NYT's 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century (June 2025)

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] [2] [3]}

The list's no-paywall link was publicly shared by the NYT's official Reddit account. ^[4]

Top 40

Title	Director
Parasite (2019)	Bong Joon Ho
Mulholland Drive (2001)	David Lynch
There Will Be Blood (2007)	Paul Thomas Anderson
In the Mood for Love (2000)	Wong Kar-wai
Moonlight (2016)	Barry Jenkins
No Country for Old Men (2007)	Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)	Michel Gondry
Get Out (2017)	Jordan Peele
Spirited Away (2001)	Hayao Miyazaki
The Social Network (2010)	David Fincher
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)	George Miller
The Zone of Interest (2023)	Jonathan Glazer
Children of Men (2006)	Alfonso Cuaron
Inglourious Basterds (2009)	Quentin Tarantino
City of God (2003)	Fernando Meirelles
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)	Ang Lee
Brokeback Mountain (2005)	Ang Lee
Y tu mama tambien (2002)	Alfonso Cuaron
Zodiac (2007)	David Fincher
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)	Martin Scorsese
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)	Wes Anderson
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)	Wes Anderson
Boyhood (2014)	Richard Linklater
Her (2013)	Spike Jonze
Phantom Thread (2017)	Paul Thomas Anderson
Anatomy of a Fall (2023)	Justine Triet
Adaptation (2002)	Spike Jonze
The Dark Knight (2008)	Christopher Nolan
Arrival (2016)	Denis Villeneuve
Lost in Translation (2003)	Sofia Coppola
The Departed (2006)	Martin Scorsese
Bridesmaids (2011)	Paul Feig
A Separation (2011)	Asghar Farhadi
Wall-E (2008)	Andrew Stanton
A Prophet (2010)	Jacques Audiard
A Serious Man (2009)	Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
Call Me by Your Name (2017)	Luca Guadagnino
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)	Céline Sciamma
Lady Bird (2017)	Greta Gerwig
Yi Yi (2000)	Edward Yang

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 ^[5] ) 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 . ^[6]
• 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). ^{[6] [7]}
• Only four animated films appeared on the 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). ^{[8] [9]}
• Only three documentary films appeared on the list: The Act of Killing (82nd), The Gleaners and I (88th), and Grizzly Man (98th). ^{[6] [7]}
• The highest-ranked female-directed film on the 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. ^[10]

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. ^[11]

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

Response

The Danish film journal 16:9 responded with the six-part video essay series One Hundred Movies Walk into a Bar organized by fellow video essayists Ariel Avissar and Colleen Laird. ^{[12] [13]}

See also

• List of films voted the best
• BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century (August 2016)

References

1. "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century". The New York Times . 23 June 2025. Archived from the original on 28 November 2025. Retrieved 3 December 2025.
2. "Be the First to Find Out the 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century". The New York Times . 20 June 2025. Archived from the original on 4 July 2025. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
3. The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century: "Parasite and the Ones Below" – 16:9 Journal
4. megathread : r/criterion
5. The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century: "See Under: Orient" – 16:9 Journal
6. What Movies Did the New York Times Readers Rank As the Best of the 21st Century?
7. No Bad Movie
8. Only 1 Anime Made the Cut in New U.S. '100 Best Movies of the 21st Century' Ranking – CBR
9. Diving into The New York Times "Best Films of the 21st Century" List
10. Ciofani, Lorenzo. "Parasite è il miglior film del XXI secolo". www.cinematografo.it (in Italian). Retrieved 3 September 2025.
11. "All 13 Directors With More Than One Film On NYT's Greatest Movies Of The 21st Century List". Screen Rant.
12. The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century: “Seen, Heard: Language Use in the ‘Best Movies’” – 16:9 Journal
13. The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century: "But What Do They Sound Like?" – 16:9 Journal

External links

• Official site