An alternative to the Official Top 250 Sci/fi.

Sorted by average rating on films with at least 25,000 ratings.

Made judgment calls on what is/isn't science fiction.

Excluding Casino Royale, Adaptation, Memento, Bacurau, Mauvais Sang, Labyrinth of Cinema, Nowhere...

Excluding specials that tie in to TV series or miniseries that spawn series: Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, Samurai Jack, Sense8, Black Mirror.

Excluding extended music videos or album tie-ins. Dirty Computer and Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem to focus on narrative films.

Short films are included as some key science fiction films are shorts. Miniseries which form stand-alone films and don't tie into ongoing series are included.

I find Letterboxd inconsistent on whether nuclear holocaust films count as sci/fi. I tend to say yes. They tend to say: sometimes. When the Wind Blows was sci/fi per Letterboxd for a while. But I think by that logic so are Dr. Strangelove and Fail-Safe.

If Frankenstein is sci/fi, surely Young Frankenstein is a blend of comedy and sci/fi.

Zombie movies remain a point of contention as well. I call zombie movies sci/fi.

To note where this list differs from Letterboxd's genres, I've placed a * next to all films which Letterboxd does not recognize as sci/fi.

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Some statistics.

By decade:
1900s -- 1
1910s -- 0
1920s -- 1
1930s -- 2
1940s -- 0
1950s -- 1 <-- How bizarre
1960s -- 9
1970s -- 11
1980s -- 21
1990s -- 10
2000s -- 16
2010s -- 17
2020s -- 11 <-- Also kind of weird

Earliest film on the list is A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune). Newest is Poor Things.
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The list includes 5 short films under an hour long. Shortest film at 15 minutes is <A Trip to the Moon. Longest is the German TV miniseries World on a Wire at 213 minutes.

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Christopher Nolan is the most common director on the list with 4 films, but there are a lot of caveats. The Dark Knight is a film not labeled as sci/fi I chose to include; Memento is also not labeled as sci/fi and I excluded it. So he has between 3 and 5 films, depending on your definition of sci/fi.

Directors with 3 films:
Stanley Kubrick, James Cameron, and Denis Villeneuve

Directors with 2 films:
Hertzfeldt, Tarkovsky, Scott, Russo Brothers, Zemeckis, Bird, Jonze, Gilliam, Miyazaki, Frankenheimer, Romero

I have no idea why people don't appreciate Steven Spielberg or David Cronenberg.

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There are 4 Spider-Man films from 3 different film series.

Several franchises are represented with 3 entries.
The Star Wars franchise has 3 entries
There are 3 Evangelion films, two from the reboot film series.
There are 3 Marvel Cinematic Universe films

The following franchises have 2 entries:
Alien, Terminator, Blade Runner, Living Dead, World of Tomorrow

There are also 2 unrelated Frankenstein films.

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The list includes 21 animated films.

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10 Notable absences based on the following list: letterboxd.com/darrencb/list/vote-best-sci-fi-films-of-all-time/
E.T. <-- Duh, people
Under the Skin
Annihilation
Close Encounters of the Third Kind <-- C'mon!
Guardians of the Galaxy
District 9
Gravity
The Martian
Edge of Tomorrow
12 Monkeys

10 Other notable absences based on my own humble opinions: letterboxd.com/chris_coke/list/100-greatest-thought-provoking-science-fiction/
Upstream Color
Things to Come (1936)
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Dark City
Forbidden Planet
Destination Moon
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
Island of Lost Souls

10 Other notable absences based on the thoughts of emeritus Letterboxd reviewer extraordinaire, Adam Cook: letterboxd.com/lordcookie/list/100-favourite-sci-fi-films/

(Link seems to be broken; trust me there was a great sci/fi list there once. I wish I had written down more entries from it.)

Total Recall
Silent Running
Starship Troopers
Memories
Escape from New York
Altered States
L'invenzione di Morel
Re-Animator
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Alphaville