28 December 2015 marked the 120th anniversary of the first public film screening by the Lumière brothers. The Film Museum in Lodz and the Department of History and Theory of Film at the University of Lodz, together with the Polish Filmmakers Association and the Lodz Film School took this opportunity to organise a project entitled “12 Films for the 120th Anniversary of Cinema”.

Representatives of various professions related to film art chose the best works in the 120-year-long history of cinematography. The overall results of the survey are as follows:

WORLD – BEST FILMS according to all respondents

POLAND – BEST FILMS according to all respondents

We asked our respondents to indicate 12 titles in the category: “Best Films” and 12 titles in the category: “Best Polish Films”. Preferences cannot be measured according to mathematical measurements – therefore our invitation stated that: “We regard a personal point of view as the most important for the purposes of this project; we do not ask about the most important films in the history of cinema but rather about the best films in your opinion. It would be perfect if you could »erase from your memory« all previous »rankings of cinematic masterpieces« and academic classifications into masters and outsiders. We would like to know how the predetermined film canons function today and how they are modified”.

Each list could cover a maximum of 12 titles. We asked our respondents to choose from their lists one film they held in particularly high regard; other titles could be listed in any order (e.g. in alphabetical order or according to their premiere date). We applied the following rule during the preparation of our compiled lists: the film indicated as number 1 got 3 provisional “points” while the other indicated films got 1 point each.

We adopted a broad concept of a film. The lists could include films regardless of the used technique (live action/animated films), genre (feature films/documentaries), length (short/medium/full length films), carrier (film copy, TV film), distribution (multiplexes, festivals, galleries), style (mainstream cinema/artistic cinema), production date (silent films and sound films, black-and-white or colour films) or the target group (children, adults). We excluded from our area of interest only the so-called home-movies, notations prepared for private purposes or phenomena of a strictly TV-related (e.g. TV series) or interactive nature (multimedia installations, computer games).

The list of the “Best Films” could include also Polish productions while the list of the “Best Polish Films” could cover co-productions and foreign films produced by Polish directors (if they covered topics related to Poland or were film adaptations of works by Polish authors). The only restriction concerned artists who were asked not to include in their lists the films which they helped to produce (if such title was indicated, it was not taken into account during our compilation of the final lists).

WORLD – BEST FILMS according to film artists

POLAND – BEST FILMS according to film artists

including:

WORLD – BEST FILMS according to film directors

POLAND – BEST FILMS according to film directors

We invited to the project the people professionally related to a broadly understood film culture – both artists (directors, producers, scriptwriters, directors of photography and cinematographers, scenographers and costume designers, film editors, film score composers and sound designers…) as well as the film culture promoters (film critics, academic lecturers, managers of Film Discussion Clubs, film educators…). From the outset our intention was not to exclude any person (involved in cinematic culture) from the project if they themselves expressed their interest in participation – that is why we initially sent our invitations through mailing lists (Polish Filmmakers Association, Lodz Film School, Polish Society for Film and Media Studies). Next – via individual contact – we asked specific persons to fill in the questionnaire.

Finally, we received 279 questionnaires – from 132 artists and 150 “promoters” (three persons belonged to both groups). Altogether all questionnaires listed 903 titles of foreign films and 445 titles of Polish productions; about half of them were indicated by one person only.

Alphabetical list of project participants

The artists included 45 film directors. The actors included inter alia: Jerzy Stuhr, Wiktor Zborowski, Małgorzata Zajączkowska and Antoni Królikowski; the group of scriptwriters included: Andrzej Bart, Józef Hen, Wojciech Tomczyk, Piotr Wojciechowski; the scenographers included: Ewa Braun, Allan Starski; the group of cinematographers covered: Jolanta Dylewska, Ryszard Lenczewski, Paweł Śmietanka, Arkadiusz Tomiak, Łukasz Żal; the film score composers included: Jan Kanty-Pawluśkiewicz, Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz, Michał Urbaniak; the producers included: Wojciech Danowski, Piotr Dzięcioł, Łukasz Dzięcioł, Dorota Ostrowska-Orlińska.

WORLD – BEST FILMS according to the film culture promoters

POLAND – BEST FILMS according to the film culture promoters

including:

WORLD – BEST FILMS according to academic lecturers

POLAND – BEST FILMS according to academic lecturers

WORLD – BEST FILMS according to film critics

POLAND – BEST FILMS according to film critics

In turn the “promoters” category included votes of  47 film critics (both of the older and the younger generation) as well as 54 lecturers in film history or theory. We received the questionnaires from such lecturers as e.g. professors: Alicja Helman, Ewelina Nurczyńska-Fidelska, Krzysztof Kozłowski and Tadeusz Lubelski. Likewise, the selections were provided by the critics of both the older (Tadeusz Sobolewski, Zdzisław Pietrasik, Andrzej Kołodyński) and the younger generation (Michał Oleszczyk, Łukasz Maciejewski, Łukasz Adamski). Moreover, the questionnaires were sent by a few distributors, owners or managers of art-house cinemas and educators related to the School Film Archives (Filmoteka Szkolna).

Based on the received questionnaires we developed two main lists: “Best Films” and “Best Polish Films” and, additionally, also the lists according to the respondents’ profession and age group. The respondents could also provide a short justification of their selection; however, eventually very few people decided to do this.

WORLD – BEST FILMS according to all respondents under 40 years of age

POLAND – BEST FILMS according to all respondents under 40 years of age

WORLD – BEST FILMS according to all respondents aged 60 and more

POLAND – BEST FILMS according to all respondents aged 60 and more

Soon – on 29 February – the Film Museum website will also make available the selections of individual respondents. They will most likely create an opportunity for interesting comparisons – and maybe also offer guidance for those who would like to familiarise themselves with personal preferences of esteemed artists, critics and lecturers.