The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever

Tristan Ettleman
  • 5.0 (8)
  • FILM HISTORY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever features experts and enthusiasts and, well, their favorite films of every year ever. Host Tristan Ettleman sits down with a new guest every week to dive into the history and beauty of some of the best movies to ever come out of the cinematic medium.

  1. 3D AGO

    1911 E6 - Casper Tybjerg

    Casper Tybjerg, Associate Professor of Film Studies at the University of Copenhagen, selects five films that reflect the advancement of narrative cinematic drama. Whether they offer visual and emotional spectacle or crusading social messages, his picks demonstrate the international refinement of the cinematic medium. A scholar of Danish and international silent film, Casper is the co-editor of the anthology Danish and German Silent Cinema: Towards a Common Film Culture. He was awarded the Dr. Phil. (Habilitation) degree for his forthcoming book, The Historiography of Filmmaking – through the Lens of Carl Th. Dreyer. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1911! Films mentioned: The Lonedale Operator (1911) - D.W. GriffithThe Golden Wedding (1911) - Arturo Ambrosio and Luigi MaggiThe Defect (1911) - Louis FeuilladeThe Hauler (1911) - Léonce PerretTemptations of a Great City (1911) - August BlomThe Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) - Carl Theodor DreyerThe Phantom Carriage (1921) - Victor SjöströmHäxan (1922) - Benjamin ChristensenMikaël (1924) - Carl Theodor DreyerThe Life of a Butterfly (1911) - Roberto OmegnaIl tamburino sardo (1911) - Umberto ParadisiL’Odissea (1911) - Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, and Giuseppe De LiguoroThe Fall of Troy (1911) - Giovanni Pastrone and Luigi Romano BorgnettoL’Inferno (1911) - Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, and Giuseppe De LiguoroThe Vipers (1911) - Louis FeuilladeL’Atalante (1934) - Jean VigoLa belle Nivernaise (1924) - Jean EpsteinThe Swallow and the Titmouse (1920) - André AntoineThe Ballet Dancer (1911) - August BlomLes misérables (1912) - Albert CapellaniThe Abyss (1910) - Urban Gad

    1h 1m

  2. APR 1

    1911 E5 - Eva Hielscher

    Eva Hielscher, head of film-related collections at Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, selects a wholly international survey of 1911 films, jumping from country to country and genre to genre. This heterogeneous view of the year ranges from French comedy and animation experiment shorts to an Italian epic and German feature…and a document of a historic expedition! Eva is also co-artistic director of the Bonn International Silent Film Festival. She is co-editor of The City Symphony Phenomenon: Cinema, Art, and Urban Modernity between the Wars and Color Mania – The Material of Color in Photography and Film. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1911! Films and resource mentioned: Rosalie and Her Phonograph (1911) - Romeo BosettiThe Strange Bird (1911) - Urban GadThe Third Fram Expedition to the South Pole (1911) - Leon AmundsenL’Inferno (1911) - Francesco Bertolini, Giuseppe de Liguoro, and Adolfo PadovanLittle Nemo (1911) - Winsor McCay and J. Stuart BlacktonRosalie and Léontine Go to the Theatre (1911) - Romeo BosettiThe Abyss (1910) - Urban GadThe Great White Silence (1924) - Herbert PontingAtlantis (1913) - August BlomThe Conquest of the Pole (1912) - Georges MélièsSentimental Value (2025) - Joachim TrierTimeline of Historical Film Colors in Photography and Film

    55 min

  3. MAR 25

    1911 E4 - Thomas Christensen

    Thomas Christensen is Curator at the Danish Film Institute, so it stands to reason that all of his selections hail from Denmark. All but one of them come in at “feature length” (and from the same director) as well, reflecting the country’s place in advancing film grammar, subjects, and character psychology at a crucial transitional time. Thomas also serves on the Executive Committee of the European Cinematheque Association and served on the FIAF Technical Commission from 2003 to 2015. He has recently been involved in a project digitizing all surviving Danish silent films from 1896 to 1929. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1911! Films and resources mentioned: The Black Dream (1911) - Urban GadTemptations of a Great City (1911) - August BlomIn the Hands of Imposters (1911) - August BlomThe Price of Beauty (1911) - August BlomThe Girl Behind the Counter (1911) - August BlomThe Execution (1903) - Peter ElfeltThe Abyss (1910) - Urban GadL’Inferno (1911) - Francesco Bertolini, Giuseppe de Liguoro, and Adolfo PadovanLion Hunting (1907) - Viggo LarsenThe Ballet Dancer (1911) - August BlomThe Two Gold Diggers (1909) - Viggo LarsenThe White Slave Trade (1910) - Alfred CohnThe White Slave Trade (1910) - August BlomThe Dangerous Age (1927) - Eugen IllésDouble Indemnity (1944) - Billy WilderThe Clown (1917) - A.W. SandbergLove One Another (1922) - Carl Theodor DreyerSilent Film Festival 2026

    1h 15m

  4. MAR 18

    1911 E3 - Patrick Friel

    Patrick Friel, educator and programmer, is very interested in non-narrative and experimental film. Therefore, his five selections totally fit into those designations (well, with one semi-exception), but each of them offer totally different visual experiences and intentions. Patrick is currently an Adjunct Professor of Instruction at Columbia College Chicago and has previously taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He was also the former Program Director at Chicago Filmmakers and the Festival Director and Programmer of the Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your top five for 1911! Films and resources mentioned: Little Nemo (1911) - Winsor McCay and J. Stuart BlacktonI.P. Müller (1911) - Peter ElfeltThe Carrot Caterpillar (1911) - unknownThe Two Obadiahs (1911) - unknownTechnical Color Tests (1911) - Luca ComerioEureka (1979) - Ernie GehrQuo Vadis (1913) - Enrico QuazzoniCabiria (1914) - Giovanni PastroneL’Inferno (1911) - Francesco Bertolini, Giuseppe de Liguoro, and Adolfo PadovanGertie the Dinosaur (1914) - Winsor McCayThe Centaurs (1921) - Winsor McCayThe Municipal Hospital - A Boy with a Seizure (1907) - Peter ElfeltI.P. Müller. Mit System (1906) - Peter ElfeltSandow (1894) - William K.L. DicksonOlympia (1938) - Leni RiefenstahlThe Life of a Butterfly (1911) - Roberto OmegnaUnder the Skin (2013) - Jonathan GlazerVariations on a Cellophane Wrapper (1972) - David RimmerDaisies (1966) - Věra ChytilováTimeline of Historical Color

    1h 20m

  5. MAR 11

    1911 E2 - Kathy Feeley

    Kathy Feeley, professor of history at the University of Redlands, wrote Mary Pickford: Hollywood and the New Woman, so it makes sense that two of her picks center the film icon and pioneer, still in the early years of her career. But the rest of Kathy’s selections also paint a picture of women’s contributions before and behind the camera in an era before mass corporatization and the sidelining of women in various roles across the film industry. Kathy co-edited, with Jennifer Frost, When Private Talk Goes Public: Gossip in American History. She is also, again with Jennifer Frost, co-author of the forthcoming “‘Of Inestimable Value to All of Us’: Olivia de Havilland, the Studio Contract, and the Screen Actors Guild, 1943-1945” in Labor: Studies in Working Class History. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your top five for 1911! Films and resources mentioned: Their First Misunderstanding (1911) - Thomas H. Ince and George Loane TuckerSweet Memories (1911) - Thomas H. InceRosalie and Léontine Go to the Theatre (1911) - Romeo BosettiA Heroine of ‘76 (1911) - Lois Weber, Phillips Smalley, and Edwin S. PorterCupid and the Comet (1911) - Alice Guy-BlachéBringing Up Baby (1938) - Howard HawksWomen Film Pioneers ProjectMedia History Digital LibraryCinema’s First Nasty Women

    59 min

  6. MAR 4

    1911 E1 - The Feature Begins?

    1911 really feels like the beginning of the feature film. Oh sure, it didn’t suddenly define the output of the global film industry, but ambitious experiments from Italy, Denmark, Russia, and only very tentatively, America, sat alongside narrative, as well as plenty of non-narrative, successes and intriguing failures in the short form. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your top five for 1911! Films mentioned: L’Inferno (1911) - Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, and Giuseppe De LiguoroL’Odissea (1911) - Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, and Giuseppe De LiguoroThe Black Dream (1911) - Urban GadThe Girl Behind the Counter (1911) - August BlomDefence of Sevastopol (1911) - Aleksandr Khanzhonkov and Vasily GoncharovEnoch Arden (1911) - D.W. GriffithLittle Nemo (1911) - Winsor McCay and J. Stuart BlacktonDavid Copperfield (1911) - Theodore MarstonShe (1911) - George NicholsA Tale of Two Cities (1911) - Charles Kent and William J. HumphreyThe Hunchback of Notre Dame (1911) - Albert CapellaniA Heroine of ‘76 (1911) - Lois Weber, Phillips Smalley, and Edwin S. PorterBen Hur (1907) - Sidney Olcott and Frank Oakes Rose

    5 min

  7. FEB 25

    1910 E7 - Legitimacy and Controversy

    Hopefully you’re not too tired of hearing about how 1910 and its surrounding years are part of a transitional era, but this season’s conversations also revealed how diverse the global medium was at the turn of a new decade with offbeat modes, genres, and subjects. With a record slate of submissions from listeners, in addition to the guests’ selections, 1910’s collective list paints a broad picture of the year’s releases. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to see every film submitted by guests and listeners! Films mentioned: Jeffries-Johnson World’s Championship Boxing Contest (1910) - unknownLe Rembrandt de la Rue Lepic (1910) - Jean DurandThe White Slave Trade (1910) - August BlomThe Abyss (1910) - Urban GadFrankenstein (1910) - J. Searle DawleyWhite Fawn’s Devotion (1910) - James Young DeerA Christmas Carol (1910) - J. Searle Dawley, Charles Kent, and Ashley MillerAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1910) - Edwin S. PorterThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910) - Otis Turner

    6 min

  8. FEB 18

    1910 E6 - Kathy Rose O'Regan

    As Executive Director of San Francisco Film Preserve, Kathy Rose O’Regan works hard to highlight our shared film heritage. Her five picks certainly paint a picture of the international nuances of 1910 filmmaking, with each hailing from a different country and operating in a different narrative mode (or lack thereof). Kathy also served as the Senior Film Restorer for San Francisco Silent Film Festival, overseeing all operations of the preservation department and managing the restoration of dozens of silent era titles. Previously, she managed the preservation department of the Bay Area Video Coalition. Films and resources mentioned:The Aerial Submarine (1910) - Walter R. BoothThe Abyss (1910) - Urban GadDutch Hairstyles and Types (1910) - Alfred MachinFrankenstein (1910) - J. Searle DawleyThe Youghal Clock Tower Animation (1910) - Philip, James, and Thomas HorganThe White Heather (1919) - Maurice TourneurThe Airship Destroyer (1909) - Walter R. BoothAvatar: The Way of Water (2022) - James CameronThe Abyss (1989) - James CameronThe Mill (1909) - Alfred MachinMad God (2021) - Phil TippettFrankenstein (2025) - Guillermo del ToroFrankenstein (1931) - James WhaleThe Irish Lumières: The Horgan Brothers (2024) - Darina ClancyHamnet (2025) - Chloé ZhaoWicked (2024) - Jon M. ChuThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910) - Otis TurnerAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1910) - Edwin S. PorterTimeline of Historical Colors in Photography and FilmUncovering the Film Company of Ireland with Veronica Johnson

    36 min
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About

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever features experts and enthusiasts and, well, their favorite films of every year ever. Host Tristan Ettleman sits down with a new guest every week to dive into the history and beauty of some of the best movies to ever come out of the cinematic medium.

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