Selected Important

• 12 Angry Men
• The Bicycle Thief
• Traffic
• Citizen Kane
• Network
• The Best Years of Our Lives

Selected Great

• Lawrence of Arabia
• When Harry Met Sally
• Children of Men
• The Shawshank Redemption
• The Green Mile
• Flight
• The Gods Must Be Crazy
• Charlie Wilson’s War
• Whiplash
• Catch Me If You Can
• Forest Gump
• Good Will Hunting
• The Last Emperor
• The Last Samurai

Sci-Fi Canon

• Forbidden Planet
• Planet of the Apes
• The Matrix Trilogy
• Blade Runner

Sci-Fi Subgenres

Dystopian Sci-Fi

• Total Recall (1990)
• Repo Men
• Gattaca
• Children of Men

Space Exploration

• Interstellar
• Ad Astra
• Cloud Atlas

Sci-Fi Epic

• Dune (2021)
• Cloud Atlas

Military Sci-Fi

• Starship Troopers

Sci-Fi Comedy

• Galaxy Quest

First Contact

• Arrival
• District 9
• 2001 A Space Odyssey
• 10 Cloverfield Ln

Foreign Sci-Fi

• Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes

Foreign

• Ikiru
• Broken Wings (2002)
• Seven Samurai

Feel Good

• Groundhog Day
• Stand and Deliver
• La La Land
• Lady Bird
• Frances Ha

Adventure

• Lawrence of Arabia
• The Last Emperor
• Forest Gump
• Into the Wild
• Catch Me If You Can
• War Photographer

Vietnam

• Apocalypse Now
• Hearts and Minds
• Good Morning Vietnam
• Full Metal Jacket
• Platoon

Cold War

• The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
• Dr. Strangelove
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• Seven Days in May
• The Lives of Others

War

• The Best Years of Our Lives
• Charlie Wilson’s War
• The Great Dictator
• Jarhead
• Black Hawk Down
• Patton
• Waltz with Bashir
• The Hurt Locker
• Enemy at the Gates
• All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

Western

• A Fistful of Dollars
• For A Few Dollars More
• The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
• Once Upon A Time In The West
• The Magnificent Seven ( Seven Samurai )
• From Noon Till Three
• No Country for Old Men

Medieval

• Becket
• The Lion In Winter
• A Man For All Seasons
• The Northman

Fantasy

• Castle In The Sky
• Spirited Away
• Naussica of the Valley of the Wind
• Pan's Labyrinth

Crime

• 12 Angry Men
• The Bicycle Thief
• Traffic
• The Maltese Falcon
• The Third Man
• The Shawshank Redemption
• The Green Mile
• The Secret In Their Eyes
• Thomas Crown Affair
• Pulp Fiction
• Godfather Part 2
• American History X
• Witness for the Prosecution
• The Usual Suspects
• North by Northwest
• Chinatown
• Drive
• American Hustle
• The Departed
• Goodfellas
• Once Upon a Time in America
• Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
• Dog Day Afternoon
• Leon the Professional

Dialogue Driven

• Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight
• My Dinner with Andre
• Waking Life
• When Harry Met Sally

Drama

• On The Waterfront
• The Coal Miner’s Daughter
• It's a Wonderful Life
• Citizen Kane
• The Graduate
• What's Eating Gilbert Grape
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
• The King's Speech
• Dead Poets Society
• Alfie
• The Wrestler
• Hearts in Atlantis
• Six Degrees of Separation
• City of God
• Munich
• Gran Torino
• Inside Lewyn Davis
• Lincoln
• Eighth Grade
• Persepolis
• Philadelphia
• Quiz Show
• Uncut Gems
• Nomadland
• A Beautiful Mind
• Up In The Air
• Network
• Crash
• The Remains of the Day
• There Will Be Blood
• Flight
• The Gods Must Be Crazy
• Whiplash
• Everything Everywhere All At Once
• Born on the Fourth of July

Psychological Thriller

• Psycho
• The Birds
• Rear Window
• Vertigo
• Sunset Boulevard
• The Game
• Inception
• Fight Club
• Moon
• Silence of the Lambs
• The Talented Mr Ripley
• Donnie Darko
• The Ninth Configuration
• The Sixth Sense
• Seven
• Momento
• Prisoners
• Falling Down
• American Psycho

Artsy and Experimental

• Baraka
• The Seventh Seal
• The Fountain
• Boyhood
• Life in a Day
• The Holy Mountain

Quiet and Calm

• Bang the Drum Slowly
• Lost in Translation

Existential

• Pig

Romance

• Casablanca
• Breakfast at Tiffany’s
• Midnight in Paris

Contemporary Romance

• 500 Days of Summer
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Submarine
• Amelie
• Her
• Perks of Being a Wallflower

Action

• Sucker Punch
• Bourne Trilogy
• Act of Valor
• District B13
• Batman: The Dark Knight
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• 13 Assassins
• Beasts of No Nation
• V for Vendetta
• Gladiator

Time Travel

• Looper
• 12 Monkeys
• Source Code
• Primer
• Edge of Tomorrow
• Tenet

Black Comedy

• Catch 22
• Men Who Stare at Goats
• The Big Lebowski
• Harold and Maude
• Thank You For Smoking
• Snatch
• Trainspotting
• In Bruges

Comedy

• Ferris Bueller's Day Off
• Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
• 21 Jump Street
• Yes Man
• Don't Mess with the Zohan
• Best in Show
• Being John Malkovich
• Being There
• What We Do in the Shadows
• Bad Santa

Documentary

• Requiem for the American Dream
• The Alpinist

Animated

• Naussica of the Valley of the Wind
• Spirited Away
• The Wind Rises
• Castle in the Sky
• Samurai Champloo
• Akira
• Ghost in the Shell (1995)
• The Summit of the Gods
• Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio
• Tokyo Godfathers
• Grave of the Fireflies
• Redline