Letterboxd's Official Top 250 Documentary Films

Letterboxd's Official Top 250 Documentary Films's icon

Created by Chilton.

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LAST UPDATE: April 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:
#112 Disintegration Loop 1.1 (2024, Basinski)

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  1. 126 -1

    102 Minutes That Changed America

    2008, in 0 top lists Check
  2. 15 -

    13th

    2016, in 3 top lists Check
  3. 38 +3

    20 Days in Mariupol

    2023, in 1 top list
    Check
  4. 190 -

    21 Up

    1977, in 2 top lists Check
  5. 125 -3

    28 Up

    1984, in 5 top lists Check
  6. 172 +1

    35 Up

    1991, in 2 top lists Check
  7. 230 -2

    4 Little Girls

    1997, in 1 top list Check
  8. 141 -6

    42 Up

    1998, in 2 top lists Check
  9. 148 -2

    49 Up

    2005, in 2 top lists Check
  10. 221 -4

    56 Up

    2012, in 2 top lists Check
  11. 75 -3

    63 Up

    2019, in 1 top list
    Check
  12. 67 -3

    LA 92

    2017, in 2 top lists
    Check
  13. 84 -

    9/11

    2002, in 2 top lists Check
  14. 9 -

    The Act of Killing

    2012, in 9 top lists Check
  15. 47 -2

    All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

    2022, in 3 top lists
    Check
  16. 60 -2

    Alone in the Wilderness

    2004, in 2 top lists Check
  17. 206 +1

    American Dream

    1990, in 2 top lists Check
  18. 86 -3

    American Masters: No Direction Home: Bob Dylan

    2005, in 0 top lists Check
  19. 57 -

    American Movie

    1999, in 5 top lists Check
  20. 31 -

    American Utopia

    2020 — a.k.a. David Byrne's American Utopia, in 3 top lists
    Check
  21. 168 -

    Amy

    2015, in 2 top lists Check
  22. 108 -2

    Apollo 11

    2019, in 0 top lists
    Check
  23. 240 new

    Apolonia, Apolonia

    2022, in 0 top lists
    Check
  24. 5 -

    As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief...

    2000, in 6 top lists Check
  25. 197 -12

    Ashes and Snow

    2005, in 2 top lists Check
  26. 207 -3

    At Sea

    2007, in 4 top lists Check
  27. 19 -

    Baraka

    1992, in 5 top lists Check
  28. 26 -

    La batalla de Chile: La lucha de un pueblo sin...

    1975 — a.k.a. The Battle of Chile: Part I, in 8 top lists Check
  29. 29 -

    La batalla de Chile: La lucha de un pueblo sin...

    1976 — a.k.a. The Battle of Chile: Part II, in 6 top lists Check
  30. 119 +4

    La batalla de Chile: La lucha de un pueblo sin...

    1979 — a.k.a. The Battle of Chile: Part III, in 6 top lists Check
  31. 224 -3

    Beyond Utopia

    2023, in 0 top lists
    Check
  32. 166 -9

    Big Time

    1988, in 0 top lists Check
  33. 124 -3

    Bitter Lake

    2015, in 0 top lists Check
  34. 27 -

    Black Is... Black Ain't

    1994, in 2 top lists Check
  35. 185 -2

    The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

    2011, in 1 top list Check
  36. 226 -2

    Blackfish

    2013, in 0 top lists Check
  37. 236 +12

    BloodSisters

    1995, in 0 top lists Check
  38. 87 -1

    Blue

    1993, in 5 top lists Check
  39. 216 -2

    Bones Brigade: An Autobiography

    2012, in 0 top lists Check
  40. 249 -4

    Boys State

    2020, in 0 top lists
    Check
  41. 42 new

    Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal

    2024 — a.k.a. Becoming Immortal
    Check
  42. 135 -3

    Burden of Dreams

    1982, in 4 top lists Check
  43. 178 -

    Bye Bye Tibériade

    2023 — a.k.a. Bye Bye Tiberias, in 0 top lists
    Check
  44. 17 -

    Cabra Marcado Para Morrer

    1984 — a.k.a. Twenty Years Later, in 6 top lists Check
  45. 82 -2

    Cameraperson

    2016, in 6 top lists Check
  46. 43 -1

    Century of Cinema: A Personal Journey with...

    1995, in 1 top list Check
  47. 64 -3

    Le chagrin et la pitié

    1969 — a.k.a. The Sorrow and the Pity, in 11 top lists Check
  48. 24 -

    Chelovek s kino-apparatom

    1929 — a.k.a. Man with a Movie Camera, in 24 top lists Check
  49. 210 -7

    Children of the Mist

    2021, in 0 top lists
    Check
  50. 149 -2

    Cinéma, de notre temps: Où gît votre sourire...

    2001, in 3 top lists Check
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Last updated on Apr 24, 2024 by Chilton; source