GREAT CINEMAMASTER LIST
Menu

The Essential 713, made interactive

Find your next
great film.

Search 713 spoiler-free recommendations from 1916 to 2026. Filter by the night you want—not the list you’re supposed to finish.

Direct film viewShowing master rank #615 on its own—not above the ranking.
Refine this collection

Your canon

Back up / restore my film dataLoading your progress…Saved only in this browser
Artwork
DirectorAll directors

Most represented · 6+ films

More recurring directors · 3–5 films54
All directors · surname A–Z438
ActorAll actors

Most represented actors

Big Three membership
Major award winners

1 selected film

Master Rank balances Greatness, Engagement, and Ease. Sort by Greatness for the artistic-canon view.

Director:
Cast:
View Swing Time film page
Original poster artwork · Great Cinema Master List

Spoiler-free premise

A dancer travels to New York to earn enough money to marry and meets a talented new partner.

Read expanded premiseLonger, still spoiler-free

Dancer and gambler Lucky Garnett goes to New York to earn twenty-five thousand dollars before marrying hometown fiancée Margaret. He meets dance instructor Penny Carroll, and their professional partnership complicates the goal he is supposedly pursuing.

Why it belongs

In Swing Time, Astaire and Rogers make romantic negotiation look like movement itself, with dance numbers whose timing reveals equality, resistance, and attraction.

Read expanded why it belongsThe fuller editorial case

A lucky quarter, rehearsal rooms, snowy streets, Art Deco stages, Jerome Kern's songs, and full-body framing let courtship become choreography—Astaire's airy exactitude meets Rogers's grounded, responsive wit.

Major award record

Metadata only · zero points in 40/40/20
Academy Awards1 win1937 · official ceremony record ↗

Plus 1 additional win

No headline-category win to name

Totals include every recorded competitive win. Only Picture or top-film honors, Direction, Screenplay, and lead or supporting performances are named.

Good for
Film Club
Descriptive guidance derived from rating, genre, runtime, mood, and GCML scores.

Institutional reference ranks

Sight & Sound—IMDb Top 250—AFI 10090
Reference metadata only · not part of the 40/40/20 score

Great Cinema Master List scores

Greatness8.5
Engagement7.6
Ease6.9

English · Not Rated
Narrative Feature
Mood: Funny & Lively