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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

51:53

1908 E5 - Donald Sosin

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/11/05

Donald Sosin has been composing and performing silent film music since 1971. His experience playing at major festivals all over the world, often with his wife, singer/percussionist Joanna Seaton, informs the milestone in film music that is one of his picks, in addition to the rhythm of fluid animation and classic tales.Donald and Joanna record for Criterion, Kino, Milestone, Flicker Alley and European labels. Their website is oldmoviemusic.com.Films mentioned:The Adventures of Dollie (1908) - D.W

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52:04

1908 E4 - Ivo Blom

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/10/29

Ivo Blom, lecturer in Comparative Arts & Media Studies at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, connected, through the lens of an early film pioneer in the Netherlands, international aesthetics and film industry markets with his book Jean Desmet and the Early Dutch Film Trade. His five selections for 1908 similarly give a broad picture of filmic development in the year and period, from attempted artfulness to technological novelties.Ivo has frequently published on Italian silent film and its links to

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61:45

1908 E3 - Don McHoull

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/10/22

Don McHoull is the creator of @silentmoviegifs, first on Twitter and now Bluesky. He has found viral success with striking images throughout silent film history, and with his picks, he similarly finds comedy, tricks, and drama that still resonate today.Don’s enthusiasm for silent movies led to his GIF creations over ten years ago. He has also been making long-form videos on film and comic strips on his YouTube channel.Films and resources mentioned:His First Cigar (1908) - Louis J. GasnierExcursion

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62:19

1908 E2 - Tracey Goessel

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/10/15

Author and preservationist Tracey Goessel is the founder of the Film Preservation Society and is in the thick of restoring all of the D.W. Griffith Biograph films. So it makes sense that she selects two films he made in his first year of directing, while also addressing comedy, morbidity, and the enduring appeal of dogs doing things.Tracey is the author of The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks. She is also on the board of directors of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, has

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6:03

1908 E1 - Yes, Griffith Is Here

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/10/08

The beginning of D.W. Griffith’s directorial career looms large for 1908, with past seasons referring to the upcoming “Griffith era” and behind-the-scenes conversations with potential guests featuring requests to reach back out around this period of narrative development, often attributed to or considered to be represented by the filmmaker. But the films selected this season certainly go beyond Griffith and this brief context-setting introduction addresses other artistic, technical, and business

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5:01

1907 E7 - Old Styles Reign Supreme

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/10/01

Some already old-school genres, from the chase film to the vaudeville recreation to the traveling actuality, made a good showing in the most selected films for this 1907 season. But the unique array of picks, among the most diverse list of films for the show so far, paints a better picture of how the cinematic medium was unfolding in new directions as much as it was holding on to established formulas.Films mentioned:The Policemen’s Little Run (1907) - Ferdinand ZeccaThe Irresistible Piano (1907) -

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60:23

1907 E6 - Randy Haberkamp

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/09/24

Film historian Randy Haberkamp just recently retired as the Executive Vice President of the Library, Archive and Sci-Tech for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where he held various positions for 23 years. With that experience in film preservation in mind, he highlights hard-to-find films as well as more famed stars and titles.Randy worked for CBS for 14 years, culminating as Director of Specials and Feature Films. He is also the founder of The Silent Society, a silent film

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49:50

1907 E5 - Agata Frymus

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/09/17

Agata Frymus, Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at Monash University Malaysia, selects mostly comic films to represent 1907. But by rounding out her selections with an (only maybe regrettably?) lost historical drama and the first Japanese selection of the whole show, she illustrates the multiplicity of film form at the time.Agata is the author of Damsels and Divas: European Stardom in Silent Hollywood. She was also a principal investigator on Black Cinema-Going in New York during the

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50:58

1907 E4 - Sean Guinan

The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever ·

2025/09/10

Filmmaker and musician Sean Guinan has an eye for the surreal, as exhibited by his TikTok channel Candy Town Follies. With that in mind, his selections cover a lot of topical and aesthetic ground, from eroticism and over-the-top comedy to social commentary and actuality footage of a major 20th century pop culture figure.Sean directed the 2000 feature film Flipping the Whale. He also led the musical group Candy Town from 2010 to 2016.Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top

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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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68 results

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