Letterboxd's Official Top 250 Documentary Films
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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24 -
Chelovek s kino-apparatom
1929 — a.k.a. Man with a Movie Camera, in 24 top lists Check -
2 -
Shoah
1985, in 18 top lists Check -
9 -
The Act of Killing
2012, in 9 top lists Check -
40 -1
Sans soleil
1983 — a.k.a. Sans Soleil, in 16 top lists Check -
7 -
Hoop Dreams
1994, in 15 top lists Check -
16 -
Koyaanisqatsi
1982, in 12 top lists Check -
189 -3
Häxan
1922, in 17 top lists Check -
158 -7
Vals Im Bashir
2008 — a.k.a. Waltz with Bashir, in 11 top lists Check -
133 -4
The Thin Blue Line
1988, in 12 top lists Check -
48 -2
F for Fake
1973, in 11 top lists Check -
80 -3
Grizzly Man
2005, in 9 top lists Check -
41 -1
Les glaneurs et la glaneuse
2000 — a.k.a. The Gleaners & I, in 13 top lists Check -
74 -3
Woodstock
1970, in 13 top lists Check -
68 -3
Crumb
1994, in 12 top lists Check -
18 -
Harlan County U.S.A.
1976, in 11 top lists Check -
64 -3
Le chagrin et la pitié
1969 — a.k.a. The Sorrow and the Pity, in 11 top lists Check -
3 -
Paris Is Burning
1990, in 12 top lists Check -
248 -8
My Winnipeg
2007, in 9 top lists Check -
161 -5
Gimme Shelter
1970, in 8 top lists Check -
153 -3
Grey Gardens
1975, in 10 top lists Check -
1 -
Stop Making Sense
1984, in 9 top lists Check -
37 -
Senna
2010, in 4 top lists Check -
19 -
Baraka
1992, in 5 top lists Check -
101 -
Dont Look Back
1967 — a.k.a. Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back, in 10 top lists Check -
8 -
Tiexi qu
2002 — a.k.a. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, in 8 top lists Check -
21 -1
Yuki yukite, shingun
1987 — a.k.a. The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On, in 10 top lists Check -
196 -3
Nostalgia de la luz
2010 — a.k.a. Nostalgia for the Light, in 7 top lists Check -
96 -
Lektionen in Finsternis
1992 — a.k.a. Lessons of Darkness, in 6 top lists Check -
103 -
Searching for Sugar Man
2012, in 6 top lists Check -
20 +1
The Look of Silence
2014, in 4 top lists Check -
218 -5
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of...
2003 — a.k.a. The Fog of War, in 6 top lists Check -
122 -6
El sol del membrillo
1992 — a.k.a. The Quince Tree Sun, in 9 top lists Check -
217 +2
La hora de los hornos: Notas y testimonios...
1968 — a.k.a. The Hour of the Furnaces, in 9 top lists Check -
50 -1
The Last Waltz
1978, in 9 top lists Check -
5 -
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief...
2000, in 6 top lists Check -
234 -2
Citizenfour
2014, in 3 top lists Check -
113 -2
News from Home
1976, in 7 top lists Check -
203 -4
Titicut Follies
1967, in 9 top lists Check -
39 -1
Samsara
2011, in 3 top lists Check -
23 -
Les plages d'Agnès
2008 — a.k.a. The Beaches of Agnès, in 6 top lists Check -
99 -1
The Times of Harvey Milk
1984, in 8 top lists Check -
46 -2
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
1991, in 2 top lists Check -
209 -4
The King of Kong
2007 — a.k.a. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, in 1 top list Check -
6 -
O.J.: Made in America
2016, in 7 top lists Check -
71 -5
Visages villages
2017 — a.k.a. Faces Places, in 4 top lists -
174 -2
La région centrale
1971, in 8 top lists Check -
10 -
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
2008, in 2 top lists Check -
219 -3
Être et avoir
2002 — a.k.a. To Be and to Have, in 8 top lists Check -
49 -2
Tôkyô orinpikku
1965 — a.k.a. Tokyo Olympiad, in 6 top lists Check -
112 -4
When We Were Kings
1996, in 7 top lists Check
Last updated on Apr 24, 2024 by Chilton; source