The TV special "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies" aired on TV in 1998. The program presented a list of films chosen by the American Film Institute as the 100 greatest American films of the last century.
of Director | ||
| 1. Citizen Kane (1941) | Orson Welles | Protestant Christian |
| 2. Casablanca (1942) | Michael Curtiz | Jewish |
| 3. The Godfather (1972) | Francis Ford Coppola | Catholic (non-practicing) |
| 4. Gone With the Wind (1939) | Victor Fleming | Christianity |
| 5. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) | David Lean | Quaker |
| 6. The Wizard of Oz (1939) | Victor Fleming | Christianity |
| 7. The Graduate (1967) | Mike Nichols | Jewish |
| 8. On the Waterfront (1954) | Elia Kazan | Greek Orthodox (lapsed); Communist |
| 9. Schindler's List (1993) | Steven Spielberg | Judaism |
| 10. Singin' In the Rain (1952) | Stanley Donen Gene Kelly | Reform Judaism (lapsed) Catholic |
| 11. It's a Wonderful Life (1946) | Frank Capra | Catholic; Christian Science |
| 12. Sunset Boulevard (1950) | Billy Wilder | Jewish |
| 13. The Bridge On the River Kwai (1957) | David Lean | Quaker |
| 14. Some Like It Hot (1959) | Billy Wilder | Jewish |
| 15. Star Wars (1977) | George Lucas | Buddhist Methodist |
| 16. All About Eve (1950) | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Jewish parents; atheist father |
| 17. The African Queen (1951) | John Huston | Episcopalian (lapsed) |
| 18. Psycho (1960) | Alfred Hitchcock | Catholic |
| 19. Chinatown (1974) | Roman Polanski | Jewish Catholic (lapsed) |
| 20. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) | Milos Forman | Jewish father; Protestant mother |
| 21. The Grapes of Wrath (1940) | John Ford | Catholic |
| 22. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) | Stanley Kubrick | Jewish |
| 23. The Maltese Falcon (1941) | John Huston | Episcopalian (lapsed) |
| 24. Raging Bull (1980) | Martin Scorsese | Catholic (lapsed former seminarian) |
| 25. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) | Steven Spielberg | Judaism |
| 26. Dr. Strangelove (1964) | Stanley Kubrick | Jewish |
| 27. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) | Arthur Penn | |
| 28. Apocalypse Now (1979) | Francis Ford Coppola | Catholic (non-practicing) |
| 29. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939) | Frank Capra | Catholic; Christian Science |
| 30. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) | John Huston | Episcopalian (lapsed) |
| 31. Annie Hall (1977) | Woody Allen | Jewish (raised Orthodox); agnostic |
| 32. The Godfather, Part II (1974) | Francis Ford Coppola | Catholic (non-practicing) |
| 33. High Noon (1952) | Fred Zinnemann | Jewish |
| 34. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) | Robert Mulligan | Catholic |
| 35. It Happened One Night (1934) | Frank Capra | Catholic; Christian Science |
| 36. Midnight Cowboy (1969) | John Schlesinger | Jewish |
| 37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) | William Wyler | Jewish |
| 38. Double Indemnity (1944) | Billy Wilder | Jewish |
| 39. Doctor Zhivago (1965) | David Lean | Quaker |
| 40. North By Northwest (1959) | Alfred Hitchcock | Catholic |
| 41. West Side Story (1961) | Robert Wise Jerome Robbins | Jewish |
| 42. Rear Window (1954) | Alfred Hitchcock | Catholic |
| 43. King Kong (1933) | Merian C. Cooper | Protestant |
| 44. The Birth of a Nation (1915) | D. W. Griffith | Methodist |
| 45. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) | Elia Kazan | Greek Orthodox (lapsed); Communist |
| 46. A Clockwork Orange (1971) | Stanley Kubrick | Jewish |
| 47. Taxi Driver (1976) | Martin Scorsese | Catholic (lapsed former seminarian) |
| 48. Jaws (1975) | Steven Spielberg | Judaism |
| 49. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) | David Hand, et al. | |
| 50. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) | George Roy Hill | |
| 51. The Philadelphia Story (1940) | George Cukor | Jewish |
| 52. From Here To Eternity (1953) | Fred Zinnemann | Jewish |
| 53. Amadeus (1984) | Milos Forman | Jewish father; Protestant mother |
| 54. All Quiet On the Western Front (1930) | Lewis Milestone | Jewish |
| 55. The Sound of Music (1965) | Robert Wise | |
| 56. M*A*S*H (1970) | Robert Altman | Catholic (lapsed) |
| 57. The Third Man (1949) | Carol Reed | |
| 58. Fantasia (1940) | Joe Grant Dick Huemer | |
| 59. Rebel Without a Cause (1955) | Nicholas Ray | |
| 60. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) | Steven Spielberg | Judaism |
| 61. Vertigo (1958) | Alfred Hitchcock | Catholic |
| 62. Tootsie (1982) | Sydney Pollack | Jewish |
| 63. Stagecoach (1939) | John Ford | Catholic |
| 64. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) | Steven Spielberg | Judaism |
| 65. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) | Jonathan Demme | |
| 66. Network (1976) | Sidney Lumet | Jewish |
| 67. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) | John Frankenheimer | Jewish |
| 68. An American In Paris (1951) | Vincente Minnelli | Catholic |
| 69. Shane (1953) | George Stevens | |
| 70. The French Connection (1971) | William Friedkin | Jewish |
| 71. Forrest Gump (1994) | Robert Zemeckis | Jewish |
| 72. Ben-Hur (1959) | William Wyler | Jewish |
| 73. Wuthering Heights (1939) | William Wyler | Jewish |
| 74. The Gold Rush (1925) | Charlie Chaplin | Anglican; agnostic |
| 75. Dances With Wolves (1990) | Kevin Costner | Baptist |
| 76. City Lights (1931) | Charlie Chaplin | Anglican; agnostic |
| 77. American Graffiti (1973) | George Lucas | Buddhist Methodist |
| 78. Rocky (1976) | John Avildsen | |
| 79. The Deer Hunter (1978) | Michael Cimino | Catholic |
| 80. The Wild Bunch (1969) | Sam Peckinpah | Protestant |
| 81. Modern Times (1936) | Charlie Chaplin | Anglican; agnostic |
| 82. Giant (1956) | George Stevens | |
| 83. Platoon (1986) | Oliver Stone | Jewish father; Catholic mother; raised Episcopalian; Tibetan Buddhism (convert) |
| 84. Fargo (1996) | Joel Coen | Jewish |
| 85. Duck Soup (1933) | Leo McCarey | Catholic |
| 86. Mutiny On the Bounty (1935) | Frank Lloyd | |
| 87. Frankenstein (1931) | James Whale | |
| 88. Easy Rider (1969) | Dennis Hopper | |
| 89. Patton (1970) | Franklin Schaffner | |
| 90. The Jazz Singer (1927) | Alan Crosland | |
| 91. My Fair Lady (1964) | George Cukor | Jewish |
| 92. A Place In the Sun (1951) | George Stevens | |
| 93. The Apartment (1960) | Billy Wilder | Jewish |
| 94. Goodfellas (1990) | Martin Scorsese | Catholic (lapsed former seminarian) |
| 95. Pulp Fiction (1994) | Quentin Tarantino | |
| 96. The Searchers (1956) | John Ford | Catholic |
| 97. Bringing Up Baby (1938) | Howard Hawks | Christian Science |
| 98. Unforgiven (1992) | Clint Eastwood | raised Protestant; agnostic |
| 99. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) | Stanley Kramer | Jewish |
| 100. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) | Michael Curtiz | Jewish |
Although there are 100 movies on the AFI list of the greatest American films of the last century, there are only 65 directors represented on the list because many directors have more than one film on the list. Jewish director Steven Spielberg has 5 movies on the list. Alfred Hitchcock (Catholic) and Billy Wilder (Jewish) have 4 films each. 10 directors have 3 films on the list. 8 directors have 2 films on the list. The rest of the directors have only one film on the AFI list.
| Steven Spielberg | |
| Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder | |
| Charlie Chaplin, David Lean, Francis Ford Coppola, Frank Capra, George Stevens, John Ford, John Huston, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, William Wyler | |
| Elia Kazan, Fred Zinnemann, George Cukor, George Lucas, Michael Curtiz, Milos Forman, Robert Wise, Victor Fleming | |
| Alan Crosland, Arthur Penn, Carol Reed, Clint Eastwood, D. W. Griffith, David Hand, Dennis Hopper, Dick Huemer, Frank Lloyd, Franklin Schaffner, Gene Kelly, George Roy Hill, Howard Hawks, James Whale, Jerome Robbins, Joe Grant, Joel Coen, John Avildsen, John Frankenheimer, John Schlesinger, Jonathan Demme, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Kevin Costner, Leo McCarey, Lewis Milestone, Merian C. Cooper, Michael Cimino, Mike Nichols, Nicholas Ray, Oliver Stone, Orson Welles, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Altman, Robert Mulligan, Robert Zemeckis, Roman Polanski, Sam Peckinpah, Sidney Lumet, Stanley Donen, Stanley Kramer, Sydney Pollack, Vincente Minnelli, William Friedkin, Woody Allen |
of Producer(s) | ||
| 1. Citizen Kane (1941) | Orson Welles | Protestant Christian |
| 2. Casablanca (1942) | Hal B. Wallis | |
| 3. The Godfather (1972) | Albert S. Ruddy | |
| 4. Gone With the Wind (1939) | David O. Selznick | Jewish |
| 5. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) | Sam Spiegel | |
| 6. The Wizard of Oz (1939) | Mervyn LeRoy | Jewish |
| 7. The Graduate (1967) | Lawrence Turman | |
| 8. On the Waterfront (1954) | Sam Spiegel | |
| 9. Schindler's List (1993) | Branko Lustig Gerald R. Molen Steven Spielberg | ? Latter-day Saint Judaism |
| 10. Singin' In the Rain (1952) | Arthur Freed | |
| 11. It's a Wonderful Life (1946) | Frank Capra | Catholic; Christian Science |
| 12. Sunset Boulevard (1950) | Charles Brackett | |
| 13. The Bridge On the River Kwai (1957) | Sam Spiegel | |
| 14. Some Like It Hot (1959) | Billy Wilder | Jewish |
| 15. Star Wars (1977) | Gary Kurtz | Latter-day Saint |
| 16. All About Eve (1950) | Darryl F. Zanuck | Methodist |
| 17. The African Queen (1951) | Sam Spiegel John Woolf | |
| 18. Psycho (1960) | Alfred Hitchcock | Catholic |
| 19. Chinatown (1974) | Robert Evans | Jewish |
| 20. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) | Michael Douglas Saul Zaentz | half-Jewish ? |
| 21. The Grapes of Wrath (1940) | Darryl F. Zanuck | Methodist |
| 22. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) | Stanley Kubrick | Jewish |
| 23. The Maltese Falcon (1941) | Henry Blanke Hal B. Wallis | |
| 24. Raging Bull (1980) | Robert Chartoff Irwin Winkler | |
| 25. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) | Kathleen Kennedy Steven Spielberg | ? Judaism |
| 26. Dr. Strangelove (1964) | Stanley Kubrick | Jewish |
| 27. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) | Warren Beatty | Baptist (lapsed) |
| 28. Apocalypse Now (1979) | Francis Ford Coppola | Catholic (non-practicing) |
| 29. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939) | Frank Capra | Catholic; Christian Science |
| 30. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) | Henry Blanke | |
| 31. Annie Hall (1977) | Charles H. Joffe Jack Rollins | |
| 32. The Godfather, Part II (1974) | Francis Ford Coppola | Catholic (non-practicing) |
| 33. High Noon (1952) | Stanley Kramer | Jewish |
| 34. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) | Alan J. Pakula | Jewish |
| 35. It Happened One Night (1934) | Frank Capra Harry Cohn | Catholic; Christian Science Jewish |
| 36. Midnight Cowboy (1969) | Jerome Hellman | |
| 37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) | Samuel Goldwyn | Jewish |
| 38. Double Indemnity (1944) | Buddy G. DeSylva Joseph Sistrom | |
| 39. Doctor Zhivago (1965) | Carlo Ponti David Lean | ? Quaker |
| 40. North By Northwest (1959) | Alfred Hitchcock | Catholic |
| 41. West Side Story (1961) | Robert Wise | |
| 42. Rear Window (1954) | Alfred Hitchcock | Catholic |
| 43. King Kong (1933) | Merian C. Cooper Ernest B. Schoedsack | Protestant ? |
| 44. The Birth of a Nation (1915) | D. W. Griffith | Methodist |
| 45. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) | Charles K. Feldman | |
| 46. A Clockwork Orange (1971) | Stanley Kubrick | Jewish |
| 47. Taxi Driver (1976) | Julia Phillips Michael Phillips | |
| 48. Jaws (1975) | David Brown Richard D. Zanuck | |
| 49. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) | Walt Disney | Congregationalist |
| 50. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) | John Foreman | |
| 51. The Philadelphia Story (1940) | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Jewish parents; atheist father |
| 52. From Here To Eternity (1953) | Buddy Adler | |
| 53. Amadeus (1984) | Saul Zaentz | |
| 54. All Quiet On the Western Front (1930) | Carl Laemmle Jr. | Jewish |
| 55. The Sound of Music (1965) | Robert Wise | |
| 56. M*A*S*H (1970) | Ingo Preminger | Jewish |
| 57. The Third Man (1949) | Carol Reed | |
| 58. Fantasia (1940) | Walt Disney Ben Sharpsteen | Congregationalist ? |
| 59. Rebel Without a Cause (1955) | David Weisbart | |
| 60. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) | Frank Marshall George Lucas | ? |
| 61. Vertigo (1958) | Alfred Hitchcock | Catholic |
| 62. Tootsie (1982) | Sydney Pollack Dick Richards | Jewish ? |
| 63. Stagecoach (1939) | John Ford | Catholic |
| 64. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) | Julia Phillips Michael Phillips | |
| 65. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) | Ronald M. Bozman Edward Saxon Kenneth Utt | |
| 66. Network (1976) | Howard Gottfried | |
| 67. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) | George Axelrod John Frankenheimer | Jewish Jewish |
| 68. An American In Paris (1951) | Arthur Freed | |
| 69. Shane (1953) | George Stevens | |
| 70. The French Connection (1971) | Philip D'Antoni | |
| 71. Forrest Gump (1994) | Wendy Finerman Steve Starkey Steve Tisch | |
| 72. Ben-Hur (1959) | Sam Zimbalist | |
| 73. Wuthering Heights (1939) | Samuel Goldwyn | Jewish |
| 74. The Gold Rush (1925) | Charlie Chaplin | Anglican; agnostic |
| 75. Dances With Wolves (1990) | Kevin Costner Jim Wilson | Baptist ? |
| 76. City Lights (1931) | Charlie Chaplin | Anglican; agnostic |
| 77. American Graffiti (1973) | Francis Ford Coppola Gary Kurtz | |
| 78. Rocky (1976) | Robert Chartoff Irwin Winkler | |
| 79. The Deer Hunter (1978) | Michael Cimino Michael Deeley John Peverall Barry Spikings | Catholic ? ? ? |
| 80. The Wild Bunch (1969) | Phil Feldman | |
| 81. Modern Times (1936) | Charlie Chaplin | Anglican; agnostic |
| 82. Giant (1956) | Henry Ginsberg George Stevens | |
| 83. Platoon (1986) | Arnold Kopelson | |
| 84. Fargo (1996) | Ethan Coen | Jewish |
| 85. Duck Soup (1933) | Leo McCarey | Catholic |
| 86. Mutiny On the Bounty (1935) | Irving Thalberg | Jewish |
| 87. Frankenstein (1931) | Carl Laemmle Jr. | Jewish |
| 88. Easy Rider (1969) | Peter Fonda | ? |
| 89. Patton (1970) | Frank McCarthy | |
| 90. The Jazz Singer (1927) | Alan Crosland | |
| 91. My Fair Lady (1964) | Jack L. Warner | Jewish |
| 92. A Place In the Sun (1951) | George Stevens | |
| 93. The Apartment (1960) | Billy Wilder | Jewish |
| 94. Goodfellas (1990) | Irwin Winkler | |
| 95. Pulp Fiction (1994) | Lawrence Bender | |
| 96. The Searchers (1956) | C.V. Whitney | |
| 97. Bringing Up Baby (1938) | Howard Hawks | Christian Science |
| 98. Unforgiven (1992) | Clint Eastwood | raised Protestant; agnostic |
| 99. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) | Stanley Kramer | Jewish |
| 100. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) | William Cagney Hal B. Wallis Jack L. Warner | ? ? Jewish |