I’m delighted to announce that I have participated in the critics’ poll Beyond the Sight & Sound Canon, organized by They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?, “a modest but growing film resource dedicated to the art of motion picture filmmaking and most specifically to that one particular individual calling the shots from behind the camera – the film director.”
TSPDT explains what the poll is about:
Once per decade Sight & Sound asks critics and filmmakers to select The Greatest Films of All Time. The Sight & Sound poll is widely regarded (probably indisputably) as the most trusted guide there is to the canon of cinema greats. The 2022 poll reached a wider and more diverse group than ever before, and incorporated the top 10 lists of over 2,100 participants from all corners of the globe – who, overall, voted for 4,366 unique titles. But there are more, many more, great films. And thanks to Ángel González’s curiosity and drive, the Beyond the Sight & Sound Canon poll was hatched. Well, what is it exactly? The Beyond the Sight & Sound Canon poll is essentially a greatest films’ poll, only without those 4,366 films that received at least one mention in the 2022 Sight & Sound poll (courtesy of Brett here are those 4,366 films).
Back in August last year we invited critics and cinephiles to submit their ballots (numbering up to 100 titles) of their favourite feature-length films (we worked on the basis of running times of greater than 58 minutes) that didn’t register a single vote in 2022’s Sight & Sound poll. Willing participants were given four months (entries closed at the end of December) to come up with their ballots. Thank you very much to everyone that contributed. In the end, we received 839 ballots (including from 75 critics who also participated in the 2022 Sight & Sound poll). They were dutifully assembled and compiled by Ángel. In the end, a remarkable total of 14,558 films received at least one vote, and they have been split into four categories.
Read more about the poll and the films mentioned at TSPDT.
I have never been a part of the Sight & Sound poll, so I was extra excited to be asked to contribute to this project. You can see my individual ballot here. I can’t wait to start checking out the films that made the list.
