Spike Lee's List Of 86 Films That Every Upcoming Filmmaker Must See

As you should be aware by now, Spike Lee launched a Kickstarter campaign for his next film (after his studio effort, Oldboy), once again prompting the whole debate about crowdsourcing by folks who could feasibly raise the cash themselves. He’s currently around the 30% mark and to bring some attention to the project, he’s released a list of the most essential films a filmmaker must see.

You can check out the complete list below, which expectedly has all the heavyweights you might expect: Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston, David Lean, Frederico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa and more. It’s an excellent starter for cinephiles, even with a few outside-the-box choices, such as films from Neill Blomkamp, Stephen Chow and Mel Gibson. So, as Mr. Lee says, see how many of these films you’ve viewed by checking out the list, his message and a video below.

"I’ve Been A Professor At The NYU Graduate Film For The Past 15 Years.The 1st Day Of Every Class I Hand Out My List Of Films That I Feel You Must See If You Want To Make Films. Please Look At This List And See What You Might Have Missed. As I Tell My Students If You Want Your Film “Game” To Be Tight You Must Have Seen Great Movies, World Cinema, It Just Can’t Be Hollywood Films. Educate Yourself. Learn. Grow. Evolve. Make Great Films."

Anyway, have seen them all? Agree/disagree? Check out the full list below.

How many films have you seen from Spike Lee’s list? Are any of your favorites missing?

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