularity, cultural impact, and innovation to film.
Which of these movies NOT listed on AFI's last 100 Years ... 100 Movies 10th Anniversary list is most worthy of your vote on an updated list? * minimum requirements: American-made, multiple Oscar wins and an IMDb Top 125 ranking (data as of 18 January 2018)
Cast your vote or See Your IMDb Movie Answer Option Ratings. or Discuss the topic
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1. The Dark Knight (2008)
PG-13 | 152 min | Action, Crime, Drama
When the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, Batman must accept one of the greatest psychological and physical tests of his ability to fight injustice.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine
Votes: 2,869,224 | Gross: $534.86M
#4 IMDb Top 250
149 Award Wins including 2 Oscars
82 Metacritic Score
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
PG-13 | 201 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron's army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom
Votes: 1,978,148 | Gross: $377.85M
#08 IMDb Top 250
207 Award Wins including 11 Oscars
94 Metacritic Score
3. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
PG | 124 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
After the Rebel Alliance are overpowered by the Empire, Luke Skywalker begins his Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued across the galaxy by Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett.
Director: Irvin Kershner | Stars: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams
Votes: 1,379,079 | Gross: $290.48M
#13 IMDb Top 250
22 Award Wins including 2 Oscars
81 Metacritic Score
4. Inception (2010)
PG-13 | 148 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe
Votes: 2,549,317 | Gross: $292.58M
#14 IMDb Top 250
150 Award Wins including 4 Oscars
74 Metacritic Score
5. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
PG-13 | 179 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
While Frodo and Sam edge closer to Mordor with the help of the shifty Gollum, the divided fellowship makes a stand against Sauron's new ally, Saruman, and his hordes of Isengard.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom
Votes: 1,782,916 | Gross: $342.55M
#15 IMDb Top 250
116 Award Wins including 2 Oscars
88 Metacritic Score
6. The Matrix (1999)
R | 136 min | Action, Sci-Fi
When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.
Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving
Votes: 2,051,899 | Gross: $171.48M
#18 IMDb Top 250
37 Award Wins including 4 Oscars
73 Metacritic Score
7. The Usual Suspects (1995)
R | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The sole survivor of a pier shoot-out tells the story of how a notorious criminal influenced the events that began with five criminals meeting in a seemingly random police lineup.
Director: Bryan Singer | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin
Votes: 1,144,899 | Gross: $23.34M
#26 IMDb Top 250
34 Award Wins including 2 Oscars
77 Metacritic Score
8. The Pianist (2002)
R | 150 min | Biography, Drama, Music
During WWII, acclaimed Polish musician Wladyslaw faces various struggles as he loses contact with his family. As the situation worsens, he hides in the ruins of Warsaw in order to survive.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Emilia Fox
Votes: 911,630 | Gross: $32.57M
#40 IMDb Top 250
51 Award Wins including 3 Oscars
85 Metacritic Score
9. The Departed (2006)
R | 151 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg
Votes: 1,421,572 | Gross: $132.38M
#42 IMDb Top 250
90 Award Wins including 4 Oscars
85 Metacritic Score
10. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
R | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her ten year old son John from an even more advanced and powerful cyborg.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick
Votes: 1,173,448 | Gross: $204.84M
#43 IMDb Top 250
25 Award Wins including 4 Oscars
75 Metacritic Score
11. Whiplash (2014)
R | 106 min | Drama, Music
A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.
Director: Damien Chazelle | Stars: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist, Paul Reiser
Votes: 988,413 | Gross: $13.09M
#46 IMDb Top 250
91 Award Wins including 3 Oscars
88 Metacritic Score
12. Gladiator (2000)
R | 155 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A former Roman General sets out to exact vengeance against the corrupt emperor who murdered his family and sent him into slavery.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed
Votes: 1,619,144 | Gross: $187.71M
#47 IMDb Top 250
58 Award Wins including 5 Oscars
64 Metacritic Score
13. The Lion King (1994)
G | 88 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
Lion prince Simba and his father are targeted by his bitter uncle, who wants to ascend the throne himself.
Directors: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Whoopi Goldberg
Votes: 1,141,610 | Gross: $422.78M
#48 IMDb Top 250
35 Award Wins including 2 Oscars
83 Metacritic Score
14. Django Unchained (2012)
R | 165 min | Drama, Western
With the help of a German bounty-hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner in Mississippi.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington
Votes: 1,693,984 | Gross: $162.81M
#60 IMDb Top 250
57 Award Wins including 2 Oscars
81 Metacritic Score
15. American Beauty (1999)
R | 122 min | Drama
A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley
Votes: 1,210,458 | Gross: $130.10M
#63 IMDb Top 250
108 Award Wins including 5 Oscars
86 Metacritic Score
16. Aliens (1986)
R | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Decades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Paul Reiser
Votes: 762,655 | Gross: $85.16M
#68 IMDb Top 250
20 Award Wins including 2 Oscars
87 Metacritic Score
17. Braveheart (1995)
R | 178 min | Biography, Drama, War
Scottish warrior William Wallace leads his countrymen in a rebellion to free his homeland from the tyranny of King Edward I of England.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Angus Macfadyen
Votes: 1,090,941 | Gross: $75.60M
#75 IMDb Top 250
31 Award Wins including 5 Oscars
68 Metacritic Score
18. Amadeus (1984)
R | 160 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice
Votes: 427,783 | Gross: $51.97M
#85 IMDb Top 250
41 Award Wins including 8 Oscars
93 Metacritic Score
* Amadeus was on the initial AFI 100 list, but was one of twenty-three movies not on its revised 10th anniversary edition.
19. The Sting (1973)
PG | 129 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two grifters team up to pull off the ultimate con.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning
Votes: 279,758 | Gross: $159.60M
#95 IMDb Top 250
17 Award Wins including 7 Oscars
84 Metacritic Score
20. L.A. Confidential (1997)
R | 138 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
As corruption grows in 1950s Los Angeles, three policemen - one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy - investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice.
Director: Curtis Hanson | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger
Votes: 617,543 | Gross: $64.62M
#106 IMDb Top 250
87 Award Wins including 2 Oscars
90 Metacritic Score
21. Good Will Hunting (1997)
R | 126 min | Drama, Romance
Will Hunting, a janitor at M.I.T., has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.
Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Stellan Skarsgård
Votes: 1,067,201 | Gross: $138.43M
#102 IMDb Top 250
24 Award Wins including 2 Oscars
70 Metacritic Score
22. La La Land (2016)
PG-13 | 128 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
While navigating their careers in Los Angeles, a pianist and an actress fall in love while attempting to reconcile their aspirations for the future.
Director: Damien Chazelle | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Rosemarie DeWitt, J.K. Simmons
Votes: 670,832 | Gross: $151.10M
#194 (was ranked as high as #20) IMDb Top 250
190 Award Wins including 6 Oscars
93 Metacritic Score
23. Up (2009)
PG | 96 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
78-year-old Carl Fredricksen travels to Paradise Falls in his house equipped with balloons, inadvertently taking a young stowaway.
Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson | Stars: Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, John Ratzenberger, Christopher Plummer
Votes: 1,124,280 | Gross: $293.00M
#114 IMDb Top 250
76 Award Wins including 2 Oscars
88 Metacritic Score
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