What country would you say makes the best films?

Besides America, I mean.


From what I've found, the best films are made by Russians. Their golden age was from the late 50's to the late 70's, this was when they had Tarkovsky, War and Peace, Leonid Gaidai's comedies, Yuri Norstein's animated shorts, White Sun of the Desert, and so on. I'd say it started with The Cranes are Flying and ended with Stalker. Granted, they've made great movies both before and after this era (like The Return), but those made during it are some of the best and most inspired stuff I've ever seen.


I could be wrong, it's possible that czech films are better, but I can't find subtitles for a good part of them. Besides that, I'm pretty confident that russians make the best films.

Russia, Japan, France or S Korea. Can't decide

I'm with Tramuzgan. I also tend to like films from Russia/USSR the most.

However, France also had a significant impact on filmmaking, so they're another strong contender.

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France and Portugal hands down for me

HM: USSR, America, Germany, Italy, and Iran

Odd to see someone saying Russia's golden age started in the 50s though tbh

I love asian movies so :
Taiwan with Hou, Yang, Tsai and other
Hong Kong especially in the '90s
south korea
Japan
China

Are you russian?

I'm Croatian

That's interesting, I've never heard anyone talk about portugese cinema before. What do you recommend I see?

Manoel De Oliveira, Pedro Costa, Pere Portabella, Joao Cesar Monteiro, Joao Pedro Rodrigues, Miguel Gomes, Eugene Green

Some of the most original and provocative filmmakers of the past century

Historically, given total body of work through the years, I’d probably put it like this:
1. France
2. Italy
3. Japan
4. USA
5. Russia

Not a slight against the other countries, mind you. Some didn’t really hit their stride until really late.

France. Easily. I regards to impact and influence on cinema, quantity of great filmmakers and longevity of their industry, they’re the clear winner. Other nations have ebbs and flows, like how Italian cinema has diminished in global standing outside of a handful of filmmakers but arguably dominated the 50s and 60s alongside France and the US. Germany has the 30s and 70s with dry patches on each side. Japanese and Chinese/HK cinema has similarly shrunk (in output and/or quality) while countries like Iran and South Korea have experienced a boom.*I’d say Russian cinema suffers after the passing of Tarkovsky. This could be merely a point of ignorance on my behalf, but outside of a pulp filmmaker like Bekmambetov, I haven’t seen very many Russians making an international splash.

France on the other hand has remained steadfast in generating a lot of quality cinema, often game changing and formative.

Ho okay, cool

Well france cinema, since the early 2000, is in a rough spot. Nowaays in france budget are only given to awfull often racist comedies where their <<genre>> movies are left slowly dying. but I agree that they were really giood in the 20th century

I’m less familiar with post-2000 French cinema but it seems like there’s no dearth of quality French cinema in the market, with the likes of Chomet, Jeunet, Schnabel and Sciamma to name a few. Or foreign directors with French productions, like Haneke or Verhoeven. Is it at the height of French New Wave? No but few film industries are or have ever been. It still seems to garner more acclaim and global buzz than the current state of Germany, Japan, UK, Russia or other former cinema powerhouses.

obviously dai Nippon

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Many trhreads like this already.

Japan.

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USA
Canada
Italy

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I've become a fan of South African films as of late. They tend to have a bit more cult classic statuses, but I learned that Afrikaner filmmakers had made films for the native African audiences during Apartheid. Thanks to Gravel Road's "Retro Afrika Bioscope", I was able to see some of these films and as of late their recent films are actually pretty good as well.

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Not counting the US (I'm going to judge per capita)..


Italy
France
Japan
Czechia/Slovakia
Poland