انجمن فیلمسازهای آمریکایی در ۸ ژانویه سال ۱۹۱۹ تایسیس شد. به مناسبت ۱۰۰ سالگی این انجمن، اعضایش ۱۰۰ فیلم برتر قرن بیستم را انتخاب کردهاند.
فهرستهای سینمایی همیشه محدودیتهای خود را داشتهاند و نبود فیلمی در آن، به گمان من نباید حساسیت برانگیز شود.
این فهرستها در واقع بزرگداشت آثار و مشوقی برای دیدن آنها، توسط نسلی هستند که شاید حتی در قرن بیستم به دنیا هم نیامده بودند.
در فهرست زیر، ده فیلم اول بر اساس تعداد آرا رتبهبندی شدهاند، اما بقیه فیلمها به صورت رندم درج شدهاند.
- Lawrence of Arabia (۱۹۶۲) – Freddie Young
- Blade Runner (۱۹۸۲) – Jordan Cronenweth
- Apocalypse Now (۱۹۷۹) – Vittorio Storaro
- Citizen Kane(1941) – Gregg Toland
- The Godfather (۱۹۷۲) – Gordon Willis
- Raging Bull (۱۹۸۰) – Michael Chapman
- The Conformist (۱۹۷۰) – Vittorio Storaro
- Days of Heaven (۱۹۷۸) – Néstor Almendros
- ۲۰۰۱: A Space Odyssey (۱۹۶۸) – Geoffrey Unsworth
- The French Connection (۱۹۷۱) Owen Roizman
- Metropolis (1927) – Karl Freund, Günther Rittau
- Napoleon (1927) – Leonce-Henri Burel, Jules Kruger, Joseph-Louis Mundwiller
- Sunrise (1927) – Charles Rosher Sr., ASC; Karl Struss
- Gone with the Wind (1939) – Ernest Haller
- The Wizard of Oz (1939) – Harold Rosson
- The Grapes of Wrath (1940) – Gregg Toland
- How Green Was My Valley (1941) – Arthur C. Miller
- Casablanca (1942) – Arthur Edeson
- The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) – Stanley Cortez
- Black Narcissus (1947) – Jack Cardiff
- The Bicycle Thief (1948) – Carlo Montuori
- The Red Shoes (1948) – Jack Cardiff
- The Third Man (1949) – Robert Krasker
- Rashomon (1950) – Kazuo Miyagawa
- Sunset Boulevard (1950) – John Seitz
- On the Waterfront (1954) – Boris Kaufman
- Seven Samurai (1954) – Asakazu Nakai
- The Night of the Hunter (1955) – Stanley Cortez
- The Searchers (1956) – Winton C. Hoch
- The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) – Jack HIldyard
- Touch of Evil (1958) – Russell Metty, ASC
- Vertigo (1958) – Robert Burks
- North by Northwest (1959) – Robert Burks
- Breathless (1960) – Raoul Coutard
- Last Year at Marienbad (1961) – by Sacha Vierny
- ۸ ½ (۱۹۶۳) – Gianni Di Venanzo
- Hud (1963) – James Wong Howe
- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) – Gilbert Taylor
- I Am Cuba (Soy Cuba; 1964) – Sergei Urusevsky
- Doctor Zhivago (1965) – Freddie Young
- The Battle of Algiers (1966) – Marcello Gatti
- Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) – Haskell Wexler
- Cool Hand Luke (1967) – Conrad Hall
- The Graduate (1967) – Robert Surtees
- In Cold Blood (1967) – Conrad Hall
- Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) – Tonino Delli Colli
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) – Conrad Hall
- The Wild Bunch (1969) – Lucien Ballard
- A Clockwork Orange (1971) – John Alcott
- Klute (1971) – Gordon Willis
- The Last Picture Show (1971) – Robert Surtees
- McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971) – Vilmos Zsigmond
- Cabaret (1972) – Geoffery Unsworth
- Last Tango in Paris (1972) – Vittorio Storaro
- The Exorcist (1973) – Owen Roizman
- Chinatown (1974) – John A. Alonzo
- The Godfather: Part II (1974) – Gordon Willis
- Barry Lyndon (1975) – John Alcott
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) – Haskell Wexler
- All the President’s Men (1976) – Gordon Willis
- Taxi Driver (1976) – Michael Chapman
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) – Vilmos Zsigmond
- The Duellists (1977) – Frank Tidy
- The Deer Hunter (1978) – Vilmos Zsigmond
- Alien (1979) – Derek Vanlint
- All that Jazz (1979) – Giuseppe Rotunno
- Being There (1979) – Caleb Deschanel
- The Black Stallion (1979) – Caleb Deschanel
- Manhattan (1979) – Gordon Willis
- The Shining (1980) – John Alcott
- Chariots of Fire (1981) – David Watkin
- Das Boot (1981) – Jost Vacano
- Reds (1981) – Vittorio Storaro
- Fanny and Alexander (1982) – Sven Nykvist
- The Right Stuff (1983) – Caleb Deschanel
- Amadeus (1984) – Miroslav Ondricek
- The Natural (1984) – Caleb Deschanel
- Paris, Texas (1984) – Robby Müller
- Brazil (1985) – Roger Pratt
- The Mission (1986) – Chris Menges
- Empire of the Sun (1987) – Allen Daviau
- The Last Emperor (1987) – Vittorio Storaro
- Wings of Desire (1987) – Henri Alekan
- Mississippi Burning (1988) – Peter Biziou
- JFK (1991) – Robert Richardson
- Raise the Red Lantern (1991) – Fei Zhao
- Unforgiven (1992) – Jack Green
- Baraka (1992) – Ron Fricke
- Schindler’s List (1993) – Janusz Kaminski
- Searching For Bobby Fischer (1993) – Conrad Hall
- Trois Coulieurs: Bleu (Three Colours: Blue; 1993) – Slawomir Idziak
- The Shawshank Redemption (1994) – Roger Deakins
- Seven (1995) – Darius Khondji
- The English Patient (1996) – John Seale
- L. A. Confidential (1997) – Dante Spinotti
- Saving Private Ryan (1998) – Janusz Kaminski
- The Thin Red Line (1998) – John Toll
- American Beauty (1999) – Conrad Hall
- The Matrix (1999) – Bill Pope
- In the Mood for Love (2000) – Christopher Doyle