David Lynch’s Best Movie Was Initially Conceived As A Pilot For ABC

“Mulholland Drive” is arguably David Lynch‘s magnum opus. A surreal meditation on the nature of identity and belonging amidst the depravity of Hollywood, the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001, winning Lynch the best director award and an Academy Award nomination. “Mulholland Drive‘s” stature has only grown in the ensuing years, earning the No. 8 spot in the 2022 Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll. After the 2025 death of Lynch, whom Steven Spielberg called a “singular, visionary dreamer,” the New York Times ranked it No. 2 on its list of The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century.