The Arts and Faith Forum has released their annual Top 100 Spiritually Significant Films list. The list contains a whole bevy of interesting films including classics and more popular fare. The films are chosen by members of the Arts and Faith forum through a somewhat convoluted process of voting and as such some films rank higher than they should while other great films get passed over altogether (at least in my opinion).

That being said, here are the top twenty:

1. Ordet (The Word)
2. Le Fils (The Son)
3. The Miracle Maker (The Miracle Maker: The Story of Jesus)
4. The Gospel According to Matthew (Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo)
5. The Diary of a Country Priest (Le Journal D’un Curé De Campagne)
6. The Passion of Joan of Arc (La Passion De Jeanne D’arc)
7. The Decalogue (Dekalog)
8. Babette’s Feast (Babettes Gæstebud)
9. A Man Escaped (Un condamné à mort s’est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut)
10. Andrei Rublev (Andrey Rublyov)
11. Balthazar (Au Hasard Balthazar)
12. The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde Inseglet)
13. Ikiru (To Live)
14. Winter Light (Nattvardsgästerna)
15. The Mission
16. The Apostle
17. Three Colors Trilogy
18. Jesus of Nazareth
19. Jesus of Montreal (Jésus De Montréal)
20. The Flowers of St. Francis (Francesco, giullare di Dio)

There are not too many surprises in the top twenty, though I can’t believe The Miracle Maker made the top twenty, let alone number three!  I was glad to see Magnolia, one of my personal favourites, make number 23.

I was also happy to see that three of the films in Taylor’s fledgling Faith & Film club made the list (Millions #42; Babette’s Feast #8; and Hotel Rwanda #65).

There is much more I would like to comment on, but I do not have time right now. So you’re just going to have to go view the entire list for yourself: Top 100 Spiritually Significant Films. For my brief comments on last year’s list, see here. In addition you may be interested in looking at my “Essential Films for Theologians: The ‘Director’s Cut’â€? or my “Essential Films of 2005 for Theologians – Extended Edition.”