BAFTA Best British
by AlbinoAl | created - 11 Aug 2011 | updated - 9 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Odd Man Out (1947)
Approved | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A wounded Irish nationalist leader attempts to evade police following a failed robbery in Belfast.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, F.J. McCormick
Votes: 11,423
2. The Fallen Idol (1948)
Approved | 95 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
A butler working in a foreign embassy in London falls under suspicion when his wife accidentally falls to her death, the only witness being an impressionable young boy.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Ralph Richardson, Michèle Morgan, Sonia Dresdel, Bobby Henrey
Votes: 9,671 | Gross: $0.34M
3. The Third Man (1949)
Approved | 93 min | Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller
Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard
Votes: 181,884 | Gross: $0.45M
4. The Blue Lamp (1950)
Approved | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The daily routine of two London Policemen is interrupted by a killer.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Jack Warner, Dirk Bogarde, Jimmy Hanley, Robert Flemyng
Votes: 2,537
5. The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
Approved | 78 min | Comedy, Crime
A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipment of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country as miniature Eiffel Towers.
Director: Charles Crichton | Stars: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sidney James, Alfie Bass
Votes: 15,567
6. The Sound Barrier (1952)
Approved | 109 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Fictionalized story of British aerospace engineers solving the problem of supersonic flight.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Ralph Richardson, Ann Todd, Nigel Patrick, John Justin
Votes: 2,326
7. Genevieve (1953)
Approved | 86 min | Comedy
Two British couples pit their vintage automobiles against each other in an exciting cross-country race.
Director: Henry Cornelius | Stars: Dinah Sheridan, John Gregson, Kay Kendall, Kenneth More
Votes: 3,447
8. Hobson's Choice (1954)
Not Rated | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Widower Henry Hobson refuses to let his three daughters get married because he doesn't want to pay settlements, so they'll just have to outsmart him.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Charles Laughton, John Mills, Brenda de Banzie, Daphne Anderson
Votes: 8,812
9. Richard III (1955)
Not Rated | 161 min | Biography, Drama, History
Shakespeare's powerful tale of the wicked deformed King and his conquests, both on the battlefield and in the boudoir.
Director: Laurence Olivier | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Cedric Hardwicke, Nicholas Hannen, Ralph Richardson
Votes: 5,229
10. Reach for the Sky (1956)
Approved | 123 min | Biography, Drama, War
Biopic of RAF Group Captain Douglas Bader who, after having lost both legs, flew a British fighter plane during WWII.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Kenneth More, Muriel Pavlow, Lyndon Brook, Lee Patterson
Votes: 2,993
11. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
PG | 161 min | Adventure, Drama, War
British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.
Director: David Lean | Stars: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa
Votes: 233,376 | Gross: $44.91M
12. Room at the Top (1958)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, Romance
An ambitious young accountant plots to wed a wealthy factory owner's daughter despite falling in love with a married older woman.
Director: Jack Clayton | Stars: Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret, Heather Sears, Donald Wolfit
Votes: 7,331
13. Sapphire (1959)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The murder of a young woman in London exposes deep racial tensions and prejudices inherent in the area.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Nigel Patrick, Yvonne Mitchell, Michael Craig, Paul Massie
Votes: 2,309
14. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
Approved | 89 min | Drama, Romance
A rebellious, hard-living factory worker juggles relationships with two women, one of whom is married to another man but pregnant with his child.
Director: Karel Reisz | Stars: Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field, Rachel Roberts, Hylda Baker
Votes: 9,291
15. A Taste of Honey (1961)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama
A pregnant teenage girl must fend for herself when her mother remarries, leaving the girl with only a new male friend for support.
Director: Tony Richardson | Stars: Rita Tushingham, Dora Bryan, Robert Stephens, Murray Melvin
Votes: 6,366
16. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Approved | 218 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 314,495 | Gross: $44.82M
17. Tom Jones (1963)
Not Rated | 129 min | Adventure, Comedy, History
The romantic and chivalrous adventures of adopted bastard Tom Jones in 18th-century England.
Director: Tony Richardson | Stars: Albert Finney, Susannah York, George Devine, Rachel Kempson
Votes: 14,266 | Gross: $37.60M
18. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
PG | 95 min | Comedy, War
An unhinged American general orders a bombing attack on the Soviet Union, triggering a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically tries to stop.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn
Votes: 518,446 | Gross: $0.28M
19. The Ipcress File (1965)
Passed | 109 min | Drama, Thriller
In London, a wisecracking spy investigates the kidnapping and brainwashing of British scientists while dealing with the constraints of his agency's bureaucracy.
Director: Sidney J. Furie | Stars: Michael Caine, Nigel Green, Guy Doleman, Sue Lloyd
Votes: 17,594
20. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
Approved | 112 min | Drama, Thriller
Instead of coming in from the Cold War, British agent Alec Leamas chooses to face another mission.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Richard Burton, Oskar Werner, Claire Bloom, Sam Wanamaker
Votes: 18,825
21. A Man for All Seasons (1966)
G | 120 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Sir Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and remarry.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Robert Shaw, Leo McKern
Votes: 37,170 | Gross: $28.35M
22. The Crying Game (1992)
R | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A British soldier kidnapped by the IRA soon befriends one of his captors, who then becomes drawn into the soldier's world.
Director: Neil Jordan | Stars: Stephen Rea, Jaye Davidson, Forest Whitaker, Miranda Richardson
Votes: 60,076 | Gross: $62.55M
23. Shadowlands (1993)
PG | 131 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
C.S. Lewis, a world-renowned Christian theologian, writer and professor, leads a passionless life until he meets spirited poet Joy Gresham from the U.S.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Debra Winger, Julian Fellowes, Roddy Maude-Roxby
Votes: 20,451 | Gross: $25.84M
24. Shallow Grave (1994)
R | 89 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Three friends discover their new flatmate dead but loaded with cash.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor, Ken Stott
Votes: 66,255 | Gross: $2.88M
25. The Madness of King George (1994)
PG-13 | 110 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
When King George III goes mad, his Lieutenants try to adjust the rules to run the country without his participation.
Director: Nicholas Hytner | Stars: Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, Rupert Graves, Amanda Donohoe
Votes: 18,406 | Gross: $15.24M
26. Secrets & Lies (1996)
R | 136 min | Comedy, Drama
Following the death of her adoptive parents, a successful young black optometrist establishes contact with her biological mother -- a lonely white factory worker living in poverty in East London.
Director: Mike Leigh | Stars: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook
Votes: 47,211 | Gross: $13.42M
27. Nil by Mouth (1997)
R | 128 min | Drama
A rough, short-tempered patriarch of a working-class family sees his life and the relationships around him slowly unravel.
Director: Gary Oldman | Stars: Ray Winstone, Kathy Burke, Charlie Creed-Miles, Laila Morse
Votes: 10,199
28. Elizabeth (1998)
R | 124 min | Biography, Drama, History
The early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.
Director: Shekhar Kapur | Stars: Cate Blanchett, Liz Giles, Rod Culbertson, Paul Fox
Votes: 105,149 | Gross: $30.08M
29. East Is East (1999)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Drama
In early 1970s England, a Pakistani father finds the authority he has previously maintained challenged by his increasingly Anglicized children.
Director: Damien O'Donnell | Stars: Om Puri, Linda Bassett, Jordan Routledge, Archie Panjabi
Votes: 20,057 | Gross: $4.17M
30. Billy Elliot (2000)
R | 110 min | Drama, Music
A talented young boy becomes torn between his unexpected love of dance and the disintegration of his family.
Director: Stephen Daldry | Stars: Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Jean Heywood, Jamie Draven
Votes: 142,870 | Gross: $22.00M
31. Gosford Park (2001)
R | 137 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Set in the 1930s, a group of pretentious rich and famous get together for a weekend of relaxation at a hunting resort. But when a murder occurs, each one of these interesting characters becomes a suspect.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Maggie Smith, Ryan Phillippe, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas
Votes: 94,046 | Gross: $41.31M
32. The Warrior (2001)
R | 86 min | Adventure, Drama
In feudal India, a warrior (Khan) who renounces his role as the longitme enforcer to a local lord becomes the prey in a murderous hunt through the Himalayan mountains.
Director: Asif Kapadia | Stars: Irrfan Khan, Puru Chibber, Aino Annuddin, Manoj Mishra
Votes: 2,794 | Gross: $0.05M
33. Touching the Void (2003)
R | 106 min | Documentary, Adventure, Drama
The true story of two climbers and their perilous journey up the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.
Director: Kevin Macdonald | Stars: Simon Yates, Joe Simpson, Brendan Mackey, Nicholas Aaron
Votes: 38,112 | Gross: $4.59M
34. My Summer of Love (2004)
R | 86 min | Drama, Romance
In the Yorkshire countryside, working-class tomboy Mona meets the exotic, pampered Tamsin. Over the summer season, the two young women discover they have much to teach one another, and much to explore together.
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski | Stars: Natalie Press, Emily Blunt, Paddy Considine, Dean Andrews
Votes: 21,790 | Gross: $0.99M
35. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
G | 85 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Wallace and his loyal dog, Gromit, set out to discover the mystery behind the garden sabotage that plagues their village and threatens the annual giant vegetable growing contest.
Directors: Steve Box, Nick Park | Stars: Peter Sallis, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Peter Kay
Votes: 146,139 | Gross: $56.11M
36. The Last King of Scotland (2006)
R | 123 min | Biography, Drama, History
Based on the events of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's regime as seen by his personal physician during the 1970s.
Director: Kevin Macdonald | Stars: James McAvoy, Forest Whitaker, Gillian Anderson, Kerry Washington
Votes: 196,081 | Gross: $17.61M
37. This Is England (2006)
Not Rated | 101 min | Crime, Drama
A young boy becomes friends with a gang of skinheads. Friends soon become like family, and relationships will be pushed to the very limit.
Director: Shane Meadows | Stars: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley, Andrew Shim
Votes: 128,766 | Gross: $0.33M
38. Man on Wire (2008)
PG-13 | 94 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime
A look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974, what some consider, "the artistic crime of the century".
Director: James Marsh | Stars: Philippe Petit, Jean François Heckel, Jean-Louis Blondeau, Annie Allix
Votes: 58,684 | Gross: $2.96M
39. Fish Tank (2009)
Not Rated | 123 min | Drama
Everything changes for 15-year-old Mia when her mum brings home a new boyfriend.
Director: Andrea Arnold | Stars: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing, Rebecca Griffiths
Votes: 65,053 | Gross: $0.37M
40. The King's Speech (2010)
R | 118 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of King George VI, his unexpected ascension to the throne of the British Empire in 1936, and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch overcome his stammer.
Director: Tom Hooper | Stars: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Derek Jacobi
Votes: 708,111 | Gross: $138.80M
41. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
R | 127 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet Agent within MI6.
Director: Tomas Alfredson | Stars: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong
Votes: 212,564 | Gross: $24.15M
42. Skyfall (2012)
PG-13 | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond's loyalty to M is tested when her past comes back to haunt her. When MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris, Judi Dench
Votes: 731,295 | Gross: $304.36M
43. Gravity (2013)
PG-13 | 91 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Dr Ryan Stone, an engineer on her first time on a space mission, and Matt Kowalski, an astronaut on his final expedition, have to survive in space after they are hit by debris while spacewalking.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris, Orto Ignatiussen
Votes: 863,415 | Gross: $274.09M
44. The Theory of Everything (2014)
PG-13 | 123 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Stephen Hawking gets unprecedented success in the field of physics despite being diagnosed with motor neuron disease at the age of 21. He defeats awful odds as his first wife Jane aids him loyally.
Director: James Marsh | Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Tom Prior, Sophie Perry
Votes: 482,257 | Gross: $35.89M
45. Brooklyn (2015)
PG-13 | 117 min | Drama, Romance
An Irish immigrant lands in 1950s Brooklyn, where she quickly falls into a romance with a local. When her past catches up with her, however, she must choose between two countries and the lives that exist within.
Director: John Crowley | Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent
Votes: 150,533 | Gross: $38.32M
46. I, Daniel Blake (2016)
R | 100 min | Drama
After surviving a heart-attack, a 59-year-old carpenter must fight bureaucratic forces to receive Employment and Support Allowance.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Sharon Percy, Briana Shann
Votes: 64,798 | Gross: $0.26M
47. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
R | 115 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.
Director: Martin McDonagh | Stars: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones
Votes: 555,282 | Gross: $54.51M
48. The Favourite (2018)
R | 119 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
In early 18th-century England, the status quo at the court is upset when a new servant arrives and endears herself to a frail Queen Anne.
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos | Stars: Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult
Votes: 233,692 | Gross: $34.37M
49. 1917 (2019)
R | 119 min | Action, Drama, History
April 6th, 1917. As an infantry battalion assembles to wage war deep in enemy territory, two soldiers are assigned to race against time and deliver a message that will stop 1,600 men from walking straight into a deadly trap.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Dean-Charles Chapman, George MacKay, Daniel Mays, Colin Firth
Votes: 676,085 | Gross: $159.23M
50. Promising Young Woman (2020)
R | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Nothing in Cassie's life is what it appears to be - she's wickedly smart, tantalizingly cunning, and she's living a secret double life. Now, an unexpected encounter is about to give Cassie a chance to right the wrongs from the past.
Director: Emerald Fennell | Stars: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown
Votes: 211,820
51. Belfast (2021)
PG-13 | 98 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A young boy and his working-class Belfast family experience the tumultuous late 1960s.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Jude Hill, Lewis McAskie, Caitríona Balfe, Jamie Dornan
Votes: 92,468
52. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
R | 114 min | Comedy, Drama
Two lifelong friends find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship, with alarming consequences for both of them.
Director: Martin McDonagh | Stars: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Pat Shortt
Votes: 253,291
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