London, August 2 (ANI): Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 thriller 'Vertigo' has been named as the greatest film of all time by more the 800 film critics and experts.

Orson Welles' 'Citizen Kane' was knocked off the top spot for the first time in 50 years by Hitchcock's masterpiece in the prestigious BFI Sight and Sound Poll, which has been carried out every 10 years since 1952.

The 846 cinema devotees picked the thriller which starred James Stewart and Kim Novak, ahead of 'Citizen Kane' which has held top spot in every poll since 1962.

Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu's 'Tokyo Story' was third ahead of Jean Renoir's 'La Regle Du Jeu'.

Other films in the top 10 include Stanley Kubrick's 񟭁: A Space Odyssey' and John Ford's classic 1956 western 'The Searchers' which stars John Wayne as a civil war veteran hunting for his niece after she is snatched in a raid.

This result reflects changes in the culture of film criticism, the Daily Mail quoted Sight And Sound editor Nick James as saying.

The new cinephilia seems to be not so much about films that strive to be great art, such as Citizen Kane, and that use cinema's entire arsenal of effects to make a grand statement, but more about works that have personal meaning to the critic.

Vertigo is the ultimate critics' film because it is a dreamlike film about people who are not sure who they are but who are busy reconstructing themselves and each other to fit a kind of cinema ideal of the ideal soulmate.

In that sense, it's a makeover film full of spellbinding moments of awful poignancy that show how foolish, tender and cruel we can be when we're in love, he added.

The Critics' top 10 greatest films of all time are:

Vertigo - Alfred Hitchcock

Citizen Kane - Orson Welles

Tokyo Story - Yasujiro Ozu

La Regle Du Jeu - Jean Renoir

Sunrise: A Song For Two Humans - F. W. Murnau

2001: A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick

The Searchers - John Ford,

Man With A Movie Camera - Dziga Vertov

The Passion Of Joan Of Arc - Carl Theodor Dreyer

8 and a half - Federico Fellini (ANI)