FSR: Top 5 Films by Year

FSR: Top 5 Films by Year's icon

Created by Fergenaprido.

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Fergenaprido's Significance Rating - Top 5 Films by Year

This started out as a personal goal to see the top five films of each year, using imdb data. After they removed the weighted rankings beyond the Top 250, I created my own formula to try to balance each rating and its number of votes, in order to make films more comparable. I settled upon the formula of SR=(EXP(rating)*(LN(votes))/100). Why that particular formula? I tinkered around with different variations, but I prefer using ln instead of log, and this formula ended up with a fairly approximate order similar to imdb's weighted formula.

Here are the top five films from each year since 1919. For 1919-1934, the minimum number of votes is 1,000; for 1935-2022, the minimum is 5,000. I excluded years before 1919 because there weren't enough films with at least 1,000 votes, so the SR wasn't reliable enough to rank them. I do exclude films that have had voter manipulation, but I don't exclude those rated highly because of enthusiasm from their home country (i.e. "mafias").

Not meant to be definitive, just a fun side project for me, and I decided to move it from my spreadsheet to icm. Feature-length films only (including documentaries).

I collect the imdb data on May 1st each year, and update this list shortly thereafter.

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  1. 1 -

    J'accuse

    1919 — a.k.a. J'accuse!, in 7 top lists Check
  2. 3 -1

    Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl

    1919 — a.k.a. Broken Blossoms, in 13 top lists Check
  3. 5 -

    Herr Arnes pengar

    1919 — a.k.a. Sir Arne's Treasure, in 7 top lists Check
  4. 7 +1

    The Penalty

    1920, in 3 top lists Check
  5. 8 -1

    Way Down East

    1920, in 7 top lists Check
  6. 11 -

    The Kid

    1921, in 17 top lists Check
  7. 12 -

    Körkarlen

    1921 — a.k.a. The Phantom Carriage, in 16 top lists Check
  8. 14 -

    Orphans of the Storm

    1921, in 7 top lists Check
  9. 15 -

    The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

    1921, in 7 top lists Check
  10. 23 -

    La roue

    1923 — a.k.a. The Wheel, in 7 top lists Check
  11. 25 -1

    Coeur fidèle

    1923 — a.k.a. The Faithful Heart, in 4 top lists Check
  12. 27 -

    Greed

    1924, in 21 top lists Check
  13. 28 -

    Die Nibelungen: Siegfried

    1924, in 13 top lists Check
  14. 29 -

    Der letzte Mann

    1924 — a.k.a. The Last Laugh, in 17 top lists Check
  15. 30 -

    Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache

    1924 — a.k.a. Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge, in 13 top lists Check
  16. 31 -

    The Gold Rush

    1925, in 29 top lists Check
  17. 33 -

    The Big Parade

    1925, in 13 top lists Check
  18. 35 -

    Ben-Hur A Tale of the Christ

    1925 — a.k.a. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, in 6 top lists Check
  19. 37 -

    Faust: Eine deutsche Volkssage

    1926 — a.k.a. Faust, in 15 top lists Check
  20. 39 -

    Flesh and the Devil

    1926, in 9 top lists Check
  21. 40 -

    The Scarlet Letter

    1926, in 4 top lists Check
  22. 41 -

    Metropolis

    1927, in 36 top lists Check
  23. 42 -

    Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

    1927 — a.k.a. Sunrise, in 36 top lists Check
  24. 43 -

    Napoléon vu par Abel Gance

    1927 — a.k.a. Napoleon, in 24 top lists Check
  25. 44 -

    The Unknown

    1927, in 11 top lists Check
  26. 45 -

    Wings

    1927, in 12 top lists Check
  27. 46 -

    La passion de Jeanne d'Arc

    1928 — a.k.a. The Passion of Joan of Arc, in 27 top lists Check
  28. 48 -

    The Crowd

    1928, in 20 top lists Check
  29. 50 -

    The Wind

    1928, in 14 top lists Check
  30. 52 -

    Die Büchse der Pandora

    1929 — a.k.a. Pandora's Box, in 18 top lists Check
  31. 53 -

    Tagebuch einer Verlorenen

    1929 — a.k.a. Diary of a Lost Girl, in 8 top lists Check
  32. 54 -

    Lucky Star

    1929, in 5 top lists Check
  33. 55 -

    A Cottage on Dartmoor

    1929 — a.k.a. Escape from Dartmoor, in 4 top lists Check
  34. 56 -

    All Quiet on the Western Front

    1930, in 19 top lists Check
  35. 57 -

    Der blaue Engel

    1930 — a.k.a. The Blue Angel, in 17 top lists Check
  36. 58 -

    City Girl

    1930, in 6 top lists Check
  37. 60 -

    L'âge d'or

    1930 — a.k.a. L'Age d'Or, in 16 top lists Check
  38. 61 -

    City Lights

    1931, in 34 top lists Check
  39. 62 -

    M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder

    1931 — a.k.a. M, in 35 top lists Check
  40. 64 -

    The Public Enemy

    1931, in 13 top lists Check
  41. 66 -

    I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

    1932, in 14 top lists Check
  42. 68 -1

    Freaks

    1932, in 19 top lists Check
  43. 69 -

    Otona no miru ehon - Umarete wa mita keredo

    1932 — a.k.a. I Was Born, But..., in 15 top lists Check
  44. 70 -

    Scarface

    1932, in 16 top lists Check
  45. 74 -

    The Invisible Man

    1933, in 8 top lists Check
  46. 75 -

    Gold Diggers of 1933

    1933, in 11 top lists Check
  47. 77 -

    Les misérables

    1934 — a.k.a. Les Misérables, in 6 top lists Check
  48. 79 -

    L'Atalante

    1934, in 21 top lists Check
  49. 80 -

    Ukikusa monogatari

    1934 — a.k.a. A Story of Floating Weeds, in 7 top lists Check
  50. 86 -

    Modern Times

    1936, in 30 top lists Check
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Last updated on May 4, 2023 by Fergenaprido;