On the Independent Lens film companion sites, we ask filmmakers to list their top three favorite films. Yes, they protest when we say “only three,” and sometimes they list more than three (it’s not easy to direct directors.) From childhood favorites like The Wizard of Oz and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to film school favorites like Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil, their choices are as individual as the filmmakers themselves.

See who chose what below. You can also view the complete list compiled from Independent Lens filmmakers of past seasons, which also includes the names of the directors. Download a printer-friendly version to use when you’re ready to see the best of the best. Prepare to expand your film watching horizons!

Directors Henriette Mantel and Steve Skrovan
AN UNREASONABLE MAN
Henriette: Mary Poppins, Grey Gardens and either The Sting or The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad. I know that’s four but come on, how can I choose my favorite movies? I love most of them in their own way.
Steve: 1) Dr. Strangelove 2) Midnight Run 3) Toy Story

Director Lizzie Gottlieb
TODAY’S MAN
The 400 Blows, Grey Gardens, Best Boy, Dog Day Afternoon (but the movie Elf reminds me most of my brother)

Writer/Director Sharat Raju
AMERICAN MADE
This is a dangerous question to ask any filmmaker, so I’ll answer with this caveat: These are my three favorite films of this second. In the next second the answer will change. Star Wars, The Shawshank Redemption and Brazil. Okay fine, I’ll add three more: High Noon, Life is Beautiful and A Clockwork Orange.

Director Yoni Brook and Producer Musa Syeed
A SON'S SACRIFICE
1) The Inner Tour 2) Killer of Sheep 3) In Search of Our Fathers

Director Xiaolu Guo
HOW IS YOUR FISH TODAY?
Breathless from Godard, Fear Eats the Soul from Fassbinder, Sans Soleil from Chris Marker

Director/Producer Marco Williams
BANISHED
The Times of Harvey Milk, Killer of Sheep, Open City and The Battle of Algiers

Director Macky Alston
HARD ROAD HOME
Today, they are: Chronicle of a Summer (dir. Jean Rouch), Shoot the Piano Player (dir. Francois Truffaut), The Piano (dir. Jane Campion)

Director Daniel Junge
IRON LADIES OF LIBERIA
A miserably difficult question. I can tell you that Star Wars, Sex, Lies and Videotape and Hoop Dreams were all instrumental at different times in life in influencing me to become a filmmaker.

Co-Director/Producer Elizabeth Massie and Director Matthew Buzzell
COMPAÑERAS
Liz: Tender Mercies, Lawrence of Arabia, The Black Stallion
Matthew: I have to list five! Chinatown, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, From Russia With Love, Zabriskie Point, The Little Fugitive

Director/Producer Gwendolen Cates
WATER FLOWING TOGETHER
Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, Aguirre: The Wrath of God

Producer/Director/Writer Aaron Woolf
KING CORN
(Co-producers Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis would’ve said things like Field of Dreams and 2001: A Space Odyssey, so they got overruled.)

L'Atalante (1934) France - Jean and Juliette take a barge to Paris. It's kind of a fairy tale; kind of a documentary; kind of a surrealist dream—I miss the characters when I don't see this film for a while.
Memories of Underdevelopment (1968) Cuba - Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s masterpiece. A mix of documentary and fiction. A poignantly lost protagonist and a film powerfully rooted in place and time without falling prey to the ideological pressures that surrounded its production.
Brother's Keeper (1992) USA - This is one of the first documentaries I remember seeing in a movie theater. The immediacy of the story and the larger-than-life presence of the characters made me want to be a documentary filmmaker.

Director/Producer Lisette Marie Flanary
NA KAMALEI: The Men of Hula
I hate questions like this! It’s so hard to just pick three…
1. Fallen Angels or Chungking Express by Wong Kar Wai
2. Three Colors Trilogy (Blue/White/Red) by Krzysztof Kieslowski or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind by Michel Gondry
3. Latcho Drom by Tony Gatlif or Children of Men by Alfonso Cuarón

I know that adds up to eight films but any three of them are tops in my book.

Director/Producer Tami Yeager
A DREAM IN DOUBT
Three of my favorite documentaries are To Be and To Have, Who Killed Vincent Chin? and Latcho Drom.

Director/Producer Socheata Poeuv
NEW YEAR BABY
That’s a very loaded question, but some of my favorites include Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Fog of War and (so I don’t sound so austere) Groundhog Day.

Director/Producer Susanne Mason
WRIT WRITER
Among many other favorites are: Salesman, Hearts and Minds and Thin Blue Line.

Director/Writer/Producer Morgan Neville
THE COOL SCHOOL
Only three? Duck Soup, All the President’s Men, L.A. Confidential

Director Louise Osmond
DEEP WATER
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 21 Grams, Grey Gardens

Producers/Directors Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim
ABDUCTION: The Megumi Yokota Story
Chris: The Deer Hunter, The Manchurian Candidate, Bottle Rocket
Patty: The Wizard of Oz, Sweetie, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf

Check out the filmmakers' picks in Volume Three >>

View the complete list of films >>

Want to know more about these and other film faves? Check it out at IMDb >>