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Best Documentary Movies of All Time, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
111 documentary films are in our catalog; the 100 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Night and Fog ('1956), at 8.6 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.2. Biggest split between audiences and critics: Jackass: The Movie, 6.6 on IMDb against 41 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Night and Fog '1956 | Documentary | 8.6 | - | - | 8.3 | Alain Resnais |
| 2 | Man with a Movie Camera '1929 | Documentary | 8.3 | 98% | 96 | 7.8 | Dziga Vertov |
| 3 | Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii '1972 | Musical / Documentary | 8.6 | 100% | 75 | 8.1 | Adrian Maben |
| 4 | Woodstock '1970 | Documentary / Musical | 8.1 | 100% | 95 | 7.6 | Michael Wadleigh |
| 5 | Koyaanisqatsi '1983 | Documentary / Musical | 8.2 | 91% | 72 | 7.9 | Godfrey Reggio |
| 6 | Stop Making Sense '1984 | Documentary / Musical | 8.7 | 100% | 94 | 8.3 | Jonathan Demme |
| 7 | Kon-Tiki '1950 | Documentary | 7.9 | - | - | 7.4 | Thor Heyerdahl |
| 8 | Häxan '1922 | Documentary / Horror | 7.6 | 93% | - | 7.6 | Benjamin Christensen |
| 9 | Bob Dylan – Don't Look Back '1967 | Documentary / Musical | 7.9 | 92% | 84 | 7.4 | D. A. Pennebaker |
| 10 | The Last Waltz '1978 | Documentary / Musical | 8.1 | 98% | 84 | 7.7 | Martin Scorsese |
| 11 | Nanook of the North '1922 | Documentary / Drama | 7.6 | 100% | - | 7.1 | Robert Flaherty |
| 12 | Nazi Concentration Camps '1945 | Documentary / War | 8.3 | - | - | 7.7 | George Stevens |
| 13 | Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations '1938 | Documentary | 7.7 | 89% | - | 6.9 | Leni Riefenstahl |
| 14 | Berlin: Symphony of a Great City '1927 | Documentary | 7.6 | 86% | - | 7.5 | Walter Ruttmann |
| 15 | Gimme Shelter '1970 | Documentary / Musical | 7.8 | 93% | 85 | 7.4 | Albert Maysles |
| 16 | F for Fake '1973 | Documentary | 7.7 | 88% | 87 | 7.4 | Orson Welles |
| 17 | The Great White Silence '1924 | Documentary | 7.9 | - | - | 7.8 | Herbert G. Ponting |
| 18 | Baraka '1992 | Documentary | 8.5 | 85% | 74 | 8.2 | Ron Fricke |
| 19 | The House Is Black '1963 | Documentary | 7.8 | - | - | 7.4 | Forugh Farrokhzad |
| 20 | Blood of the Beasts '1949 | Documentary | 7.7 | - | - | 7.5 | Georges Franju |
| 21 | Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty '1938 | Documentary | 7.6 | - | - | 6.7 | Leni Riefenstahl |
| 22 | My Octopus Teacher '2020 | Documentary | 8.1 | 93% | 82 | 7.9 | Pippa Ehrlich |
| 23 | Monterey Pop '1968 | Musical / Documentary | 7.9 | 96% | 77 | 7.4 | D. A. Pennebaker |
| 24 | Titicut Follies '1967 | Documentary | 7.7 | 100% | - | 7.3 | Frederick Wiseman |
| 25 | Let It Be '1970 | Documentary / Musical | 7.6 | 81% | 69 | 7.7 | Michael Lindsay-Hogg |
| 26 | Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life '1925 | Documentary | 7.7 | 100% | - | 7.7 | Ernest B. Schoedsack |
| 27 | Salesman '1969 | Documentary | 7.6 | 100% | 80 | 7.2 | David Maysles |
| 28 | Grey Gardens '1976 | Documentary | 7.5 | 95% | 83 | 7.3 | Ellen Giffard |
| 29 | Let There Be Light '1946 | Documentary / War | 7.4 | 86% | - | 7.3 | John Huston |
| 30 | Chronicle of a Summer '1961 | Documentary | 7.5 | - | - | 7.2 | Jean Rouch |
| 31 | The Endless Summer '1966 | Documentary | 7.6 | 100% | 82 | 7.2 | Bruce Brown |
| 32 | The Thin Blue Line '1988 | Crime / Documentary | 7.9 | 100% | 79 | 7.7 | Errol Morris |
| 33 | Land Without Bread '1933 | Documentary | 7.3 | 100% | - | 7.1 | Luis Buñuel |
| 34 | À propos de Nice '1930 | Documentary | 7.4 | - | - | 6.9 | Jean Vigo |
| 35 | The Private Life of a Cat '1946 | Documentary | 7.2 | - | - | 7.2 | Alexander Hammid |
| 36 | The Epic of Everest '1924 | Documentary | 7.6 | 100% | - | 6.9 | John Baptist Lucius Noel |
| 37 | Love Meetings '1965 | Documentary | 7.5 | - | - | 8.2 | Pier Paolo Pasolini |
| 38 | Friends: The Reunion '2021 | Documentary / Comedy | 8.0 | 67% | - | 7.8 | Ben Winston |
| 39 | The Social Dilemma '2020 | Documentary / Drama | 7.6 | 84% | 78 | 7.5 | Jeff Orlowski |
| 40 | Pumping Iron '1977 | Documentary | 7.3 | 92% | 72 | 7.2 | Robert Fiore |
| 41 | The Memphis Belle '1944 | Documentary / War | 7.4 | - | - | 6.7 | William Wyler |
| 42 | The Living Desert '1953 | Documentary | 7.4 | - | 69 | 7.1 | James Algar |
| 43 | Window Water Baby Moving '1959 | Documentary | 7.5 | - | - | 6.9 | Stan Brakhage |
| 44 | Triumph of the Will '1935 | Documentary | 7.1 | 84% | - | 6.9 | Leni Riefenstahl |
| 45 | Black Panthers '1968 | Documentary | 7.4 | - | - | 7.1 | Agnès Varda |
| 46 | People of the Po Valley '1947 | Documentary | 6.7 | - | - | 6.5 | Michelangelo Antonioni |
| 47 | A Sixth Part of the World '1926 | Documentary | 7.2 | - | - | 6.7 | Dziga Vertov |
| 48 | Along the Coast '1958 | Documentary | 7.4 | - | - | 7.3 | Agnès Varda |
| 49 | Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts '2022 | Documentary | 8.0 | 93% | - | 7.3 | Joe Pearlman |
| 50 | Rain '1929 | Documentary | 7.2 | - | - | 7.4 | Joris Ivens |
| 51 | Mondo Cane '1962 | Documentary / Horror | 6.2 | 50% | - | 6.2 | Paolo Cavara |
| 52 | The Eleventh Year '1928 | Documentary | 6.9 | - | - | 6.0 | Dziga Vertov |
| 53 | The Bridge '1928 | Documentary | 6.9 | - | - | 6.5 | Joris Ivens |
| 54 | Salt for Svanetia '1930 | Documentary | 7.6 | 100% | - | 6.8 | Mikhail Kalatozov |
| 55 | Man of Aran '1934 | Documentary / Drama | 7.2 | 92% | - | 7.3 | Robert Flaherty |
| 56 | Why We Fight: Prelude to War '1942 | Documentary / War | 7.0 | - | - | 6.4 | Frank Capra |
| 57 | Kino-Eye '1924 | Documentary | 6.9 | - | - | 6.7 | Dziga Vertov |
| 58 | Super Size Me '2004 | Documentary | 7.2 | - | 73 | 6.7 | Morgan Spurlock |
| 59 | The Sea Horse '1935 | Documentary | 7.2 | - | - | 6.6 | Jean Painlevé |
| 60 | The Battle of San Pietro '1945 | War / Documentary | 6.6 | - | - | 6.1 | John Huston |
| 61 | Roger & Me '1989 | Documentary / Comedy | 7.5 | 100% | 70 | 7.1 | Michael Moore |
| 62 | The Mad Masters '1955 | Documentary | 6.6 | - | - | 6.2 | Jean Rouch |
| 63 | Working on the Douro River '1931 | Documentary | 7.2 | - | - | 7.1 | Manoel de Oliveira |
| 64 | The Octopus '1928 | Documentary | 6.6 | - | - | 6.5 | Jean Painlevé |
| 65 | Emak-Bakia '1926 | Documentary | 6.9 | - | - | 6.8 | Man Ray |
| 66 | Kino-Pravda No. 21: Lenin Kino-Pravda. A Film Poem About Lenin '1925 | Documentary | 6.2 | - | - | 5.5 | Dziga Vertov |
| 67 | Daphnia '1928 | Documentary | 6.2 | - | - | 6.1 | Jean Painlevé |
| 68 | South '1919 | Documentary | 7.3 | 100% | - | 7.3 | Frank Hurley |
| 69 | Moana '1926 | Documentary | 6.8 | 87% | - | 6.7 | Robert Flaherty |
| 70 | Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness '1927 | Documentary / Drama | 6.9 | 94% | - | 6.7 | Ernest B. Schoedsack |
| 71 | Night Mail '1938 | Documentary | 6.8 | - | - | 6.2 | Harry Watt |
| 72 | Victory Through Air Power '1943 | Animation / War / Documentary | 6.4 | - | - | 5.7 | James Algar |
| 73 | Listen to Britain '1942 | Documentary | 6.5 | - | - | 6.2 | Humphrey Jennings |
| 74 | The River '1938 | Documentary | 6.4 | - | - | 5.7 | Pare Lorentz |
| 75 | Jackass: The Movie '2002 | Action / Comedy / Documentary | 6.6 | 49% | 41 | 6.3 | Jeff Tremaine |
| 76 | H₂O '1929 | Documentary | 6.9 | - | - | 6.9 | Ralph Steiner |
| 77 | Taris '1931 | Documentary | 6.7 | - | - | 6.3 | Jean Vigo |
| 78 | A Bronx Morning '1931 | Documentary | 6.4 | - | - | 6.9 | Jay Leyda |
| 79 | The Tinder Swindler '2022 | Documentary / Crime | 7.1 | 97% | - | 7.0 | Felicity Morris |
| 80 | Manhatta '1921 | Documentary | 6.6 | - | - | 6.6 | Paul Strand |
| 81 | Enthusiasm: Symphony of Donbas '1930 | Documentary | 6.8 | 80% | - | 6.4 | Dziga Vertov |
| 82 | Hyas and Stenorhynchus '1929 | Documentary | 6.8 | - | - | 5.9 | Jean Painlevé |
| 83 | Day of the Fight '1951 | Documentary | 6.2 | - | - | 5.8 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 84 | Three Songs About Lenin '1934 | Documentary | 6.5 | 80% | - | 6.1 | Dziga Vertov |
| 85 | The Battle of the Somme '1916 | Documentary / War | 6.6 | - | - | 6.6 | Geoffrey Malins |
| 86 | Two Pence Magic '1929 | Documentary | 6.5 | - | - | 5.7 | Hans Richter |
| 87 | The Battle of Midway '1942 | Documentary / War | 6.1 | - | - | 5.9 | John Ford |
| 88 | Kino-Pravda No. 1 '1922 | Documentary | 6.0 | - | - | 5.5 | Dziga Vertov |
| 89 | Sea Urchins '1929 | Documentary | 6.4 | - | - | 6.4 | Jean Painlevé |
| 90 | A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire '1906 | Documentary | 6.9 | - | - | 6.4 | Harry Miles |
| 91 | Jackass Forever '2022 | Action / Comedy / Documentary | 6.8 | 86% | 74 | 6.8 | Jeff Tremaine |
| 92 | Money Heist: The Phenomenon '2020 | Documentary | 7.5 | - | - | 7.4 | Luis Alfaro |
| 93 | The Mysteries of the Chateau of Dice '1929 | Documentary | 6.2 | - | - | 6.6 | Man Ray |
| 94 | Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return '2022 | Documentary | 7.3 | - | - | 6.8 | David Gelb |
| 95 | The Seafarers '1953 | Documentary | 5.1 | - | - | 4.5 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 96 | Demolishing and Building Up the Star Theatre '1901 | Documentary | 6.7 | - | - | 6.5 | Frederick S. Armitage |
| 97 | Flying Padre '1951 | Documentary | 5.5 | - | - | 5.1 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 98 | How to Make Movies '1918 | Documentary / Comedy | 6.2 | - | - | 6.3 | Charlie Chaplin |
| 99 | Flight of the Large Blue Fly '1905 | Documentary | 6.5 | - | - | 5.7 | Lucien Georges Bull |
| 100 | The Hairdresser '1905 | Documentary | 6.1 | - | - | 6.0 | - |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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