In 1995, on the "centenary of cinematography", 100 years after the Lumière brothers displayed their first film for an audience, the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications compiled a list called Some Important Films (Italian: Alcuni film importanti). The 45 movies are divided equally into three categories—religion, values, and art—with no order of importance placed on the films. The council was careful not to regard the films on the list as the "best", or most important, saying: "not all that deserve mention are included".^[1] The list was distributed as part of an information packet on film appreciation, sent to bishops' conferences in mid-October of 1995.

Of those films on religion, some depict the life of Jesus, like the 1903 French silent film Vie et Passion du Christ and the 1959 American epic Ben-Hur, while others cover the lives of saints and important Christian figures, such as Francesco (1989), about the life of St. Francis of Assisi, and the 1966 A Man for All Seasons, about the final years of Sir Thomas More.

The films selected for "values" include Schindler's List (1993), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Gandhi (1982) and Dekalog (1989).

The "art" list includes some of cinema's most esteemed films, including: Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941), Federico Fellini's 8½ (1963), Disney's Fantasia (1940) and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

Popcorn with the Pope: A Guide to the Vatican Film List (2023) by David Paul Baird, Andrew Petiprin and Michael Ward, reviews all forty-five movies on the list and includes an introductory essay surveying the history of papal interactions with cinema.^[2]

References

• "Vatican Best Films List". Official website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Archived from the original on 2012-04-22. Retrieved 2012-04-20.
• Steven D. Greydanus. "The Vatican Film List". Decent Films Guide. Retrieved 2012-04-20.