on august 1, 2012, the british film institute (bfi) published its decennial "sight & sound" "greatest films of all time" poll, one of the most widely respected such polls among fans and scholars a total of 846 "critics, programmers, academics, distributors, writers and other cinephiles" submitted top ten lists for the poll. in that listing, "late spring" appeared in 15th place among all films from the dawn of cinema. it was the second-highest ranking japanese-language film on the list. (ozu's own "tokyo story" appeared in third place. akira kurosawa's "seven samurai" was the third-highest ranking japanese-language film on the list, tied at 17th place.) in the previous bfi poll (2002), "late spring" did not appear either on the critics' or the directors' "top ten" lists.