10 Most Essential Movies of 1981, Ranked

By 1981, cinema had fully stepped into the post-1970s era—less about revolution, more about reinvention. The indie scene was sharpening its edge, studio films were redefining genre boundaries, and global cinema was quietly doing some of its most ambitious work to date. This was the year where politics met passion, horror got wild and weird, action became mythic, and conversation itself turned cinematic.