Now the September issue of Sight & Sound has hit the news stands, film buffs everywhere are now able to pour and get worked-up over their Greatest Films Poll 2012. The savvy marketers and promoters that the BFI are, it was common knowledge that Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane had been usurped by Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo prior to publication. Perhaps what is most exciting though, is that the poll is all available online, allowing you to see where all the critics, academics and filmmakers casted their votes.

Will Brooker, the author of our new book Hunting the Dark Knight: Twenty-first Century Batman, was one academic invited to list his favourite films, which we have lovingly, and painstakingly, reproduced for you (in 332 characters and alphabetical order) below:

Blade Runner, 1982, Ridley Scott

The Breakfast Club, 1985, John Hughes

Breathless, 1960, Jean-Luc Goddard

Man With a Movie Camera, 1929, Dziga Vertov

Rope, 1948, Alfred Hitchcock

The Searchers, 1956, John Ford

Star Wars, 1977, George Lucas

Touch of Evil, 1958, Orson Welles

Tron, 1982, Steven Lisberger

West Side Story, 1961, Robert Wise/Jerome Robbins

It would be a lie to claim Will’s selection created a controversy online, but it did draw this response from @mousterpiece on Twitter: ‘the guy who put Tron on his list also put on Breakfast Club, which is an equally baffling choice.’

Preferring Rope to Vertigo because it ‘is more theatrical than Hitchcock’s other great pictures’, Will’s list does throw a few curve balls, not least because there’s no Batman. On Twitter, @mousterpiece got a little worked up saying: ‘the guy who put Tron on his list also put on Breakfast Club, which is an equally baffling choice.’

To read what Will said about all his choices visit the Sight & Sound website. And if you think Will’s picks are slightly out of the ordinary, then take a look at Diane Negra’s list. ■