One of AFI's top 100 American films
"American Graffiti" made the AFI's list of the top 100 greatest American films of all time.
"In 1998, AFI invited more than 1,500 leaders from across the American film community – screenwriters, directors, actors, producers, cinematographers, editors, executives, film historians and critics among them – to choose from a list of 400 nominated films compiled by AFI and select the 100 greatest American movies.
The AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies CBS television special originally aired on June 16, 1998."
"American Graffiti" came in at #77.
http://afi.com/100Years/movies.aspx
Ten years later a new list came out. Lo and behold, "American Graffiti" moved up to #62.
http://afi.com/100Years/movies10.aspx
Maybe those 1500 voters from the American film community know something that IMDb voters don't know. IMDb doesn't rank this in the top 250 movies.