Note: I didn't want to repeat movies from list to list, so some of my favorite films who might have been categorized as "crime/thriller films" but are missing here were put in the other categories (see my other lists), such as art, horror, science fiction, or comedy.

• 1950s
• 1. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)

• 2. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)

• 3. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder)

• 4. The Killing (Stanley Kubrick)

• 5. The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot)

Honorable mentions: Touch of Evil (Orson Welles), On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan), The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton), Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock), Dial M for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock), North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock), Los Olvidados (Luis Buñuel), Ensayo de un Crimen (Luis Buñuel)

• 1960s
• 1. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard) / Bande à Part (Jean-Luc Godard)

• 2. Branded to Kill (Seijun Suzuki)

• 3. Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville)

• 4. Wait Until Dark (Terence Young)

• 5. Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn)

Honorable mentions: Dr. No (Terence Young), From Russia with Love (Terence Young), West Side Story (Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins), In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison)

• 1970s
• 1. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola)

• 2. The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola)

• 3. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese)

• 4. The French Connection (William Friedkin)

• 5. Chinatown (Roman Polanski)

Honorable mentions: Deliverance (John Boorman), Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet), Frenzy (Alfred Hitchcock), Sorcerer (William Friedkin), The Sting (George Roy Hill), The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola), Duel (Steven Spielberg), Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah), Badlands (Terrence Malick)

• 1980s
• 1. Blue Velvet (David Lynch)

• 2. Blow Out (Brian De Palma)

• 3. Pixote - A Lei do Mais Fraco (Héctor Babenco)

• 4. The Untouchables (Brian De Palma)

• 5. Blood Simple (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)

Honorable mentions: Batman (Tim Burton), Scarface (Brian De Palma), Dressed to Kill (Brian De Palma), A Better Tomorrow (John Woo)

• 1990s
• 1. Fargo (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)

• 2. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)

• 3. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)

• 4. Se7en (David Fincher)

• 5. The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)

Honorable mentions: Miller's Crossing (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen), Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino), The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer), Carlito's Way (Brian De Palma), Heat (Michael Mann), Funny Games (Michael Haneke), Hana-bi (Takeshi Kitano), Lost Highway (David Lynch), Fight Club (David Fincher), The Crying Game (Neil Jordan), Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick), Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer), Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott), Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino)

• 2000s
• 1. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)

• 2. City of God (Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund)

• 3. No Country for Old Men (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)

• 4. Oldboy (Park Chan-wook)

• 5. Memento (Christopher Nolan)

Honorable mentions: Amores Perros (Alejandro González Iñárritu), Caché (Michael Haneke), The Departed (Martin Scorsese), Traffic (Steven Soderbergh), Elite Squad (José Padilha), Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg), The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan), United 93 (Paul Greengrass), The Man Who Wasn't There (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen), Man on Wire (James Marsh), Unbreakable (M. Night Shyamalan), The Secret in Their Eyes (Juan José Campanella), Zodiac (David Fincher)

• 2010s
• 1. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh)

• 2. Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn)

• 3. Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese)

• 4. Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy)

• 5. Gone Girl (David Fincher)

Honorable mentions: Buried (Rodrigo Cortés), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher)