To celebrate its 20th annual awards ceremony, the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film will be publishing a series of Top 20 lists on its Facebook page. For the website however, we’ve expanded this first list to a Top 50. For our second such list, we’ve chosen to highlight movies about movies!  We all love the movies, and from that, you might expect we love movies about movies!  The number of films people singled out was astouding.  Watch for more lists leading up to our 20th annual Chlotrudis Awards, to be held on Sunday, March 16 at the Brattle Theatre. The entire list of films chosen by Chlotrudis members topped 140.  Check out our first list for the year, the 50 Best French-Language Films as chosen by Chlotrudis.

Billy Wilder’s classic 1950 film, SUNSET BLVD., about a hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent-film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity tops the Chlotrudis list of the Best Movies About Movies. The list skews fairly American, and fairly modern, although the Society does reach all the way back to 1929 to note the documentary from the Soviet Union, MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA coming in at #29.  Last year’s Chlotrudis winner, THE ARTIST, coming in at #4 is the first film from another country, although it was a U.S. co-production.  Fellini’s classic film 8 1/2 comes in at #7, and is the highest ranking international film.  Three filmmakers made the list more than once, and it’s no surprise as these directors have a fascination for the medium.  David Lynch’s MULHOLLAND DR. hits at #9, and his tour de force INLAND EMPIRE shows up at #31.  Woody Allen anchors the top 10 with THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO, and makes another appereance at #49 with STARDUST MEMORIES.  Pedro Almodóvar’s BAD EDUCATION shows up at #18, and  BROKEN EMBRACES shows up at #42 (what about LAW OF DESIRE – a far better film in this member’s opinion).  Documentaries about film are represented 7 times, lead by Kirby Dick’s incendiary THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED.

We hope you enjoy our list of the 50 Best Movies About Movies!

01 Sunset Blvd. Billy Wilder 1950
02 Ed Wood Tim Burton 1994
03 Boogie Nights Paul Thomas Anderson 1997
04 The Artist
Michel Hazanavicius 2011
05 The Player Robert Altman 1992
06 Gods and Monsters Bill Condon 1998
07 8 1/2 Federico Fellini 1963
08 Singin’ in the Rain Stanley Donen; Gene Kelly 1952
09 Mulholland Dr. David Lynch 2001
10 The Purple Rose of Cairo Woody Allen 1985
11 Cinema Paradiso Giuseppe Tornatore 1988
12 This Film Is Not Yet Rated Kirby Dick 2006
13 Good Bye, Dragon Inn Tsai Ming-liang 2003
14 Adaptation Spike Jonze 2002
15 Millennium Actress Satoshi Kon 2001
16 Barton Fink Joel Coen; Ethan Coen 2001
17 Day for Night François Truffaut 1973
18 Bad Education Pedro Almodóvar 2004
19 State and Main David Mamet 2000
20 A Star Is Born George Cukor 1954
21 Living in Oblivion Tom DiCillo 1995
22 Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Robert Zemeckis 1988
23 Hitchcock Sacha Gervasi 2012
24 For Your Consideration Christopher Guest 2006
25 Best Worst Movie  Michael Stephenson 2009
26 Sullivan’s Travels Preston Sturges 1941
27 Ararat Atom Egoyan 2002
28 American Movie Chris Smith 1999
29 Man With a Movie Camera Dziga Vertov 1929
30 Hugo Martin Scorsese 2011
31 Inland Empire David Lynch 2006
32 Lost in La Mancha Keith Fulton; Luis Pepe 2002
33 Shadow of the Vampire E. Elias Merhige 2000
34 Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story Michaël Winterbottom 2005
35 L.A. Confidential Curtis Hanson 1997
36 CQ Roman Coppola 2001
37 Double Dare Amanda Michell 2004
38 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Robert Aldrich 1962
39 Argo Ben Affleck 2012
40 Tropic Thunder Ben Stiller 2008
41 The Bad and the Beautiful Vincente Minnelli 1952
42 Broken Embraces Pedro Almodóvar 2000
43 Peeping Tom Michael Powell 1960
44 Contempt Jon-Luc Godard 1963
45 Torremolinos 73 Pablo Berger 2003
46 The Day of the Locust John Schlessinger 1975
47 The Blair Witch Project Daniel Myrick; Eduardo Sánchez 1999
48 Casting By  Tom Donahue 2012
49 Stardust Memories Woody Allen 1980
50 Sex Is Comedy Catherine Breillat 2002