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.

1
Lawrence of Arabia1962 · David Lean
7.71
Oscar Best Picture winner 1962 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1963 #1 · BFI Top 100 British films #3
2
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest1975 · Miloš Forman
7.13
Oscar Best Picture winner 1975 · BAFTA Best Film winner 1976 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1976 #2
3
The Godfather Part II1974 · Francis Ford Coppola
6.10
Oscar Best Picture winner 1974 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #26 · Letterboxd Top 250 #8
4
The Third Man1949 · Carol Reed
5.46
BFI Top 100 British films #1 · Cannes Grand Prix winner 1949 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1952 #2
5
MASH1970 · Robert Altman
5.29
Palme d'Or winner 1970 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1970 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1970 #5
6
Pather Panchali1955 · Satyajit Ray
4.93
BAFTA Best Film winner 1958 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1966 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #22
7
Annie Hall1977 · Woody Allen
4.89
Oscar Best Picture winner 1977 · AFI 100 (2007) #35 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #243
8
Midnight Cowboy1969 · John Schlesinger
4.85
Oscar Best Picture winner 1969 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1969 #2 · AFI 100 (2007) #43
9
Paris, Texas1984 · Wim Wenders
4.79
Palme d'Or winner 1984 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #185 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1985 #6
10
The French Connection1971 · William Friedkin
4.24
Oscar Best Picture winner 1971 · AFI 100 (2007) #93 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1972 #10
11
In the Heat of the Night1967 · Norman Jewison
4.20
Oscar Best Picture winner 1967 · AFI 100 (2007) #75 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1967 #8
12
The Long Absence1961 · Henri Colpi
4.18
Palme d'Or winner 1961 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1964 #1 · Kurosawa's 100 favorite films
13
Hana-bi1997 · Takeshi Kitano
4.18
Venice Golden Lion winner 1997 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1997 #1 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1998 #1
14
Ben-Hur1959 · William Wyler
4.16
Oscar Best Picture winner 1959 · AFI 100 (2007) #100 · AFI 100 (1998) #72
15
Bicycle Thieves1948 · Vittorio De Sica
3.96
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1950 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #20 · BAFTA Best Film nominee 1950
16
Last Year at Marienbad1961 · Alain Resnais
3.69
Venice Golden Lion winner 1961 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1964 #3 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #169
17
When Father Was Away on Business1985 · Emir Kusturica
3.56
Palme d'Or winner 1985 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1986 #5 · Kurosawa's 100 favorite films
18
Padre Padrone1977 · Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani
3.47
Palme d'Or winner 1977 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1982 #10 · Kurosawa's 100 favorite films
19
Red Desert1964 · Michelangelo Antonioni
3.41
Venice Golden Lion winner 1964 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #169 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1964 #6
20
Barry Lyndon1975 · Stanley Kubrick
3.41
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1975 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #12 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #45
21
It's a Wonderful Life1946 · Frank Capra
3.23
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1946 · AFI 100 (2007) #20 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #133
22
Bonnie and Clyde1967 · Arthur Penn
3.12
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1968 #1 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 1967 · AFI 100 (2007) #42
23
La Grande Illusion1937 · Jean Renoir
2.86
Oscar Best Picture nominee 1938 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1949 #2 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #146
24
Late Spring1949 · Yasujirō Ozu
2.86
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1949 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #21 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #62
25
Gloria1980 · John Cassavetes
2.85
Venice Golden Lion winner 1980 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1981 #5 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1981 #10
26
Breathless1960 · Jean-Luc Godard
2.85
Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #14 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #38 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1960 #3
27
La Belle Noiseuse1991 · Jacques Rivette
2.81
Cannes Grand Prix winner 1991 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1992 #1 · Kurosawa's 100 favorite films
28
The 400 Blows1959 · François Truffaut
2.80
Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #33 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #50 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1959 #5
29
The Cousins1959 · Claude Chabrol, Philippe de Broca
2.77
Berlin Golden Bear winner 1959 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1959 #4 · Kurosawa's 100 favorite films
30
La Strada1954 · Federico Fellini
2.46
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1957 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #38 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1955 #7

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.