AFI's 10 Top 10

AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres.^[1] Presented by the American Film Institute (AFI), the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008. In the special, various actors and directors, among them Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino, Kirk Douglas, Harrison Ford, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Roman Polanski, and Jane Fonda, discussed their admiration for and personal contributions to the films cited.

AFI 100 Years... series

1998	100 Movies
1999	100 Stars
2000	100 Laughs
2001	100 Thrills
2002	100 Passions
2003	100 Heroes & Villains
2004	100 Songs
2005	100 Movie Quotes
2005	25 Scores
2006	100 Cheers
2006	25 Musicals
2007	100 Movies (Updated)
2008	AFI's 10 Top 10
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The entire list of 500 nominated films is available on the American Film Institute website.

To date, this is the final program in AFI's countdown specials.^[2]

Animation

AFI defines "animation" as a genre where the film's images are primarily created by computer or hand and the characters are voiced by actors. Nine of the films are Disney properties, including two collaborative works with Pixar; the non-Disney selection is DreamWorks Animation's Shrek.

#	Film	Year
1	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs	1937
2	Pinocchio	1940
3	Bambi	1942
4	The Lion King	1994
5	Fantasia	1940
6	Toy Story	1995
7	Beauty and the Beast	1991
8	Shrek	2001
9	Cinderella	1950
10	Finding Nemo	2003

Courtroom drama

AFI defines "courtroom drama" as a genre of film in which a system of justice plays a critical role in the film's narrative.

#	Film	Year
1	To Kill a Mockingbird	1962
2	12 Angry Men	1957
3	Kramer vs. Kramer	1979
4	The Verdict	1982
5	A Few Good Men	1992
6	Witness for the Prosecution	1957
7	Anatomy of a Murder	1959
8	In Cold Blood	1967
9	A Cry in the Dark (a.k.a. Evil Angels)	1988
10	Judgment at Nuremberg	1961

Epic

AFI defines "epic" as a genre of large-scale films set in a cinematic interpretation of the past.

#	Film	Year
1	Lawrence of Arabia	1962
2	Ben-Hur	1959
3	Schindler's List	1993
4	Gone with the Wind	1939
5	Spartacus	1960
6	Titanic	1997
7	All Quiet on the Western Front	1930
8	Saving Private Ryan	1998
9	Reds	1981
10	The Ten Commandments	1956

Fantasy

AFI defines "fantasy" as a genre in which live-action characters inhabit imagined settings and/or experience situations that transcend the rules of the natural world.

#	Film	Year
1	The Wizard of Oz	1939
2	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	2001
3	It's a Wonderful Life	1946
4	King Kong	1933
5	Miracle on 34th Street	1947
6	Field of Dreams	1989
7	Harvey	1950
8	Groundhog Day	1993
9	The Thief of Bagdad	1924
10	Big	1988

Gangster

AFI defines the "gangster film" as a genre that centers on organized crime or maverick criminals in a modern setting.

#	Film	Year
1	The Godfather	1972
2	Goodfellas	1990
3	The Godfather Part II	1974
4	White Heat	1949
5	Bonnie and Clyde	1967
6	Scarface	1932
7	Pulp Fiction	1994
8	The Public Enemy	1931
9	Little Caesar	1931
10	Scarface	1983

Mystery

AFI defines "mystery" as a genre that revolves around the solution of a crime. Four of the films were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

#	Film	Year
1	Vertigo	1958
2	Chinatown	1974
3	Rear Window	1954
4	Laura	1944
5	The Third Man	1949
6	The Maltese Falcon	1941
7	North by Northwest	1959
8	Blue Velvet	1986
9	Dial M for Murder	1954
10	The Usual Suspects	1995

Romantic comedy

AFI defines "romantic comedy" as a genre in which the development of a romance leads to comic situations.

#	Film	Year
1	City Lights	1931
2	Annie Hall	1977
3	It Happened One Night	1934
4	Roman Holiday	1953
5	The Philadelphia Story	1940
6	When Harry Met Sally...	1989
7	Adam's Rib	1949
8	Moonstruck	1987
9	Harold and Maude	1971
10	Sleepless in Seattle	1993

Science fiction

AFI defines "science fiction" as a genre that marries a scientific or technological premise with imaginative speculation.

#	Film	Year
1	2001: A Space Odyssey	1968
2	Star Wars	1977
3	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	1982
4	A Clockwork Orange	1971
5	The Day the Earth Stood Still	1951
6	Blade Runner	1982
7	Alien	1979
8	Terminator 2: Judgment Day	1991
9	Invasion of the Body Snatchers	1956
10	Back to the Future	1985

Sports

AFI defines "sports" as a genre of films with protagonists who play athletics or other games of competition.

#	Film	Year
1	Raging Bull	1980
2	Rocky	1976
3	The Pride of the Yankees	1942
4	Hoosiers	1986
5	Bull Durham	1988
6	The Hustler	1961
7	Caddyshack	1980
8	Breaking Away	1979
9	National Velvet	1944
10	Jerry Maguire	1996

Western

AFI defines "western" as a genre of films set in the American West that embodies the spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier. Actor John Wayne has lead roles in three of the ten films.

#	Film	Year
1	The Searchers	1956
2	High Noon	1952
3	Shane	1953
4	Unforgiven	1992
5	Red River	1948
6	The Wild Bunch	1969
7	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	1969
8	McCabe & Mrs. Miller	1971
9	Stagecoach	1939
10	Cat Ballou	1965

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