American Film Institute’s
10 Top 10

The American Film Institute (AFI) celebrated the centennial of cinema by airing a number of television specials, each honoring a different aspect of excellence in American film. On June 17, 2008 AFI broadcast a program entitled “10 Top 10—Top 10 American Films in 10 Film Genres.”

To determine the winners, AFI invited more than 1,500 leaders from across the American film community—screenwriters, directors, actors, producers, cinematographers, editors, executives, film historians and critics, among them—to choose from a list of nominated films compiled by AFI. The selected films (and their ranking) are listed below.

The symbol appears next to those films which also received an Academy Award nomination (although this was not a requirement for inclusion on the list). Click on the name of one of those films to display more information about it. You can also click on the IMDb link to to open a new browser window or tabshowing information about the film from the Internet Movie Database. Or, click on a title in the column on the right to display the winners from another AFI program.

For more information, you can follow this link to the American Film Institute’s website.

Animation:

	1.	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938)   IMDb
	2.	Pinocchio (1940)   IMDb
	3.	Bambi (1942)   IMDb
	4.	The Lion King (1994)   IMDb
	5.	Fantasia (1941)   IMDb
	6.	Toy Story (1995)   IMDb
	7.	Beauty and the Beast (1991)   IMDb
	8.	Shrek (2001)   IMDb
	9.	Cinderella (1950)   IMDb
	10.	Finding Nemo (2003)   IMDb

Courtroom Drama:

	1.	To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)   IMDb
	2.	12 Angry Men (1957)   IMDb
	3.	Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)   IMDb
	4.	The Verdict (1982)   IMDb
	5.	A Few Good Men (1992)   IMDb
	6.	Witness for the Prosecution (1957)   IMDb
	7.	Anatomy of a Murder (1959)   IMDb
	8.	In Cold Blood (1967)   IMDb
	9.	A Cry in the Dark (1988)   IMDb
	10.	Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)   IMDb

Epic:

	1.	Lawrence of Arabia (1962)   IMDb
	2.	Ben-Hur (1959)   IMDb
	3.	Schindler’s List (1993)   IMDb
	4.	Gone with the Wind (1939)   IMDb
	5.	Spartacus (1960)   IMDb
	6.	Titanic (1997)   IMDb
	7.	All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)   IMDb
	8.	Saving Private Ryan (1998)   IMDb
	9.	Reds (1981)   IMDb
	10.	The Ten Commandments (1956)   IMDb

Fantasy:

	1.	The Wizard of Oz (1939)   IMDb
	2.	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)   IMDb
	3.	It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)   IMDb
	4.	King Kong (1933)   IMDb
	5.	Miracle on 34th Street (1947)   IMDb
	6.	Field of Dreams (1989)   IMDb
	7.	Harvey (1950)   IMDb
	8.	Groundhog Day (1993)   IMDb
	9.	The Thief of Baghdad (1924)   IMDb
	10.	Big (1988)   IMDb

Gangster:

	1.	The Godfather (1972)   IMDb
	2.	GoodFellas (1990)   IMDb
	3.	The Godfather Part II (1974)   IMDb
	4.	White Heat (1949)   IMDb
	5.	Bonnie and Clyde (1967)   IMDb
	6.	Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932)   IMDb
	7.	Pulp Fiction (1994)   IMDb
	8.	The Public Enemy (1931)   IMDb
	9.	Little Caesar (1930)   IMDb
	10.	Scarface (1983)   IMDb

Mystery:

	1.	Vertigo (1958)   IMDb
	2.	Chinatown (1974)   IMDb
	3.	Rear Window (1954)   IMDb
	4.	Laura (1944)   IMDb
	5.	The Third Man (1950)   IMDb
	6.	The Maltese Falcon (1931)   IMDb
	7.	North by Northwest (1959)   IMDb
	8.	Blue Velvet (1986)   IMDb
	9.	Dial M for Murder (1954)   IMDb
	10.	The Usual Suspects (1995)   IMDb

Romantic Comedy:

	1.	City Lights (1931)   IMDb
	2.	Annie Hall (1977)   IMDb
	3.	It Happened One Night (1934)   IMDb
	4.	Roman Holiday (1953)   IMDb
	5.	The Philadelphia Story (1940)   IMDb
	6.	When Harry Met Sally . . . (1989)   IMDb
	7.	Adam’s Rib (1949)   IMDb
	8.	Moonstruck (1987)   IMDb
	9.	Harold and Maude (1972)   IMDb
	10.	Sleepless in Seattle (1993)   IMDb

Science Fiction:

	1.	2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)   IMDb
	2.	Star Wars IV: A New Hope (1977)   IMDb
	3.	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)   IMDb
	4.	A Clockwork Orange (1971)   IMDb
	5.	The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)   IMDb
	6.	Blade Runner (1982)   IMDb
	7.	Alien (1979)   IMDb
	8.	Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)   IMDb
	9.	Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)   IMDb
	10.	Back to the Future (1985)   IMDb

Sports:

	1.	Raging Bull (1980)   IMDb
	2.	Rocky (1976)   IMDb
	3.	The Pride of the Yankees (1942)   IMDb
	4.	Hoosiers (1986)   IMDb
	5.	Bull Durham (1988)   IMDb
	6.	The Hustler (1961)   IMDb
	7.	Caddyshack (1980)   IMDb
	8.	Breaking Away (1979)   IMDb
	9.	National Velvet (1945)   IMDb
	10.	Jerry Maguire (1996)   IMDb

Western:

	1.	The Searchers (1956)   IMDb
	2.	High Noon (1952)   IMDb
	3.	Shane (1953)   IMDb
	4.	Unforgiven (1992)   IMDb
	5.	Red River (1948)   IMDb
	6.	The Wild Bunch (1969)   IMDb
	7.	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)   IMDb
	8.	McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)   IMDb
	9.	Stagecoach (1939)   IMDb
	10.	Cat Ballou (1965)   IMDb