The Greatest Documentaries of All Time

“What’s remarkable about the Top 50 documentaries list is that it feels so fresh. One in five of the films chosen were made since the millennium, and to have a silent film from 1929 at the top of the list is an absolute joy. That allusive essay films feature so strongly throughout demonstrates that nonfiction cinema is not a narrow discipline but a wide open country full of explorers.”

The BFI polled 340 critics, programmers and filmmakers in the search for answers. Find the interactive list here.