This is a list of my 100 favorite documentary films of all time. This is an ever changing list, but this is the list as of February 2026.

This list was first made in February of 2024. For this revision of the list, a total of 11 films dropped out from the original. The highest ranking film to drop was Woodstock from 28. Of the films that joined in, the highest ranking one is The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (7). All 11 films to join were first time watches since February 2025.

The newest film on this list is Deaf President Now! (99). The oldest film on this list is South (90).

8 films have kept their placement with the highest being As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (1) and the lowest being The Epic That Never Was (91). The film that moved down the most spots was 500 Years (55) which moved down 25 spots. The film that moved up the most spots was Antonio Gaudí (50) which moved up 17 spots.

Every decade starting from the 1910's is represented on this list:
1910's: 1
1920's: 4
1930's: 1
1940's: 1
1950's: 1
1960's: 10
1970's: 11
1980's: 15
1990's: 11
2000's: 10
2010's: 17
2020's: 18
Along with this, 2016, 2020, 2021, and 2025 are the most represented years with 4 films.

26 countries are represented on this list:
USA: 70
UK: 9
France: 8
Norway: 5
Japan: 4
Sweden: 3
USSR: 2
Guatemala: 2
Denmark: 2
West Germany: 2
Germany. 2
Finland: 2
Canada: 2
Turkey: 1
Iran: 1
Syria: 1
Brazil: 1
Mexico: 1
Austria: 1
Switzerland: 1
India: 1
Netherlands: 1
Israel: 1
Indonesia: 1
Palestine: 1
Eswatini: 1

107 directors are represented on this list. The following are directors with multiple films on the list:
Jonas Mekas: 3 (As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty, Diaries Notes and Sketches, Paradise Not Yet Lost)
Werner Herzog: 3 (My Best Fiend, Grizzly Man, God's Angry Man)
Albert Maysles: 3 (Salesman, Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens)
David Maysles: 3 (Salesman, Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens)
Dziga Vertov: 2 (Man with a Movie Camera, Enthusiasm)
Agnès Varda: 2 (The Beaches of Agnès, The Gleaners & I),
Joshua Oppenheimer: 2 (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence)
D. A. Pennebaker: 2 (Don't Look Back, The War Room)
Marlon Riggs: 2 (Black Is... Black Ain't, Ethnic Notions)
Jesse Moss: 2 (The Mission, Girls' State)
Amanda McBlaine: 2 (The Mission, Girls' State)
Charlotte Zwerin: 2 (Salesman, Gimme Shelter)
Pamela Yates: 2 (When the Mountains Tremble, 500 Years)
Kazuo Hara: 2 (The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On, Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974)
Frederick Wiseman: 2 (Titicut Follies, High School)

These films earned a total of 24 Oscar nominations and won 8 of them. This includes 23 nominations for Best Documentary Feature, 8 of which won.

The average length of the list is 103.10 minutes with the longest film being Shoah (5) at 566 minutes and the shortest being God's Angry Man (61) at 44 minutes.

The average letterbox score of the list is 3.86 with the highest rated film being Pairs is Burning (23) with a 4.5 and the lowest rated film being The Mission (69) with a 3.1. I personally gave the top 2 of these films 5 stars and the rest 4.5.