The Vatican’s 45 greatest films

One of the Vatican's best movies

To mark the 100th anniversary of the cinematic art form in 1995, the Vatican took on the monumental responsibility of selecting 45 of the greatest cinematic masterpieces made in an entire century of beautiful filmmaking. In order to select films that reached new artistic heights as well as the ones which help spread the values of the church, the Vatican decided to divide the selection into three distinct categories – religion, value and art. By doing so, they judged varying cinematic outputs on the basis of religious value, moral value and artistic value.

   Religion
o    Andrei Rublev (1966)
o    Babette’s Feast (1987)
o    Ben-Hur (1959)
o    The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)
o    Francesco (1989)
o    The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1966)
o    La Passion de Notre Seigneur Jesus-Christ (1905)
o    A Man for All Seasons (1966)
o    The Mission (1986)
o    Monsieur Vincent (1947)
o    Nazarin (1958)
o    Ordet (1955)
o    The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
o    The Sacrifice (1986)
o    Therese (1986)
Values
o    Au Revoir les Enfants (1988)
o    Bicycle Thieves (1949)
o    The Burmese Harp (1956)
o    Chariots of Fire (1981)
o    Dekalog (1988)
o    Dersu Uzala (1975)
o    Gandhi (1982)
o    Intolerance (1916)
o    It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
o    On the Waterfront (1954)
o    Rome, Open City (1945)
o    Schindler’s List (1993)
o    The Seventh Seal (1957)
o    The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)
o    Wild Strawberries (1957)
Art
o    Citizen Kane (1941)
o    8½ (1963)
o    Fantasia (1940)
o    Grand Illusion (1937)
o    La Strada (1954)
o    The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
o    The Leopard (1963)
o    Little Women (1933)
o    Metropolis (1927)
o    Modern Times (1936)
o    Napoleon (1927)
o    Nosferatu (1922)
o    Stagecoach (1939)
o    2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
o    The Wizard of Oz (1939)