Greatest Films - by Year: One way to look at films is to concentrate on each individual year's releases. It's a good method to recognize the flow and the trends of films, to see those that performed best, and to look at those that came to the forefront or were critically important.

Many of the entries have short or brief capsule summaries, and some provide links to much longer essays. Select an individual year within a decade for a listing of the greatest films for that particular year. Each of the films is labeled with Film Genre icons, designating whether it was a drama, comedy, adventure film, horror film, or a hybrid combination.

See also Other Extensive Film Reviews (with screenshots): Films: A - H | Films: I - R | Films: S - Z

Related sections are the extensive year-by-year Timeline of Influential Film History Milestones and Turning Points, and this site's Film History - by Decade. Additional supplementary articles, also arranged chronologically, include Film Milestones in Visual and Special Effects (illustrated), History of Sex in Cinema (illustrated), Academy Awards History, and The Most Controversial Films of All-Time (illustrated).