From the Time Out website:

Love is a many-splendored thing. It’s also plenty painful, and sometimes absurdly hilarious. It can drive you wild with passion or make you feel like you’re losing your mind. It makes us do things we’d never think of doing normally, like sing or dance or commit crimes. At least, that’s how it’s portrayed in the movies. But even if a scant few of us would ever, say, rob a bank in the name of love, the fact is that love is perhaps the most elemental emotion a human being can feel. So it makes sense that filmmakers turn to it for inspiration more than any other.

That makes choosing the greatest films about love a difficult task – frankly, there’s just so many of them. To help us curate this list, we chatted to more than 100 filmmakers, actors and writers, including those from Time Out. Not just any filmmakers, actors and writers, either. When it comes to cinematic romance, these are folks you can trust. Like Nicholas Sparks, author of The Notebook. And Notting Hill director Richard Curtis. Shoot, we even asked the ultimate romantic, Miss Piggy. Whether you prefer comedies or dramas, horror or sci-fi, we’re sure you’ll find the following list of the 101 greatest romantic movies ever speaks to your own heart as well.

Written by Cath Clarke, Dave Calhoun, Tom Huddleston, Catherine Bray, Trevor Johnston, Andy P Kryza, Guy Lodge, Phil de Semlyen, Alim Kheraj & Matthew Singer

List updated by Time Out on 22 January 2025.