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AFI 100 Years 100 Movies

AFI 100 Years 100 Movies

100 films

Curated by vanshady

10th Anniversary Edition

"The American Film Institute proudly curates lists to celebrate excellence in the art of the moving image. They reflect the collective opinion of a wide range of scholars, artists and experts who champion the power of the art form. We believe their greatest impact is to inspire personal, passionate discussions about what makes a great film and why. We encourage you to join in the conversation as we continue to pursue the revolutionary power of visual storytelling to share diverse perspectives, inspire empathy and drive culture forward."

https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies-10th-anniversary-edition/

Director: Orson Welles

Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Sources: blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

WB Europe 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

WB Europe 4K Blu-ray slightly better encoding than Criterion (caveat: missing Criterion extras)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Paramount 2008 Blu-ray Coppola Restoration

Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

2008 Blu-ray lossy mono

Audio Notes:

(Britain release only has 5.1)

Additional Info:

The Paramount 4K "restoration" is a desecration. It has completely revisionist color timing, harsh HDR, treatment of stock footage, bad encoding, selective DNR and grain management so bad that the entire screen frequently freezes up with only characters moving around in grain soup. It is so bad that the film's restorer Robert Harris publicly washed his hands of it saying essentially the 2007 restoration (with Willis and Coppola supervising) is how the film was intended and made. This is Paramount's modern version done their way. The new 1080p SDR Blu-rays in print are the crap 4K desecration master with the same problems still there just harder to spot and with crap encodes.
The mono option is an unnecessarily processed version of the lossy mono from the 2008 Blu-ray. The 2008 Blu-ray of the 2007 Coppola Restoration while an imperfect outdated disc is LIGHT YEARS better than this 4K desecration. The only truly major issue is that it is very slightly redder than the 2007 finished master as seen on DCPs. The lossy mono on the 2008 Blu-ray is the best version of the original mix known to exist as it is better than the late 80's mastering for VHS and LaserDisc.
DFIC review of the hideous crap 4K Blu-rays: https://youtu.be/0uw6-Kcy_UA?si=ob1nDg0wTCvemjH0

Director: Michael Curtiz

Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1984 Fox Hi-Fi VHS

Director: Martin Scorsese

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab) · facebook.com (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Capelight 4K announced for 2026

Video Notes:

Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has slightly better compression than Criterion 4K Blu-ray.

The master in DV looks all but identical to the Criterion’s HDR grade. Detail-wise, FiM’s encode looks like it uncovered a tiny bit of extra high-frequency information that got filtered on the Criterion. See nicolas review

Best Audio:

1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1993 MGM LaserDisc/2002 R2 MGM DVD

Audio Notes:

1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1993 MGM LaserDisc/2002 R2 MGM DVD are the best. See blah-ray https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/2018/01/raging-bull-1980.html

Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has better audio than Criterion 4K Blu-ray, from nicolas:

I believe that what’s on Imprint’s 4K is one of the good mixes MGM and Criterion released during the LaserDisc days. Music is powerful and detailed, dialogues have excellent fidelity and ambient sounds have perceptible depth. I compared the "new" 2.0 with the anemic 5.1 as well as the Criterion 4K mix and could clearly hear the improvements.

Directors: Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen

Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1991 MGM LaserDisc

Director: Victor Fleming

Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

4K Blu-ray upcoming in Fall 2026

Director: David Lean

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Additional Info:

The 5.1 on Sony 4K Blu-ray is from the 1989 70mm mix. The original is 4-track. not on the disc.

Director: Steven Spielberg

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

2005 Universal DVD

Director: Victor Fleming

Best English-Friendly & Video:

2D: Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray

3D: Warner Bros 3D Blu-ray or Apple Vision Pro

Best Audio:

1989 MGM LaserDisc

Audio Notes:

(caveat: "there's" in first "there's no place like home" utterance in final Kansas scene truncated)

Director: Charlie Chaplin

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion Blu-ray

Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

4k restoration. Superior to Germany Kinowelt or Japan Kadokawa, see caps-a-holic

Best Audio:

2000 Image Entertainment DVD

Director: John Ford

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray

Sources: bsky.app (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

1988/1990 WB Hi-Fi VHS

Audio Notes:

Crystal clear, albeit with some distortion in louder areas

The 4K Blu-ray reuses the same poor mastering used on the 2006 WB Blu-ray, only with a completely unnecessary bass cut and extra noise reduction.

Additional Info:

Even putting resolution aside, the Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray has the best video. The old Blu-ray master and earlier DVD both had massive issues with colour.

That said, picture on the 4K Blu-ray isn't perfect, with strange posterized magenta glints and some instances of DNR: https://bsky.app/profile/dagscott.bsky.social/post/3leahavqi7k2l

Director: George Lucas

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly & Video:

OG: "4K77" or "D+77" on high seas.

Special Edition: "4K97_IV" or "D+97_IV" on high seas.

Upcoming Release:

2027 Original Trilogy restoration/50th anniversary rerelease clips leaked plus release confirmed

Best Audio:

OG: LaserDisc audio is the best option for the Dolby Stereo mixes (and usually included in fan restorations). There are 16mm/TV rips of the mono mixes.

Special Edition: Cinema DTS or 1997 LaserDisc for the Special Edition.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Turbine Germany Blu-ray, WB DVD(?)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the WB release without the filtering; WB 4K early pressing has errors of a shot, later pressings fixed. Comparison between Criterion and WB.

Best Audio:

6-Track 70mm mix: Criterion 4K Blu-ray (restored for the box set), 1997 MGM LaserDisc, 1998 MGM DVD
35mm Mono Mix: Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Matrixed Stereo Remix: MGM Japan LaserDisc (1985) [G158F5509]
5.1 Remix: Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Director: Billy Wilder

Best English-Friendly:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray or Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray. See caps
HDR/grading: nice, but some blown out
Encoding: inconsistent, smeared motion
DNR: inconsistent, frozen
Old Paramount Blu-ray is arguably a solid alternative choice

Best Audio:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono

Audio Notes:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono is different version of the Blu-ray mono from the same old 2000 DVD transfer.

Additional Info:

The 5.1 remix on the 4K Blu-ray is an appalling remix done by going wild with artificially generated stems from Park Road Post who were given the surviving mono to separate. The experience is jarring and fidelity to original mix in terms of level balance, directionality and impact is nonexistent. Not only does this sound painfully weird, but the Paramount mixers then did whatever they wanted in terms of LFE, sound pans and effect changes.
The original mono mix was not restored and still needs it badly. The 4K master is filled with frozen grain examples coming and going plus some HDR issues in addition to the usual Paramount problems. It is simultaneously better and worse than the Blu-ray master.

Director: Mike Nichols

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly & Video:

StudioCanal 4K

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

StudioCanal 4K caps.Criterion Blu-ray better encode than StudioCanal Blu-ray.

Best Audio:

1987 Criterion LaserDisc

Directors: Clyde Bruckman & Buster Keaton

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Eureka MoC 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Probably. No comparison with French Factoris Films 4K Blu-ray, but former has Dolby Vision and higher bitrate.

Additional Info:

For standard Blu-ray, the MoC/Cohen are a 4k transfer https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=112722&page=5

Director: Elia Kazan

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1994 Columbia LaserDisc

Director: Frank Capra

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Paramount 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1991 Republic Pictures LaserDisc

Showing 20 of 100 films