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

• 1950s and before
• 1. Metropolis (Fritz Lang)

• 2. The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise)

• 3. Godzilla (Ishirō Honda)

• 4. King Kong (Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack)

• 5. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel)

Honorable mentions: A Trip to the Moon (Georges Méliès), The Impossible Voyage (Georges Méliès), Plan 9 from Outer Space (Ed Wood)

• 1960s
• 1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)

• 2. La Jetée (Chris Marker)

• 3. Seconds (John Frankenheimer)

• 4. Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner)

• 5. Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard)

• 1970s
• 1. A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick)

• 2. Star Wars (George Lucas)

• 3. Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky)

• 4. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg)

• 5. Superman (Richard Donner)

Honorable mention: Mad Max (George Miller)

• 1980s
• 1. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis)

• 2. The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner)

• 3. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott)

• 4. Akira (Katsuhiro Ōtomo)

• 5. The Terminator (James Cameron)

Honorable mentions: Mad Max 2 (George Miller), They Live (John Carpenter), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg), Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand), Brazil (Terry Gilliam), RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven), Back to the Future Part II (Robert Zemeckis)

• 1990s
• 1. The Matrix (Lana Wachowski & Lilly Wachowski)

• 2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron)

• 3. The Truman Show (Peter Weir)

• 4. Contact (Robert Zemeckis)

• 5. Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven)

Honorable mentions: Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg), 12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam), Abre los Ojos (Alejandro Amenábar), Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld), Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven)

• 2000s
• 1. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton)

• 2. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón)

• 3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)

• 4. District 9 (Neill Blomkamp)

• 5. Primer (Shane Carruth)

Honorable mentions: Minority Report (Steven Spielberg), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg), Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly), Signs (M. Night Shyamalan), Spider-Man (Sam Raimi), Iron Man (Jon Favreau), Moon (Duncan Jones), Avatar (James Cameron)

• 2010s
• 1. Inception (Christopher Nolan)

• 2. Ex Machina (Alex Garland)

• 3. Her (Spike Jonze)

• 4. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)

• 5. Arrival (Denis Villeneuve)

Honorable mentions: Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón), Interstellar (Christopher Nolan), Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman), The Avengers (Joss Whedon), Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn), Doctor Strange (Scott Derrickson), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams), Logan (James Mangold), Upstream Color (Shane Carruth), The World's End (Edgar Wright)