1895–1919 — Cinema begins

• Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory 1895 — France
• The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat 1896 — France
• A Trip to the Moon — France 1902 (Georges Méliès)
• The Great Train Robbery — USA 1903 (Edwin S. Porter)
• Fantasmagorie — France 1908 (Émile Cohl)
• L'Inferno — Italy 1911 (Francesco Bertolini)
• Cabiria — Italy 1914 (Giovanni Pastrone)
• The Birth of a Nation — USA 1915 (D.W. Griffith)
• The Immigrant — USA 1917 (Charlie Chaplin)

1920–1929 — Silent Cinema

• The Kid — USA 1921 (Charlie Chaplin)
• Laborer's Love — China 1922 (Zhang Shichuan)
• Safety Last! — USA 1923 (Sam Taylor and Fred C. Newmeyer)
• Sherlock Jr. — USA 1924 (Buster Keaton)
• The General — USA 1926 (Buster Keaton)
• The Adventures of Prince Achmed — Germany 1926 (Lotte Reiniger)
• Metropolis — Germany 1927 (Fritz Lang)
• Napoléon — France 1927 (Abel Gance)
• The Jazz Singer — USA 1927 (Alan Crosland)
• The Passion of Joan of Arc — France 1928 (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
• Steamboat Willie — USA 1928 (Walt Disney)
• Pandora's Box — Germany 1929 (G. W. Pabst)

1930–1939 — Sound and Colour

• The Blue Angel — Germany 1930 (Josef von Sternberg)
• City Lights — USA 1931 (Charlie Chaplin)
• Dracula — USA 1931 (Tod Browning)
• Frankenstein — USA 1931 (James Whale)
• Scarface — USA 1932 (Howard Hawks)
• King Kong — USA 1933 (Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack)
• It Happened One Night — USA 1934 (Frank Capra)
• The Goddess — China 1934 (Wu Yonggang)
• Triumph of the Will — Germany 1935 (Leni Riefenstahl)
• Modern Times — USA 1936 (Charlie Chaplin)
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — USA 1937 (Walt Disney Productions)
• The Adventures of Robin Hood — USA 1938 (Warner Bros)
• The Wizard of Oz — USA 1939 (Victor Fleming)
• Gone with the Wind — USA 1939 (Victor Fleming)

1940–1949 — Classical Hollywood

• The Great Dictator — USA 1940 (Charlie Chaplin)
• Rebecca — USA 1940 (Alfred Hitchcock)
• Fantasia — USA 1940 (Walt Disney Productions)
• Pinocchio — USA 1940 (Walt Disney Productions)
• Citizen Kane — USA 1941 (Orson Welles)
• Dumbo — USA 1941 (Walt Disney Productions)
• Casablanca — USA 1942 (Michael Curtiz)
• Bambi — USA 1942 (Walt Disney Productions)
• Meet Me in St. Louis — USA 1944 (Vincente Minnelli)
• It's a Wonderful Life — USA 1946 (Frank Capra)
• Gilda — USA 1946 (Charles Vidor)
• The Red Shoes — UK 1948 (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
• Hamlet — UK 1948 (Laurence Olivier)

1950–1959 — Golden Age

• Sunset Boulevard — USA 1950 (Billy Wilder)
• Cinderella — USA 1950 (Walt Disney Productions)
• Awaara — India 1951 (Raj Kapoor)
• Singin' in the Rain — USA 1951 (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen)
• Ikiru — Japan 1952 (Akira Kurosawa)
• Roman Holiday — USA 1953 (William Wyler)
• Seven Samurai — Japan 1954 (Akira Kurosawa)
• Godzilla — Japan 1954 (Ishirō Honda)
• The Ten Commandments — USA 1956 (Cecil B. DeMille)
• Wild Strawberries — Sweden 1957 (Ingmar Bergman)
• Vertigo — USA 1958 (Alfred Hitchcock)
• Ben-Hur — USA 1959 (William Wyler)

1960–1969 — New Waves

• Psycho — USA 1960 (Alfred Hitchcock)
• The Housemaid — South Korea 1960 (Kim Ki-young)
• Breakfast at Tiffany's — USA 1961 (Blake Edwards)
• To Kill a Mockingbird — USA 1962 (Robert Mulligan)
• Cléo from 5 to 7 — France 1962 (Agnès Varda)
• Dr. No — UK 1962 (Terence Young)
• Lolita — UK/USA 1962 (Stanley Kubrick)
• My Fair Lady — USA 1964 (George Cukor)
• Mary Poppins — USA 1964 (Robert Stevenson)
• The Sound of Music — USA 1965 (Robert Wise)
• Persona — Sweden 1966 (Ingmar Bergman)
• Daisies — Czechoslovakia 1966 (Věra Chytilová)
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly — Italy/Spain/West Germany 1966 (Sergio Leone)
• Tokyo Drifter — Japan 1966 (Seijun Suzuki)
• Come Drink with Me — Hong Kong 1966 (Shaw Brothers)
• Bonnie and Clyde — USA 1967 (Arthur Penn)
• Dragon Inn — Taiwan/Hong Kong 1967 (Shaw Brothers)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey — UK/USA 1968 (Stanley Kubrick)
• Rosemary's Baby — USA 1968 (Roman Polanski)
• Planet of the Apes — USA 1968 (Franklin J. Schaffner)
• Yellow Submarine — UK 1968 (George Dunning)

1970–1979 — Blockbuster

• A Clockwork Orange — UK 1971 (Stanley Kubrick)
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory — USA (Mel Stuart)
• The Godfather — USA 1972 (Francis Ford Coppola)
• The Way of the Dragon — Hong Kong 1972 (Bruce Lee)
• Enter the Dragon — Hong Kong/USA 1973 (Robert Clouse)
• Jaws — USA 1975 (Steven Spielberg)