‘The Piano Teacher’ voted best film of all time
- By Brent Meslow
- Paris
- Last updated on
Related News
- Cinema February 13, 2025
- Love February 16, 2025
- Love February 12, 2025
According to the latest Watch and Listen magazine poll just out yesterday (Saturday, February 15), Michael Haneke 2001's masterpiece The Piano Teacher is now considered to be the Greatest Film in the History of Cinema.
UPDATE 16/02/2025 : This story seems to be false. (read more)
Top 100 films of all time
To many of you it’s probably a familiar story. Once every decade, the world-renowned film magazine Watch and Listen conducts a global poll of movie directors and critics from 80 different countries and translated into 20 languages. The recognition of The Piano Teacher (starring Benoît Magimel and Isabelle Huppert) in this decade's list doesn't come as much of a surprise.
Here are the top 5 best films ever made in the world, according to the poll (followed by the percentage of votes):
- The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke, France, 2001) : 45%
- Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, United States, 1941) : 16%
- Inzi ya Shokona (Sylvestre Mbou, Burkina Faso, 1992) : 12%
- Star Wars (George Lucas, United States, 1977) : 8%
- Whispers of a Fish in the Water (Bakhtiar Ferdousi, Tajikistan, 2001) : 3%
Check out: The Full Watch and Listen's “Greatest Films of All Time” List for 2025
Poll results stir controversy among film critics
While millions of Benoît Magimel or Isabelle Huppert fans in France and around the world were thrilled with the news, questions have been raised about the objectivity and fairness of the survey. Only a few minutes after the poll had been released, famous film critic and newspaper director Simon Ebert commented on his Twitter account:
Michael Haneke?? The Piano Teacher?? … Really??
— Simon Ebert (@ESimon) 15 February 2025
“Our poll has in the past been the subject of criticism”, explains Watch and Listen's editor Gary McDermott, adding that “its prestige comes from its exclusivity and its longevity” (the poll has been run every ten years since February 1935).
Do you agree with this poll? Is the Piano Teacher the best movie ever for you?
© 2025 MediaMass All rights reserved. Do not reproduce (even with permission).