Letterboxd's Official Top 250 Documentary Films
Created by Chilton.
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LAST UPDATE: March 2024
A companion piece to Dave Vis' list of Letterboxd's official top 250 films of all-time, which excludes documentaries from consideration.
Ranked by average user rating. This list was extracted from here. Updated once a month. This is an official list progress project on all-time stats pages for Pro and Patron users. Expanded from a top 100 to a top 250 on June 27th, 2021, on the list's 3-year anniversary.
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ELIGIBILITY RULES:
• Documentaries must be feature-length (45+ minutes), with a theatrical and/or festival release in its entirety.
• TV series, miniseries, and episodes are excluded but docs listed as 'TV movie' on IMDb are eligible. Exceptions made for series and episodes that also had a limited theatrical release.
• No featurettes unless theatrically distributed, even if feature-length (featurettes are marked as 'Video' on IMDb, such as 'making of' docs).
• In an attempt to combat unintentional fan manipulation, all music-adjacent films must have screened at a film festival to qualify.
• No standup comedy marked as a documentary, nor any stage shows. Exceptions may be made for borderline exceptions.
• Skateboarding compilations are excluded.
• There is a 1,000 minimum ratings threshold.
NOT ON IMDB:
#115 Disintegration Loop 1.1 (2024, Basinski)
Pssst, want to check out the Letterboxd's Official Top 250 Documentary Films list in our new look?
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16 -
Koyaanisqatsi
1982, in 12 top lists Check -
151 -5
Vals Im Bashir
2008 — a.k.a. Waltz with Bashir, in 11 top lists Check -
77 -3
Grizzly Man
2005, in 9 top lists Check -
24 -
Chelovek s kino-apparatom
1929 — a.k.a. Man with a Movie Camera, in 24 top lists Check -
10 -
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
2008, in 2 top lists Check -
39 -
Sans soleil
1983 — a.k.a. Sans Soleil, in 16 top lists Check -
46 -2
F for Fake
1973, in 11 top lists Check -
186 -
Häxan
1922, in 17 top lists Check -
240 -2
My Winnipeg
2007, in 9 top lists Check -
172 +4
La région centrale
1971, in 8 top lists Check -
150 +2
Grey Gardens
1975, in 10 top lists Check -
19 +1
Baraka
1992, in 5 top lists Check -
65 -3
Crumb
1994, in 12 top lists Check -
118 -1
Earthlings
2005, in 1 top list Check -
7 -
Hoop Dreams
1994, in 15 top lists Check -
9 -
The Act of Killing
2012, in 9 top lists Check -
210 -
The Cove
2009, in 2 top lists Check -
205 -1
The King of Kong
2007 — a.k.a. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, in 1 top list Check -
57 +1
American Movie
1999, in 5 top lists Check -
37 -1
Senna
2010, in 4 top lists Check -
86 -
Blue
1993, in 5 top lists Check -
129 -2
The Thin Blue Line
1988, in 12 top lists Check -
35 -
Tongues Untied
1989, in 11 top lists Check -
213 -2
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of...
2003 — a.k.a. The Fog of War, in 6 top lists Check -
71 -3
Woodstock
1970, in 13 top lists Check -
15 -
13th
2016, in 3 top lists Check -
79 -1
Histoire(s) du cinéma
1989, in 8 top lists -
5 -
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief...
2000, in 6 top lists Check -
232 -
Citizenfour
2014, in 3 top lists Check -
193 -
Nostalgia de la luz
2010 — a.k.a. Nostalgia for the Light, in 7 top lists Check -
44 -1
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
1991, in 2 top lists Check -
111 +2
News from Home
1976, in 7 top lists Check -
2 -
Shoah
1985, in 18 top lists Check -
40 +2
Les glaneurs et la glaneuse
2000 — a.k.a. The Gleaners & I, in 13 top lists Check -
74 -3
Sigur Rós: Heima
2007, in 3 top lists Check -
95 +2
Diaries Notes and Sketches
1968, in 5 top lists Check -
103 -
Searching for Sugar Man
2012, in 6 top lists Check -
1 -
Stop Making Sense
1984, in 9 top lists Check -
61 +3
Le chagrin et la pitié
1969 — a.k.a. The Sorrow and the Pity, in 11 top lists Check -
101 -2
Dont Look Back
1967 — a.k.a. Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back, in 10 top lists Check -
156 -1
Gimme Shelter
1970, in 8 top lists Check -
83 -
American Masters: No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
2005, in 0 top lists Check -
168 +1
Amy
2015, in 2 top lists Check -
224 -2
Blackfish
2013, in 0 top lists Check -
116 -2
El sol del membrillo
1992 — a.k.a. The Quince Tree Sun, in 9 top lists Check -
216 +2
Être et avoir
2002 — a.k.a. To Be and to Have, in 8 top lists Check -
49 +1
The Last Waltz
1978, in 9 top lists Check -
96 +2
Lektionen in Finsternis
1992 — a.k.a. Lessons of Darkness, in 6 top lists Check -
91 +2
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood...
1996, in 2 top lists Check -
8 -
Tiexi qu
2002 — a.k.a. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, in 8 top lists Check
Last updated on Mar 28, 2024 by Chilton; source