The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever

While the 1914 season introduction promised the omnipresence of “The Great War,” World War I, if still at least mentioned in every episode, didn’t dominate the conversations. Even still, its representation of sudden disruption, evolution, and modernity is still thematically connected to the aesthetic and industrial developments in film of the year. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to see the list of every submitted film! Mentioned media: Cabiria (1914) - Giovanni Pastrone Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914) - Mack Sennett Fantômas (1914) - Louis Feuillade Daisy Doodad’s Dial (1914) - Florence Turner Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) - Winsor McCay Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914) - Henry Lehrman Caught in the Rain (1914) - Charlie Chaplin Making a Living (1914) - Henry Lehrman The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914) - J. Farrell MacDonald

Whether he had a hand in their restoration or not, Bret Wood, filmmaker, author, and SVP and Producer of Archival Releases at Kino Lorber, selects five films that hold some personal connections for him. While they shift back and forth from epic drama and short comedy, these picks also highlight some representative traits of American film in 1914. Among the many projects Bret has worked on at Kino are Pioneers of African-American Cinema and Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers . His films include Hell's Highway: The True Story of Highway Safety Films and he is the author of Tod Browning: une vie avec les freaks. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1914! Media mentioned: Bill Joins the W.W.W.’s (1914) - Edward Dillon The Death Mask (1914) - Thomas Ince The Professional Scapegoat (1914) - Sidney Drew The Avenging Conscience (1914) - D.W. Griffith Judith of Bethulia (1914) - D.W. Griffith Queen Kelly (1929) - Erich von Stroheim The Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. Porter Home, Sweet Home (1914) - D.W. Griffith The Birth of a Nation (1915) - D.W. Griffith Intolerance (1916) - D.W. Griffith The King of Kings (1927) - Cecil B. DeMille A Corner in Wheat (1909) - D.W. Griffith The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) - D.W. Griffith L’Inferno (1911) - Francesco Bertolini, Giuseppe de Liguoro, and Adolfo Padovan Cabiria (1914) - Giovanni Pastrone Phantom of the Paradise (1974) - Brian De Palma Death’s Marathon (1913) - D.W. Griffith The Devil’s Needle (1916) - Chester Withey Curb Your Enthusiasm (1999-2024) Freaks (1932) - Tod Browning The Unholy Three (1925) - Tod Browning The Devil-Doll (1936) - Tod Browning Alien (1979) - Ridley Scott Animal House (1978) - John Landis Rodan (1956) - Ishirō Honda Star Wars (1977) - George Lucas The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916) - John Emerson and Christy Cabanne Cinema’s First Nasty Women

The selections from Beja Margitházi, assistant professor at Eötvös Loránd University's Department of Film Studies, begin in Canada and move eastward. They also jump between genres and culminate in an early directorial effort from Michael Curtiz and a representation of the cinema of her native Hungary. Beja is editor of the film theory and history journal Metropolis . She is also the author of The Cinema of the Face: Close-up and Film Style and co-editor of the anthology Visual Communication . Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1914! Media mentioned: The Undesirable (1914) - Michael Curtiz Blue Blood (1914) - Nino Oxilia Fantômas (1914) - Louis Feuillade Daisy Doodad’s Dial (1914) - Florence Turner In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914) - Edward S. Curtis The Student of Prague (1913) - Stellan Rye Atlantis (1913) - August Blom Ingeborg Holm (1913) - Victor Sjöström Cabiria (1914) - Giovanni Pastrone Nanook of the North (1922) - Robert J. Flaherty Fred Ott’s Sneeze (1894) - William K.L. Dickson The Kiss (1896) - William Heise Photographing a Female Crook (1904) - Wallace McCutcheon The Abyss (1910) - Urban Gad

Library professional Brian Darr once maintained a blog about the San Francisco Bay Area screening scene called Hell On Frisco Bay, an alias he still uses on Bluesky and Letterboxd . So some aspect of the theatrical experience, whether he caught a screening or not, comes into the conversation about each of his five picks (all from a different country!) in addition to their aesthetic recommendations. Brian has written on media history for outlets like Senses of Cinema, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, SFGate, Screen Slate, the Independent Lens blog and The Maine Playweek. He's performed several audiovisual presentations at San Francisco's Other Cinema showcase and elsewhere on media history subjects from blacklisted directors to experimental music label Opus One. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1914! Films and resources mentioned: The Masquerader (1914) - Charlie Chaplin Daisy Doodad’s Dial (1914) - Florence Turner Child of the Big City (1914) - Yevgeni Bauer Fantômas (1914) - Louis Feuillade Cabiria (1914) - Giovanni Pastrone L’Inferno (1911) - Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, and Giuseppe De Liguoro Intolerance (1916) - D.W. Griffith Metropolis (1927) - Fritz Lang Maciste in Hell (1925) - Guido Brignone The Birth of a Nation (1915) - D.W. Griffith Les Vampires (1915) - Louis Feuillade Judex (1916) - Louis Feuillade Tih Minh (1918) - Louis Feuillade Fantômas (1920) - Edward Sedgwick The Cameraman (1928) - Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton Spite Marriage (1929) - Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton Man with a Movie Camera (1929) - Dziga Vertov Where the Winds Blow (1910) - Laurence Trimble The Tramp (1915) - Charlie Chaplin His Trysting Place (1914) - Charlie Chaplin The Face on the Bar Room Floor (1914) - Charlie Chaplin Hollywood Babylon - Kenneth Anger Kino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film - Jay Leyda “1,000 Favorites: A Personal Canon” - Jonathan Rosenbaum Cinema’s First Nasty Women

Elyse Singer, Lecturer in the Department of Theater at Dartmouth College , selects a wide range of forms and genres for her five picks of 1914, from short comedy to serial action to epic tales (one historically dramatic and the other perhaps the first feature comedy). At least two relate to her recent research in female madness in film and the agency of women in serials of the time. Elyse has also taught at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema at CUNY and NYU Tisch. Her work has been published in Cinematic Explorations of the Mind, The Routledge Companion to Performance and Science, Faces on Screen, Feminist Media Histories, and Domitor’s Crafts, Trades, and Techniques of Early Cinema. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1914! Films and resources mentioned: Cabiria (1914) - Giovanni Pastrone Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914) - Mack Sennett Fantômas (1914) - Louis Feuillade The Perils of Pauline (1914) - Louis J. Gasnier and Donald MacKenzie Daisy Doodad’s Dial (1914) - Florence Turner Trouble in Paradise (1932) - Ernst Lubitsch Photographing a Female Crook (1904) - Wallace McCutcheon Laughing Gas (1907) - Edwin S. Porter Black Panther (2018) - Ryan Coogler Woman Warrior White Rose (1929) - Zhang Huimin Les Vampires (1915) - Louis Feuillade The Violin (1908) - Louis Feuillade Tih Minh (1918) - Louis Feuillade Metropolis (1927) - Fritz Lang Lillian Gish: The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me - Lillian Gish Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes - Maggie Hennefeld “In Your Face: Physiognomy, Photography, and the Gnostic Mission of Early Film” - Tom Gunning

Susan Potter, Senior Lecturer in the School of Art, Communication and English at the University of Sydney, wrote the book Queer Timing: The Emergence of Lesbian Sexuality in Early Cinema . While its scope is broader than any one year, and just one of Susan’s 1914 selections is referenced within it, she also mostly highlights female agency and subversion before and behind the screen with her picks. Susan’s research investigates the relation of cinema as modern mass medium to the intensification of sexuality since the late nineteenth century and audiovisual media's role in queer identity and culture formation. Their essay on Filibus (1915) is forthcoming in The Silent Film Companion: A Recovered and Expanded History , edited by (former guests!) Martin Johnson and Liz Clarke . Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1914! Films and resources mentioned: The Perils of Pauline (1914) - Louis J. Gasnier and Donald MacKenzie Fantômas (1914) - Louis Feuillade A Florida Enchantment (1914) - Sidney Drew Mabel’s Strange Predicament (1914) - Mabel Normand Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914) - Henry Lehrman Pandora’s Box (1929) - G.W. Pabst Filibus (1915) - Mario Roncoroni Shoulder Arms (1918) - Charlie Chaplin The Tramp (1915) - Charlie Chaplin Fantômas (1913) - Louis Feuillade One A.M. (1916) - Charlie Chaplin Mabel’s Dramatic Career (1913) - Mack Sennett Mädchen in Uniform (1931) - Leontine Sagan Gilda (1946) - Charles Vidor The Hazards of Helen (1914) - J.P. McGowan and J. Gunnis Davis Screening Europe in Australasia: Transnational Silent Film Before and After the Rise of Hollywood - Julie K. Allen Zones of Anxiety: Movement, Musidora, and the Crime Serials of Louis Feuillade - Vicki Callahan Hokum! The Early Sound Slapstick Short and Depression-Era Mass Culture - Rob King A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema - Jennifer Bean and Diane Negra, eds. Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934 - Laura Horak

The event that has been foreshadowed the past few seasons comes to pass in 1914: the Great War, or World War I. And while not every facet of the conversations this season relates back to the disruption of the film industry that ensued (to say nothing of the disruption of every other aspect of life), it certainly looms large and provides context for filmmaking language and industrial developments in this year and to come through at least the end of the decade. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1914! Films mentioned: Life’s Shop Window (1914) - J. Gordon Edwards Making a Living (1914) - Henry Lehrman Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914) - Henry Lehrman The Squaw Man (1914) - Cecil B. DeMille Judith of Bethulia (1914) - D.W. Griffith The Merchant of Venice (1914) - Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914) - Mack Sennett Cabiria (1914) - Giovanni Pastrone

The 1913 season introduction episode’s title was “A Milestone Year?” And indeed, the guests for these past five episodes, as well as the representation of listeners based on their submission lists, made the case that it was artistically, industrially, critically, and popularly. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to see the full list of 1913 submissions! Films mentioned: Suspense (1913) - Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley Fantômas (1913) - Louis Feuillade Traffic in Souls (1913) - George Loane Tucker A House Divided (1913) - Alice Guy-Blaché The Student of Prague (1913) - Stellan Rye The Night Before Christmas (1913) - Ladislas Starevich Ivanhoe (1913) - Herbert Brenon The Last Days of Pompeii (1913) - Eleuterio Rodolfi and Mario Caserini Quo Vadis (1913) - Enrico Guazzoni

Charlie Keil, Professor in the Cinema Studies Institute and the Department of History at the University of Toronto, is the author of Early American Cinema in Transition . His periodization of the transitional era, as explored in that book, ends with 1913 and his take on the traits of the time and how it shifts from the beginning of the period in 1907 defines the conversation. Charlie has also published seven other books, the most recent being The Oxford Handbook of Silent Cinema , coedited with Rob King. His next book will be Observing Film Art: Themes from the Work of David Bordwell , co-edited with Murray Smith, and due December 2026. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1913! Films and resource mentioned: Traffic in Souls (1913) - George Loane Tucker Suspense (1913) - Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley Death’s Marathon (1913) - D.W. Griffith The Mothering Heart (1913) - D.W. Griffith The Evidence of the Film (1913) - Lawrence Marston and Edward Thanhouser The Story the Biograph Told (1904) - Wallace McCutcheon, Sr. Judith of Bethulia (1914) - D.W. Griffith The Lonely Villa (1909) - D.W. Griffith The Physician of the Castle (1908) - unknown Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) - George Miller Thelma and Louise (1991) - Ridley Scott Citizen Kane (1941) - Orson Welles Ingeborg Holm (1913) - Victor Sjöström Fantômas (1913) - Louis Feuillade Falling Leaves (1912) - Alice Guy-Blaché American Cinema’s Transitional Era: Audiences, Institutions, Practices - Charlie Keil and Shelley Stamp, eds.

Paul Gagliardi, Teaching Associate Professor of English at Marquette University, selects almost entirely comedy shorts for his 1913 highlights, although they connect with his proto-expressionist feature pick in that they all contain morbid underbellies. And diving into the comic commentary of these works, intended or not, reflects a few things about audience reception to movies and politics of the time. Paul is the author of All Play and No Work: The Comic Plays of the Federal Theatre Project . His website is paul-gagliardi.com . Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1913! Films and resources mentioned: A House Divided (1913) - Alice Guy-Blaché The Student of Prague (1913) - Stellan Rye Fatty Joins the Force (1913) - George Nichols Cohen Saves the Flag (1913) - Mack Sennett Mabel’s Dramatic Career (1913) - Mack Sennett The Brutalist (2024) - Brady Corbet The Jazz Singer (1927) - Alan Crosland Sherlock Jr. (1924) - Buster Keaton The Battle of Gettysburg (1913) - Charles Giblyn and Thomas Ince My Dinner with Andre (1981) - Louis Malle By the Sea (1915) - Charlie Chaplin The Cook (1918) - Roscoe Arbuckle Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World's Fair at San Francisco (1915) - Roscoe Arbuckle and Mabel Normand The Round-Up (1920) - George Melford Nosferatu (1922) - F.W. Murnau Faust (1926) - F.W. Murnau Grease (1978) - Randal Kleiser The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup - Jonathan Wilson

Michael Gebert is the founder and co-moderator of NitrateVille , the online discussion site about vintage films of the silent era through the 1950s. Looking ahead to the advancements soon to come, his selections of almost all features demonstrate editing and performance style shifts, which branched off in slightly different ways in countries like America, France, and Sweden. Michael is host of the NitrateVille Radio podcast , which talks to people doing "cool stuff" in the world of vintage film, from authors and filmmakers to the curators of retrospectives and festivals. He is also a food journalist in Chicago and the author of The Chicago Way: An Oral History of Chicago Dining . Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1913! Films and resources mentioned: Ingeborg Holm (1913) - Victor Sjöström Germinal (1913) - Albert Capellani The Child of Paris (1913) - Léonce Perret Traffic in Souls (1913) - George Loane Tucker Mabel’s Dramatic Career (1913) - Mack Sennett The Squaw Man (1914) - Cecil B. DeMille The Cheat (1915) - Cecil B. DeMille The Conquest of the Pole (1912) - Georges Méliès The Searchers (1956) - John Ford Sammy’s Scandalous Scheme (1915) - Gilbert P. Hamilton The Extra Girl (1923) - F. Richard Jones Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show (1902) - Edwin S. Porter Alias Jimmy Valentine (1915) - Maurice Tourneur The Blue Bird (1918) - Maurice Tourneur The Wishing Ring: An Idyll of Old England (1914) - Maurice Tourneur The Miracle Man (1919) - George Loane Tucker Metropolis (1927) - Fritz Lang Suspense (1913) - Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley The Lonely Villa (1909) - D.W. Griffith Weapons (2025) - Zach Cregger Breathless (1960) - Jean-Luc Godard The Mystery of the Rocks of Kador (1912) - Léonce Perret Les Vampires (1915) - Louis Feuillade Tih Minh (1918) - Louis Feuillade Fantômas (1913) - Louis Feuillade The Strike (1904) - Ferdinand Zecca Les misérables (1912) - Albert Capellani Les misérables (1925) - Henri Fescourt Les misérables (1934) - Raymond Bernard A Man There Was (1917) - Victor Sjöström The Gardener (1912) - Victor Sjöström The Phantom Carriage (1921) - Victor Sjöström Girl with Hyacinths (1950) - Hasse Ekman The Birth of a Nation (1915) - D.W. Griffith The Magician (1926) - Rex Ingram The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) - Rex Ingram Cecil B. DeMille’s Hollywood - Robert S. Birchard Cinema’s First Nasty Women Pordenone 2025 Report - Michael Gebert The Origins of Film Maurice Tourneur: Weaver of Dreams - Christine Leteux George Loane Tucker: The First of the Immortals - Frank Thompson

Julie K. Allen, professor of Comparative Arts and Letters at Brigham Young University, is the author of Screening Europe in Australasia . So it makes sense that her selections, each from a different country, would embody the transnational dynamic of silent film just before the outbreak of World War I. Julie is also the author of Icons of Danish Modernity , Danish but Not Lutheran , and The Silent Muse: The Memoirs of Asta Nielsen . She is currently working on a book about the Danish cinema license system with the tentative title The Cultural Politics of Film Exhibition. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1913! Films and resources mentioned: Quo Vadis (1913) - Enrico Guazzoni Atlantis (1913) - August Blom Fantômas (1913) - Louis Feuillade Traffic in Souls (1913) - George Loane Tucker The Suffragette (1913) - Urban Gad The Abyss (1910) - Urban Gad What 80 Million Women Want (1913) - Will Louis Les misérables (1912) - Albert Capellani Nick Carter, le roi des détectives (1908) - Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset Les Vampires (1915) - Louis Feuillade Judex (1916) - Louis Feuillade Saved from the Titanic (1912) - Étienne Arnaud Destiny (1921) - Fritz Lang The Phantom Carriage (1921) - Victor Sjöström Blind Justice (1916) - Benjamin Christensen Sealed Orders (1914) - Benjamin Christensen Häxan (1922) - Benjamin Christensen Titanic (1997) - James Cameron Nero (1909) - Luigi Maggi and Arturo Ambrosio L’Inferno (1911) - Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, and Giuseppe De Liguoro Pink-Slipped: What Happened to Women in the Silent Film Industries? - Jane Gaines

This is the 100th episode and just two weeks past the second anniversary of The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever! It’s a special episode made even more so by Shelley Stamp, Distinguished Professor of Film & Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She literally wrote the book on Lois Weber so it makes sense that pioneering filmmaker’s landmark 1913 film factors into the conversation, but all of Shelley's picks reflect the rapid development of American film grammar and stand in for women’s representation in front of and behind the camera, as well as their fights for equality in “real life.” Shelley is also the author of Movie-Struck Girls: Women and Motion Picture Culture after the Nickelodeon . She curated the award-winning box set Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers . Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1913! Films mentioned: What 80 Million Women Want (1913) - Will Louis Traffic in Souls (1913) - George Loane Tucker A House Divided (1913) - Alice Guy-Blaché Suspense (1913) - Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley The Adventures of Kathlyn (1913) - Francis J. Grandon Hypocrites (1915) - Lois Weber The Perils of Pauline (1914) - Louis J. Gasnier and Donald MacKenzie The Hazards of Helen (1914) - J.P. McGowan and J. Gunnis Davis The Exploits of Elaine (1914) - Louis J. Gasnier, George B. Seitz, Leopold Wharton, and Theodore Wharton What Happened to Mary (1912) - Ashley Miller and Charles Brabin Fantômas (1913) - Louis Feuillade The Lonely Villa (1909) - D.W. Griffith Shoes (1916) - Lois Weber The Merchant of Venice (1914) - Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley The Consequences of Feminism (1906) - Alice Guy-Blaché Making an American Citizen (1912) - Alice Guy-Blaché Matrimony’s Speed Limit (1913) - Alice Guy-Blaché Falling Leaves (1912) - Alice Guy-Blaché In the Hands of Impostors (1911) - August Blom A Busy Day (1914) - Charlie Chaplin Your Girl and Mine (1914) - Giles R. Warren

1913 is considered by many to be a milestone year in the development of film grammar and industry. And it perhaps is, as is set up by this context-setting introduction and the conversations with guests to come for this season! Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1913! Films mentioned: The Adventures of Kathlyn (1913) - Francis J. Grandon What Happened to Mary (1912) - Ashley Miller and Charles Brabin Fantômas (1913) - Louis Feuillade Traffic in Souls (1913) - George Loane Tucker The Artist’s Dream (1913) - John Randolph Bray The Evidence of the Film (1913) - Lawrence Marston and Edwin Thanhouser Suspense (1913) - Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley

Although the 1912 season introduction asserted that “Hollywood was incoming,” the top picks for the year (fueled by a record number of submissions from guests!) is mostly made up of old power players, even if that power would recede in short order. Indeed, both that dynamic and the fact that all of the most popular selections are shorts may change in the near future! Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to see the list of every film submitted for 1912! Films mentioned: The Cameraman’s Revenge (1912) - Wladyslaw Starewicz The Land Beyond the Sunset (1912) - Harold M. Shaw How a Mosquito Operates (1912) - Winsor McCay The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) - D.W. Griffith The Conquest of the Pole (1912) - Georges Méliès Cleopatra (1912) - Charles L. Gaskill From the Manger to the Cross (1912) - Sidney Olcott Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1912) - Lucius Henderson

Film historian and cultural critic Paul (PT) Klein’s work focuses on American filmgoing cultures. So even when discussing his sole foreign pick, the conversation dives into audience reception to his selections, then and now, in addition to the various aesthetic strengths of each of his movies. PT’s writing has appeared in Film Atlas, Film Matters, Foglifter, Metro Weekly, and more. His work can be found at ptklein.com . Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your top five for 1912! Films and resources mentioned: The Girl and Her Trust (1912) - D.W. Griffith The Grit of the Girl Telegrapher (1912) - J.P. McGowan Algie the Miner (1912) - Alice Guy-Blaché The Invaders (1912) - Francis Ford and Thomas Ince In Night and Ice (1912) - Mime Misu Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) - F.W. Murnau The Lonedale Operator (1911) - D.W. Griffith The Hazards of Helen (1914) - J.P McGowan and J. Gunnis Davis Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Ang Lee Wild and Woolly (1917) - John Emerson The Wild Bunch (1969) - Sam Peckinpah The Searchers (1956) - John Ford Stagecoach (1939) - John Ford Richard III (1912) - André Calmettes and James Keane Cleopatra (1912) - Charles L. Gaskill Queen Elizabeth (1912) - Louis Mercanton and Henri Desfontaines Saved from the Titanic (1912) - Étienne Arnaud Titanic (1997) - James Cameron Hollywood Remaking: How Film Remakes, Sequels, and Franchises Shape Industry and Culture - Kathleen Loock Girls Will Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934 - Laura Horak

Silent film accompanist and composer Stephen Horne has already composed for or accompanied a couple of his five multinational picks for 1912. But besides discussing the general aesthetic pleasures of his selections, he also ruminates on how he could approach playing for both these grounded features and short trick films (they were still hanging in there!). Stephen is a house musician at London’s BFI Southbank. He released Silent Sirens , an album of solo piano pieces based on his silent film compositions, and has scored Stella Dallas, The Manxman, and many more films . Films mentioned: The Gardener (1912) - Victor Sjöström How a Mosquito Operates (1912) - Winsor McCay The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) - D.W. Griffith The Cameraman’s Revenge (1912) - Wladyslaw Starewicz The Conquest of the Pole (1912) - Georges Méliès The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920) - Paul Wegener and Carl Boese The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) - Carl Theodor Dreyer L’Inferno (1911) - Francesco Bertolini, Giuseppe de Liguoro, and Adolfo Padovan Oliver Twist (1912) - Thomas Bentley The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) - Robert Wiene A Ruined Life (1912) - Victor Sjöström The Abyss (1910) - Urban Gad The Phantom Carriage (1921) - Victor Sjöström The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) - Gordon Hessler The Mascot (1933) - Wladyslaw Starewicz A Trip to the Moon (1902) - Georges Méliès It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) - Stanley Kramer Barbie (2023) - Greta Gerwig Metropolis (1927) - Fritz Lang

Marsha Gordon, Professor of Film Studies at North Carolina State University, mostly highlights two directors credited with advancing film narrative with four picks. But she also sings the praises of a certain work of stop-motion animation, one taking this season by storm for both guests’ and listeners’ submissions. Marsha is the author of Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life & Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrott , Film, Form & Culture (with Robert Kolker), and Film is Like a Battleground: Sam Fuller’s War Films . She is currently writing a biography of the pioneering Hollywood director Dorothy Arzner. Films mentioned: Falling Leaves (1912) - Alice Guy-Blaché Making an American Citizen (1912) - Alice Guy-Blaché The Girl and Her Trust (1912) - D.W. Griffith The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) - D.W. Griffith The Cameraman’s Revenge (1912) - Wladyslaw Starewicz The Divorcee (1930) - Robert Z. Leonard Next Time We Love (1936) - Edward H. Griffith The Immigrant (1917) - Charlie Chaplin The Brutalist (2024) - Brady Corbet The Consequences of Feminism (1906) - Alice Guy-Blaché The Lonedale Operator (1911) - D.W. Griffith The Birth of a Nation (1915) - D.W. Griffith I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) - Mervyn LeRoy The Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. Porter Gangs of New York (2002) - Martin Scorsese Regeneration (1915) - Raoul Walsh Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy (1909) - J. Stuart Blackton

As Founding Director of HippFest , Scotland’s first and only silent film festival, Alison Strauss is especially knowledgeable about the history of Scottish filmmaking and -going, as represented by three of her picks. But the conversation, which concludes with outlandish animation, also addresses the preponderance of short films in an era of increasingly long ones. Alison works as Falkirk Council’s Arts Development Officer (Film and Media), programming the Hippodrome year-round. Alison is the ‘face of the Festival’ and leads on the artistic programme, commissioning, funding, research and development, and touring. Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1912! Films and resources mentioned: Bo’ness Fair 1912 (1912) - Louis Dickson Mairi: The Romance of a Highland Maiden (1912) - Andrew Paterson Herring Harvest at Yarmouth (1912) - unknown How a Mosquito Operates (1912) - Winsor McCay The Cameraman’s Revenge (1912) - Wladyslaw Starewicz Annual Baby Parade, 1904, Asbury Park, N.J. (1904) - Alfred C. Abadie The Herring Harvest (1925) - unknown Drifters (1929) - John Grierson Patriotic Porkers (1918) - unknown Little Nemo (1911) - Winsor McCay and J. Stuart Blackton Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) - Winsor McCay Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) - Robert Zemeckis To Demonstrate How Spiders Fly (1909) - F. Percy Smith The Tragic Error (1913) - Louis Feuillade The Mascot (1933) - Wladyslaw Starewicz The Cinema and Cinema-Going in Scotland, 1896-1950 - Trevor Griffiths Hippodrome Presentations

Tanya Goldman, Assistant Professor of Film at Missouri State University, has a strong interest in what could variably be called “nontheatrical movies,” “minor cinema,” “useful films,” and other such phrases, reflected by her two concluding picks dealing with sponsored films, whether by social progress groups or farm equipment manufacturers. But much of the conversation concerns morbid humor, whether in live action or animation, and all of the shorts demonstrate the offbeat character of 1912. https://www.tanyagoldmanphd.com/ focuses on media access, considering how the distribution of documentary + nonfiction film is a political and cultural taste-making practice. She is currently completing a monograph on the career of labor activist-turned-film distributor Thomas J. Brandon. Films and resources mentioned: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMK_3-16FMs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U424m8utJnA - https://youtu.be/QmwuL-98nYk?si=L9NTTfjUqEy2VVUm - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2rafjx1zoQ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bow99bzHfiM - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd-IZvAUosc - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKbUgu8rItQ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udr6wKr5tHk - https://letterboxd.com/film/we-carry-on/ - https://youtu.be/-KtGFyd9WVQ?si=BbzziQ1h3DFx_4th - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1FvpEeUBQo - https://youtu.be/8tLXkKsYFgc?si=SK-rrL8AFQtEnyM3 - https://youtu.be/gOHQOJaHTXo?si=mAXbMtUr5WSl4vCZ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_F%C3%A9e_aux_Choux - https://youtu.be/X8K7I0Jczi0?si=hLEtnllyFpAGEB4i - https://youtu.be/ZPp_t8fcL4o?si=kTY-g57IKd-DEJT7 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igh5ohb2_oU - https://youtu.be/6hs_FAKJTSc?si=ndphj4s69UdlmgAX - https://benaturalthemovie.com/ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Tgam3nXUPU - https://hmharchive.com/vnsny-visiting-nurse-service-of-new-york/ - https://vimeo.com/16838597 - https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/golden-gate-girls?frontend=kui - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SqvD1-0odY - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIyCMicwvU4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjhb7KtZZj4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gCeu3BRvuk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYlYTrni4-Q - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSntDDpk0-k - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpTWbuXhqfs - https://youtu.be/wq7hMuiz1mI?si=_K4Saxl7o_azhusk - https://youtu.be/32pzHWUTcPc?si=cj9kzS_63r0ywT-V - https://youtu.be/ebtiJH3EOHo?si=F1M8SuY4mexjrZAC - https://youtu.be/QTrBrDWxjg8?si=rn_PrVbYqvDzDNKk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptUAAiMu9LA - https://harvardfilmarchive.org/collections/preserved-films - https://youtu.be/J0Ncv2OEhpc?si=g7xIGbXzhJIyC4AO - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbigdjDw1PY - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM_QiYh4bsw - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiMjXYQ4dp8 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is57lyOYSss - https://youtu.be/1CVLz1_MrCk?si=5i8kOdhdNpijAIhD - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WPouUzryNU - https://www.amateurcinema.org/index.php/film/americas-disinherited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uEwGmjhquU - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_wKmMj5Bn4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vBmN4bYITc - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwmOPPqXcgI - https://youtu.be/gOWicOwtHa8?si=fJ7tlYr5rUkmnkTE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrooRi4_RFc - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dmMPN3ihC8 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afA0M0rO72I - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELsgPvgDBoY - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewdFqTwM4KQ - https://kinolorber.com/product/pioneers-first-women-filmmakers-dvd-1 - https://www.dukeupress.edu/useful-cinema - https://www.filmpreservation.org/dvds-and-books/the-field-guide-to-sponsored-film - https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Movie-Theater-Sponsors-Audiences/dp/0520391500 - https://digital.hagley.org/2017227 - https://mediahistoryproject.org/