NYT's 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century

The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century is a list compiled in June 2025 by The New York Times , chosen by a voting poll of over 500 directors, actors and others around the world. ^[1]

Partial list

No.	Title	Director	Country	Year
1	Parasite	Bong Joon Ho	South Korea	2019
2	Mulholland Drive	David Lynch	United States, France	2001
3	There Will Be Blood	Paul Thomas Anderson	United States	2007
4	In the Mood for Love	Wong Kar-wai	Hong Kong, France	2000
5	Moonlight	Barry Jenkins	United States	2016
6	No Country for Old Men	Joel Coen and Ethan Coen		2007
7	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind	Michel Gondry		2004
8	Get Out	Jordan Peele		2017
9	Spirited Away	Hayao Miyazaki	Japan	2001
10	The Social Network	David Fincher	United States	2010

Results

In the list, 45 films belong to the first decade of this century (2000-2009), 33 films between 2010 and 2019 and 22 films between 2019 and 2025. The majority of films in the list come from USA, followed by Europe (mostly United Kingdom and France), Asia (mostly South Korea and Japan) and Latin America (mainly Brazil).

• Bong Joon Ho's Parasite was voted as the top pick on both the original and readers' polls, as was the second top pick, David Lynch's 2001 neo-noir Mulholland Drive . ^[2]
• Only ten films from the list have won the Academy Award for Best Picture: Parasite (1st), Moonlight (5th), No Country for Old Men (6th), The Departed (31st), 12 Years a Slave (51st), Oppenheimer (65th), Spotlight (66th), The Hurt Locker (68th), Everything Everywhere All at Once (77th), and Gladiator (92nd). ^{[2] [3]}
• Only four animated films appeared in a list, with Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (9th) is the highest-ranking animated feature to be on each list. Other films included Pixar's WALL-E (34th), Up (50th), and Ratatouille (73rd). ^{[4] [5]}
• Only three documentary films appeared in a list: The Act of Killing (82nd), The Gleaners and I (88th), and Grizzly Man (98th). ^{[2] [3]}
• The highest-ranked female-directed film in a list is Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall (26th). Although Kátia Lund appears as co-director of City of God (15th), the work is mainly attributed to Fernando Meirelles; therefore, not being credited as the latter's partner, Triet is in the official list in first position. ^[6]

Director's count

Only fourteen film directors appear more than once in a list. Christopher Nolan earned the most entries with a total of five films. ^[7]

Count	Director
5	Christopher Nolan
4	Paul Thomas Anderson
	Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
	Alfonso Cuarón
3	David Fincher
	Quentin Tarantino
2	Wes Anderson
	Bong Joon Ho
	Jonathan Glazer
	Spike Jonze
	Ang Lee
	Richard Linklater
	Martin Scorsese

See also

• List of films voted the best
• BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century

References

1. "Be the First to Find Out the 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century". New York Times. 20 June 2025. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
2. What Movies Did the New York Times Readers Rank As the Best of the 21st Century?
3. No Bad Movie
4. Only 1 Anime Made the Cut in New U.S. '100 Best Movies of the 21st Century' Ranking – CBR
5. Diving into The New York Times "Best Films of the 21st Century" List
6. Ciofani, Lorenzo. "Parasite è il miglior film del XXI secolo". www.cinematografo.it (in Italian). Retrieved 3 September 2025.
7. "All 13 Directors With More Than One Film On NYT's Greatest Movies Of The 21st Century List". Screen Rant.

External links

• Official site