The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever

Yuki Irikura, Assistant Professor at Waseda University, mostly selects D.W. Griffith films for her 1909 list, reflecting the director’s growing powers and appeal. She concludes, however, with old-school tricks and the debut of Japan’s first film star.Yuki’s research focuses on Japanese and American silent film history. She earned her Ph.D. in February 2024 with a dissertation on Bluebird Photoplays, examining the company’s production of five-reel feature films, their popularity in Japan, and the contributions of the company’s female filmmakers and actresses.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five f...

Kathy Fuller-Seeley, Professor of Media Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, studied early cinema audiences with her book At the Picture Show: Small Town Audiences and the Creation of Movie Fan Culture. Since then, her research interests have ranged to radio and back again to mid-1910s film history, and her interests similarly weave back and forth from morbid drama and eye-popping tricks.Kathy also produced the Blu-ray release Francis Ford: The Craving plus Three Shorts. She is co-author, with Frank Thompson, of the upcoming book The First Movie Studio in Texas: Gaston Méliès’ Star...

Author and scholar Donald Crafton wrote Before Mickey: The Animated Film, 1898-1928, a defining work of early animation history. Yet with the exception of one example from a filmmaker much discussed in that book and especially his other Emile Cohl, Caricature, and Film, his picks range into the live action territory of editing innovations alongside the still-surviving tradition of trick films and actualities.Donald also wrote on the transition from silent cinema to sound production in The Talkies: American Cinema’s Transition to Sound, 1926-1931. Since retiring, he has written a play, Winsor and Gertie, that has been pr...

Paddy Adamson, Associate Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of St Andrews, recently published his monograph Projecting America: The Epic Western and National Mythmaking in 1920s Hollywood. While this particular research interest is represented by one pick, albeit through a Danish interpretation of the genre, the rest of his picks showcase film comedy as it was interpreted in France, Italy, America, and beyond.Paddy is also editor of Open Screens and Film Journal. His research on 1920s Westerns has appeared in journals including Film History.Films mentioned:Slippery Jim (1909) - Segundo de...

The end of the first decade of the 20th century is a fitting time to reflect on the monumental changes facing the cinematic medium and the global industry that supported it in 1909. As this season will demonstrate, with an extremely diverse array of guest picks that features the least amount of overlap for the show so far, established genres and techniques, which are effective and pleasurable, coexist with the exciting refinement of composition, effects, narratives, and screen acting.Films mentioned:Hiawatha (1909) - William V. RanousDisinherited Son’s Loyalty (1909) - Fred J. BalshoferIn the Sultan’s Powe...

The introduction to this 1908 season addressed the elephant in the room: D.W. Grififth’s directorial debut. However, even though he came up quite a bit in the five conversations, his films didn’t dominate the selections (yet), and the heterogeneity of the picks makes for an eclectic viewing experience to represent 1908.Films mentioned:Get Me a Stepladder (1908) - unknownUnterm Paraplui Nr. 87 (1908) - unknownThe Adventures of Dollie (1908) - D.W. GriffithThe Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1908) - Charles le Bargy and André CalmettesThe Last Days of Pompeii (1908) - Arturo Ambrosio and Luigi MaggiRescued from...

Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa, Associate Professor of Film and Media at Seattle University, focuses his research on the history of scientific filmmaking, nontheatrical film, and animal studies. But except for a couple of intriguing threads related to this work, his selections branch out and revel in spectacle and fantasy.Ben is the author of The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Image Research into Animal Life. He is currently working on two other book projects, tentatively titled Against Encounter: The Problem of Organicism in Animal Documentary and Beastly Futures: Rightwing Animal Aesthetics in the 21st Century.Films mentioned:<b...

Donald Sosin has been composing and performing silent film music since 1971. His experience playing at major festivals all over the world, often with his wife, singer/percussionist Joanna Seaton, informs the milestone in film music that is one of his picks, in addition to the rhythm of fluid animation and classic tales.Donald and Joanna record for Criterion, Kino, Milestone, Flicker Alley and European labels. Their website is oldmoviemusic.com.Films mentioned:The Adventures of Dollie (1908) - D.W. GriffithThe Taming of the Shrew (1908) - D.W. GriffithFantasmagorie (1908) - Émile CohlStenka Razin (1908) - Vladimir R...

Ivo Blom, lecturer in Comparative Arts & Media Studies at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, connected, through the lens of an early film pioneer in the Netherlands, international aesthetics and film industry markets with his book Jean Desmet and the Early Dutch Film Trade. His five selections for 1908 similarly give a broad picture of filmic development in the year and period, from attempted artfulness to technological novelties.Ivo has frequently published on Italian silent film and its links to art and visual culture, resulting in his most recent monograph Quo vadis?, Cabiria and the ‘Archaeologists’: Early Italian Cinema's Appropriation of Art and...

Don McHoull is the creator of @silentmoviegifs, first on Twitter and now Bluesky. He has found viral success with striking images throughout silent film history, and with his picks, he similarly finds comedy, tricks, and drama that still resonate today.Don’s enthusiasm for silent movies led to his GIF creations over ten years ago. He has also been making long-form videos on film and comic strips on his YouTube channel.Films and resources mentioned:His First Cigar (1908) - Louis J. GasnierExcursion to the Moon (1908) - Segundo de ChomónThe Dog Outwits the Kid...

Author and preservationist Tracey Goessel is the founder of the Film Preservation Society and is in the thick of restoring all of the D.W. Griffith Biograph films. So it makes sense that she selects two films he made in his first year of directing, while also addressing comedy, morbidity, and the enduring appeal of dogs doing things.Tracey is the author of The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks. She is also on the board of directors of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, has published numerous articles on silent film history, and has...

The beginning of D.W. Griffith’s directorial career looms large for 1908, with past seasons referring to the upcoming “Griffith era” and behind-the-scenes conversations with potential guests featuring requests to reach back out around this period of narrative development, often attributed to or considered to be represented by the filmmaker. But the films selected this season certainly go beyond Griffith and this brief context-setting introduction addresses other artistic, technical, and business developments in film the world over.Films mentioned:The Adventures of Dollie (1908) - D.W. GriffithThe Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1908) - Charles le Bar...

Some already old-school genres, from the chase film to the vaudeville recreation to the traveling actuality, made a good showing in the most selected films for this 1907 season. But the unique array of picks, among the most diverse list of films for the show so far, paints a better picture of how the cinematic medium was unfolding in new directions as much as it was holding on to established formulas.Films mentioned:The Policemen’s Little Run (1907) - Ferdinand ZeccaThe Irresistible Piano (1907) - Alice Guy-BlachéThe Haunted Hotel (1907) - J. Stuart BlacktonThe Dancing Pig (1907) - unk...

Film historian Randy Haberkamp just recently retired as the Executive Vice President of the Library, Archive and Sci-Tech for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where he held various positions for 23 years. With that experience in film preservation in mind, he highlights hard-to-find films as well as more famed stars and titles.Randy worked for CBS for 14 years, culminating as Director of Specials and Feature Films. He is also the founder of The Silent Society, a silent film preservation and appreciation group that has presented and preserved silent films in Los Angeles for nearly 40 years, and...

Agata Frymus, Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at Monash University Malaysia, selects mostly comic films to represent 1907. But by rounding out her selections with an (only maybe regrettably?) lost historical drama and the first Japanese selection of the whole show, she illustrates the multiplicity of film form at the time.Agata is the author of Damsels and Divas: European Stardom in Silent Hollywood. She was also a principal investigator on Black Cinema-Going in New York during the Interwar Period (2018-2020) and serves as a submissions editor for Early Popular Visual Culture.Films and...

Filmmaker and musician Sean Guinan has an eye for the surreal, as exhibited by his TikTok channel Candy Town Follies. With that in mind, his selections cover a lot of topical and aesthetic ground, from eroticism and over-the-top comedy to social commentary and actuality footage of a major 20th century pop culture figure.Sean directed the 2000 feature film Flipping the Whale. He also led the musical group Candy Town from 2010 to 2016.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1907!Films and resources mentioned:Bridge Jump with Handcuff...

Three of Associate Professor at Brock University Liz Clarke’s picks are defined by a sort of morbid delight. But with a cuddlier creature and the colonizing gaze represented in her other two selections, the conversation reveals more layers of the global film industry in 1907.Liz is the author of The American Girl Goes to War: Women and National Identity in US Film, 1908-1918. She also researches women writers in film and television from the silent period to contemporary female show-runners.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your top five for 1907!Films an...

Film historian Matt Page has been researching film adaptations of the Bible for over 20 years. And yet only one of his picks for 1907 stems from that source and this wide-ranging conversation also reaches chases, tricks, and more.Matt is the author of the BFI’s 100 Bible Films book and has contributed to a variety of books and journals. He also runs the Bible Films Blog.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1907!Films and resources mentioned:The Race for the Sausage (1907) - Alice Guy-BlachéLife and Pas...

1907, somewhat unlike the past couple years covered on this show, is chock-full of historical developments with details that are fun to plumb. But exploring the legal battles, studio foundings, and trade journal publications of the year just sets up the spectacular film texts themselves, with guests’ selections ranging from chase film evolutions to horrifically bizarre gems to actualities as historical documents to an animation milestone.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your top five for 1907!Films mentioned:Ben Hur (1907) - Sidney Olcott and Frank Oakes RoseNosferatu (1922) - F.W. MurnauThe Prodigal Son (1907...

Maybe it’s just Tristan who is surprised by the film that topped this season’s collective list. But its inclusion at all, and its ubiquity in submitters' lists, reflects that the balance of narrative and actuality is not quite as heavily weighted in the former’s favor as one might expect, even for as early (or late, 11 years after the “birth of cinema” as many measure it) as 1906.Films mentioned:A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire (1906) - Harry MilesThe ? Motorist (1906) - Walter R. BoothHumorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) - J. Stuart BlacktonThe Merry Frol...