Want to know the best Fred Zinnemann movies? How about the worst Fred Zinnemann movies? Curious about Fred Zinnemann box office grosses or which Fred Zinnemann movie picked up the most Oscar nominations? Need to know which Fred Zinnemann movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Fred Zinnemann (1907-1997) was an Oscar® winning Austro-American film director. He directed films in many genres, including thrillers, westerns, film noir and play adaptations. He was nominated 7 times for a Best Director Oscar®….winning two times. His 7 nominations tie him for the 4th most directing nominations ever! Only William Wyler (12 nominations), Billy Wilder (8 nominations) and Martin Scorsese (8 nominations) received more nominations.
His IMDb page shows 47 directing credits from 1930-1982. This page will rank 21 Fred Zinnemann movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Shorts, documentaries and tv shows were not included in the rankings.
Fred Zinnemann Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Fred Zinnemann movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Fred Zinnemann movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Fred Zinnemann movies by domestic yearly box office rank
- Sort Fred Zinnemann movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and many Oscar® wins each Fred Zinnemann movie received and
- Sort Fred Zinnemann movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Fred Zinnemann Table
- Nine Fred Zinnemann movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 42.85% of his movies listed. From Here to Eternity (1953) was his biggest box office hit when looking at adjusted domestic box office gross.
- An average Fred Zinnemann movie grosses $118.40 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 19 of Fred Zinnemann’ movies are rated as good movies…or 90.47% of his movies. High Noon (1952) is his highest rated movie while Five Days One Summer (1982) was his lowest rated movie.
- Fourteen Fred Zinnemann movie received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 66.66% of his movies.
- Six Fred Zinnemann movie won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 28.57% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 39.86. 14 Fred Zinnemann movies scored higher than that average….or 66.66% of his movies. A Man for All Seasons (1966) got the the highest UMR Score while Five Days One Summer (1982) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Fred Zinnemann
1. Fred Zinnemann was born in Rzeszów, Poland in 1907.
2. Fred Zinnemann grew up in Austria. Originally he wanted to become a musician, but went on to graduate with a law degree from the University of Vienna in 1927.
3. Fred Zinnemann moved to Paris in 1929 where he studied at Ecole Technique de Photographie et Cinématographie. In Germany he worked with another movie beginner, Billy Wilder, on the movie People on Sunday.
4. Fred Zinnemann’s first job in Hollywood was as an extra in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).
5. Fred Zinnemann received a Best Director Oscar® nomination for 33.33% of the movies he directed. Compare that percentage to other great directors: Spielberg 24.13%, Lean 43.75%, Allen 15.21%, Scorsese 32.00%, Wyler 33.33%, Wilder 32.00% and M. Night Shyamalan 10.00%.
6. Fred Zinnemann won 4 Oscars® in his career. He won a Best Documentary Oscar® (Benjy) in 1952. He won a Best Director Oscar® in 1953 (From Here To Eternity) and 1966 (A Man For All Seasons). He also won a Best Picture Oscar® for A Man For All Seasons.
7. Fred Zinnemann directed 18 different actors in Oscar®-nominated performances: Hume Cronyn, Montgomery Clift, Gary Cooper, Julie Harris, Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed, Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Anthony Franciosa, Audrey Hepburn, Glynis Johns, Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, Wendy Hiller, Jason Robards, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda and Maximilian Schell. Cooper (High Noon), Redgrave (Julia), Robards (Julia), Sinatra (From Here To Eternity), Reed (From Here To Eternity) and Scofield (A Man For All Seasons) won Oscars® for their performances in one of Zinneman’s movies.
7. Fred Zinnemann directed the film debuts of Montgomery Clift (1948’s The Search), Marlon Brando (1950’s The Men) and Meryl Streep (1977’s Julia).
8. Fred Zinnemann was married one time. He was married to Renee Bartlett from 1936 to his death in 1997. They had one child.
9. Fred Zinnemann’s favorites. His favorite movie he directed was 1952’s The Member of the Wedding His favorite individual scene is Sir Thomas More’s goodbye to his wife and daughter in 1966’s A Man for All Seasons. Many people would say their favorite Zinnemann moment is Burt Lancaster kissing Deborah Kerr on the beach in 1953’s From Here To Eternity.
10. Check out Fred Zinnemann’s movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page.
Want more movie stats? Well here you go. Worldwide Box Office Totals on 9 Fred Zinnemann movies:
- Act of Violence (1948) $61.60 million in adjusted box office
- Day of the Jackal, The (1973) $169.40 million in adjusted box office
- Eyes in the Night (1942) $81.60 million in adjusted box office
- Kid Glove Killer (1942) $41.30)million in adjusted box office
- Little Mister Jim (1947) $48.80 million in adjusted box office
- My Brother Talks To Horses (1947) $60.10 million in adjusted box office
- The Nun’s Story (1959) $461.30 million in adjusted box office
- The Seventh Cross (1944) $302.90 million in adjusted box office
- Teresa (1951) $83.80 million in adjusted box office
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Hi
Zinnemann was a master of many genres. Westerns, musicals, thrillers, best sellers and historical epics. My favourite has to be From Here to Eternity, the cast was just fantastic especially Montgomery Cliff and Frank Sinatra, his big comeback .
I’ve always loved A Man for All Seasons, historical movies aren’t everybody’s cup of tea but Paul Scofield was superb in the role of Thomas Moore.
Julia was also a great movie, I remember Vanessa Redgrave winning her Oscar and getting booed at the ceremony.
Hey Chris. I agree Zinnemann did well in all genres. I think From Here To Eternity is easily his most famous movie. The cast was awesome….beside the two you mentioned…you gotta give kudos to Donna Reed (she won an Oscar for the movie), Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr and in one of the best bad guy roles ever Ernest Borgnine. I have not seen A Man For All Seasons in years…..it is probably time for a revisit. Redgrave’s Oscar speech is probably one of the most famous of all-time. Although I have to say…that I was not too impressed with Julia….way too slow moving for me. Thanks as always for stopping by….and thanks for your thoughts on Mr. Zinnemann.
Hi, Bruce.
Somehow I thought this director made more films. I just rewatched From Here To Eternity for the I don’t know how many times I have seen it as part of Star of the Month Frank Sinatra on TCM.
I still have not seen Number 1, A Man For All seasons.
The lowest ranking film I have seen is Number 16, Member of the Wedding.
I have seen 11 of his overall films. Besides FHTE, I love High Noon, Oklahoma! anf Day of the Jackel.
Behold a Pale Horse is not one of my favourites of Peck.
Cheers,
Flora
Hey Flora….seems he took his time between projects….thus his output was somewhat low. Still it was more active than David Lean. Pretty surprise that you have not seen A Man For All Seasons. Member of the Wedding was Lean’s favorite movie that he directed…and is on my list of movies to watch, Wow…..a Peck movie that you do not like….I did not think that was possible….lol. Tally count….Flora 11, Steve and Bruce 7….and the winner is Flora….congrats. Thanks for your thoughts on Mr. Zinnemann.
I agree he was an underrated director. I love A Man For All Seasons.
Hey Gina….We agree….he was a very underrated director. A Man For All Seasons is one of the highest rated movies in my entire database. Not many movies can match the awesome numbers that Man For All Seasons earned. Thanks for the visit.
Someone started a topic at my forum recently citing High Noon as the best western ever made, it’s certainly one of the best westerns but ‘the’ best I don’t think so. For a start John Wayne isn’t the star [wink] plus it doesn’t have any injuns [wink wink] . Wayne hated High Noon because the towns people were so cowardly and refused to help, he thought it was ‘un-American’.
Okay i’ve seen just 7 of the 21 films you’ve listed here, not much I know. I’ve seen 6 of the moviescore top 10 and 6 from the critics 10.
I watched A Man for all Seasons again recently, I still think it’s overrated. Too much More not enough King Henry. Much prefer Becket and The Lion in Winter.
From Here to Eternity along with High Noon are my two favorite Zinnemann movies, the ones I’ve watched the most. I have not seen Julia, The Nuns Story or The Search.
Another excellent movie page Bruce, voted up.
Hey Steve. I like High Noon…..but when I think about great westerns….High Noon never comes into my mind. Like you say….it does not star Wayne…so how can it be the greatest western. My tally is 7 too. I recently saw and really enjoyed The Sundowners…..highly recommend that one. Seems like a relative to The Quiet Man with an awesome performance from Robert Mitchum. Flora has us beat again….as her tally count is at 11. From Here To Eternity is way more entertaining movie than Man For All Seasons…..but in my ranking system winning the Best Picture Oscar really helps it in the rankings. I do agree that more Robert Shaw would have helped A Man For All Seasons. Julia and The Nuns Story are both very slowly paced and were really a challenge to finish. I do want to see The Search….Monty Clift got an Oscar nomination in that one and it was his first ever movie. Thanks for the votes and the visit.
You’ve been busy. Zinnemann does not get the credit he deserves. So many great movies on this list. Sad that he never gets brought up when people are talking about great directors.
Hey S & S…..yep been busy lately. I agree with you about Zinnemann. When I was researching other directors, I noticed his name popping up regularly…but it was only when looking at the directors with most Oscar nominations that I thought I should finally do a page on him. Maybe one day he will get some much need kudos….thanks for stopping by.