1000 Essential Films
1000 items • Updated 5/5/2026
List of movies from "Book of Movies: The Essential 1,000 Films to See" by Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott from The New York Times. I will be attempting to watch every movie on this list, starting 5/6/2024.
Counting movies I've seen almost to their entirety, I started off having seen only 101 films on this list.
*Edit*: It is 1/1/2025 and I have seen 134 movies on this list
*Edit #2*: It is 7/9/2025 and I have watch 158 movies on this list. Most recent was "The Battle of Algiers". Watching a movie nearly everyday of summer is helping me move through this list.
Edit #3: it is 5/5/2026 (at 1AM to be precise) and I just finished watching (and sort of rewatching) my 200th film from this list, "Vertigo". It lived up to its extremely high expectations. I just realized while typing this that I unintentionally reached the 1/5 milestone almost exactly 2 years after I started this list. I've watched an additional 99 films from this list over the past 2 years. I have been exposed to many foundational, staple films via this list that I constantly think about. I may have never seen some of the movies I watched these past 2 years without this list. I'm grateful for the privilege of experiencing these films.
Counting movies I've seen almost to their entirety, I started off having seen only 101 films on this list.
*Edit*: It is 1/1/2025 and I have seen 134 movies on this list
*Edit #2*: It is 7/9/2025 and I have watch 158 movies on this list. Most recent was "The Battle of Algiers". Watching a movie nearly everyday of summer is helping me move through this list.
Edit #3: it is 5/5/2026 (at 1AM to be precise) and I just finished watching (and sort of rewatching) my 200th film from this list, "Vertigo". It lived up to its extremely high expectations. I just realized while typing this that I unintentionally reached the 1/5 milestone almost exactly 2 years after I started this list. I've watched an additional 99 films from this list over the past 2 years. I have been exposed to many foundational, staple films via this list that I constantly think about. I may have never seen some of the movies I watched these past 2 years without this list. I'm grateful for the privilege of experiencing these films.
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