LONDON – Orson Welles' Citizen Kane no longer enjoys the moniker of greatest film of all time, a plaudit it has held for 50 years.

The movie has occupied top billing in the British Film Institute published magazine Sight & Sound's once-a-decade international critics’ film poll since 1962.

But that crown, according to Sight & Sound's 2012 survey of 846 movie experts who participate, has now passed to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

Made in 1958, the psychological suspense drama first entered the Sight & Sound poll in 1982 in seventh place -- two years after its director died. Largely ignored by the critics for most of his career, its rise in the poll is testament to how Hitchcock’s reputation has steadily increased over time.

Starring Kim Novak and James Stewart, Vertigo trumped Citizen Kane by 34 votes this time around; it was five votes shy of Kane 10 years ago.

And 1941's Kane, second in the survey, also missed out on the top spot in a separate poll of 358 film directors from all over the world, including Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen and Mike Leigh, whose survey chose Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story (1953) as its greatest.

The critics poll, first conducted in 1952, marks the magazine's seventh and its most ambitious to date.

The 10-yearly survey aims to rule out fluctuations in taste and asks participants to interpret "greatest" in any way they chose.

That could mean whether the film was most important to film history, represented the aesthetic pinnacle of achievement or perhaps had a personal impact on their own view of cinema.

This year’s poll sample of 846 film critics, academics, distributors, writers and programmers from all corners of the globe was the biggest ever. They voted for 2,045 movie titles overall.

That compares with the 144 that were asked 10 years ago.

The pollsters said the huge increase in numbers "reflects the impact of the Internet and proliferation and increased influence of film commentators using this new medium."

Another fallout from this year's top 10 is Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, a 1925 film that has appeared in the top 10 for all of the poll's 60 years in various slots.

Three silent films make 2012's top 10 -- Dziga Vertov’s documentary Man With a Movie Camera (1929) is a new addition, while 1927's Sunrise, directed by F.W. Murnau, moves up to fifth and The Passion of Joan of Arc re-enters – ousting Eisenstein's picture.

Organizers said the changes might be explained by the availability of the films on DVD and the resurgence in popularity in recent years for different kinds of live accompaniment to the films, from The Alloy Orchestra and Michael Nyman to prog rock.

Ozu’s Tokyo Story is in third spot and Jean Renoir’s La Règle du jeu (1939) occupies fourth.

Vertov’s film is the first documentary to make the top 10 since 1952.

Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1927) is ninth, while the most recent film in the top 10 is Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) in sixth place. John Ford's The Searchers (1956) hits the seventh spot while Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 (1963) lies 10th.

The Critics’ Top 10 Greatest Films of All Time

1) "Vertigo" (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
2) "Citizen Kane" (Orson Welles, 1941)
3) "Tokyo Story" (Yasujiro Ozo, 1953)
4) "Rules of the Game" (Jean Renoir, 1939)
5) "Sunrise" (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
6) "2001: A Space Odyssey" (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
7) "The Searchers" (John Ford, 1956)
8) "Man with a Movie Camera" (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
9) "The Passion of Joan of Arc" (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
10) "8 1/2" (Federico Fellini, 1963)

The Directors’ Top 10 Greatest Films of All Time

1) "Tokyo Story" (Ozu, 1953)
2) "2001: A Space Odyssey" (Kubrick, 1968), "Citizen Kane" (Welles, 1941) [tie]
4) "8 ½" (Fellini, 1963)
5) "Taxi Driver" (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
6) "Apocalypse Now" (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
7) "The Godfather" (Coppola, 1972), "Vertigo" (Hitchcock, 1958) [tie]
9) "Mirror" (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974)
10) "Bicycle Thieves" (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)

Man with a Video Camera? Jesus Christ that movie is like a film school experiment. I like the directors' list more

I'm a little surprised to see Tokyo Story top the directors' list, but I notice Ebert writing about how he'll select one film by Hitchcock or one by Kurosawa, and the Ozu consensus centers around Tokyo Story. It's certainly a very well directed film.

I think Kane is more accomplished than Vertigo on every level, including an entertainment level. I don't even consider Vertigo the best movie of 1958, or even the 2nd best movie of 1958. The problem with Vertigo is that it assumes the viewer will be completely taken in by the intensity of Stewart's trauma. Personally, I have yet to meet anyone who can take it all that seriously, except as pulp.

And Tokyo Story is long, long, overlong, long, and way too long. I've seen at least 4 Ozus that are far, far superior. I think canonization doesn't celebrate greatness so much as distort it. The sight and sound list may be more dignified than, say, the imdb 250, but it seems just as lazy and pointless to me.

Lists are great when they're useful guides; Sight and Sound just tells us what we already knew. What if there was a rule that no movie could make the list over two consecutive decades? Now that would be interesting.

Put me in the "I don't even think Vertigo is Hitchcock's best movie" group.

I think Lifeboat may actually be his best, though it's been so long since I've seen it I hesitate to be too definative about it.

The sight and sound list may be more dignified than, say, the imdb 250, but it seems just as lazy and pointless to me.

Lists are great when they're useful guides; Sight and Sound just tells us what we already knew.