The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever

1915 E2 - Anthony Slide

Anthony Slide, prolific film historian, author, and archivist, personally knew a few people who acted in his selections of 1915. This secondhand view of their production

1915 E1 - The White-Hooded Elephant in the Room

To borrow a phrase from an upcoming guest of this season, Jeremy Mathews: 1915 has a white-hooded elephant in the room. D.W. Griffith’s racist epic The Birth of a Nation

1914 E7 - Wartime Modernity

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 conversati

1914 E6 - Bret Wood

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 so

1914 E5 - Beja Margitházi

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 betwe

1914 E4 - Brian Darr

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 L

1914 E3 - Elyse Singer

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

1914 E2 - Susan Potter

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

1914 E1 - The Great War Begins

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

1913 E7 - Yes, a Milestone Year

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

1913 E6 - Charlie Keil

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.

1913 E5 - Paul Gagliardi

Paul Gagliardi, Teaching Associate Professor of English at Marquette University, selects almost entirely comedy shorts for his 1913 highlights, although they connect with

1913 E4 - Michael Gebert

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 a

1913 E3 - Julie K Allen

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 select

1913 E2 - Shelley Stamp

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

1913 E1 - A Milestone Year?

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 an

1912 E7 - The Ol' Power Players Hang in There

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

1912 E6 - Paul (PT) Klein

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 in

1912 E5 - Stephen Horne

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 g

1912 E4 - Marsha Gordon

Marsha Gordon, Professor of Film Studies at North Carolina State University, mostly highlights two directors credited with advancing film narrative with four picks. But s