Abstract/Summary

This paper assesses the importance of visual motifs as new research tools for film and media studies, by running a quantitative meta-study of two expert review databases: the British Film Institute best-movies 2012 poll and the Encyclopedia of visual motifs in cinema (a joint venture of up to sixty researchers and film critics). The former is used as an indicator of canonic values in film historiography, while the latter represents a new approach to cinema from a less hierarchical and nonauteur- oriented methodology. Three main variables are quantified and compared (decades, genres, directors), pointing to a low accordance between the top films of both databases, as well as to noteworthy differences in terms of historical scope, high / low culture values, and authorship.