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PODCAST

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever

Tristan Ettleman

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever features experts and enthusiasts and, well, their favorite films of every year ever. Host Tristan Ettleman sits down with a new guest every week to dive into the history and beauty of some of the best movies to ever come out of the cinematic medium.

tv & film film history

All Episodes

57:36

1907 E3 - Liz Clarke

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/09/03

Three of Associate Professor at Brock University Liz Clarke’s picks are defined by a sort of morbid delight. But with a cuddlier creature and the colonizing gaze represented in her other two selections, the conversation reveals more layers of the global film industry in 1907.Liz is the author of The American Girl Goes to War: Women and National Identity in US Film, 1908-1918. She also researches women writers in film and television from the silent period to contemporary female show-runners.Visit

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82:41

1907 E2 - Matt Page

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/08/27

Film historian Matt Page has been researching film adaptations of the Bible for over 20 years. And yet only one of his picks for 1907 stems from that source and this wide-ranging conversation also reaches chases, tricks, and more.Matt is the author of the BFI’s 100 Bible Films book and has contributed to a variety of books and journals. He also runs the Bible Films Blog.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1907!Films and resources mentioned:The Race for the

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6:37

1907 E1 - Studios, Legal Battles, Criticism, Oh My!

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/08/20

1907, somewhat unlike the past couple years covered on this show, is chock-full of historical developments with details that are fun to plumb. But exploring the legal battles, studio foundings, and trade journal publications of the year just sets up the spectacular film texts themselves, with guests’ selections ranging from chase film evolutions to horrifically bizarre gems to actualities as historical documents to an animation milestone.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your top

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5:44

1906 E7 - A Trip Down History Lane

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/08/13

Maybe it’s just Tristan who is surprised by the film that topped this season’s collective list. But its inclusion at all, and its ubiquity in submitters' lists, reflects that the balance of narrative and actuality is not quite as heavily weighted in the former’s favor as one might expect, even for as early (or late, 11 years after the “birth of cinema” as many measure it) as 1906.Films mentioned:A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire (1906) - Harry MilesThe ? Motorist (1906) - Walter R

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52:52

1906 E6 - Coraline Refort

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/08/06

Most of the picks from Coraline Refort, postdoc fellow at University of Sassari, offer exciting readings through the lens of feminism. But she also examines an animation milestone and a microcosm of film tricks up to 1906.At University of Sassari, Coraline works on the national project “WOW – Women Writing around the Camera,” which focuses on mapping the autobiographical writings of Italian actresses. She holds a PhD in Film History from the University of Florence, in cotutelle with Sorbonne

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77:23

1906 E5 - Joshua Yumibe

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/07/30

Michigan State University professor Joshua Yumibe has spent much of his research career examining color in silent film (and beyond). Having that particular lens, it makes sense that all of his picks contain some aspect of color, most of them quite spectacular.Joshua is the author of Moving Color: Early Film, Mass Culture, Modernism and co-author of Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema and Chromatic Modernity: Color, Cinema, and Media of the 1920s. He is also an editor of Screen and of the Contemporary

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60:26

1906 E4 - Oliver Gaycken

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/07/23

Oliver Gaycken, Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, has a particular interest in early cinema and popular science. That perspective is brought to bear on most of his five picks, including both fiction and nonfiction films.Oliver is the author of Devices of Curiosity: Early Cinema and Popular Science. His articles have appeared in Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, Science in Context, Journal of Visual Culture, Early Popular Visual Culture, Screen, and the

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55:37

1906 E3 - Mario Slugan

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/07/16

Mario Slugan, Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, has literally written the book on fiction in early cinema. With that background and research in mind, he selects four films that may fit into what we consider narrative before turning to a standout “nonfiction” film that looms large for 1906.Mario has written three other monographs, including the upcoming Taking Fiction Film Seriously. He is also co-editor of New Perspectives on Early Cinema History and the special double issue of

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46:15

1906 E2 - Carl Bennett

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/07/09

Carl Bennett, publisher and editor of silentera.com, has run the crucial resource covering the first decades of film since 1999. He selects five films reflecting the growing trend of narrativization of cinema, with one notable exception in his conclusion.Carl’s site provides information about silent motion pictures, silent era people, the era’s theatres, documentation and reviews of home video editions of silent films, book reviews, and more.Films and resources mentioned:The Spring Fairy (1906) -

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3:38

1906 E1 - Firsts and Finance

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/07/02

From changes in distribution and exhibition to formal firsts (with caveats), 1906 carries just a few pieces of oft-cited film history. But this season, on a year that is still very much part of cinema's earliest growth spurts, illustrates the heterogenous landscape of global filmmaking at the time and the thrills it can still offer today.Films mentioned:The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) - Charles TaitHumorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) - J. Stuart Blackton

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5:17

1905 E7 - The Experiments Continue

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/06/18

While the “nickelodeon boom” began in the United States and the global film industry was standardizing certain production elements, many of the conversations for this 1905 season turned to how wide the modes of moviemaking still were, resulting in strange yet beautiful experiments. As this year’s five guests have shown, cinema in even in an apparently obscure period such as the mid-1900s can still yield up riveting viewing experiences.Films mentioned:The Misadventure of a French Gentleman Without

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41:59

1905 E6 - Mary Mallory

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/06/11

Film historian and author Mary Mallory has written five books about cinematic yesteryear. With her research of past traditions and underappreciated figures in mind, Mary selects some films that reflect the intermediality of early film and its basis in stage tricks, poetry, and even postcards, while others demonstrate new cinematic inventions.Mary’s most recent book is First Women of Hollywood: Female Pioneers in the Early Motion Picture Business. She is also a lecturer for the Osher Lifelong

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47:01

1905 E5 - Chris O'Rourke

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/06/04

Chris O’Rourke, Associate Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick, explores the early history of film acting, stardom and fandom in Britain up to the end of the silent era in his book Acting for the Silent Screen: Film Actors and Aspiration between the Wars. While film acting wasn’t quite a specific discipline in 1905, that distinction would arise sooner than one might think, and in the meantime, Chris’ picks explore UK innovations in editing, pace, and length, French

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62:04

1905 E4 - Scott Curtis

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/05/28

Scott Curtis, associate professor of radio/film/television and communication at Northwestern University, has published extensively on the use of moving images in scientific and medical research, education, and communication. That particular interest certainly informs most of his picks, but the conversation also includes the spectacle of sound and fantasy.Scott is the author of The Shape of Spectatorship: Art, Science, and Early Cinema in Germany. He is the former president of Domitor, the

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54:52

1905 E3 - Shawn Hall

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/05/21

Shawn Hall brings his love of silent films to new audiences through his Shawn Toks Silents TikTok account, where he is currently working his way through reviewing each movie on Silent Era’s Top 100 Silent Movies List. He stretches back a little bit further than most silent film enthusiasts, however, by exploring 1905 through films of “serious” topics and advancing forms of comedy and feel-good stories.Shawn also writes his long-form thoughts on silent cinema and early Hollywood at his blog The

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31:38

1905 E2 - Dan Willard

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/05/14

Dan Willard’s interest in film was fostered by a viewing of Eraserhead in 1977 and a number of UCLA film classes. In more recent years and reflecting the depths of his cinephilia, that has manifested in his extensive Films by the Year site and YouTube channel, which have been linked to many times in this very show’s notes (in this case, ranging from comedy and the féerie to “message films” and naturalism).Dan is also a professional musician, composer, producer, and teacher and is currently working

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3:58

1905 E1 - The Nickelodeon Boom

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/05/07

The year 1905 pops up early in many film histories to address the start of the "nickelodeon era." As past seasons have shown, the Harris brothers' Pittsburgh storefront wasn't truly the first space dedicated to showing movies, but it and others shifted the needle in forming the activity of moviegoing. This season and its guests address the unification of the global "trade" of filmmaking and the changing aesthetics that supported that.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top

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6:05

1904 E7 - An Awkward Year

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/04/23

This season’s conversations about film in 1904 often turned to the “awkwardness” of finding standout titles and defining the most representative developments in the art, business, and reception of cinema. Nevertheless, this year’s five guests presented exciting threads of potential futures that, in many ways, were resolved into the narrative model one expects a few years later.Films mentioned:Court Ladies Bathing (1904) - unknownHow a French Nobleman Got a Wife through the New York Herald Personal

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44:31

1904 E6 - Céline Ruivo

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/04/16

Film preservationist Céline Ruivo brings an eye for color and pre-cinema to her five early cinema picks for 1904. From scientific intent to fantasy, and industrialism and modernity in between, she demonstrates how an apparently unmemorable year like 1904 can still provide great insight into the art and technology of cinema at the time.Céline holds a doctorate in cinema and teaches film preservation at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). She is currently in charge of film restoration projects

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42:31

1904 E5 - Martin L Johnson

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/04/09

Martin L. Johnson, film historian and Associate Professor in English and Comparative Literature at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has literally written the book on local films in the United States. While most of his picks fit into that definition, he also brings comic chases and early filmic nudity into the conversation.Martin is also co-president of Domitor, the international society for the study of early cinema. He is currently completing a monograph on the history of the

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79 results

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