In 1952, the British Film Institute’s Sight and Sound team had the novel idea of asking critics to name the greatest films of all time. The tradition became decennial, increasing in size and prestige as the decades passed. Now a major bellwether of critical opinion on cinema and this year’s edition (its eighth) is the largest ever, with 1,639 participating critics, programmers, curators, archivists and academics each submitting their top ten ballot - with results published in Dec 1, 2022.

For two weeks, starting Thu, Dec 29 through Thu, Jan 12, we’ll begin a daily count upwards from the surprise #1 - pausing for a hand-selected New Year’s Day marathon - and continue each day to #10. At which point, we reverse course with a full-blast 4-day countdown back to #1.