‘Parasite’ tops the list for ‘100 Best Movies of the 21st Century’

Bong Joon Ho’s seminal 2019 work, Parasite, has been named the best movie of the 21st century by The New York Times.

The Korean film which went on to bag four Academy Awards in 2020, for Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature Film, Best Director, and Best Picture, was chosen through a recent poll conducted by the American publication to put together a list, titled 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century.

For the purpose of creating the rankings, the magazine polled as many as 500 cinema creatives, including actors, directors, writers, and other major professionals from the field.

Such esteemed artists as Sofia Coppola, Mel Brooks, Luca Guadganino, Julianne Moore, and several others, participated in the endeavour to choose the best 100 among a plethora of releases from the current century.

While Bong’s Oscar-winning title made it to the very top of the list, others in the top five also included 2001’s Mulholland Drive, 2007’s There Will Be Blood, 2001’s In the Mood for Love, and 2016’s Moonlight.

Among these, Moonlight was  also a Best Picture winner at the Academy Awards.

Notably though, Parasite is the first and the only film not in the English language to ever win the Oscar for Best Picture.

Here’s the complete list, as released by The New York Times:

01. Parasite (Bong Joon Ho)

02. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)

03. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)

04. In the Mood For Love (Wong Kar Wai)

05. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)

06. No Country For Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen)

07. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)

08. Get Out (Jordan Peele)

09. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)

10. The Social Network (David Fincher)

11. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)

12. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)

13. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron)

14. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)

15. City of God (Fernando Meirelles)

16. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee)

17. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)

18. Y Tu Mama Tambien (Alfonso Cuaron)

19. Zodiac (David Fincher)

20. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)

21. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson)

22. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)

23. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)

24. Her (Spike Jonze)

25. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)

26. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)

27. Adaptation (Spike Jonze)

28. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)

29. Arrival (Denis Villeneuve)

30. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)

31. The Departed (Martin Scorsese)

32. Bridesmaids (Paul Feig)

33. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)

34. WALL-E  (Andrew Stanton)

35. A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)

36. A Serious Man (Joel & Ethan Coen)

37. Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino)

38. Portrait of A Lady on Fire (Celine Sciamma)

39. Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)

40. Yi Yi (Edward Yang)

41. Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)

42. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

43. Oldboy (Park Chan-wook)

44. Once Upon A Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)

45. Moneyball (Bennett Miller)

46. ROMA (Alfonso Cuaron)

47. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)

48. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck)

49. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)

50. Up! (Pete Docter)

51. 12 Years A Slave (Steve McQueen)

52. The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)

53. Borat (Larry Charles)

54. Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro)

55. Inception (Christopher Nolan)

56. Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson)

57. Best in Show (Christopher Guest)

58. Uncut Gems (Josh and Benny Safdie)

59. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)

60. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)

61. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino)

62. Memento (Christopher Nolan)

63. Little Miss Sunshine (Dayton & Faris)

64. Gone Girl (David Fincher)

65. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)

66. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)

67. TAR (Todd Field)

68. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)

69. Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer)

70. Let The Right One In (Tomas Alfredson)

71. Ocean’s Eleven (Steven Soderbergh)

72. Carol (Todd Haynes)

73. Ratatouille (Brad Bird)

74. The Florida Project (Sean Baker)

75. Amour (Michael Haneke)

76. O Brother, Where Art Thou (Joel & Ethan Coen)

77. Everything Everywhere All At Once (The Daniels)

78. Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)

79. Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)

80. Volver (Pedro Almodovar)

81. Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky)

82. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer)

83. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen)

84. Melancholia (Lars Von Trier)

85. Anchorman (Adam McKay)

86. Past Lives (Celine Song)

87. The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson)

88. The Gleaners and I (Agnes Varda)

89. Interstellar (Christopher Nolan)

90. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)

91. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)

92. Gladiator (Ridley Scott)

93. Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy)

94. Minority Report (Steven Spielberg)

95. The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier)

96. Black Panther (Ryan Coogler)

97. Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron)

98. Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog)

99. Memories of A Murder (Bong Joon-ho)

100. Superbad (Greg Motolla)