The Ultimate Film: Introduction

Compilation lists can sometimes be a little formulaic, a bit predictable - that cannot be said of this Top 100!

The results have amazed even those who researched the data. The incredibly diligent work of bfi National Library staff, alongside Channel 4 colleagues, has produced a remarkable record of the nation's film tastes.

Spanning almost a century of cinema-going, the list highlights the diversity of the British palate when it comes to choice of film favourites. And these are the nation's favourites - selected not by vote, or by critics, but by the number of actual visits by everyone living in this country over the past 100 years.

It is certain to provoke debate and discussion, not least about how and why certain films enter the nation's consciousness. It tells us much about our shared history, culture and attitudes and will undoubtedly re-open memories and experiences as nearly everyone will be able to point to a personal history linking to one of their films - what? - only seen 43 of them? Good winter's viewing ahead then!

Amanda Nevill, Director, BFI

In an age of instant access to information, it's easy to assume that everything we might ever want to know is available at the click of a mouse, that libraries with their cumbersome printed sources have nothing left to reveal. But the data that lies behind this list of 100 extraordinary movies had to be painstakingly researched - with no little expertise and ingenuity - in the unique collections of one of the world's most comprehensive libraries on film and television.

It might come as a surprise that this is the first time that we have had a list based on the films that people have most wanted to see, and some of the results might come as yet more of a surprise, especially some of those which date from a time when the cinema was even more important to lived experience in this country than it is today. Understanding a list like this has much to tell us about how we once were, but cinema-going has played no small part in shaping our culture, and these are some of the vital experiences that have helped to make us the way we are now.

Ray Templeton, bfi National Library