While it was fascinating to see the results of the 2022 Sight & Sound poll, we’re just as curious to see what lies outside the established canon. As part of a comprehensive project at the essential resource They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?, Ángel González polled nearly 839 critics on the best films that didn’t receive a single vote on the Sight & Sound poll, which they’ve now compiled into a massive Beyond the Sight & Sound Canon, which initially features 1,030 films but expands to a whopping 14,558 total films.
As a preview, we’ve collected the films that received at least 20 votes in this new poll, which is 263. It’s led by Spike Jonze’s Her, and they’ve also noted the directors that were most represented. Fritz Lang leads the pack with eight films mentioned, while François Truffaut has seven, and Anthony Mann, Clint Eastwood, Eric Rohmer, John Ford, Samuel Fuller, and Woody Allen all have six, then David Cronenberg, Ernst Lubitsch, Frank Capra, Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, René Clair, Steven Spielberg, William Wyler, and Yasujiro Ozu each nabbed five.
Check out the most-voted-for films in ascending order below, with more here, and happy watching.
Votes | Title | Year | Director
| 20 | Christmas in July | 1940 | Preston Sturges |
| 20 | Eastern Promises | 2007 | David Cronenberg |
| 20 | Gattaca | 1997 | Andrew Niccol |
| 20 | Ghostbusters | 1984 | Ivan Reitman |
| 20 | Gran Torino | 2008 | Clint Eastwood |
| 20 | Jour de fête | 1949 | Jacques Tati |
| 20 | Boyfriends and Girlfriends | 1987 | Éric Rohmer |
| 20 | Le Doulos | 1962 | Jean-Pierre Melville |
| 20 | Sparrow | 2008 | Johnnie To |
| 20 | Moneyball | 2011 | Bennett Miller |
| 20 | Murder by Contract | 1958 | Irving Lerner |
| 20 | Pandora and the Flying Dutchman | 1951 | Albert Lewin |
| 20 | Park Row | 1952 | Samuel Fuller |
| 20 | The Card Counter | 2021 | Paul Schrader |
| 20 | The Forbidden Room | 2015 | Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson |
| 20 | The Neon Demon | 2016 | Nicolas Winding Refn |
| 20 | To the Wonder | 2012 | Terrence Malick |
| 20 | What We Do in the Shadows | 2014 | Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement |
| 20 | You Only Live Once | 1937 | Fritz Lang |
| 21 | A Zed & Two Noughts | 1985 | Peter Greenaway |
| 21 | Offside | 2006 | Jafar Panahi |
| 21 | Bull Durham | 1988 | Ron Shelton |
| 21 | Dead Poets Society | 1989 | Peter Weir |
| 21 | Downfall | 2004 | Oliver Hirschbiegel |
| 21 | Du côté d’Orouët | 1971 | Jacques Rozier |
| 21 | Gentleman Jim | 1942 | Raoul Walsh |
| 21 | The Bird with the Crystal Plumage | 1970 | Dario Argento |
| 21 | Dirty Ho | 1979 | Chia-Liang Liu |
| 21 | The Four Times | 2010 | Michelangelo Frammartino |
| 21 | Love and Death | 1975 | Woody Allen |
| 21 | Midnight Run | 1988 | Martin Brest |
| 21 | mother! | 2017 | Darren Aronofsky |
| 21 | Nocturama | 2016 | Bertrand Bonello |
| 21 | We Won’t Grow Old Together | 1972 | Maurice Pialat |
| 21 | Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith | 2005 | George Lucas |
| 21 | Return of the Jedi | 1983 | Richard Marquand |
| 21 | The Bank Dick | 1940 | Edward F. Cline |
| 21 | The Big Combo | 1955 | Joseph H. Lewis |
| 21 | The Devil Is a Woman | 1935 | Josef von Sternberg |
| 21 | The French Dispatch | 2021 | Wes Anderson |
| 21 | The Muppet Movie | 1979 | James Frawley |
| 21 | True Romance | 1993 | Tony Scott |
| 21 | True Stories | 1986 | David Byrne |
| 21 | Sanjuro | 1962 | Akira Kurosawa |
| 21 | Upstream Color | 2013 | Shane Carruth |
| 21 | You Can Count on Me | 2000 | Kenneth Lonergan |
| 22 | Adam’s Rib | 1949 | George Cukor |
| 22 | Blackhat | 2015 | Michael Mann |
| 22 | Casino Royale | 2006 | Martin Campbell |
| 22 | Deja Vu | 2006 | Tony Scott |
| 22 | Drowning by Numbers | 1988 | Peter Greenaway |
| 22 | Knives Out | 2019 | Rian Johnson |
| 22 | Le Million | 1931 | René Clair |
| 22 | Les Dames du bois de Boulogne | 1945 | Robert Bresson |
| 22 | Man’s Favorite Sport? | 1964 | Howard Hawks |
| 22 | Marriage Story | 2019 | Noah Baumbach |
| 22 | Pi | 1998 | Darren Aronofsky |
| 22 | Primer | 2004 | Shane Carruth |
| 22 | Wild Tales | 2014 | Damián Szifron |
| 22 | Speed | 1994 | Jan de Bont |
| 22 | Spellbound | 1945 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 22 | Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo | 1935 | Sadao Yamanaka |
| 22 | The Fog | 1980 | John Carpenter |
| 22 | The Shooting | 1966 | Monte Hellman |
| 22 | The Wrestler | 2008 | Darren Aronofsky |
| 22 | United 93 | 2006 | Paul Greengrass |
| 23 | 42nd Street | 1933 | Lloyd Bacon |
| 23 | Mr. Thank You | 1936 | Hiroshi Shimizu |
| 23 | Ballad of a Soldier | 1959 | Grigoriy Chukhray |
| 23 | Big Trouble in Little China | 1986 | John Carpenter |
| 23 | Climax | 2018 | Gaspar Noé |
| 23 | Columbus | 2017 | Kogonada |
| 23 | Diva | 1981 | Jean-Jacques Beineix |
| 23 | Dracula | 1931 | Tod Browning |
| 23 | Ponyo | 2008 | Hayao Miyazaki |
| 23 | Heathers | 1988 | Michael Lehmann |
| 23 | To Live | 1994 | Yimou Zhang |
| 23 | I’m Thinking of Ending Things | 2020 | Charlie Kaufman |
| 23 | The Skin I Live In | 2011 | Pedro Almodóvar |
| 23 | Match Point | 2005 | Woody Allen |
| 23 | Matinee | 1993 | Joe Dante |
| 23 | The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice | 1952 | Yasujirô Ozu |
| 23 | Once | 2007 | John Carney |
| 23 | The Trial of Joan of Arc | 1962 | Robert Bresson |
| 23 | All About Lily Chou-Chou | 2001 | Shunji Iwai |
| 23 | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World | 2010 | Edgar Wright |
| 23 | The Big Red One | 1980 | Samuel Fuller |
| 23 | The Evil Dead | 1981 | Sam Raimi |
| 23 | The Man from Laramie | 1955 | Anthony Mann |
| 23 | The Others | 2001 | Alejandro Amenábar |
| 23 | The Pawnbroker | 1964 | Sidney Lumet |
| 23 | Traffic | 2000 | Steven Soderbergh |
| 24 | Blood and Black Lace | 1964 | Mario Bava |
| 24 | Babette’s Feast | 1987 | Gabriel Axel |
| 24 | Deep Cover | 1992 | Bill Duke |
| 24 | Gerry | 2002 | Gus Van Sant |
| 24 | Duck, You Sucker | 1971 | Sergio Leone |
| 24 | Hedwig and the Angry Inch | 2001 | John Cameron Mitchell |
| 24 | Ocean’s Eleven | 2001 | Steven Soderbergh |
| 24 | Only Lovers Left Alive | 2013 | Jim Jarmusch |
| 24 | A Fistful of Dollars | 1964 | Sergio Leone |
| 24 | The Curse of the Cat People | 1944 | Robert Wise, Gunther von Fritsch |
| 24 | Tokyo Godfathers | 2003 | Satoshi Kon, Shôgo Furuya |
| 24 | Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the 60s in Brussels | 1994 | Chantal Akerman |
| 25 | Red Angel | 1966 | Yasuzô Masumura |
| 25 | Big Fish | 2003 | Tim Burton |
| 25 | Burn After Reading | 2008 | Joel Coen, Ethan Coen |
| 25 | Forty Guns | 1957 | Samuel Fuller |
| 25 | Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer | 1986 | John McNaughton |
| 25 | Hail Mary | 1985 | Jean-Luc Godard |
| 25 | Mr. Arkadin | 1955 | Orson Welles |
| 25 | Mystery Train | 1989 | Jim Jarmusch |
| 25 | Spartacus | 1960 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 25 | The Day the Earth Stood Still | 1951 | Robert Wise |
| 25 | Under the Bridges | 1946 | Helmut Käutner |
| 25 | A Better Tomorrow | 1986 | John Woo |
| 26 | Man Bites Dog | 1992 | Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, Benoît Poelvoorde |
| 26 | Cosmopolis | 2012 | David Cronenberg |
| 26 | Le Notti Bianche | 1957 | Luchino Visconti |
| 26 | Munich | 2005 | Steven Spielberg |
| 26 | Naked Lunch | 1991 | David Cronenberg |
| 26 | Nightcrawler | 2014 | Dan Gilroy |
| 26 | Nostos: The Return | 1989 | Franco Piavoli |
| 26 | Pee-wee’s Big Adventure | 1985 | Tim Burton |
| 26 | Sleuth | 1972 | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| 26 | Tangerine | 2015 | Sean Baker |
| 26 | The African Queen | 1951 | John Huston |
| 26 | The Man Who Sleeps | 1974 | Bernard Queysanne |
| 26 | Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory | 1971 | Mel Stuart |
| 27 | 7 Men from Now | 1956 | Budd Boetticher |
| 27 | Babe | 1995 | Chris Noonan |
| 27 | Day of the Outlaw | 1959 | André De Toth |
| 27 | Face/Off | 1997 | John Woo |
| 27 | Heaven Can Wait | 1943 | Ernst Lubitsch |
| 27 | Invasion of the Body Snatchers | 1978 | Philip Kaufman |
| 27 | The Hunt | 2012 | Thomas Vinterberg |
| 27 | Judgment at Nuremberg | 1961 | Stanley Kramer |
| 27 | The Wolf House | 2018 | Cristóbal León, Joaquín Cociña |
| 27 | Rachel Getting Married | 2008 | Jonathan Demme |
| 27 | The Last Waltz | 1978 | Martin Scorsese |
| 27 | Eureka | 2000 | Shinji Aoyama |
| 27 | Zero Dark Thirty | 2012 | Kathryn Bigelow |
| 28 | Awaara | 1951 | Raj Kapoor |
| 28 | Cutter’s Way | 1981 | Ivan Passer |
| 28 | Day of the Dead | 1985 | George A. Romero |
| 28 | Ashes of Time | 1994 | Kar-Wai Wong |
| 28 | Le Corbeau | 1943 | Henri-Georges Clouzot |
| 28 | Midnight in Paris | 2011 | Woody Allen |
| 28 | Nightmare Alley | 1947 | Edmund Goulding |
| 28 | Pink Floyd: The Wall | 1982 | Alan Parker |
| 28 | The Long Good Friday | 1980 | John Mackenzie |
| 28 | The Outlaw Josey Wales | 1976 | Clint Eastwood |
| 28 | Transit | 2018 | Christian Petzold |
| 28 | Eat Drink Man Woman | 1994 | Ang Lee |
| 29 | Ball of Fire | 1941 | Howard Hawks |
| 29 | Happy-Go-Lucky | 2008 | Mike Leigh |
| 29 | Love in the Afternoon | 1972 | Éric Rohmer |
| 29 | My American Uncle | 1980 | Alain Resnais |
| 29 | Center Stage | 1991 | Stanley Kwan |
| 29 | The Face of Another | 1966 | Hiroshi Teshigahara |
| 30 | Cool Hand Luke | 1967 | Stuart Rosenberg |
| 30 | Two Days, One Night | 2014 | Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne |
| 30 | Divorce Italian Style | 1961 | Pietro Germi |
| 30 | Fail Safe | 1964 | Sidney Lumet |
| 30 | Gaslight | 1944 | George Cukor |
| 30 | In Bruges | 2008 | Martin McDonagh |
| 30 | Your Name. | 2016 | Makoto Shinkai |
| 30 | Like Someone in Love | 2012 | Abbas Kiarostami, Banafsheh Modaressi |
| 30 | Mystic River | 2003 | Clint Eastwood |
| 30 | Letter Never Sent | 1960 | Mikhail Kalatozov |
| 30 | Norte, The End of History | 2013 | Lav Diaz |
| 30 | Pépé le Moko | 1937 | Julien Duvivier |
| 30 | Tenebre | 1982 | Dario Argento |
| 30 | The Great Escape | 1963 | John Sturges |
| 31 | Excalibur | 1981 | John Boorman |
| 31 | Hud | 1963 | Martin Ritt |
| 31 | The Man Without a Past | 2002 | Aki Kaurismäki |
| 31 | Real Life | 1979 | Albert Brooks |
| 31 | Scarface | 1983 | Brian De Palma |
| 31 | Snowpiercer | 2013 | Bong Joon Ho |
| 31 | Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? | 1957 | Frank Tashlin |
| 32 | Finding Nemo | 2003 | Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich |
| 32 | Glengarry Glen Ross | 1992 | James Foley |
| 32 | Good Time | 2017 | Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie |
| 32 | The Insider | 1999 | Michael Mann |
| 32 | The Last Detail | 1973 | Hal Ashby |
| 33 | Dressed to Kill | 1980 | Brian De Palma |
| 33 | King of New York | 1990 | Abel Ferrara |
| 33 | Knife in the Water | 1962 | Roman Polanski |
| 33 | The Blues Brothers | 1980 | John Landis |
| 33 | The Man Who Wasn’t There | 2001 | Joel Coen |
| 33 | The Rocky Horror Picture Show | 1975 | Jim Sharman |
| 33 | The Set-Up | 1949 | Robert Wise |
| 33 | Tokyo Drifter | 1966 | Seijun Suzuki |
| 33 | Three Colours: White | 1994 | Krzysztof Kieslowski |
| 34 | Beauty and the Beast | 1991 | Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise |
| 34 | Dial M for Murder | 1954 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 34 | Decision to Leave | 2022 | Park Chan-wook |
| 34 | Hereditary | 2018 | Ari Aster |
| 34 | In Cold Blood | 1967 | Richard Brooks |
| 34 | The Diving Bell and the Butterfly | 2007 | Julian Schnabel |
| 34 | Mommy | 2014 | Xavier Dolan |
| 34 | Oslo, August 31st | 2011 | Joachim Trier |
| 34 | Purple Noon | 1960 | René Clément |
| 34 | The Invisible Man | 1933 | James Whale |
| 35 | American Beauty | 1999 | Sam Mendes |
| 35 | Bringing Out the Dead | 1999 | Martin Scorsese |
| 35 | Fury | 1936 | Fritz Lang |
| 35 | sex, lies, and videotape | 1989 | Steven Soderbergh |
| 35 | Angel’s Egg | 1985 | Mamoru Oshii |
| 35 | The Killers | 1946 | Robert Siodmak |
| 36 | Bob le Flambeur | 1956 | Jean-Pierre Melville |
| 36 | Green Snake | 1993 | Hark Tsui |
| 36 | Le Deuxième Souffle | 1966 | Jean-Pierre Melville |
| 36 | Spider-Man 2 | 2004 | Sam Raimi |
| 36 | The Incredibles | 2004 | Brad Bird |
| 37 | Touchez Pas au Grisbi | 1954 | Jacques Becker |
| 38 | It Follows | 2014 | David Robert Mitchell |
| 39 | Bad Day at Black Rock | 1955 | John Sturges |
| 39 | Black Christmas | 1974 | Bob Clark |
| 39 | Claire’s Knee | 1970 | Éric Rohmer |
| 39 | Little Women | 2019 | Greta Gerwig |
| 39 | Manchester by the Sea | 2016 | Kenneth Lonergan |
| 39 | Ride Lonesome | 1959 | Budd Boetticher |
| 40 | Collateral | 2004 | Michael Mann |
| 40 | The Lighthouse | 2019 | Robert Eggers |
| 41 | A Fish Called Wanda | 1988 | Charles Crichton |
| 41 | Before Midnight | 2013 | Richard Linklater |
| 41 | Insiang | 1976 | Lino Brocka |
| 41 | The Lusty Men | 1952 | Nicholas Ray |
| 42 | A Nightmare on Elm Street | 1984 | Wes Craven |
| 42 | Ex Machina | 2014 | Alex Garland |
| 42 | Roman Holiday | 1953 | William Wyler |
| 42 | The Sixth Sense | 1999 | M. Night Shyamalan |
| 43 | Election | 1999 | Alexander Payne |
| 43 | Through a Glass Darkly | 1961 | Ingmar Bergman |
| 44 | The Florida Project | 2017 | Sean Baker |
| 44 | The Witch | 2015 | Robert Eggers |
| 44 | Total Recall | 1990 | Paul Verhoeven |
| 45 | Aftersun | 2022 | Charlotte Wells |
| 45 | Canyon Passage | 1946 | Jacques Tourneur |
| 46 | Hot Fuzz | 2007 | Edgar Wright |
| 47 | Metropolitan | 1990 | Whit Stillman |
| 47 | The Naked Spur | 1953 | Anthony Mann |
| 48 | My Man Godfrey | 1936 | Gregory La Cava |
| 48 | Prince of Darkness | 1987 | John Carpenter |
| 48 | Othello | 1951 | Orson Welles |
| 48 | Trust | 1990 | Hal Hartley |
| 50 | My Winnipeg | 2007 | Guy Maddin |
| 52 | Blade Runner 2049 | 2017 | Denis Villeneuve |
| 52 | The Princess Bride | 1987 | Rob Reiner |
| 54 | Fallen Angels | 1995 | Kar-Wai Wong |
| 54 | To Live and Die in L.A. | 1985 | William Friedkin |
| 56 | Safety Last! | 1923 | Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor |
| 56 | Spring Breakers | 2012 | Harmony Korine |
| 57 | Paterson | 2016 | Jim Jarmusch |
| 59 | Reservoir Dogs | 1992 | Quentin Tarantino |
| 60 | Pickup on South Street | 1953 | Samuel Fuller |
| 60 | The Big Heat | 1953 | Fritz Lang |
| 63 | Audition | 1999 | Takashi Miike |
| 70 | Uncut Gems | 2019 | Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie |
| 71 | L.A. Confidential | 1997 | Curtis Hanson |
| 75 | Rififi | 1955 | Jules Dassin |
| 77 | Her | 2013 | Spike Jonze |