Editing Sight and Sound

{{Short description|British film magazine}}
{{Distinguish|Sight & Sound Theatres}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox magazine
| title           = Sight and Sound
| logo            = [[File:Sight and Sound (2021 logo, black).svg|frameless|class=skin-invert]]
| image_file      = <!-- cover.jpg (omit the "file:" prefix) -->
| image_alt       = 
| image_caption   = 
| editor          = [[Mike Williams (journalist)|Mike Williams]]
| editor_title    = 
| previous_editor = 
| staff_writer    = 
| photographer    = 
| category        = Film
| frequency       = Monthly
| circulation     = 
| publisher       = [[British Film Institute]]
| founder         = 
| founded         = {{Start date and age|1932}}
| firstdate       = <!-- {{Start date|year|month|day}} -->
| company         = 
| country         = United Kingdom
| based           = London
| language        = English
| website         = {{URL|https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound}}
| issn            = 0037-4806
| eissn           = 2515-5164
| oclc            = 
}}
'''''Sight and Sound''''' (formerly written '''''Sight & Sound''''') is a monthly [[film]] [[magazine]] published by the [[British Film Institute]] (BFI). Since 1952, it has conducted the well-known decennial ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time.

==History and content==

''Sight and Sound'' was first published in Spring 1932 as "A quarterly review of modern aids to learning published under the auspices of the [[British Institute of Adult Education]]". In 1934, management of the magazine was handed to the nascent [[British Film Institute]] (BFI), which still publishes the magazine today.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/@DavideMastracci/a-guide-to-sight-sounds-film-polls-bdebe18f2c4d|title=A Guide to Sight & Sound's Film Polls|first=Davide|last=Mastracci|date=18 April 2019|website=Medium}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=WP:MEDIUM|date=January 2023}} ''Sight and Sound'' was published quarterly for most of its history until the early 1990s, apart from a brief run as a monthly publication in the early 1950s, but in 1991 it merged with another BFI publication, the ''[[Monthly Film Bulletin]]'', and started to appear monthly.

In 1949, [[Gavin Lambert]], co-founder of film journal ''[[Sequence (journal)|Sequence]]'', was hired as the editor, and also brought with him ''Sequence'' editor [[Penelope Houston (film critic)|Penelope Houston]] as assistant editor as well as co-founders and future film directors [[Lindsay Anderson]] and [[Karel Reisz]].<ref name=90years>{{cite magazine|magazine=Sight & Sound|page=39|last=Williams|first=Mike|author-link=Mike Williams (journalist)|issue=Summer 2022|title=90 Years of Sight and Sound}}</ref> Lambert edited the journal until 1956, with Houston taking over as editor until 1990.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/penelope-houston-vital-commentator-on-post-war-cinema-who-edited-the-bfi-s-sight-sound-film-magazine-a6715811.html|title=Penelope Houston: Influential editor of 'Sight & Sound' magazine|date=2015-10-30|work=The Independent|access-date=2017-08-24|language=en-GB}}</ref> [[Philip Dodd (broadcaster)|Philip Dodd]] became the editor following the merging of ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' with [[Nick James (critic)|Nick James]] taking over in 1997. James was editor until August 2019.<ref name=90years/> It is currently edited by [[Mike Williams (journalist)|Mike Williams]]. The magazine reviews all film releases each month, including those with a limited ([[art film|art house]]) release, as opposed to most film magazines which concentrate on those films with a general release.

''Sight and Sound'' has in the past been the subject of criticism, notably from [[Raymond Durgnat]], who often accused it of elitism, puritanism and snobbery, although he did write for it in the 1950s, and again in the 1990s.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Miller|first1=Henry K.|title=Poetry in motion|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/poetry-motion|website=BFI Film Forever|publisher=BFI|access-date=14 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Gough-Yates|first1=Kevin|title=Raymond Who?|url=http://www.raymonddurgnat.com/|website=Raymond Durgnat.com|publisher=The Estate of Raymond Durgnat|access-date=14 November 2014}}</ref> Until 2020, the magazine's American counterpart was ''[[Film Comment]]'', a magazine that was published by the [[Film Society of Lincoln Center]] in New York City.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Journals-and-Magazines-ACADEMIC-JOURNALS.html|title=Academic journals – Journals and Magazines – film, movie, voice, show, director, cinema, documentary|website=filmreference.com}}</ref>

==The ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time==
Since 1952, ''Sight and Sound'' has conducted a decennial poll to determine the [[Films considered the greatest ever|greatest films of all time]]. Until 1992, the votes of the invited critics and directors were compiled in one list; since 1992, directors have been invited to participate in a separate poll.

The ''Sight and Sound'' poll has come to be regarded as the most important of the "greatest ever film" lists. The critic [[Roger Ebert]] described it as "by far the most respected of the countless polls of great movies—the only one most serious movie people take seriously."<ref>{{cite web | title='Citizen Kane' fave film of movie elite | work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] | author = Roger Ebert | author-link = Roger Ebert | url=https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/citizen-kane-fave-film-of-movie-elite |access-date=2008-01-01 }}</ref>

''Sight and Sound'' first ran the poll in 1952 following publication earlier in the year of a list of the Top Ten Films, headed by ''[[Battleship Potemkin]]'', based on a poll of mostly directors conducted by the committee of the Festival Mondial du Film et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Sight and Sound|date=July–September 1952|first=Gavin|last=Lambert|pages=18–19|title=As You Like It|url=https://archive.org/details/Sight_and_Sound_1952_07_BFI_GB/page/n23/mode/2up?view=theater|access-date=2 December 2022|via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref> Following publication of that poll, ''Sight and Sound'' decided to poll film critics for their choices and announced the results in their next issue.<ref name=1stpoll>{{cite magazine|magazine=Sight and Sound|date=October–December 1952|pages=58–59|title=As The Critics Like It|url=https://archive.org/details/Sight_and_Sound_1952_10_BFI_GB/page/n15/mode/2up?view=theater|access-date=2 December 2022|via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref> 85 critics from Britain, France, the United States, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were asked but only 63 responded including [[Lindsay Anderson]], [[Lotte H. Eisner]], [[Curtis Harrington]], [[Henri Langlois]], [[Friedrich Luft]], [[Claude Mauriac]], [[Dilys Powell]], [[Jean Queval]], [[Terry Ramsaye]], [[Karel Reisz]], [[G. W. Stonier]] (under the name William Whitebait) and [[Archer Winsten]]. Most critics found the question unfair. The first poll was topped by ''[[Bicycle Thieves]]'' with 25 out of 63 votes and contained six [[silent film]]s.<ref name=1stpoll/><ref name=62poll/> The five subsequent polls (1962–2002) were won by ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (which finished 13th in 1952).<ref>Johnson, Eric C. [http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~ejohnson/sight/1952.html Sight and Sound Poll 1952: Critics], [[Caltech]].</ref>

For the 2012 poll, ''Sight and Sound'' listened to decades of criticism about the lack of diversity of its poll participants and made a huge effort to invite a much wider variety of critics and filmmakers from around the world to participate, taking into account gender, ethnicity, race, geographical region, socioeconomic status, and other kinds of underrepresentation.<ref name="how2012pollmade" /> The list of people polled for the critics' poll expanded significantly from 145 to 846 and also included programmers, curators, archivists, film historians and other academics for the first time. Following the change, ''Citizen Kane'' only received the second highest number of votes, with ''[[Vertigo (film)|Vertigo]]'' receiving the most. The directors' poll also expanded from 108 to 358 directors and ''[[Tokyo Story]]'' received the most votes with ''Citizen Kane'' receiving the joint second-most together with ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]''.

In 2022, the number of people polled for the critics' poll increased even further from 846 to 1,639 and ''[[Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles]]'' received the most votes, the first film to be directed by a woman to top the list.<ref name="2022poll"/> ''Vertigo'' received the second most and ''Citizen Kane'' third. Nearly 4,000 different films received at least one mention. ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' topped the directors' poll for the first time in 2022 with ''Citizen Kane'' in second place and ''Tokyo Story'' in joint fourth together with ''Jeanne Dielman''. Among the directors that participated were [[Julie Dash]], [[Barry Jenkins]], [[Lynne Ramsay]], [[Martin Scorsese]] and [[Apichatpong Weerasethakul]].

''La Règle du Jeu ([[The Rules of the Game]])'' appeared in the first seven of the magazine's decennial polls; ''Citizen Kane'' has appeared in the last seven.

===Critics' Top Ten Poll===

====1952====
<ol>
<li value="1">''[[Bicycle Thieves]]'' (25 mentions)</li>
<li value="2">''[[City Lights]]'' and ''[[The Gold Rush]]'' (19 mentions)</li>
<li value="4">''[[Battleship Potemkin]]'' (16 mentions)</li>
<li value="5">''[[Intolerance (film)|Intolerance]]'' and ''[[Louisiana Story]]'' (12 mentions)</li>
<li value="7">''[[Greed (1924 film)|Greed]]'', ''[[The Passion of Joan of Arc]]'' and ''[[Le Jour Se Lève]]'' (11 mentions)</li> 
<li value="10">''[[Le Million]]'', ''[[The Rules of the Game]]'' and ''[[Brief Encounter]]'' (10 mentions)</li>  
</ol>
Closest runners-up: ''[[Citizen Kane]]'', ''[[La Grande Illusion]]'', and ''[[The Grapes of Wrath (film)|The Grapes of Wrath]]''. (9 mentions apiece)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/greatest-films-all-time/1952|title=The Greatest Films of All Time… in 1952|website=BFI|date=22 February 2022 }}</ref>

====1962====
[[File:Citizen-Kane-Welles-Podium.jpg|thumb|''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (1941)]]
<ol>
<li value="1">''Citizen Kane'' (22 mentions)</li>
<li value="2">''[[L'Avventura]]'' (20 mentions)</li>
<li value="3">''The Rules of the Game'' (19 mentions)</li>
<li value="4">''Greed'' and ''[[Ugetsu]]'' (17 mentions)</li>
<li value="6">''Battleship Potemkin'', ''[[Ivan the Terrible (1944 film)|Ivan the Terrible]]'' and ''Bicycle Thieves'' (16 mentions)</li>
<li value="9">''[[La Terra Trema]]'' (14 mentions)</li>
<li value="10">''[[L'Atalante]]'' (13 mentions)</li>
</ol>
Closest runners-up: ''[[Hiroshima mon amour]]'', {{Lang|bn-latn|[[Pather Panchali]]}} and ''[[Zero for Conduct]]''. (11 mentions apiece)

The number of silent films on the list dropped from six to two.<ref name=62poll/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/greatest-films-all-time/1962|title=The Greatest Films of All Time… in 1962|website=BFI|date=17 June 2021 }}</ref> Films directed by [[Sergei Eisenstein]] received the most votes with 46, followed by [[Charles Chaplin]] with 43 and [[Jean Renoir]] with 35.<ref name=62poll>{{cite magazine |date=Winter 1961–1962 |title=Top/Ten |magazine=Sight & Sound |publisher=British Film Institute |volume=31 |issue=1 |page=10|url=https://archive.org/details/Sight_and_Sound_1962_01_BFI_GB/page/n15/mode/2up?view=theater|access-date=3 December 2022|via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref>

====1972====
<ol>
<li value="1">''Citizen Kane'' (32 mentions)
<li value="2">''The Rules of the Game'' (28 mentions)
<li value="3">''Battleship Potemkin'' (16 mentions)
<li value="4">''[[8½]]'' (15 mentions)
<li value="5">''L'Avventura'' and ''[[Persona (1966 film)|Persona]]'' (12 mentions)
<li value="7">''The Passion of Joan of Arc'' (11 mentions)
<li value="8">''[[The General (1927 film)|The General]]'' and ''[[The Magnificent Ambersons (film)|The Magnificent Ambersons]]'' (10 mentions)
<li value="10">''Ugetsu'' and [[Wild Strawberries (film)|''Wild Strawberries'']] (9 mentions)
</ol>
Closest runners-up: ''The Gold Rush'', ''Hiroshima mon amour'', ''[[Ikiru]]'', ''Ivan the Terrible'', ''[[Pierrot le Fou]]'', and ''[[Vertigo (film)|Vertigo]]''. (8 mentions apiece)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/greatest-films-all-time/1972|title=The Greatest Films of All Time… in 1972|website=BFI|date=17 June 2021 }}</ref>

Films directed by [[Orson Welles]] received the most votes with 46 votes followed by [[Jean Renoir]] with 41 and [[Ingmar Bergman]] with 37.<ref name=72poll>{{cite magazine |date=Winter 1971–1972 |title=Top Ten 72 |magazine=Sight & Sound |publisher=British Film Institute |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=12–13|url=https://archive.org/details/Sight_and_Sound_1972_01_BFI_GB/page/n21/mode/2up?view=theater|access-date=9 December 2022|via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref>

====1982====
<ol>
<li value="1">''Citizen Kane'' (45 mentions)
<li value="2">''The Rules of the Game'' (31 mentions)
<li value="3">''[[Seven Samurai]]'' and ''[[Singin' in the Rain]]'' (15 mentions)
<li value="5">''8½'' (14 mentions)
<li value="6">''Battleship Potemkin'' (13 mentions)
<li value="7">''L'Avventura'', ''The Magnificent Ambersons'', and ''Vertigo'' (12 mentions)
<li value="10">''The General'' and ''[[The Searchers (film)|The Searchers]]'' (11 mentions)
</ol>
Closest runners-up: ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' and ''[[Andrei Rublev (film)|Andrei Rublev]]''. (10 mentions apiece)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/greatest-films-all-time/1982|title=The Greatest Films of All Time… in 1982|website=BFI|date=17 June 2021 }}</ref>

====1992====
<ol>
<li value="1">''Citizen Kane'' (43 mentions)
<li value="2">''The Rules of the Game'' (32 mentions)
<li value="3">''[[Tokyo Story]]'' (22 mentions)
<li value="4">''Vertigo'' (18 mentions)
<li value="5">''The Searchers'' (17 mentions)
<li value="6">''Battleship Potemkin'', ''The Passion of Joan of Arc'', ''L'Atalante'' and {{Lang|bn-latn|[[Pather Panchali (film)|Pather Panchali]]}} (15 mentions)
<li value="10">''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (14 mentions)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/vhsvault_Film_92_-_Sight_and_Sound_survey-dZ4irS_x|title=Film 92 – Sight and Sound survey-dZ4irS x|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
</ol>
Closest runners-up: ''Bicycle Thieves'' and ''Singin' in the Rain''. (10 mentions apiece)<ref name=1992Poll>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/greatest-films-all-time/1992|title=The Greatest Films of All Time… in 1992|website=BFI|date=17 June 2021 }}</ref>

====2002====
<ol>
<li value="1">''Citizen Kane'' (46 mentions)
<li value="2">''Vertigo'' (41 mentions)
<li value="3">''The Rules of the Game'' (30 mentions)
<li value="4">''[[The Godfather]]'' and ''[[The Godfather Part II]]'' (23 mentions)
<li value="5">''Tokyo Story'' (22 mentions)
<li value="6">''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (21 mentions)
<li value="7">''Battleship Potemkin'' and ''[[Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans]]'' (19 mentions)
<li value="9">''8½'' (18 mentions)
<li value="10">''Singin' in the Rain'' (17 mentions)
</ol>
Closest runners-up: ''Seven Samurai'' and ''The Searchers''. (15 mentions apiece)<ref name=2002Poll>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/greatest-films-all-time/2002|title=The Greatest Films of All Time… in 2002|website=BFI|date=17 May 2021 }}</ref>

====2012====
[[File:Vertigo 1958 trailer Kim Novak at Golden Gate Bridge Fort Point.jpg|thumb|''Vertigo'' (1958), the #1 film according to ''Sight & Sound'' in 2012]] 
{{Main|The Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2012}}

A new rule was imposed for this ballot: related films that are considered part of a larger whole (e.g. ''The Godfather'' and ''The Godfather Part II'', [[Krzysztof Kieślowski]]'s ''[[Three Colors trilogy]]'' and ''[[Dekalog]]'', or [[Satyajit Ray]]'s ''[[The Apu Trilogy]]'') were to be treated as separate films for voting purposes.<ref name="how2012pollmade">{{cite web |title=How we made the Greatest Films of All Time poll |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/greatest-films-all-time/introduction |date=8 June 2021|first=Nick |last=James|website=Sight & Sound |publisher=BFI}}</ref>
<ol>
<li value="1">''Vertigo'' (191 mentions) 
<li value="2">''Citizen Kane'' (157 mentions)
<li value="3">''Tokyo Story'' (107 mentions)
<li value="4">''The Rules of the Game'' (100 mentions)
<li value="5">''Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans'' (93 mentions) 
<li value="6">''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (90 mentions)
<li value="7">''The Searchers'' (78 mentions)
<li value="8">''[[Man with a Movie Camera]]'' (68 mentions)
<li value="9">''The Passion of Joan of Arc'' (65 mentions)
<li value="10">''8½'' (64 mentions)
</ol>
Closest runner-up: ''Battleship Potemkin''. (63 mentions)<ref>{{cite news |title= The 100 Greatest Films of All Time |work=Sight & Sound |publisher=British Film Institute |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/greatest-films-all-time |date=28 June 2021|access-date=23 March 2020}}</ref>

====2022====
{{Main|The Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2022}}
The participants in this poll nearly doubled to 1,639. [[Chantal Akerman]] became the first woman director to top the poll with her 1975 film ''[[Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles]]''. The poll reflected greater diversity than previously, with films by black filmmakers increasing from one in 2012 to seven in 2022, and from two to eleven, by female filmmakers.<ref name="2022poll"/>

[[Stanley Kubrick]]'s ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' topped the directors' poll, in which 480 directors took part.<ref name="2022poll">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/dec/01/chantal-akerman-becomes-first-woman-to-top-bfis-greatest-all-time-films-poll|title=Chantal Akerman first woman to top Sight and Sound's greatest all-time films poll|newspaper=Guardian|date=December 2022 |accessdate=2 December 2022|last1=Khomami |first1=Nadia |author-link=Nadia Khomami }}</ref>
<ol>
<li value="1">''[[Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles]]'' (215 votes)
<li value="2">''Vertigo'' (208 votes)
<li value="3">''Citizen Kane'' (163 votes)
<li value="4">''Tokyo Story'' (144 votes) 
<li value="5">''[[In the Mood for Love]]'' (141 votes)
<li value="6">''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (130 votes)
<li value="7">''[[Beau Travail]]'' (106  votes)
<li value="8">''[[Mulholland Drive (film)|Mulholland Drive]]'' (105 votes)
<li value="9">''Man with a Movie Camera'' (100 votes)
<li value="10">''Singin' in the Rain'' (99 votes)
</ol>
Closest runner-up: ''Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans''

===Directors' Top Ten Poll===
====1992====
<ol>
<li value="1">''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (30 votes)
<li value="2">''[[8½]]'', ''[[Raging Bull]]'' (16 votes)
<li value="4">''[[La Strada]]'' (12)
<li value="5">''[[L'Atalante]]'' (11)
<li value="6">''[[The Godfather]]'', [[Modern Times (film)|''Modern Times'']], [[Vertigo (film)|''Vertigo'']] (10 votes)
<li value="9">''[[The Godfather Part II]]'', ''[[The Passion of Joan of Arc]]'', ''[[Rashomon]]'', ''[[Seven Samurai]]'' (9 votes)<ref name=1992Poll/>
</ol>
====2002====
<ol>
<li value="1">''Citizen Kane'' (42 mentions)</li>
<li value="2">''The Godfather'' and ''The Godfather Part II'' (28 mentions)</li>
<li value="3">''8½'' (19 mentions)</li>
<li value="4">''[[Lawrence of Arabia (film)|Lawrence of Arabia]]'' (16 mentions)</li>
<li value="5">''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' (14 mentions)</li>
<li value="6">''[[Bicycle Thieves]]'', ''[[Raging Bull]]'', ''Vertigo'' (13 mentions)</li>
<li value="9">''Rashomon'', ''[[The Rules of the Game]]'', ''Seven Samurai'' (12 mentions)</li><ref name=2002Poll/>
</ol>
====2012====
[[File:So Yamamura 3.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Tokyo Story]]'' (1953)]]
{{Main|The Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2012}}
<ol>
<li value="1">''[[Tokyo Story]]'' (48 mentions)</li>
<li value="2">''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' (42 mentions)</li>
<li value="2">''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (42 mentions)</li>
<li value="4">''[[8½]]'' (40 mentions)</li>
<li value="5">''[[Taxi Driver]]'' (34 mentions)</li>
<li value="6">''[[Apocalypse Now]]'' (33 mentions)</li>
<li value="7">''[[The Godfather]]'', [[Vertigo (film)|''Vertigo'']] (31 mentions)</li>
<li value="9">''[[The Mirror (1975 film)|Mirror]]'' (30 mentions)</li>
<li value="10">''[[Bicycle Thieves]]'' (29 mentions)</li><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/greatest-films-all-time/directors-100-best |title=Directors' Top 100 |year=2012 |work=Sight & Sound |publisher=British Film Institute}}</ref>
</ol>

====2022====
{{Main|The Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2022}}
<ol>
<li value="1">''2001: A Space Odyssey''</li>
<li value="2">''Citizen Kane''</li>
<li value="3">''The Godfather''</li>
<li value="4">''Tokyo Story''; ''[[Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles]]''</li>
<li value="6">''Vertigo'', ''8½''</li>
<li value="8">''Mirror''</li>
<li value="9">''[[Persona (1966 film)|Persona]]'', ''[[In the Mood for Love]]'', ''[[Close-Up (1990 film)|Close-Up]]''</li>
</ol>

==The Greatest Directors of All Time==
[[File:Welles-Magnificent-Ambersons-Pub-A16.jpg|thumb|[[Orson Welles]] was selected as the greatest film director of all time by both critics and filmmakers.]]
This list was put together by assembling the directors of the individual films that the critics and the directors polled voted for. 2002 was the only year ''Sight & Sound'' compiled the list.

===Critics' Top Ten Poll===

====2002====
<ol>
<li value="1">[[Orson Welles]]</li>
<li value="2">[[Alfred Hitchcock]]</li>
<li value="3">[[Jean-Luc Godard]]</li>
<li value="4">[[Jean Renoir]]</li>
<li value="5">[[Stanley Kubrick]]</li>
<li value="6">[[Akira Kurosawa]]</li>
<li value="7">[[Federico Fellini]]</li>
<li value="8">[[John Ford]]</li>
<li value="9">[[Sergei Eisenstein]]</li>
<li value="10">[[Francis Ford Coppola]]</li>
<li value="10">[[Yasujiro Ozu]]</li>
</ol>
<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/poll/critics-directors.html|title=BFI &#124; Sight & Sound &#124; Top Ten Poll 2002 – The Critics' Top Ten Directors|date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303181654/http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/poll/critics-directors.html|archive-date=3 March 2016}}</ref>

===Directors' Top Ten Poll===

====2002====
<ol>
<li value="1">[[Orson Welles]]</li>
<li value="2">[[Federico Fellini]]</li>
<li value="3">[[Akira Kurosawa]]</li>
<li value="4">[[Francis Ford Coppola]]</li>
<li value="5">[[Alfred Hitchcock]]</li>
<li value="6">[[Stanley Kubrick]]</li>
<li value="7">[[Billy Wilder]]</li>
<li value="8">[[Ingmar Bergman]]</li>
<li value="9">[[David Lean]]</li>
<li value="9">[[Jean Renoir]]</li>
<li value="9">[[Martin Scorsese]]</li>
</ol>
<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/poll/directors-directors.html|title=BFI &#124; Sight & Sound &#124; Top Ten Poll 2002 – The Directors' Top Ten Directors|date=13 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181013231353/http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/poll/directors-directors.html|archive-date=13 October 2018}}</ref>

==Greatest Documentaries of All Time==

===2014===
<ol>
<li value="1">''[[Man with a Movie Camera]]'' (100 votes)</li>
<li value="2">''[[Shoah (film)|Shoah]]'' (68 votes)</li>
<li value="3">''[[Sans Soleil]]'' (62 votes)</li>
<li value="4">''[[Night and Fog (1955 film)|Night and Fog]]'' (56 votes)</li>
<li value="5">''[[The Thin Blue Line (1988 film)|The Thin Blue Line]]'' (49 votes)</li>
<li value="6">''[[Chronique d'un été]]'' (32 votes)</li>
<li value="7">''[[Nanook of the North]]'' (31 votes)</li>
<li value="8">''[[The Gleaners and I]]'' (27 votes)</li>
<li value="9">''[[Dont Look Back]]'' (25 votes)</li>
<li value="9">''[[Grey Gardens]]'' (25 mentions)</li>
</ol>
<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/sight-sound-magazine/greatest-docs|title=The Greatest Documentaries of All Time &#124; Sight & Sound|website=British Film Institute|date=25 April 2019 }}</ref>

== Greatest film books ==
In 2010, ''Sight and Sound'' conducted a poll to find the greatest book written on film.

*First place: [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson's]] ''[[The New Biographical Dictionary of Film]]'' (1975)''
*Second place: [[Robert Bresson]]'s ''[[Notes on the Cinematographer]]'' (1975), [[Andrew Sarris]]'s ''The American Cinema'' (1968), and [[François Truffaut]]'s ''[[Hitchcock/Truffaut]]'' (1966) 
*Fifth place: [[André Bazin]]'s ''What is Cinema?'' (1958–1962)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/polls-surveys/film-book-poll/top-five|title=Sight & Sound's top five film books|website=British Film Institute|date=8 May 2020 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Cahiers du cinéma's Annual Top 10 Lists|''Cahiers du Cinéma''{{'}}s Annual Top Ten Films]]
* [[Empire (film magazine)|''Empire'' magazine]]
* [[The Film Daily#Annual Critics' Poll|''The Film Daily'' annual critics' poll]]
* [[List of film periodicals]]
* [[List of films considered the best]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Pam Cook and Philip Dodd (eds): ''Women and Film. A Sight and Sound Reader'', London: Scarlet Press, 1994, 287 pp.
*Jacqueline Louviot: ''Le regard de ''Sight and Sound'' sur le cinéma britannique des années 50 et 60'' (What ''Sight and Sound'' Saw: ''Sight and Sound'' on British Cinema during the Fifties and Sixties), French doctoral thesis, [[University of Strasbourg II]], 1997, 980 pp.
*David Wilson (ed): ''Sight and Sound. A Fiftieth Anniversary Selection'', London: [[Faber and Faber]] in association with BFI Publishing, 1982, 327 pp.

==External links==
* [https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/ Official website]
* [https://archive.org/details/sightandsound?sort=-date ''Sight & Sound'' 1932–1995] at the [[Internet Archive]]
* [https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/why-we-love-best-films-lists "Listomania! Why we love best-films lists"], BFI, July 2012
* [https://archive.org/details/Sight_and_Sound_September_2012 "The Greatest Films of All Time" results], September 2012

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