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Woody Allen

American filmmaker, actor and comedian (born 1935)

22.24body-of-work score · ranked #15 of 2631 directors · 21 films in our library

A director's score is the sum of their films' composite canon scores — methodology.

Born
November 30, 1935 · The Bronx
Nationality
United States
Work
film director, comedian, film actor, screenwriter
Reference
Wikipedia · Wikidata
Portrait of Woody Allen
Georges Biard · CC BY-SA 3.0

The joke that learned to feel

Allen is the rare comedian who talked his way into the canon and then, having arrived, kept talking. He began as a gag machine — writing jokes at fifteen, feeding lines to Sid Caesar's shop alongside Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, then working Greenwich Village clubs as an "insecure, intellectual, fretful nebbish" through the 1960s. Nothing about that apprenticeship promised depth; it promised speed and a persona. What makes him matter is that he turned the persona inside out. The neurotic monologist became a director who could hold a whole marriage in one unbroken take, and the joke acquired an inner life it was never built to carry.

From gag machine to Annie Hall

Born Allan Stewart Konigsberg on November 30, 1935, in the Bronx, he wrote his first produced screenplay for What's New Pussycat? (1965) and directed his debut by recutting a Japanese thriller into What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966). The early features are pure velocity — Take the Money and Run (1969), Bananas (1971), Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975). Then Annie Hall (1977) reorganized everything, winning Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and, for Diane Keaton, Best Actress. Manhattan (1979) followed, shot in black and white by Gordon Willis over a Gershwin score. He has made a film almost every year since, a metronome few directors have matched: Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), the London pivot of Match Point (2005), the runaway Midnight in Paris (2011) that took him another screenplay Oscar, and Blue Jasmine (2013), which won Cate Blanchett her Academy Award. As a screenwriter he holds the record for Best Original Screenplay wins — three — and sixteen nominations.

What the numbers say

Our library ranks Allen #15 among all directors, composite 22.24 across 21 films — but the shape of that number is the whole story. One film carries almost everything: Annie Hall sits at #14 overall (5.55), cited on 17 of our source lists, the most-decorated single work in his filmography. The drop after it is a cliff, not a slope. His second-best film, Manhattan, lands all the way down at #189 (2.77), then The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) at #277, Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) at #350, Midnight in Paris at #753, and Crimes and Misdemeanors at #1022. This is a different greatness from a director built on peaks: Allen ranks high on volume, a single canonical masterpiece propped up by two dozen respectable also-rans that accumulate. The aggregate is honest about it — one monument, and a very long tail.

Where to start

Annie Hall, obviously, and the numbers agree with the world for once. Then Manhattan for the same sensibility turned solemn and gorgeous, Crimes and Misdemeanors for the moralist underneath the wisecracks, and Match Point to watch a seventy-year-old comedian coldly reinvent himself as a tragedian.

Films in our library, ranked

Ranked by composite canon score across 20+ authoritative lists, awards and polls — our ordering, with every placement citing its evidence on the film's page.

  1. 1
    Annie HallMust-See #14

    1977 · United States · comedy, romance, drama

    Oscar Best Picture winner 1977 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1978 · Siskel's annual top 10 1977 #1

    5.5517 citations
  2. 2
    ManhattanMust-See #189

    1979 · United States · comedy, romance, drama

    BAFTA Best Film winner 1980 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1980 #5 · Sarris's annual top 10 1979 #2

    2.779 citations
  3. 3
    The Purple Rose of CairoMust-See #277

    1985 · United States · comedy, romance, fantasy

    BAFTA Best Film winner 1986 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1986 #2 · TIME All-TIME 100

    2.326 citations
  4. 4
    Hannah and Her SistersMust-See #350

    1986 · United States · comedy, romance, drama

    Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1987 #3 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1986 · Sarris's annual top 10 1986 #2

    2.117 citations
  5. 5
    Midnight in Paris

    2011 · United States / Spain · comedy, romance, fantasy

    Oscar Best Picture nominee 2011 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2012 #5 · Film Comment year-end poll 2011 #18

    1.345 citations
  6. 6
    Crimes and Misdemeanors

    1989 · United States · comedy, drama, crime

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1990 #8 · Empire 500 (2008) #267 · Siskel's annual top 10 1989 #7

    1.076 citations
  7. 7
    Radio Days

    1987 · United States · comedy, drama, romance

    Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1987 #7 · Empire 500 (2008) #304 · Siskel's annual top 10 1987 #6

    1.035 citations
  8. 8
    Zelig

    1983 · United States · comedy

    Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1984 #5 · Sarris's annual top 10 1983 #3 · Empire 500 (2008) #408

    0.813 citations
  9. 9
    Match Point

    2005 · United Kingdom / United States / Luxembourg · crime, drama, romance

    Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2006 #10 · Sarris's annual top 10 2005 #3 · Film Comment year-end poll 2005 #21

    0.763 citations
  10. 10
    Husbands and Wives

    1992 · United States · romance, comedy, drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1992 #4 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Sarris's annual top 10 1992 #11

    0.743 citations
  11. 11
    Love and Death

    1975 · United States · comedy

    Siskel's annual top 10 1975 #3 · Empire 500 (2008) #301 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies

    0.714 citations
  12. 12
    Everyone Says I Love You

    1996 · United States · comedy, romance, musical

    Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1997 #10 · Sarris's annual top 10 1996 #7 · Ebert's annual top 10 1996 #8

    0.613 citations
  13. 13
    Blue Jasmine

    2013 · United States · comedy, drama

    Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2014 #5 · Film Comment year-end poll 2013 #25

    0.602 citations
  14. 14
    Interiors

    1978 · United States · romance, drama

    Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1979 #5 · Ebert's annual top 10 1978 #6

    0.562 citations
  15. 15
    Bullets Over Broadway

    1994 · United States · crime, comedy, romance

    Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1995 #7

    0.331 citation
  16. 16
    Sleeper

    1973 · United States · sci-fi, comedy

    NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies

    0.282 citations
  17. 17
    Vicky Cristina Barcelona

    2008 · United States / Spain · drama, comedy, romance

    Film Comment year-end poll 2008 #39

    0.191 citation
  18. 18
    What's Up, Tiger Lily?

    1966 · United States · thriller

    Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

    0.111 citation
  19. 19
    Take the Money and Run

    1969 · United States · crime, comedy

    Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies

    0.111 citation
  20. 20
    Bananas

    1971 · United States · comedy

    Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies

    0.111 citation
  21. 21
    Broadway Danny Rose

    1984 · United States · comedy

    Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

    0.111 citation

Complete filmography

All 54 directorial credits recorded on Wikidata, in chronological order; films in our library link to their canon-score page.