The best documentaries of all time
The top 3 according to 120 votes from people: Shoah · Man with a Movie Camera · Chronicle of a Summer. (Updated Aug 3, 2025.)
The top ten of Sight & Sound's documentary poll (more than 200 critics and 100 filmmakers), followed by the documentaries most praised by critics and audiences since.
Top 20
-
1
Shoah
Claude Lanzmann, France, 1985. Nine and a half hours of testimonies about the Holocaust, without archive footage.
-
2
Man with a Movie Camera
Dziga Vertov, USSR, 1929. A day in Soviet cities with no actors or intertitles; number one in Sight & Sound's poll.
-
3
Chronicle of a Summer
Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin, France, 1961. 'Are you happy?' asked in the streets of Paris; founding work of cinéma vérité.
-
4
Free Solo
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, 2018. Alex Honnold climbs El Capitan without ropes; Oscar for Best Documentary.
-
5
Night and Fog
Alain Resnais, France, 1955. 32 minutes that contrast the empty camps in colour with archive images in black and white.
-
6
The Thin Blue Line
Errol Morris, USA, 1988. Its investigation helped free Randall Adams, wrongly sentenced to death.
-
7
Hoop Dreams
Steve James, USA, 1994. Five years following two Chicago teenagers who dream of the NBA.
-
8
Nanook of the North
Robert Flaherty, USA, 1922. The life of an Inuk family in Arctic Quebec; the first feature-length documentary.
-
9
Dont Look Back
D. A. Pennebaker, USA, 1967. Bob Dylan's 1965 UK tour, opening with the cue cards of 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'.
-
10
Grizzly Man
Werner Herzog, 2005. Timothy Treadwell's own footage of living among Alaska's bears.
-
11
Sans Soleil
Chris Marker, France, 1982. A film-essay of letters between Japan, Guinea-Bissau and Iceland.
-
12
Grey Gardens
Albert and David Maysles, USA, 1975. Big Edie and Little Edie Beale, Jackie Kennedy's relatives, in their decaying mansion.
-
13
Salesman
Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, USA, 1969. Door-to-door Bible salesmen in New England and Florida.
-
14
Paris Is Burning
Jennie Livingston, USA, 1990. New York's ballroom culture and voguing in the 1980s.
-
15
Stories We Tell
Sarah Polley, Canada, 2012. Polley investigates her own family's secret.
-
16
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse
Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper and Eleanor Coppola, 1991. The chaotic shoot of Apocalypse Now.
-
17
Close-Up
Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1990. A man who impersonated director Mohsen Makhmalbaf replays his own story.
-
18
Harlan County, USA
Barbara Kopple, USA, 1976. A Kentucky miners' strike filmed from the picket line; Oscar for Best Documentary.
-
19
Man on Wire
James Marsh's 2008 film about Philippe Petit's 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers; Oscar for Best Documentary.
-
20
The Last Waltz
Martin Scorsese's 1978 concert film of The Band's farewell show at Winterland in San Francisco.
Candidates
They don't make it into the top 20… yet. Vote for them to move them up.
-
21
The Gleaners and I
Agnès Varda, France, 2000. People who gather what others throw away, filmed with a small digital camera.
-
22
Koyaanisqatsi
Godfrey Reggio's 1982 wordless film of landscapes and cities set to music by Philip Glass.
-
23
The Act of Killing
Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012. Indonesian death-squad leaders re-enact their 1965–66 killings as film genres.
-
24
Searching for Sugar Man
Malik Bendjelloul, 2012. The forgotten singer Rodriguez, a star in South Africa without knowing it; Oscar.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
Is something missing?
Comments (4)
Man with a Movie Camera at #1, same as the Sight and Sound documentary poll. Good list.
Where's Koyaanisqatsi? And Man on Wire!
Shoah is 9 hours and every minute matters. Hard to watch, impossible to forget.
Free Solo made my palms sweat for 90 minutes straight