Top 100 British films by British Film Institute
"This is the complete list of the 100 best British films of the century, as voted for by 1,000 leading figures of the movie industry, and compiled by the British Film Institute."
- BBC
Weight: 65
Detractions
- Limited to single country or region (-25)
- Limited to ~75 years or less (-10)
Films (100)
1. The Third Man
Directed by Carol Reed | 93 min | 1949
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
2. Brief Encounter
Directed by David Lean | 86 min | 1945
Meeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.
3. Lawrence of Arabia
Directed by David Lean | Rated PG | 216 min | 1962
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
4. The 39 Steps
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock | 86 min | 1935
A man in London tries to help a counterespionage agent. But when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to both save himself and also stop a spy ring which is trying to steal top secret information.
5. Great Expectations
Directed by David Lean | 118 min | 1946
A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.
6. Kind Hearts and Coronets
Directed by Robert Hamer | 106 min | 1949
A distant poor relative of the Duke of D'Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.
8. Don't Look Now
Directed by Nicolas Roeg | Rated R | 110 min | 1973
A married couple grieving the recent death of their young daughter are in Venice when they encounter two elderly sisters, one of whom is psychic and brings a warning from beyond.
9. The Red Shoes
Directed by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | 133 min | 1948
A young ballet dancer is torn between the man she loves and her pursuit to become a prima ballerina.
10. Trainspotting
Directed by Danny Boyle | Rated R | 94 min | 1996
Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out, despite the allure of the drugs and influence of friends.
11. The Bridge on the River Kwai
Directed by David Lean | Rated PG | 161 min | 1957
After settling his differences with a Japanese PoW camp commander, a British colonel co-operates to oversee his men's construction of a railway bridge for their captors - while oblivious to a plan by the Allies to destroy it.
12. If....
Directed by Lindsay Anderson | Rated X | 111 min | 1968
In this allegorical story, a revolution led by pupil Mick Travis takes place at an old established private school in England.
13. The Ladykillers
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick | Rated N/A | 91 min | 1955
Five diverse oddball criminal types planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians.
14. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Directed by Karel Reisz | Rated N/A | 89 min | 1960
A rebellious, hard-living factory worker juggles relationships with two women, one of whom is married to another man but pregnant with his child.
15. Brighton Rock
Directed by John Boulting | Rated N/A | 92 min | 1947
Pinkie Brown is a small-town hoodlum whose gang runs a protection racket based at Brighton race course. When Pinkie orders the murder of a rival, Fred, the police believe it to be suicide. ...
16. Get Carter
Directed by Mike Hodges | Rated R | 112 min | 1971
When his brother dies under mysterious circumstances in a car accident, London gangster Jack Carter travels to Newcastle to investigate.
17. The Lavender Hill Mob
Directed by Charles Crichton | 78 min | 1951
A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipment of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country as miniature Eiffel Towers.
18. Henry V
Directed by Laurence Olivier | 137 min | 1944
In the midst of the Hundred Years' War in 1415, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France.
19. Chariots of Fire
Directed by Hugh Hudson | Rated PG | 125 min | 1981
Two British track athletes, one a determined Jew and the other a devout Christian, compete in the 1924 Olympics.
20. Stairway to Heaven
Directed by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Rated PG | 104 min | 1946
A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court.
21. The Long Good Friday
Directed by John Mackenzie | Rated R | 114 min | 1980
Harold, a prosperous English gangster, is about to close a lucrative new deal when bombs start showing up in very inconvenient places. A mysterious syndicate is trying to muscle in on his ...
22. The Servant
Directed by Joseph Losey | 116 min | 1963
The aristocratic Tony moves to London and hires the servant Hugo Barrett for all services at home. Barrett seems to be a loyal and competent employee, but Tony's girlfriend Susan does not ...
23. Four Weddings and a Funeral
Directed by Mike Newell | Rated R | 117 min | 1994
Over the course of five social occasions, a committed bachelor must consider the notion that he may have discovered love.
24. Whisky Galore
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick | 82 min | 1949
Scottish islanders try to plunder 50,000 cases of whisky from a stranded ship.
25. The Full Monty
Directed by Peter Cattaneo | Rated R | 91 min | 1997
Six unemployed steel workers form a male striptease act. The women cheer them on to go for "the full monty" - total nudity.
26. The Crying Game
Directed by Neil Jordan | Rated R | 112 min | 1992
A British soldier is kidnapped by IRA terrorists. He befriends one of his captors, who is drawn into the soldier's world.
27. Doctor Zhivago
Directed by David Lean | Rated PG-13 | 197 min | 1965
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during the First World War and then the October Revolution.
28. Life of Brian
Directed by Terry Jones | Rated R | 94 min | 1979
Brian is born on the original Christmas, in the stable next door. He spends his life being mistaken for a messiah.
29. Withnail & I
Directed by Bruce Robinson | Rated R | 107 min | 1987
London, 1969 - two 'resting' (unemployed and unemployable) actors, Withnail and Marwood, fed up with damp, cold, piles of washing-up, mad drug dealers and psychotic Irishmen, decide to ...
30. Gregory's Girl
Directed by Bill Forsyth | Rated PG | 91 min | 1981
Gregory is a normal teen who is infatuated with a classmate. He must work to win her affection.
31. Zulu
Directed by Cy Endfield | 138 min | 1964
Outnumbered British soldiers do battle with Zulu warriors at Rorke's Drift.
32. Room at the Top
Directed by Jack Clayton | Rated N/A | 115 min | 1959
An ambitious young accountant schemes to wed a wealthy factory owner's daughter, despite falling in love with a married older woman.
33. Alfie
Directed by Lewis Gilbert | 114 min | 1966
An unrepentant ladies' man gradually begins to understand the consequences of his lifestyle.
34. Gandhi
Directed by Richard Attenborough | Rated PG | 191 min | 1982
Gandhi's character is fully explained as a man of nonviolence. Through his patience, he is able to drive the British out of the subcontinent. And the stubborn nature of Jinnah and his commitment towards Pakistan is portrayed.
35. The Lady Vanishes
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock | 96 min | 1938
While traveling in continental Europe, a rich young playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have disappeared from the train.
36. The Italian Job
Directed by Peter Collinson | Rated G | 99 min | 1969
Comic caper movie about a plan to steal a gold shipment from the streets of Turin by creating a traffic jam.
37. Local Hero
Directed by Bill Forsyth | Rated PG | 111 min | 1983
An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village where they want to build a refinery. But things don't go as expected.
38. The Commitments
Directed by Alan Parker | Rated R | 118 min | 1991
When Jimmy Rabbitte wants to start a band, he has open auditions at his house.
39. A Fish Called Wanda
Directed by Charles Crichton, John Cleese | Rated R | 108 min | 1988
In London, four very different people team up to commit armed robbery, then try to doublecross each other for the loot.
40. Secrets & Lies
Directed by Mike Leigh | Rated R | 136 min | 1996
A successful black woman discovers that her birth mother is a lower-class white woman, but the woman denies it. As emotions run high, everyone's secrets are exposed.
41. Dr. No
Directed by Terence Young | 110 min | 1962
A resourceful British government agent seeks answers in a case involving the disappearance of a colleague and the disruption of the American space program.
42. The Madness of King George
Directed by Nicholas Hytner | Rated PG-13 | 104 min | 1994
A meditation on power and the metaphor of the body of state, based on the real episode of dementia experienced by George III [now suspected a victim of porphyria, a blood disorder]. As he ...
43. A Man for All Seasons
Directed by Fred Zinnemann | 120 min | 1966
The story of Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and remarriage.
44. Black Narcissus
Directed by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | 100 min | 1947
After opening a convent in the Himalayas, five nuns encounter conflict and tension - both with the natives and also within their own group - as they attempt to adapt to their remote, exotic surroundings.
45. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Directed by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | 163 min | 1943
From the Boer War through World War II, a soldier rises through the ranks in the British military.
46. Oliver Twist
Directed by David Lean | 105 min | 1948
Based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist is about an orphan boy who runs away from a workhouse and meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. Oliver is taken in by the pickpocket ...
47. I'm All Right Jack
Directed by John Boulting | Rated N/A | 105 min | 1959
A naive aristocrat in search of a career becomes caught up in the struggles between his profit-minded uncle and an aggressive labour union.
48. Performance
Directed by Donald Cammell, Nicolas Roeg | Rated X | 105 min | 1970
Chas, a violent and psychotic East London gangster needs a place to lie low after a hit that should never have been carried out. He finds the perfect cover in the form of guest house run by...
49. Shakespeare in Love
Directed by John Madden | Rated R | 123 min | 1998
A young Shakespeare, out of ideas and short of cash, meets his ideal woman and is inspired to write one of his most famous plays.
50. My Beautiful Laundrette
Directed by Stephen Frears | Rated R | 97 min | 1985
An ambitious Asian Briton and his white lover strive for success and hope, when they open up a glamorous laundromat.
51. Tom Jones
Directed by Tony Richardson | 128 min | 1963
In eighteenth century England, "first cousins" Tom Jones and Master Blifil grew up together in privilege in the western countryside, but could not be more different in nature. Tom, the ...
52. This Sporting Life
Directed by Lindsay Anderson | 134 min | 1963
Despite success on the field, a rising rugby star senses the emerging emptiness of his life as his inner angst begins to materialize through aggression and brutality, so he attempts to woo his landlady in hopes of finding reason to live.
53. My Left Foot
Directed by Jim Sheridan | Rated R | 103 min | 1989
Christy Brown, born with cerebral palsy, learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot.
54. Brazil
Directed by Terry Gilliam | Rated R | 132 min | 1985
A bureaucrat in a retro-future world tries to correct an administrative error and himself becomes an enemy of the state.
55. The English Patient
Directed by Anthony Minghella | Rated R | 162 min | 1996
At the close of WWII, a young nurse tends to a badly-burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.
56. A Taste of Honey
Directed by Tony Richardson | 100 min | 1961
The moving story of a plain young girl who becomes pregnant by a black sailor, befriends a homosexual, and gradually becomes a woman.
57. The Go-Between
Directed by Joseph Losey | Rated GP | 118 min | 1971
Tale of torrid and forbidden love between Christie and Bates in the English countryside.
58. The Man in the White Suit
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick | 85 min | 1951
An altruistic chemist invents a fabric which resists wear and stain as a boon to humanity, but both big business and labor realize it must be suppressed for economic reasons.
59. The Ipcress File
Directed by Sidney J. Furie | 109 min | 1965
In London, a counter espionage agent deals with his own bureaucracy while investigating the kidnapping and brainwashing of British scientists.
60. Blow-Up
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni | 111 min | 1966
A mod London photographer finds something very suspicious in the shots he has taken of a mysterious beauty in a desolate park.
61. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Directed by Tony Richardson | Rated N/A | 104 min | 1962
A juvenile offender impresses the reform school Governor with running abilities. He is in turn given special privileges to encourage him to win a race against the local public school, but he is therefore teased his fellow rebellious peers.
62. Sense and Sensibility
Directed by Ang Lee | Rated PG | 136 min | 1995
Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her three daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. The two eldest daughters are the titular opposites.
63. Passport to Pimlico
Directed by Henry Cornelius | 84 min | 1949
Residents of a part of London declare independence, when they discover an old treaty. This leads to the need for a 'Passport to Pimlico'.
64. The Remains of the Day
Directed by James Ivory | Rated PG | 134 min | 1993
A butler who sacrificed body and soul to service in the years leading up to World War II realizes too late how misguided his loyalty was to his lordly employer.
65. Sunday Bloody Sunday
Directed by John Schlesinger | Rated R | 110 min | 1971
Divorced working woman Alex and well-to-do Jewish family doctor Daniel Hirsh share not only the same answering service but also the favours of young Bob Elkin who bed-hops between them as ...
66. The Railway Children
Directed by Lionel Jeffries | Rated G | 109 min | 1970
After the enforced absence of their father, three children move with their mother to Yorkshire, where during their adventures they attempt to discover the reason for his disappearance.
67. Mona Lisa
Directed by Neil Jordan | Rated R | 104 min | 1986
George has just been released from prison, and manages to get a job driving a call girl from customer to customer. Initially they don't get on; he doesn't fit in with the high class customers Simone services. Will they ever get on?
68. The Dam Busters
Directed by Michael Anderson | 105 min | 1955
The story of how the British attacked German dams in WWII by using an ingenious technique to drop bombs where they would be most effective.
69. Hamlet
Directed by Laurence Olivier | 155 min | 1948
Prince Hamlet struggles over whether or not he should kill his uncle, whom he suspects has murdered his father, the former king.
70. Goldfinger
Directed by Guy Hamilton | 110 min | 1964
Investigating a gold magnate's smuggling, James Bond uncovers a plot to contaminate the Fort Knox gold reserve.
71. Elizabeth
Directed by Shekhar Kapur | Rated R | 124 min | 1998
A film of the early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.
72. Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Directed by Sam Wood, Sidney Franklin | 114 min | 1939
An aged teacher and former headmaster of a boarding school recalls his career and his personal life over the decades.
73. A Room with a View
Directed by James Ivory | 117 min | 1985
When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperone Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting...
74. The Day of the Jackal
Directed by Fred Zinnemann | Rated PG | 143 min | 1973
A professional assassin codenamed "Jackal" plots to kill Charles de Gaulle, the President of France.
75. The Cruel Sea
Directed by Charles Frend | 126 min | 1953
The World War II adventures of a British convoy escort ship and its officers.
76. Billy Liar
Directed by John Schlesinger | 98 min | 1963
A lazy, irresponsible young clerk in provincial Northern England lives in his own fantasy world and makes emotionally immature decisions as he alienates friends and family.
77. Oliver!
Directed by Carol Reed | Rated G | 153 min | 1968
A young boy runs away from an orphanage and meets a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly mentor.
78. Peeping Tom
Directed by Michael Powell | 101 min | 1960
A young man murders women, using a movie camera to film their dying expressions of terror.
79. Far from the Madding Crowd
Directed by John Schlesinger | Rated PG | 168 min | 1967
Bathsheba Everdene, a willful, flirtatious, young woman, unexpectedly inherits a large farm and is romantically pursued by three very different men.
80. The Draughtsman's Contract
Directed by Peter Greenaway | Rated R | 108 min | 1982
Mr. Neville, a cocksure young artist is contracted by Mrs. Herbert, the wife of a wealthy landowner, to produce a set of twelve drawings of her husband's estate, a contract which extends ...
81. A Clockwork Orange
Directed by Stanley Kubrick | Rated X | 136 min | 1971
In future Britain, charismatic delinquent Alex DeLarge is jailed and volunteers for an experimental aversion therapy developed by the government in an effort to solve society's crime problem - but not all goes according to plan.
82. Distant Voices, Still Lives
Directed by Terence Davies | Rated PG-13 | 85 min | 1988
The second film in Terence Davies's autobiographical series ('Trilogy', 'The Long Day Closes') is an impressionistic view of a working-class family in 1940s and 1950s Liverpool, based on ...
83. Darling
Directed by John Schlesinger | Rated TV-MA | 128 min | 1965
A beautiful but amoral model sleeps her way to the top of the London fashion scene at the height of the Swinging Sixties.
84. Educating Rita
Directed by Lewis Gilbert | Rated PG | 110 min | 1983
A young wife decides to complete her education and take her exams. She meets a professor who teaches her to value her own insights while still being able to beat the exams. The change in ...
85. Brassed Off
Directed by Mark Herman | Rated R | 103 min | 1996
The coal mine in a northern English village may be closing, which would also mean the end of the miners' brass band.
86. Genevieve
Directed by Henry Cornelius | 86 min | 1953
It's time for the annual London to Brighton antique car rally, and Alan McKim and Ambrose Claverhouse are not going to let their friendship stop them from trying to humiliate each other. ...
87. Women in Love
Directed by Ken Russell | Rated R | 131 min | 1969
The battle of the sexes and relationships among the elite of Britian's industrial Midlands in the 1920s. Gerald Crich and Rupert Berkin are best friends who fall in love with a pair of ...
88. A Hard Day's Night
Directed by Richard Lester | 87 min | 1964
A 'typical' day in the life of the Beatles, including many of their famous songs.
89. Fires Were Started
Directed by Humphrey Jennings | Rated N/A | 63 min | 1943
A new man joins the civilian firefighters at a London unit during the Second World War. He meets his fellow firemen and firewomen, manages to enjoy some leisure time with them, and then ...
90. Hope and Glory
Directed by John Boorman | Rated PG-13 | 113 min | 1987
A semi-autobiographical project by John Boorman about a nine year old boy called Bill as he grows up in London during the blitz of World War 2. For a young boy, this time in history was ...
91. My Name Is Joe
Directed by Ken Loach | Rated R | 105 min | 1998
Two thirtysomethings, unemployed former alcoholic Joe and community health worker Sarah, start a romantic relationship in the one of the toughest Glasgow neighbourhoods.
92. In Which We Serve
Directed by Noël Coward, David Lean | 115 min | 1942
This "story of a ship," the British destroyer HMS Torrin, is told in flash backs by survivors as they cling to a life raft.
93. Caravaggio
Directed by Derek Jarman | Rated N/A | 93 min | 1986
A retelling of the life of the celebrated 17th-century painter through his brilliant, nearly blasphemous paintings and his flirtations with the underworld.
94. The Belles of St. Trinian's
Directed by Frank Launder | Rated N/A | 91 min | 1954
These schoolgirls are more interested in racing forms than books as they try to get-rich-quick. They are abetted by the head-mistress' brother, played by Alastair Sim, who also plays the head-mistress.
95. Life Is Sweet
Directed by Mike Leigh | Rated R | 103 min | 1990
A waitress, her cook husband, & their twin daughters ponder their lives over a few weeks in a working-class suburb north of London.
96. The Wicker Man
Directed by Robin Hardy | Rated R | 88 min | 1973
A police sergeant is sent to a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl whom the townsfolk claim never existed. Stranger still are the rites that take place there.
97. Nil by Mouth
Directed by Gary Oldman | Rated R | 128 min | 1997
The family of Raymond, his wife Val and her brother Billy live in working-class London district. Also in their family is Val and Billy's mother Janet and grandmother Kath. Billy is a drug ...
98. Small Faces
Directed by Gillies MacKinnon | Rated R | 108 min | 1996
Three teenage brothers, gang-member Bobby, troubled mama's boy Alan and self-assured prankster Lex, reside in a downtrodden section of Glasgow, Scotland, circa 1968. But while Bobby and ...
99. Carry On... Up the Khyber
Directed by Gerald Thomas | Rated N/A | 88 min | 1968
Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond looks after the British outpost near the Khybar pass. Protected by the kilted Third Foot and Mouth regiment, you would think they were safe. But the Khazi of Kalabar...
100. The Killing Fields
Directed by Roland Joffé | Rated R | 141 min | 1984
A journalist is trapped in Cambodia during tyrant Pol Pot's bloody "Year Zero" cleansing campaign, which claimed the lives of two million "undesirable" civilians.