1950's

FILMS OF THE YEAR: THE 1950's

"For me, film-making combines everything. That's the reason I've made cinema my life's work. In films painting and literature, theatre and music come together. But a film is still a film." Akira Kurosawa

1959

1. North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock) 
2. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks)
3. Pickpocket (Robert Bresson)
4. Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder) 
5. The World of Apu (Satyajit Ray)
6. Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais) 
7. Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger)
8. The 400 Blows (François Truffaut) 
9. Ballad of a Soldier (Grigori Chukhrai)
10. Shadows (John Cassavetes)

Honourary Mentions:
Ben-Hur (William Wyler) 
Odds Against Tomorrow (Robert Wise)
Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher)
Day of the Outlaw (André De Toth)
House on Haunted Hill (William Castle)

1958

1. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles) 
2. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Douglas Sirk)
4. Murder by Contract (Irving Lerner) 
5. Man of the West (Anthony Mann)
6. Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda)
7. The Hidden Fortress (Akira Kurosawa)
8. A Night to Remember (Roy Ward Baker)
9. Big Deal on Madonna Street (Mario Monicelli) 
10. Elevator to the Gallows (Louis Malle)

Honourary Mentions:
The Lineup (Don Seigel)
The Defiant Ones (Stanley Kramer)
The Big Country (William Wyler)

1957

1. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick)
2. The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean)
3. Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick) 
4. 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)
5. Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa)
6. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman) 
7. Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur)
8. Nightfall (Jacques Tourneur)
9. Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman)
10. Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder)

Honourary Mentions:

Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini)
A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan)
The Tall T (Budd Boetticher)

1956

1. The Searchers (John Ford)
2. The Killing (Stanley Kubrick)
3. Bob the Gambler (Jean-Pierre Melville)
4. Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox) 
5. Jubal (Delmer Daves)
6. A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson)
7. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel)
8. Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray)
9. Aparajito (Satyajit Ray)
10. Giant (George Stevens)

Honourary Mentions:
Attack (Robert Aldrich)
Seven Men from Now (Budd Boetticher)

The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock)

1955

1. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich)
2. Les diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
3. Rififi (Jules Dassin)
4. Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
5. Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges)
6. Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray)
7. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)
8. Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray)
9. All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)
10. East of Eden (Elia Kazan)  

Honourary Mentions:
Night and Fog (Alain Resnais)
Killer's Kiss (Stanley Kubrick)
Richard III (Laurence Olivier)
The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick)

1954

1. On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan)
2. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)
3. Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi)
4. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
5. Touchez pas au grisbi (Jacques Becker)
6. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray)
7. Dial M for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock)
8. Hobson's Choice (David Lean)
9. La strada (Federico Fellini)
10. Riot in Cell Block 11 (Don Siegel)

Honourary Mentions:

Them! (Gordon Douglas)
Drive A Crooked Road (Richard Quine) 

1953

1. Tokyo Story (Yasujirô Ozu)
2. The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
3. The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann)
4. Ugetsu monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi)
5. The Big Heat (Fritz Lang)
6. Shane (George Stevens)
7. Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder)
8. I vitelloni (Federico Fellini)
9. Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller)
10. Roman Holiday (William Wyler)

Honourary Mentions:
Julius Caesar (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)

1952

1. Umberto D. (Vittorio De Sica) 
2. Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa) 
3. High Noon (Fred Zinnemann)
4. The Narrow Margin (Richard Fleischer)
5. Bend of the River (Anthony Mann) 
6. Limelight (Charles Chaplin) 
7. Viva Zapata! (Elia Kazan) 
8. Kansas City Confidential (Phil Karlson) 
9. Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly)
10. On Dangerous Ground (Nicholas Ray)

Honourary Mentions:
5 Fingers (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
The Sniper (Edward Dmytryk)
Sudden Fear (David Miller)
The Bad and the Beautiful (Vincente Minnelli)

1951

1. Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock)
2. The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise)
3. A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan)
4. The Steel Helmet (Samuel Fuller) 
5. The Lost One (Peter Lorre)
6. Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder)
7. A Place in the Sun (George Stevens)
8. The African Queen (John Huston)
9. The Lavender Hill Mob (Charles Crichton) 
10. The Thing from Another World (Christian Nyby) 

Honourary Mentions:
On Dangerous Ground (Nicholas Ray)
The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (Henry Hathaway) 

1950

1. Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder) 
2. All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz) 
3. Los olvidados (Luis Buñuel)
4. The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston) 
5. Broken Arrow (Delmer Daves) 
6. Rashômon (Akira Kurosawa) 
7. Orpheus (Jean Cocteau) 
8. Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis) 
9. In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray) 
10. Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann) 

Honourary Mentions:

Where the Sidewalk Ends (Otto Preminger)
The Furies (Anthony Mann)

Panic in the Streets (Elia Kazan) 

The Gunfighter (Henry King)

Caged (John Cromwell)