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Letterboxd Top 250 Documentaries: The Full List

Letterboxd's Top 250 Documentaries ranks the best documentaries on Letterboxd — the highest-rated non-fiction films on the site, from concert films and true crime to first-person essay films. The list below is pulled straight from Letterboxd and refreshed regularly, so it stays in sync with the current ranking.

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The full Top 250 Documentaries list

  1. 1.Stop Making Sense (1984)
  2. 2.No Other Land (2024)
  3. 3.Paris Is Burning (1990)
  4. 4.Shoah (1985)
  5. 5.As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)
  6. 6.O.J.: Made in America (2016)
  7. 7.Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (1972)
  8. 8.Hoop Dreams (1994)
  9. 9.The Act of Killing (2012)
  10. 10.Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)
  11. 11.Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2002)
  12. 12.Streetwise (1984)
  13. 13.For Sama (2019)
  14. 14.Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)
  15. 15.20 Days in Mariupol (2023)
  16. 16.Twenty Years Later (1984)
  17. 17.The Look of Silence (2014)
  18. 18.Baraka (1992)
  19. 19.The Beaches of Agnès (2008)
  20. 20.It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley (2025)
  21. 21.Koyaanisqatsi (1982)
  22. 22.The Battle of Chile: Part II (1976)
  23. 23.The Battle of Chile: Part I (1975)
  24. 24.The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987)
  25. 25.Ocean with David Attenborough (2025)
  26. 26.13th (2016)
  27. 27.2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025)
  28. 28.Master, a Building in Copacabana (2002)
  29. 29.Minding the Gap (2018)
  30. 30.Life of Crime: 1984-2020 (2021)
  31. 31.Playing (2007)
  32. 32.Noah Kahan: Out of Body (2026)
  33. 33.David Byrne's American Utopia (2020)
  34. 34.Dominion (2018)
  35. 35.Senna (2010)
  36. 36.The Gleaners and I (2000)
  37. 37.The Last Waltz (1978)
  38. 38.Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
  39. 39.Tongues Untied (1989)
  40. 40.Five Broken Cameras (2011)
  41. 41.The Salt of the Earth (2014)
  42. 42.Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron (2024)
  43. 43.The Encampments (2025)
  44. 44.Samsara (2011)
  45. 45.Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus (2023)
  46. 46.All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)
  47. 47.Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)
  48. 48.Flee (2021)
  49. 49.Louis Theroux: The Settlers (2025)
  50. 50.Prince: Sign 'o' the Times (1987)
  51. 51.Human (2015)
  52. 52.Original Cast Album: Company (1970)
  53. 53.F for Fake (1973)
  54. 54.David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020)
  55. 55.Daughters (2024)
  56. 56.American Movie (1999)
  57. 57.The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (2022)
  58. 58.I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
  59. 59.Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)
  60. 60.Woodstock (1970)
  61. 61.Sans Soleil (1983)
  62. 62.Tokyo Olympiad (1965)
  63. 63.9/11 (2002)
  64. 64.LA 92 (2017)
  65. 65.Crumb (1994)
  66. 66.Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021)
  67. 67.The Metamorphosis of Birds (2020)
  68. 68.No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005)
  69. 69.Hearts and Minds (1974)
  70. 70.HyperNormalisation (2016)
  71. 71.Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1979)
  72. 72.Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: One More Time with Feeling (2016)
  73. 73.The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo (2020)
  74. 74.The Alabama Solution (2025)
  75. 75.Lessons of Darkness (1992)
  76. 76.Blue (1993)
  77. 77.Riverboom (2023)
  78. 78.Fire of Love (2022)
  79. 79.Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat (2024)
  80. 80.Searching for Sugar Man (2012)
  81. 81.Love, Deutschmarks and Death (2022)
  82. 82.Faces Places (2017)
  83. 83.Grizzly Man (2005)
  84. 84.The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
  85. 85.Shinjuku Boys (1995)
  86. 86.Dont Look Back (1967)
  87. 87.They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)
  88. 88.Cameraperson (2016)
  89. 89.Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)
  90. 90.The Rescue (2021)
  91. 91.When We Were Kings (1996)
  92. 92.Microcosmos (1996)
  93. 93.The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (2024)
  94. 94.The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005)
  95. 95.Monterey Pop (1968)
  96. 96.Ryuichi Sakamoto: CODA (2017)
  97. 97.For All Mankind (1989)
  98. 98.The Golden Spurtle (2025)
  99. 99.Jazz on a Summer's Day (1959)
  100. 100.Ennio (2021)
  101. 101.Earthlings (2005)
  102. 102.The Velvet Queen (2021)
  103. 103.Instrument (1999)
  104. 104.A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough (2026)
  105. 105.The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (2013)
  106. 106.News from Home (1976)
  107. 107.Apollo 11 (2019)
  108. 108.Disclosure (2020)
  109. 109.Burden of Dreams (1982)
  110. 110.Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972)
  111. 111.Bitter Lake (2015)
  112. 112.Love, Antosha (2019)
  113. 113.Encounters at the End of the World (2007)
  114. 114.Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)
  115. 115.Bye Bye Tiberias (2023)
  116. 116.Cuba and the Cameraman (2017)
  117. 117.Grey Gardens (1975)
  118. 118.Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
  119. 119.Dream of Light (1992)
  120. 120.The Dawn Wall (2017)
  121. 121.Kedi (2016)
  122. 122.Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024)
  123. 123.Free Solo (2018)
  124. 124.I'm Not Everything I Want to Be (2024)
  125. 125.The Thin Blue Line (1988)
  126. 126.Here and Elsewhere (1976)
  127. 127.Dark Days (2000)
  128. 128.Varda by Agnès (2019)
  129. 129.Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (2020)
  130. 130.Dancing with the Birds (2019)
  131. 131.STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023)
  132. 132.Homework (1989)
  133. 133.The Last Days (1998)
  134. 134.Little Girl (2020)
  135. 135.Miss Americana (2020)
  136. 136.Moonage Daydream (2022)
  137. 137.My Mom Jayne (2025)
  138. 138.Style Wars (1983)
  139. 139.Gimme Shelter (1970)
  140. 140.Amy (2015)
  141. 141.Häxan (1922)
  142. 142.How to Survive a Plague (2012)
  143. 143.The Silence of Others (2018)
  144. 144.The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
  145. 145.To Be and to Have (2002)
  146. 146.The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011)
  147. 147.Blackfish (2013)
  148. 148.Music by John Williams (2024)
  149. 149.Black Box Diaries (2024)
  150. 150.Tower (2016)
  151. 151.Eno (2024)
  152. 152.The Cove (2009)
  153. 153.Honeyland (2019)
  154. 154.Nostalgia for the Light (2010)
  155. 155.Shirkers (2018)
  156. 156.Jane (2017)
  157. 157.Menus-Plaisirs, les Troisgros (2023)
  158. 158.Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery (2025)
  159. 159.Titicut Follies (1967)
  160. 160.Daguerréotypes (1975)
  161. 161.Pearl Jam Twenty (2011)
  162. 162.Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
  163. 163.Collective (2019)
  164. 164.Fiume o morte! (2025)
  165. 165.Apolonia, Apolonia (2022)
  166. 166.4 Little Girls (1997)
  167. 167.Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom (2015)
  168. 168.Waiting for the Carnival (2019)
  169. 169.Beyond Utopia (2023)
  170. 170.Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage (2010)
  171. 171.Jane Fonda in Five Acts (2018)
  172. 172.Selena y Los Dinos (2025)
  173. 173.Jane B. by Agnès V. (1988)
  174. 174.Sally (2025)
  175. 175.Dig! (2004)
  176. 176.Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary (1997)
  177. 177.Welcome to Chechnya (2020)
  178. 178.Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980)
  179. 179.Sherman's March (1985)
  180. 180.Babilônia 2000 (2001)
  181. 181.Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (2025)
  182. 182.Ex Libris: The New York Public Library (2017)
  183. 183.Yung Lean: In My Head (2020)
  184. 184.Love Meetings (1964)
  185. 185.Jodorowsky's Dune (2013)
  186. 186.Waltz with Bashir (2008)
  187. 187.Citizenfour (2014)
  188. 188.Mur Murs (1981)
  189. 189.Italianamerican (1974)
  190. 190.Salaam Cinema (1995)
  191. 191.Four Daughters (2023)
  192. 192.Tempestad (2016)
  193. 193.The Fog of War (2003)
  194. 194.Let's Get Lost (1988)
  195. 195.Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (2021)
  196. 196.EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (2025)
  197. 197.Amazing Grace (2018)
  198. 198.Virunga (2014)
  199. 199.Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015)
  200. 200.Icarus (2017)
  201. 201.The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young (2014)
  202. 202.John Candy: I Like Me (2025)
  203. 203.Witches (2024)
  204. 204.Marty, Life Is Short (2026)
  205. 205.Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)
  206. 206.Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger (2024)
  207. 207.Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997)
  208. 208.Brazilian Holocaust (2016)
  209. 209.Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
  210. 210.A Night of Knowing Nothing (2021)
  211. 211.Diego Maradona (2019)
  212. 212.Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle (2017)
  213. 213.Shakedown (2018)
  214. 214.Supersonic (2016)
  215. 215.Elena (2012)
  216. 216.Bill Cunningham New York (2010)
  217. 217.Bowling for Columbine (2002)
  218. 218.Diana: In Her Own Words (2017)
  219. 219.My Winnipeg (2007)
  220. 220.Listen to Me Marlon (2015)
  221. 221.Man on the Run (2025)
  222. 222.Foo Fighters: Back and Forth (2011)
  223. 223.Depeche Mode: M (2025)
  224. 224.Pina (2011)
  225. 225.Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
  226. 226.Will & Harper (2024)
  227. 227.The Punk Singer (2013)
  228. 228.The White Diamond (2004)
  229. 229.This Much I Know to Be True (2022)
  230. 230.Come See Me in the Good Light (2025)
  231. 231.Matangi / Maya / M.I.A. (2018)
  232. 232.The Square (2013)
  233. 233.The Velvet Underground (2021)
  234. 234.From the East (1993)
  235. 235.Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (2024)
  236. 236.My Best Fiend (1999)
  237. 237.Boys State (2020)
  238. 238.Ritas (2025)
  239. 239.Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (2018)
  240. 240.Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In (2021)
  241. 241.The Alpinist (2021)
  242. 242.The Celluloid Closet (1995)
  243. 243.I Am Heath Ledger (2017)
  244. 244.Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (2019)
  245. 245.Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2011)
  246. 246.Sleep Has Her House (2017)
  247. 247.Whispers in the Woods (2025)
  248. 248.Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street (2021)
  249. 249.The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974)
  250. 250.The Central Park Five (2012)

About the Top 250 Documentaries

What is the Letterboxd Top 250 Documentaries?

Letterboxd's official ranked list of the 250 highest-rated documentary features on the site, by average member rating with a 5,000-rating minimum.

Why a separate list for documentaries?

Documentaries are excluded from the main Top 500, which covers narrative features only, so they get their own ranking. The bar to qualify is lower too — 5,000 ratings instead of 25,000.

How often does the Top 250 Documentaries list update?

Letterboxd reorders the official list every few weeks as ratings change, and this page re-pulls it regularly.