The British Film Institute has just released the latest iteration of its prestigious Sight and Sound poll of the greatest movies of all time, and the movie atop the list is sending shockwaves through the world of film buffs.

Beating out classics like the poll’s first winner Bicycle Thieves, reigning champ Vertigo, and The Director’s Poll winner 2001: A Space Odyssey, was Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.

Jeanne Dielman, for short, is almost unknown in comparison with these renowned heavy-hitters, and if its placement atop the cinematic world’s most authoritative list of the “greatest movies ever” surprises you, you’re not alone. Below we’ll break down what the Sight and Sound poll is, how Jeanne Dielman wound up on top, and why it deserves its place amongst the very best movies of all time.

The Sight and Sound Poll

Jimmy Stewart's head in the Saul Bass sequence of Vertigo
Paramount Pictures

Since its inception in 1952, the Sight and Sound poll of the greatest movies of all time has been a prestigious metric of the cinematic canon. Now, thanks to its rarity (conducted once every ten years) and longevity, it is widely regarded as the most trusted guide there is to great movies from around the world and throughout the decades.

The poll, now based on responses from almost 2,000 critics, programmers, academics, distributors, writers, and other cinephiles, carries the weight of widespread and expertise opinion, making its decennial release a banner day for film buffs.

Related: Best Silent Movies of All Time

The first Sight and Sound poll resulted in Bicycle Thieves, a 1948 Italian neorealist drama film from Vittorio De Sica taking the top spot. In 1962, Citizen Kane would top the list and remain there until 2012 when it was supplanted by Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo. Even this minor shake-up (Citizen Kane fell to #2) was controversial at the time, despite the fact that Vertigo is widely regarded as Hitchcock’s best film, and Hitchcock himself as one of cinema’s greatest masters.

That uproar was nothing, though, compared to the reaction to the 2022 poll’s surprising coronation of Jeanne Dielman.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Chantal Akerman film Jeanne Dielman is now the best ever according to Sight and Sound
Janus Films

Jeanne Dielman itself has perhaps more in common with Bicycle Thieves than either Citizen Kane or Vertigo. Like De Sica’s film, Belgian director Chantal Akerman’s movie is slow, elegant, and deeply thoughtful. Following a few days in the life of its titular protagonist, Jeanne Dielman is almost hypnotic in its attention to detail and focus on the repeated patterns of everyday life. When these routines begin to unravel, missing a button on a coat, for example, or overcooking potatoes, they reveal staggering depths hidden just below the surface of Dielman’s life, and build toward a truly shocking climax.

Related: Best Paul Schrader Movies, Ranked

Indeed, while the film’s rise to the top of the Sight and Sound list has occurred with relative speed, it has long been hailed as a masterpiece. It has been part of the Criterion Collection since 2009, and placed 35th in the 2012 Sight and Sound poll. Critic B. Ruby Rich has remarked that the film “invents a new language capable of transmitting truths previously unspoken," and even screenwriter and director Paul Schrader, who was critical of the film’s placement atop the poll, admits that it is “a great film, a landmark film.” When it was released, The New York Times called it “the first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of the cinema.”

Backlash to the Results

Chantal Akerman film Jeanne Dielman is now the best ever according to Sight and Sound
Janus Films

Schrader’s criticism of Jeanne Dielman’s ascent to the top of the Sight and Sound poll is characteristic of the skeptical reaction the film’s win has elicited. Rather than criticizing the film itself, which few seem willing to do, the focus is on the impact such a surprising result might have on the poll itself. As Schrader wrote in a Facebook post, the rapid rise of such a little-seen and seemingly obscure film “feels off, as if someone had put their thumb on the scale," assuming it to be a "distorted woke reappraisal." Like Schrader, some have now questioned the legitimacy of Sight and Sound.

What This New 'Best Movie' Means

Chantal Akerman in the film No Home Movie
Zeugma Films

One possible explanation for the movie’s meteoric rise is the deliberate expansion and diversification of the poll’s respondents. This was intended to bring more 21st century films into the upper reaches of the list, which, except 2019’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire at #30, it mostly failed to do (though 2016’s Moonlight came in at #60 and 2017’s Get Out at #95).

With Jeanne Dielman, though, the British Film Institute, who administers the poll, may have gotten exactly what they wanted. First, there's been increased exposure for a hugely underrated director from an underrepresented demographic. Next, it's a film whose merits, even in comparison to perennial front-runners like Citizen Kane, Vertigo, and Yasujirō Ozu’s 1953 masterpiece Tokyo Story, are unassailable. And finally, of course, widespread public attention, debate, and clicks.

For the moviegoing public, the list also marks a new opportunity to experience a genuinely great film that many may never have even heard of before. Regardles of what is "the best movie," highlighting Jeanne Dielman is an invitation to experience the way that Akerman masterfully uses the distinct features of film, its visual language and movement through time, to accumulate meaning, nuance, and emotional gravity, while still delivering a visceral punch on par with Hitchcock. We'll have to wait another decade to see what happens next.