Yahoo Movies' Must-See Films

Yahoo! Movies Releases New List of Top 100 Must-See Films

List Identifies the Modern Classics of This Generation

Yahoo! Movies, one of the leading movies websites, today released the second of the site’s annual movie lists, “100 Movies to See Before You Die: The Modern Classics.” These classics are the movies that shaped pop culture over the past 20 years, offered the most quotable lines, and worked their way into this generation’s heart and memory. The full list, compiled by Yahoo! Movies’ team of editors and experts, is available at: http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/100-movies-to-see-before-you-die-modern-classics.html

Unlike other authoritative lists, this list does not focus solely on American films — over 20 percent of the “Modern Classics” are movies from abroad, including signature films from Hong Kong and France. A few of the films also appeared in Yahoo! Movies’ first “100 Movies to See Before You Die” (http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/100-movies-to-see-before-you-die.html), a list compiled for movie buffs and encompassing films worldwide from all time periods in cinematic history, but the modern classics list focuses only on the movies of the last two decades that became classics instantly or in a short time.

“This is the list you print, hang on your refrigerator, and slowly check off as you experience what it is that makes these films stand out,” said Sean Phillips, Yahoo! Movies’ executive producer. “Whatever the genre, these films represent the best of cinema over the last twenty years.”

Well-known movies from the 1990s on the list include “Dazed and Confused,” “Pulp Fiction,” and “Schindler’s List,” The list also includes lesser-known films, such as “Elephant,” “Trois Couleur: Rouge” and “Old Boy.”

Ang Lee, Joel Coen and James Cameron made the strongest showing as directors, with three films from each director making the cut, including “Sense and Sensibility,” “The Big Lebowski,” and “Avatar,” respectively. Likewise, George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Kevin Spacey, Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, and Kate Winslet led in the acting category.

With Yahoo! being at the center of people’s online lives, the list is ideally constructed for Web users. It can be searched chronologically, and movies.yahoo.com offers in-depth commentary and expert analysis on many of the chosen films.