The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever features experts and enthusiasts and, well, their favorite films of every year ever. Host Tristan Ettleman sits down with a new guest every week to dive into the history and beauty of some of the best movies to ever come out of the cinematic medium.

Now Playing: 1907

Episodes

  • E4 - Sean Guinan

    Filmmaker and musician Sean Guinan has an eye for the surreal, as exhibited by his TikTok channel Candy Town Follies. With that in mind, his selections cover a lot of topical and aesthetic ground, from eroticism and over-the-top comedy to social commentary and actuality footage of a major 20th century pop culture figure.

  • E3 - Liz Clarke

    Three of Associate Professor at Brock University Liz Clarke’s picks are defined by a sort of morbid delight. But with a cuddlier creature and the colonizing gaze represented in her other two selections, the conversation reveals more layers of the global film industry in 1907.

  • E2 - Matt Page

    Film historian Matt Page has been researching film adaptations of the Bible for over 20 years. And yet only one of his picks for 1907 stems from that source and this wide-ranging conversation also reaches chases, tricks, and more.

  • E1 - Studios, Legal Battles, Criticism, Oh My!

    1907, somewhat unlike the past couple years covered on this show, is chock-full of historical developments with details that are fun to plumb. But exploring the legal battles, studio foundings, and trade journal publications of the year just sets up the spectacular film texts themselves, with guests’ selections ranging from chase film evolutions to horrifically bizarre gems to actualities as historical documents to an animation milestone.

the Host

Tristan Ettleman is a film scholar and college instructor who dabbles in online content creation like this here podcast. His essay series of the same name is the inspiration for The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever podcast.