The IRA Awards: The Best Movies Of The 1960s

The IRAs are a mysterious but august film society that has voted on the best films of the year since 1976. More international and indie focused than the Oscars, more mercurial than the LA Film Critics, more loyal to their favorites than the Golden Globes, the IRAs are in the midst of selecting the best movies released in 2014. The IRAs also  followed up months of discussion and debate and balloting and re-watching of DVDs and DVRing of TCM to determine the best films of the 1960s. Below you'll find the list of the Best Films Of The 1960s.

The IRAs began when passionate film students complained about annual awards shows, declaring "We could do better!" What followed was an all-night, knock-down, drag-out fight to establish the very first winners of the IRAs. (One of the members is named Ira but how his name became the name of the award is a story lost in the mist of time.) The rotating group of members known has the IRAs has been profiled in The New Yorker. Over the years they've included Oscar-winning writers, major directors, top studio executives, best-selling and critically acclaimed authors on movies, critics and others. They have no more claim to pronounce the best films of the year than anyone else but they've been doing it for decades so hey, it's tradition.

If you're like me, the list of the Best Films of the 1960s will infuriate you -- some movies should be higher up, some should be lower down and some shouldn't be on the list at all. That's half the fun. If you're passionate about movies or TV or books or music or any art form, chances are you've bristled over awards season and known you and your friends have better taste. So why not form your own group? It's not just fun to hand out awards; it's the best way to make certain your youthful enthusiasm for TV or music or books or whatever doesn't lose focus when work and life intrude. When all your friends tell you you have to read such and such a book or listen to a certain CD before the annual get-together, guess what? You do! Sometimes homework can be fun.

How to use this list: scoff at it, argue with it, agree with it, mock it. For us, the list is not nearly as important as the process. We re-watch some of our favorite films of the decade, check out movies we've missed but other members are passionate about, discover some new favorites of our own and others that don't work as well any more. So debate the list. How could you leave off...?? How could you include...?? But if you use it to check out some films you've never seen, we'll be happy. 

IRAs: THE BEST MOVIES OF THE 1960s

1. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) (69 pts./941 pts.) (see note at bottom for explanation of pts.)
2. The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960) (65/973) 
3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962) (62/958)
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) (58/801)
5. Chimes At Midnight (Orson Welles, 1965) (50/864)
6. Once Upon A Time In The West (Sergio Leone, 1968) (49/808)
7. The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963) (42/790)
8. Marnie (Alfred Hitchcock, 1964) (38/778)
9. When A Woman Ascends The Stairs (Mikio Naruse, 1960) (31/776)
10. Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963) (30/796)

11. Bunny Lake Is Missing (Otto Preminger, 1965) (61/745)
12. High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963) (58/747)
13. Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dryer, 1964) (56/764)
14. Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967) (53/708)
15. Army Of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969) (50/754)
16. Home From The Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960) (47/733)
17. An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujirô Ozu, 1962) (45/730)
18. Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966) (42/740)
19. Band Of Outsiders (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964) (41/774)
20. The Big City (Satyajit Ray, 1963) (32/744)

21. Play Dirty (André De Toth, 1969) (56/664)
22. Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967) (56/666)
23. Les Bonnes Femmes (Claude Chabrol, 1960) (53/649)
24.  Inside Daisy Clover (Robert Mulligan, 1965) (53/677)
25. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964) (50/674)
26. Advise And Consent (Otto Preminger, 1962) (49/668)
27. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (Sydney Pollack, 1969) (47/632)
28. The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966) (46/700)
29. L'Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962) (44/627)
30. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960) (41/630)

31. Petulia (Richard Lester, 1968) (59/592)
32. Viridiana (Luis Buñuel, 1961) (57/589)
33. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969) (55/578)
34. L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960) (51/616)
35. Samurai Rebellion (Masaki Kobayashi, 1967) (50/604)
36. The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1963) (47/627)
37. Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1967) (45/596)
38. Belle De Jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967) (43/598)
39. Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman, 1963) (43/608)
40. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) (42/620)

41. Shock Corridor (Samuel Fuller, 1963) (60/554)
42. Ride The High Country (Sam Peckinpah, 1962) (58/554)
43. The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962) (57/576) 
44. Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968) (52/560)
45. What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich, 1962) (51/546)
46. Knife In The Water (Roman Polanski, 1962) (51/560)
47. The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel, 1962) (46/574)
48. Bonnie And Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967) (45/572)
49. Jules And Jim (François Truffaut, 1962) (38/533)
50. Shoot The Piano Player (François Truffaut, 1960) (37/553)

51. The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963) (58/496)
52. Closely Watched Trains (Jirí Menzel, 1966) (57/492)
53. The Naked Kiss (Samuel Fuller, 1964) (54/525)
54. Rocco And His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960) (52/502)
55. Eyes Without A Face Georges Franju, 1962) (51/518)
56. Comanche Station (Budd Boetticher, 1960) (47, 512)
57. Vivre Sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962) (47/500)
58. Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967) (46/492)
59. Cleo From 5 To 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962) (45/497)
60. Pierrot Le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965) (38/499)

61. The Sorrow And The Pity (Marcel Ophuls, 1969) (67/479)
62. Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966) (65/485)
63. The Hustler (Robert Rossen, 1961) (56/465)
64. The Battle Of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966) (55/490)
65. La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962) (51/474)
66. Wild River (Elia Kazan, 1960) (48/465)
67. Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966) (48/472)
68. The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964) (46/485)
69. Splendor In The Grass (Elia Kazan, 1961) (41/468)
70. El Dorado (Howard Hawks, 1966) (29/489)

71. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer, 1965) (60/432)
72. The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner (Tony Richardson, 1962) (60/457)
73. Two Weeks In Another Town (Vincente Minnelli, 1962) (50/438)
74. My Night At Maud's (Eric Rohmer, 1969) (50/454)
75. Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961) (49/430)
76. Breakfast At Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, 1961) (47/449)
77. A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 1964) (47, 442)
78. Salesman (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, 1968) (44/441)
79. Lawrence Of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) (44/444)
80. Two For The Road (Stanley Donen, 1967) (43/443)

81. Night Of The Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968) (61/409)
82. The Taking Of Power By Louis XIV (Roberto Rossellini, 1966) (52/422)
83. Valley Of The Dolls (Mark Robson, 1967) (51/393)
84. La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960) (51/410)
85. One, Two, Three (Billy Wilder, 1961) (51/425)
86. Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963) (50/395)
87. Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965) (49/428) 
88. Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962) (48/413)
89. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) (47/426)
90. Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965) (35/415)

91. I Am Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1964) (60/338)
92. Planet Of The Apes (Franklin J Schaffner, 1968) (59/277)
93. The Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich, 1967) (58/314)
94. The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis, 1963) (53/383)
95. Dont Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1967) (51/291)
96. A Shot In The Dark (Blake Edwards, 1964) (49/370)
97. The Producers (Mel Brooks, 1967) (49/337)
98. The President's Analyst (Theodore J. Flicker, 1967) (47/250)
99. The Pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1964) (35/278)
100. Gunn (Blake Edwards, 1967) (34/219)

MOVIES BY YEAR

1960 -- 12 movies   XXXXXXXXXXXX
1961 --  07 movies  XXXXXXX
1962 -- 18 movies   XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
1963 -- 10 movies   XXXXXXXXXX
1964 -- 10 movies   XXXXXXXXXX
1965 -- 7 movies     XXXXXXX
1966 -- 9 movies     XXXXXXXXX
1967 -- 14 movies   XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
1968 -- 07 movies  XXXXXXX
1969 -- 06 movies  XXXXXX





Note: First, every member created their own list of the 100 Best Films of the 1960s. Then, all those ballots were combined into one master list, ties were broken and only the Top 100 movies made the cut. Then we each ranked those 100 films from 1 pt all the way up to our favorite at 100 pts. Those totals were used to determine the  ranking of each film in groups of 10, such as 91-100 at the top, 41-50 near the middle down to 1-10 at the bottom. On the evening all members convened, we then voted on each block of ten films, starting with the bottom 10 and then working our way up to the Top 10. Naturally, in some cases the order of films remained mostly the same. In others, it changed dramatically. When two or more films in a group of ten received the same number of points, we voted to break the tie. For example, in the grouping of 71-80, "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" received the same number of votes as "The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner." Two more disparate films it would be hard to find, but the tie was broken and "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" prevailed. On the list, the first point total is the final number of pts it earned to achieve its final slot; the second pt. total is what it achieved to make the master list.