I don't recommend these films to everyone, though I hope everyone will be able to find something they like on this list. It includes movies I think most people should see, and ones that would only appeal to people with certain niche interests. Directors' names included to help identify the films.
2020s
Wife of a Spy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2020)
Looking for Witch Apprentices (Junichi Sato, 2020)
The Gulf of Silence (M.K. Rhodes, 2020)
Cliff Walkers (Zhang Yimou, 2021)
Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021)
Drive My Car (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2021)
Bad Luck Banging, or Loony Porn (Radu Jude, 2021)
The Orbital Children (Mitsuo Iso, 2022)
Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt, 2022)
Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, 2023)
The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, 2023)
Red Rooms (Pascal Plante, 2023)
Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2024)
Look Back (Kiyotaka Oshiyama, 2024)
Cloud (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2024)
The Colors Within (Naoko Yamada)
2010s
Life Without Principle (Johnnie To, 2011)
Romancing in Thin Air (Johnnie To, 2012)
Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg, 2012)
Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel, 2012)
Universal Solder: Day of Reckoning (John Hyams, 2012)
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata, 2013)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
Blackhat (Michael Mann, 2015)
Happy Hour (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2015)
Office (Johnnie To, 2015)
Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)
BPM (Robin Campillo, 2017)
The Wolf House (Cristóbal León & Joaquín Cociña, 2018)
Liz and the Blue Bird (Naoko Yamada, 2018)
Ash is Purest White (Jia Zhangke, 2018)
Shadow (Zhang Yimou, 2018)
On-Gaku: Our Sound (Kenji Iwaisawa, 2019)
Dark Waters (Todd Haynes, 2019)
First Cow (Kelly Reichardt, 2019)
2000s
American Psycho (Mary Harron, 2000)
Live Nude Girls Unite! (Julia Query & Vicky Funari, 2000)
Digimon Adventure: Our War Game (Mamoru Hosoda, 2000)
Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000)
Platform (Jia Zhangke, 2000)
The Gleaners and I (Agnès Varda, 2000)
Devils on the Doorstep (Jiang Wen, 2000)
The Day I Became a Woman (Marziyeh Meshkiny, 2000)
Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001)
Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2001)
Faat-Kiné (Ousmane Sembene, 2001)
Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
Millennium Actress (Satoshi Kon, 2001)
Princess Arete (Sunao Katabuchi, 2001)
Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002)
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-Liang, 2003)
PTU (Johnnie To, 2003)
Running on Karma (Johnnie To, 2003)
Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, 2004)
Ghost in the Shell: Innocence (Mamoru Oshii, 2004)
Breaking News (Johnnie To, 2004)
The World (Jia Zhangke, 2004)
The Intruder (Claire Denis, 2004)
Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki, 2004)
Linda Linda Linda (Nobuhiro Yamashita, 2005)
Noroi: The Curse (Koji Shiraishi, 2005)
Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)
Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy, 2007)
Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh, 2008)
35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis, 2008)
Ponyo (Hayao Miyazaki, 2008)
Speed Racer (Lilly & Lana Wachowski, 2008)
Sparrow (Johnnie To, 2008)
Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2008)
Occult (Koji Shiraishi, 2009)
Vengeance (Johnnie To, 2009)
Melody for a Street Organ (Kira Muratova, 2009)
1990s
The Company of Strangers (Cynthia Scott, 1990)
Spontaneous Combustion (Tobe Hooper, 1990)
A Moment of Romance (Benny Chan, 1990)
To Sleep With Anger (Charles Burnett, 1990)
Only Yesterday (Isao Takahata, 1991)
A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang, 1991)
Center Stage (Stanley Kwan, 1991)
Once Upon a Time in China (Tsui Hark, 1991)
The Body Beautiful (Ngozi Onwurah, 1991)
Thalapathi (Mani Ratnam, 1991)
The Night (Mohammad Malas, 1992)
Deep Cover (Bill Duke, 1992)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (David Lynch, 1992)
Terrorism and Kebab (Sherif Arafa, 1992)
Minbo: The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion (Juzo Itami, 1992)
Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)
Sonatine (Takeshi Kitano, 1992)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992)
Green Snake (Tsui Hark, 1993)
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (Alanis Obomsawin, 1993)
Patlabor 2 (Mamoru Oshii, 1993)
Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993)
Cabin Boy (Adam Resnick, 1994)
Pompoko (Isao Takahata, 1994)
Sátántangó (Bela Tarr, 1994)
Shopping (Paul W.S. Anderson, 1994)
Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995)
Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo, 1995)
Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow, 1995)
Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995)
Devil in a Blue Dress (Carl Franklin, 1995)
The Watermelon Woman (Cheryl Dunye, 1996)
Spring and Chaos (Shoji Kawamori, 1996)
Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)
Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon, 1997)
Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997)
The End of Evangelion (Hideaki Anno, 1997)
Happy Together (Wong Kar-Wai, 1997)
Hana-bi (Takeshi Kitano, 1997)
Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)
The Big Lebowski (Joel & Ethan Coen, 1998)
Serpent's Path (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1998)
Eyes of the Spider (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1998)
Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998)
Catnapped! (Takashi Nakamura, 1998)
Flowers of Shanghai (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1998)
Dil se.. (Mani Ratnam, 1998)
The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami, 1999)
Charisma (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1999)
Compensation (Zeinabu irene Davis, 1999)
Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999)
1980s
The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
Babylon (Franco Rosso, 1980)
Every Man for Himself (Jean-Luc Godard, 1980)
Thief (Michael Mann, 1981)
Son of the White Mare (Marcell Jancovics, 1981)
Chie the Brat (Isao Takahata, 1981)
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
The Outcasts (Robert Wynne-Simmons, 1982)
Losing Ground (Kathleen Collins, 1982)
Duel to the Death (Ching Siu-Tung, 1983)
Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)
L'argent (Robert Bresson, 1983)
Nostalgia (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1983)
Dressed in Blue (Antonio Giménez Rico, 1983)
My Brother's Wedding (Charles Burnett, 1983)
Ghost (Takashi Ito, 1984)
When the Tenth Month Comes (Dang Nhat Minh, 1984)
Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer (Mamoru Oshii, 1984)
8 Diagram Pole Fighter (Lau Kar-Leung, 1984)
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki, 1984)
The Killing Floor (Bill Duke, 1984)
The Ties That Bind (Su Friedrich, 1984)
The Funeral (Juzo Itami, 1984)
Four Days in July (Mike Leigh, 1984)
Lonely Heart (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1985)
Four Sisters (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1985)
Crime Wave (John Paizs, 1985)
Angel's Egg (Mamoru Oshii, 1985)
Castle in the Sky (Hayao Miyazaki, 1986)
Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)
His Motorbike, Her Island (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1986)
Poisson d'Avril (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1986)
Golden Eighties (Chantal Akerman, 1986)
Peking Opera Blues (Tsui Hark, 1986)
The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986)
Where is My Friend's House? (Abbas Kiarostami, 1987)
The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (Kazuo Hara, 1987)
My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988)
Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988)
Une Histoire de Vent (Joris Ivens & Marceline Loridan-Ivens, 1988)
Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
Tetsuo the Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989)
Kiki's Delivery Service (Hayao Miyazaki, 1989)
Nostos: The Return (Franco Piavoli, 1989)
1970s
I Am Somebody (Madeline Anderson, 1970)
Zorns Lemma (Hollis Frampton, 1970)
Wanda (Barbara Loden, 1970)
British Sounds (Jean-Luc Godard, 1970)
A Touch of Zen (King Hu, 1970)
Fiddler on the Roof (Norman Jewison, 1971)
Animal Treasure Island (Yasuji Mori, 1971)
UFOs (Lillian Schwartz, 1971)
Statues Hardly Ever Smile (Stan Lathan, 1971)
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)
Cuadecuc, Vampir (Pere Portabella, 1971)
Sambizanga (Sarah Maldoror, 1972)
The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May, 1972)
The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell, 1972)
Property is No Longer a Theft (Elio Petri, 1973)
Ludwig (Luchino Visconti, 1973)
The Spirit of the Beehive (Victor Erice, 1973)
The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Ivan Dixon, 1973)
The Fate of Lee Khan (King Hu, 1973)
Duvidha (Mani Kaul, 1973)
Battles Without Honor and Humanity (Kinji Fukasaku, 1973)
Penda's Fen (Alan Clarke, 1974)
The Patagonia Rebellion (Héctor Olivera, 1974)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah, 1974)
The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived (Heiny Srour, 1974)
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Martin Scorsese, 1974)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, 1975)
The Desert of the Tartars (Valerio Zurlini, 1976)
Harlan County U.S.A. (Barbara Kopple, 1976)
Pressure (Horace Ové, 1976)
One Sings, the Other Doesn't (Agnès Varda, 1977)
The Ascent (Larisa Shepitko, 1977)
Polygon (Anatoly Petrov, 1977)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977)
Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977)
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Lau Kar-Leung, 1978)
Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1978)
Tale of Tales (Yuri Norstein, 1979)
Christ Stopped at Eboli (Francesco Rosi, 1979)
Real Life (Albert Brooks, 1979)
Galaxy Express 999 (Rintaro, 1979)
Bush Mama (Haile Gerima, 1979)
The Man Who Stole the Sun (Kazuhiko Hasegawa, 1979)
Chilly Scenes of Winter (Joan Micklin Silver, 1979)
1960s
Lola (Jacques Demy, 1961)
Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961)
Cléo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)
Love Under the Crucifix (Kinuyo Tanaka, 1962)
Barravento (Glauber Rocha, 1962)
The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962)
An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962)
The House is Black (Forough Farrokhzad, 1963)
High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
Blast of Silence (Allen Baron, 1963)
When the Cat Comes (Vojtěch Jasný, 1963)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)
Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1964)
Pale Flower (Masahiro Shinoda, 1964)
Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964)
Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer, 1964)
Red Beard (Akira Kurosawa, 1965)
Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, 1965)
Black Girl (Ousmane Sembene, 1965)
Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)
The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967)
Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)
Entranced Earth (Glauber Rocha, 1967)
Dragon Inn (King Hu, 1967)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
if.... (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)
Surface Tension (Hollis Frampton, 1968)
Uptight (Jules Dassin, 1968)
Horus, Prince of the Sun (Isao Takahata, 1968)
The Night of Counting the Years (Shadi Abdel Salam, 1969)
1950s
Un Chant d'Amour (Jean Genet, 1950)
In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
Awaara (Raj Kapoor, 1951)
The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino, 1951)
Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson, 1951)
Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
Rancho Notorious (Fritz Lang, 1952)
The Lusty Men (Nicholas Ray, 1952)
Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (Jacques Tati, 1953)
Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
The Earrings of Madame de... (Max Ophüls, 1953)
Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
The Crucified Lovers (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1954)
Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955)
The Long Gray Line (John Ford, 1955)
Artists and Models (Frank Tashlin, 1955)
The Tall T (Budd Boetticher, 1957)
What's Opera, Doc? (Chuck Jones, 1957)
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (Frank Tashlin, 1957)
L'opéra-mouffe (Agnès Varda, 1958)
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
Ivan the Terrible Part II: The Boyars' Plot (Sergei Eisenstein, 1958)
Some Came Running (Vincente Minnelli, 1958)
Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)
Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)
North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (Nobuo Nakagawa, 1959)
1940s
Christmas in July (Preston Sturges, 1940)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
Hellzapoppin' (H.C. Potter, 1941)
Bambi (David Hand et al., 1942)
To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942)
Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943)
The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson, 1943)
The Gang's All Here (Busby Berkeley, 1943)
Ivan the Terrible (Sergei Eisenstein, 1944)
Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945)
No Regrets for Our Youth (Akira Kurosawa, 1946)
The Man I Love (Raoul Walsh, 1946)
The Five Women Around Utamaro (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1946)
Monsieur Verdoux (Charlie Chaplin, 1947)
The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (Max Ophüls, 1948)
Fort Apache (John Ford, 1948)
Spring in a Small Town (Fei Mu, 1948)
The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
Caught (Max Ophüls, 1949)
Here's to the Young Lady! (Keisuke Kinoshita, 1949)
1930s
Romance Sentimentale (Sergei Eisenstein, 1930)
Swing You Sinners! (Sergei Eisenstein, 1930)
Little Lise (Jean Gremillion, 1930)
The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch, 1931)
M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
Night Nurse (William Wellman, 1931)
Mädchen in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, 1931)
Boudu Saved from Drowning (Jean Renoir, 1932)
Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn Le Roy, 1933)
Balloon Land (Ub Iwerks, 1935)
The Lower Depths (Jean Renoir, 1936)
Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936)
You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang, 1937)
Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)
Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938)
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1939)
1920s
Way Down East (D.W. Griffith, 1920)
One Week (Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline, 1920)
Tol'able David (Henry King, 1921)
Foolish Wives (Erich von Stroheim, 1922)
Häxan (Benjamin Christensen, 1922)
Greed (Erich von Stroheim, 1924)
The Last Laugh (F.W. Murnau, 1924)
Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
Orochi (Buntaro Futagawa, 1925)
The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin, 1925)
A Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926)
Underworld (Josef von Sternberg, 1927)
October (Sergei Eisenstein, 1927)
The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928)
Spies (Fritz Lang, 1928)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928)
The Wedding March (Erich von Stroheim, 1928)
Beggars of Life (William Wellman, 1928)
Arsenal (Alexander Dovzhenko, 1929)
1910s
The Birth of a Flower (F. Percy Smith, 1910)
Les Vampires (Louis Feuillade, 1915)
Terje Vigen (Victor Sjöström, 1917)
J'accuse! (Abel Gance, 1919)
1900s
New York Subway (G.W. Bitzer, 1905)
A Trip Down Market Street (Harry Miles, 1906)
On the Barricade (Alice Guy-Blaché, 1906)
Tunneling the English Channel (George Méliès, 1907)
A Corner in Wheat (D.W. Griffith, 1909)
1890s
Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (Louis Lumière, 1895)
Leaving Jerusalem by Railway (Alexandre Promio, 1897)
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