Akira Kurosawa's 100 Favorite Films, Ranked
Compiled from the posthumous book A Dream Is a Genius by his daughter Kazuko — one film per director, none of his own. Here is Kurosawa's hundred measured against the whole canon, ranked by our composite score.
97 films from this list are in our library; the top 30 by composite score are shown — the ranking is ours, not the list's own order.
- 1Lawrence of Arabia1962 · David Lean · United Kingdom / United States · war, biography, drama7.40
Oscar Best Picture winner 1962 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1963 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1963 #1
- 2The Third Man1949 · Carol Reed · United Kingdom · film-noir, mystery, drama6.08
BFI Top 100 British films #1 · Palme d'Or winner 1949 · Cannes Grand Prix winner 1949
- 3Annie Hall1977 · Woody Allen · United States · comedy, romance, drama5.55
Oscar Best Picture winner 1977 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1978 · Siskel's annual top 10 1977 #1
- 4The Godfather Part II1974 · Francis Ford Coppola · United States · drama, crime, thriller5.37
Oscar Best Picture winner 1974 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #26 · Letterboxd Top 250 #8
- 5Bicycle Thieves1948 · Vittorio De Sica · Italy · drama4.78
BAFTA Best Film winner 1950 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1950 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #20
- 6One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest1975 · Miloš Forman · United States · comedy, drama4.63
Oscar Best Picture winner 1975 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1977 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1976 #2
- 7Midnight Cowboy1969 · John Schlesinger · United States · drama4.62
Oscar Best Picture winner 1969 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1970 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1969 #2
- 8MASH1970 · Robert Altman · United States · comedy, drama, war4.25
Palme d'Or winner 1970 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1970 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1970 #5
- 9The 400 Blows1959 · François Truffaut · France · drama, crime4.04
Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #33 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #50 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1959 #5
- 10Breathless1960 · Jean-Luc Godard · France · drama, crime3.95
Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #14 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #38 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1960 #3
- 11Barry Lyndon1975 · Stanley Kubrick · United States / United Kingdom · drama, war, adventure3.95
Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #12 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #45 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1975
- 12Paris, Texas1984 · Wim Wenders · France / Germany · drama3.89
Palme d'Or winner 1984 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #185 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1985 #6
- 13Bonnie and Clyde1967 · Arthur Penn · United States · drama, crime, biography3.82
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1968 #1 · Ebert's annual top 10 1967 #1 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1967
- 14Ben-Hur1959 · William Wyler · United States · drama, action3.61
Oscar Best Picture winner 1959 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1960 · AFI 100 (2007) #100
- 15Pather Panchali1955 · Satyajit Ray · India · drama3.61
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1966 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #22 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #35
- 16It's a Wonderful Life1946 · Frank Capra · United States · comedy, romance, fantasy3.52
AFI 100 (2007) #20 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1946 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #133
- 17The French Connection1971 · William Friedkin · United States · crime, action, thriller3.44
Oscar Best Picture winner 1971 · AFI 100 (2007) #93 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1972 #10
- 18Fanny and Alexander1982 · Ingmar Bergman · France / Germany / Sweden · drama3.30
Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #52 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1985 #3 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #129
- 19In the Heat of the Night1967 · Norman Jewison · United States · crime, drama, mystery3.12
Oscar Best Picture winner 1967 · AFI 100 (2007) #75 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1967 #8
- 20Late Spring1949 · Yasujirō Ozu · Japan · drama3.08
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1949 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #21 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #62
- 21Stranger Than Paradise1984 · Jim Jarmusch · United States / Germany · drama, comedy3.00
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1986 #1 · Locarno Golden Leopard winner 1984 · Hoberman's annual top 10 1984 #3
- 22The Spirit of the Beehive1973 · Víctor Erice · Spain · drama, fantasy2.94
San Sebastián Golden Shell winner 1973 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #72 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #85
- 23Last Year at Marienbad1961 · Alain Resnais · France / Italy / Germany · drama2.91
Venice Golden Lion winner 1961 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1964 #3 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #169
- 24Red Desert1964 · Michelangelo Antonioni · France / Italy · drama, romance2.83
Venice Golden Lion winner 1964 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #169 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1964 #6
- 25La Strada1954 · Federico Fellini · Italy · drama2.74
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1957 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #38 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1955 #7
- 26The Killing Fields1984 · Roland Joffé · United Kingdom · biography, drama2.70
BAFTA Best Film winner 1985 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1984 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1985 #7
- 27The Long Absence1961 · Henri Colpi · France · drama2.68
Palme d'Or winner 1961 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1964 #1 · Kurosawa's 100 favorite films
- 28Hana-bi1997 · Takeshi Kitano · Japan · crime, drama2.68
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1997 #1 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1998 #1 · Venice Golden Lion winner 1997
- 29La Belle Noiseuse1991 · Jacques Rivette · France / Switzerland · drama2.67
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1992 #1 · Cannes Grand Prix winner 1991 · Kehr's annual top 10 1992 #2
- 30The Birds1963 · Alfred Hitchcock · United States · adventure, horror, mystery2.58
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1963 #2 · Sarris's annual top 10 1963 #1 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1963 #4
One film per director, none of his own
The list comes from A Dream Is a Genius (夢は天才である, 1999), a book published the year after Akira Kurosawa's death and assembled by his daughter Kazuko from his notes and conversations. It follows two house rules that tell you a lot about the man: one film per director — so Ozu, Renoir and Ford each get a single slot, however many masterpieces they made — and none of his own thirty films, anywhere. The entries run in rough chronological order from the silents he grew up on (Griffith, Wiene, Lang) to films made in his final decade, which means the list doubles as a private history of the medium by the director the West used to treat as its ambassador to Japanese cinema.
It is a favorites list, not a greatness ranking — which is exactly why we re-rank it. The ordering above is our composite score across 20+ lists, awards and polls, so what you're reading is the overlap between one master's affections and the consensus canon: heavy agreement at the top, and further down, the personal picks — comedies, genre films, countrymen — that only made this list. Each film cites its full evidence, and where a Kurosawa favorite barely registers anywhere else, that's not noise; that's taste.