of the 100 best films of the century thus far by asking over 500 film industry professionals (ranging from actors to executives) and critics to provide their personal top 10s. How did it turn out?

Having perused the list this morning, I found the top 100 to be frustratingly light on world cinema and too beholden to past Oscar winners and nominees. While I'm relieved that mediocrities (or worse) like "CODA," "The Artist," and the utterly wretched "Green Book" didn't receive enough votes to make the final list, I think the Times would've compiled something worth taking seriously had it included a few hundred more international voices. But it seems like the objective of this list was to get film lovers clicking through to see how their favorite actors and directors voted. While this is undeniably fun (hey, Julianne Moore's a big "Superbad" fan), the end result is pretty lightweight.

Still, I was both fascinated and just a tad fearful to find out which movie topped the list. Since the individual lists weren't ranked, this meant the top movie might be one that everyone acknowledges is great, but, maybe, not the very best. Fortunately, the top 10 is mostly respectable (David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's kid-gloved biopic "The Social Network" is way too high at number 10), and the film that was declared the best is, if nothing else, an undeniable masterpiece.