The Best One Shot And One Take Movies Of All-Time
“What are the best One Shot Movies?” We looked at 83 of the top One Shot films, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
The top 36 films, all appearing on 2 or more “Best One Shot” movie lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 40+ movies, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.
Happy Scrolling!
Top 36 Best One Shot Movies Ever Made
36 .) 21 Brothers (2011) directed by Michael McGuire
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
21 Brothers tells the story of the Canadian 21st Battalion as they prepare for the battle of Courcellette in WWI. Taking place in real time, the film follows Sgt. Reid as he must get his men ready for the impending battle. Not only must he prep his battalion Sgt. Reid must also deal with the day to day difficulties of Life in the trenches, including injuries to his men, supply issues, and an underage recruit who has recently been sent into the front lines.
35 .) A Boy. A Girl. A Dream. directed by Qasim Basir
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
On the night of the 2016 Presidential election, Cass, an L.A. club promoter, takes a thrilling and emotional journey with Frida, a Midwestern visitor. She challenges him to revisit his broken dreams – while he pushes her to discover hers.
34 .) Agadam (2013) directed by Mohamad Issack
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
Three men bury a woman they have murdered in the middle of the night. They get an unexpected visitor, who wants to do business with them. Soon, the ghost of the dead girl turns up before them sending them running for their lives.
33 .) Ana Arabia (2013) directed by Amos Gitai
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
Filmed in one sequence-shot of 1 hour and 25 minutes, Ana Arabia is a moment in the life of a small community of outcasts, Jews and Arabs, who live together in a forgotten enclave at the “border” between Jaffa and Bat Yam, in Israel. One day, Yael, a young journalist, visits them. In these dilapidated shacks, in the orchard filled with lemon trees and surrounded by mass public houses, she discovers a range of characters far removed from the usual clichés offered by the region. Yael has the feeling of having discovered a human goldmine. She no longer thinks of her job. Faces and words of Youssef and Miriam, Sarah and Walid, of their neighbors, their friends tell her about life, its dreams and its hopes, its love affairs, desires and disillusions. Their relation to time is different than that of the city around them. In this tinkered and fragile place, there is a possibility of coexistence. A universal metaphor. ×
32 .) Atonement directed by Joe Wright
Lists It Appears On:
- Indiewire 2
- Screen Rant 2
As a 13-year-old, fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister’s lover of a crime he did not commit.
31 .) Blind Spot (2018) directed by Tuva Novotny
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
How do we cope with the unthinkable? Tuva Novotny has made a hard-hitting film that has to be described as one of the most impressive feature debuts in recent years. Blind Spot tackles the grey areas of mental illness; the blind spots that can be so difficult to detect. For 98 intense minutes we follow a mother’s struggle to understand her daughter Tea’s crisis as it affects the entire family. Pia Tjelta is formidable as Tea’s mother, especially considering the fact that the entire film is shot in one single take. The same has to be said of Mathea Øien fantastic acting debut as Tea. ×
30 .) Eight (2016) directed by Peter Blackburn
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
Sarah Prentice has lived in her house for the past two years. Her fear of going outside has crippled her ability to interact with the outside world. She struggles through the everyday processes of life as she has an uncontrollable Obsessive, Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Her life is focused on the simple process of getting ready for work. For the everyday person it is as simple as getting up and getting dressed for Sarah it’s a marathon of emotions.
29 .) Fish & Cat (2013) directed by Shahram Mokri
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
A group of students travel to a remote region to participate in a kite-flying event. Next to their camp by the lakeside, they find a restaurant with cooks that treat the students with suspicion. Bizarre events lead to a complicated situation, from which the students cannot escape.
28 .) Goodfellas directed by Martin Scorsese
Lists It Appears On:
- Indiewire 2
- Screen Rant 2
The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.
27 .) Gravity directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Lists It Appears On:
- Indiewire 2
- Screen Rant 2
Dr. Ryan Stone, a brilliant medical engineer on her first Shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky in command of his last flight before retiring. But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The Shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone-tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness of space. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space. ×
26 .) Hanna directed by Joe Wright
Lists It Appears On:
- Indiewire
- Screen Rant
A 16-year-old girl raised by her father to be the perfect assassin is dispatched on a mission across Europe. Tracked by a ruthless operatives, she faces startling revelations about her existence and questions about her humanity.
25 .) Immortality (2016) directed by Mehdi Fard Ghaderi
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
Six families in different compartments of a train, moving through a rainy night. In a single, 145-minute take, the film depicts the families and how their lives are interwoven with each other. Vacillating between dream and reality, each story builds on the one before and leads into the next. Each destiny is influenced by the other one on board, and all hurtle to the same destination.
24 .) Invasion (2017) directed by Shahram Mokri
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
Someone’s been murdered and the police is investigating in a stadium, the crime spot. They have arrested the murder suspect and they just try to find out the murdering procedure, however, it is quite complicated and the friends of the murdered person are not to be very collaborative.
23 .) King Dave (2016) directed by Daniel Grou
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
The story of Dave, a self-proclaimed king. Told in a single shot.
22 .) Lost in London (2017) directed by Woody Harrelson
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
Within the course of a night, Woody Harrelson finds himself in a misadventure in London that winds him up in prison.
21 .) Panic Room directed by David Fincher
Lists It Appears On:
- Indiewire 2
- Screen Rant 2
Trapped in their New York brownstone’s panic room, a hidden chamber built as a sanctuary in the event of break-ins, newly divorced Meg Altman and her young daughter Sarah play a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with three intruders – Burnham, Raoul and Junior – during a brutal home invasion. But the room itself is the focal point because what the intruders really want is inside it.
20 .) Rati Chakravyuh (2013) directed by Ashish Avikunthak
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
On a lunar eclipse midnight, in a desolate temple, six young newlywed couples and a priestess meet after a mass wedding. They sit in a circle and talk. This their last conversation – an exchange about life, death, beginning, end and every thing in between.
19 .) Sábado, una película en tiempo real (2003) directed by Matías Bize
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
“Mother” stands out on the front of her black t-shirt, “Fucker” on the back. And as angrily as these words sound when combined into a curse, is how Antonia behaves. Because she is pregnant, and Victor, who slept with her, is getting married in a few hours to Blanca.
18 .) Silent House (2011) directed by Chris Kentis, Laura Lau
Lists It Appears On:
- Decider
- Wikipedia
Sarah returns with her father and uncle to fix up the family’s longtime summerhouse after it was violated by squatters in the off-season. As they work in the dark, Sarah begins to hear sounds from within the walls of the boarded-up building. Although she barely remembers the place, Sarah senses the past may still haunt the home.
17 .) Snake Eyes directed by Brian De Palma
Lists It Appears On:
- Indiewire 2
- Screen Rant 2
All bets are off when corrupt homicide cop Rick Santoro witnesses a murder during a boxing match. It’s up to him and lifelong friend and naval intelligence agent Kevin Dunne to uncover the conspiracy behind the killing. At every turn, Santoro makes increasingly shocking discoveries that even he can’t turn a blind eye to.
16 .) The Circle (2005) directed by Yuri Zeltser
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
A frantic young woman begs a stranger to help save her marked husband, not realizing that the stranger is the hit man hired to kill him. Experimental digital movie shot entirely in one take and in real time.
15 .) The Revenant directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Lists It Appears On:
- Indiewire
- Screen Rant
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy star in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s visceral, epic tale of survival and betrayal inspired by true events that’s set in America’s uncharted wilderness.
14 .) The Wedding Party (2016) directed by Thane Economou
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
A groomsman must navigate a slew of disasters to maintain order at his best friend’s wedding reception.
13 .) Utøya: July 22 (2018) directed by Erik Poppe
Lists It Appears On:
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
The movie tells the story about a girl who has to hide and survive from terrorist Anders Breivik while looking for her little sister during the terrorist attacks in Norway on the island Utøya, July 22nd.
12 .) Weekend directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Lists It Appears On:
- Indiewire 2
- Screen Rant 2
A supposedly idyllic weekend trip to the countryside turns into a never-ending nightmare of traffic jams, revolution, cannibalism and murder as French bourgeois society starts to collapse under the weight of its own consumer preoccupations.
11 .) Birdman (2014) directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Lists It Appears On:
- Feenta
- Screen Rant 2
- Wikipedia
A fading actor best known for his portrayal of a popular superhero attempts to mount a comeback by appearing in a Broadway play. As opening night approaches, his attempts to become more altruistic, rebuild his career, and reconnect with friends and family prove more difficult than expected.
10 .) Creed directed by Ryan Coogler
Lists It Appears On:
- Indiewire
- Screen Rant
- Screen Rant 2
The former World Heavyweight Champion Rocky Balboa serves as a trainer and mentor to Adonis Johnson, the son of his late friend and former rival Apollo Creed.
9 .) Rope (1948) directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Lists It Appears On:
- Decider
- Feenta
- Wikipedia
Two young men strangle their “inferior” classmate, hide his body in their apartment, and invite his friends and family to a dinner party as a means to challenge the “perfection” of their crime.
8 .) Children of Men directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Lists It Appears On:
- Indiewire
- Indiewire 2
- Screen Rant
- Screen Rant 2
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child’s birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.
7 .) Hard Boiled directed by John Woo
Lists It Appears On:
- Indiewire
- Indiewire 2
- Screen Rant
- Screen Rant 2
A cop who loses his partner in a shoot-out with gun smugglers goes on a mission to catch them. In order to get closer to the leaders of the ring he joins forces with an undercover cop who’s working as a gangster hitman. They use all means of excessive force to find them.
6 .) Oldboy directed by Park Chan-wook
Lists It Appears On:
- Indiewire
- Indiewire 2
- Screen Rant
- Screen Rant 2
With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate businessman seeks revenge on his captors.
5 .) The Protector directed by Prachya Pinkaew
Lists It Appears On:
- Indiewire
- Indiewire 2
- Screen Rant
- Screen Rant 2
“Kham’s (Tony Jaa) life is turned upside down when an international mafia syndicate, based in Australia, captures his two beloved elephants and smuggles them thousands of kilometers away to Sydney.”
4 .) PVC-1 (2007) directed by Spiros Stathoulopoulos
Lists It Appears On:
- Decider
- IMDB
- Quora
- Wikipedia
Shot in real time, PVC-1 is based on the true story of a woman who is turned into a human time bomb in a bizarre act of terrorism.
3 .) Russian Ark (2002) directed by Aleksandr Sokurov
Lists It Appears On:
- Decider
- Feenta
- IMDB
- Wikipedia
A French marquis wanders through a vast labyrinth of corridors, theaters and ballrooms at a reception for a Persian ambassador.
2 .) Timecode (2000) directed by Mike Figgis
Lists It Appears On:
- Decider
- IMDB
- Quora
- Wikipedia
A production company begins casting for its next feature, and an up-and-coming actress named Rose tries to manipulate her filmmaker boyfriend, Alex, into giving her a screen test. Alex’s wife, Emma, knows about the affair and is considering divorce, while Rose’s girlfriend secretly spies on her and attempts to sabotage the relationship. The four storylines in the film were each shot in one take and are shown simultaneously, each taking up a quarter of the screen.
1 .) Victoria (2015) directed by Sebastian Schipper
Lists It Appears On:
- Feenta
- IMDB
- Quora
- Wikipedia
A young Spanish woman who has newly moved to Berlin finds her flirtation with a local guy turn potentially deadly as their night out with his friends reveals a dangerous secret.
The 40+ Additional Best One Shot Films
| # | Movie | Directors | Lists |
| 37 | Adrenaline (I) (2007) | Robert Archer Lynn | IMDB |
| 38 | Anino sa likod ng buwan | Wikipedia | |
| 39 |
BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE
|
Screen Rant | |
| 40 | Boogie Nights | Screen Rant 2 | |
| 41 | BREAKING NEWS | Screen Rant | |
| 42 | Bushwick | Wikipedia | |
| 43 | Cut (I) (2010) | Dominic Burns | IMDB |
| 44 | Daksha | Wikipedia | |
| 45 | DAREDEVIL S1 & S2 | Screen Rant | |
| 46 | El triste olor de la carne | Wikipedia | |
| 47 | Enter the Void (2009) | Feenta | |
| 48 | Fourever | Wikipedia | |
| 49 | Fourplay (2018) | Dean Matthew Ronalds | IMDB |
| 50 | GAME OF THRONES S6 | Screen Rant | |
| 51 | I Am Cuba | Indiewire 2 | |
| 52 | Irréversible (2002) | Feenta | |
| 53 | KUNG FURY | Screen Rant | |
| 54 | La Casa Muda | Wikipedia | |
| 55 | Magicians (2005) | Il-gon Song | IMDB |
| 56 | Magnolia | Indiewire 2 | |
| 57 | Mr Robot episode 3.4 | Wikipedia | |
| 58 | One Shot (I) (2008) | Linda Wendel | IMDB |
| 59 | One Shot-Fear Without Cut | Wikipedia | |
| 60 | Paths of Glory | Indiewire 2 | |
| 61 | Pocket Gangsters (2015) | Hemant Nilim Das | IMDB |
| 62 | Real Time (2002) | Fabrizio Prada | IMDB |
| 63 | Running Time | Wikipedia | |
| 64 | Shadow Behind the Moon (2015) | Jun Lana | IMDB |
| 65 | Sirens and Screams (2015) | Ivan Peric | IMDB |
| 66 | THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN | Screen Rant | |
| 67 | THE AVENGERS | Screen Rant | |
| 68 | The Earrings of Madame de… | Indiewire 2 | |
| 69 | The Haunting of Hill House episode 1.6 | Wikipedia | |
| 70 | The Magicians | Wikipedia | |
| 71 | The Passenger | Indiewire 2 | |
| 72 | The Player | Indiewire 2 | |
| 73 | The Quietest Sound (2006) | James Vculek | IMDB |
| 74 | The Sacrifice | Indiewire 2 | |
| 75 | The Sad Smell of Flesh: El Triste Olor De La Carne (2013) | Cristóbal Arteaga | IMDB |
| 76 | The Secret In Their Eyes | Indiewire 2 | |
| 77 | The Shining | Screen Rant 2 | |
| 78 | The Silent House (2010) | Quora | |
| 79 | Touch of Evil | Indiewire 2 | |
| 80 | TRUE DETECTIVE S1 | Screen Rant | |
| 81 | Unfriended (2014) | Quora | |
| 82 | Victims (I) (2011) | David Bryant | IMDB |
| 83 | Werckmeister Harmonies | Indiewire 2 |
9 Best One Shot Film Sources/Lists
| Source | Article |
| Decider | 5 Essential One-Take Movies |
| Feenta | Best one shot (one-take) movies |
| IMDB | ACTUAL ONE-SHOT MOVIES |
| Indiewire | 7 Best One-Shot Action Sequences, From ‘Oldboy’ to ‘The Revenant |
| Indiewire 2 | Ranking The 20 Greatest, Most Celebrated Long Takes |
| Quora | What are some of the best one-take films ever made? |
| Screen Rant | 15 Mind-Blowing One-Shot Action Scenes You Need To See |
| Screen Rant 2 | The 14 Best Single Takes In Movies |
| Wikipedia | One shot (film) |
