The Act of Killing Tops 20-Documentary Ranking as Arrival of a Train Places 20th
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Nov 12
The Act of Killing Tops 20-Documentary Ranking as Arrival of a Train Places 20th
2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Nov 12
Summary
The 20-film ranking puts Joshua Oppenheimer’s 2012 The Act of Killing at No. 1, calling its re-enactment of Indonesia’s anti-communist genocide a searing study of violence, state power and guilt.
No. 2 goes to Alain Resnais’s 1956 Night and Fog, while No. 3 is Bart Layton’s The Imposter, underscoring the list’s emphasis on documentaries that reshape how real events are represented.
The selection spans 130 years of nonfiction cinema, from the 50-second 1896 Lumière short Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station at No. 20 to 2026 release A Child of My Own at No. 18.
Other high placements include Capturing the Friedmans at No. 4 and Grizzly Man at No. 5, with the list mixing formal experimentation, true-crime narratives, war reporting and survival stories.
Taken together, the ranking argues documentary influence comes not just from subject matter but from technique—from early cinematic realism to animation, embedded reporting and stylized re-enactment.