What are the best films of 2020? A critics survey

We asked critics from around the world what the best films of 2020 were. Read their answers in this critics survey.

Catch up with out best of the year content by reading about our 20 favourite performances of 2020.

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For the second year running, we’ve gathered together our critic friends from around the world to contribute their favourite films of 2020. Here, you’ll find an eclectic mix of films across genres and countries. We asked contributors to offer up to 10 favourites, ranked or unranked. For most of the 31 ballots featured, the writer composed their list by picking from all the films that were released in the US or Canada in 2020, but we were vague enough in our briefing to leave room for a personal twist. Some critics have included festival favourites and some have gone by the release calendar of their own country. Some have gone more specific, like favourite documentaries of the year or favourite films from a single country.

The runaway winners were also two of Seventh Row’s favourite films of the year: First Cow and Never Rarely Sometimes Always, which were both featured in 11 lists each. That’s over a third of all the ballots submitted.

Coming in next was Lovers Rock with nine, The Assistant with eight, and Time and Nomadland with six. The Forty-Year-Old Version, Wolfwalkers, Another Round, and Shirley got five mentions each. With four each, we have Days, David Byrne’s American Utopia, Ema, Proxima, City Hall, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, and She Dies Tomorrow.

109 of the films featured in these lists only got a single mention. That will give you a sense of how eclectic and personal these lists are. We’ve linked to the Twitter profile (if they have one) of each contributor, as well as one of their favourite pieces of their own writing from 2020. If you particularly like one person’s list, we encourage you to follow them on social media and keep up to date with their work in 2021.

Sofia Bohdanowicz, Filmmaker

These titles are not ranked:

• Days (Tsai Ming-liang)
• Now, At Last! (Ben Rivers)
• Fauna (Nicolás Pereda)
• Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)
• The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sang-soo)
• 2008 (Blake Williams)
• Recovery (Kevin Jerome Everson) 
• Equinox (Margaret Honda)
• Anne at 13,000 ft (Kazik Radwanski)
• JÍIBIE (Laura Huertes Milan)

Honourable mentions: The Incomplete Disappearance (Alan Martín Segal), The Metamorphosis of Birds (Catarina Vasconcelos)

Read Sofia’s article “Best of the Decade: Jodie Mack” (Cinema Scope).

Cathy Brennan (@TownTattle), Freelance film critic

These titles are not ranked:

• Always Amber (Hannah Reinikainen Bergeman, Lia Hietala)
• Purple Sea (Amel Alzakout, Khaled Abdulwahed)
• Time (Garrett Bradley)
• The Assistant (Kitty Green)
• No Hard Feelings (Faraz Shariat)
• Point and Line to Plane (Sofia Bohdanowicz)
• The Man Standing Next (Min-ho Woo)
• The Forty-Year-Old Version (Radha Blank)
• A Dim Valley (Brandon Colvin)
• Forensickness (Chloé Galibert-Laîné)

Sara Clements (@mildredsfierce), Film critic and editor for Next Best Picture

1. Nomadland (Chloé Zhao)
2. Minari (Lee Isaac Chung)
3. Martin Eden (Pietro Marcello)
4. The Lodge (Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz)
5. Wolfwalkers (Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart)
6. Mank (David Fincher)
7. Undine (Christian Petzold)
8. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (George C. Wolfe)
9. Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman)
10. Two of Us (Filippo Meneghetti)

Read Sara’s article “Re-examining the Lesbian Vampire and Dracula’s Daughter During a Movement Against Discrimination” (Daily Dead).

Rebecca del Tufo (@BeccadT), Programming Manager at Saffron Screen and Royston Picture Palace

My top 5 (not in any order) are:

• Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma): So much talent shown by everyone involved.
• Parasite (Bong Joon-ho): Just a brilliant film.
• Mangrove (Steve McQueen): Oh to see this in the cinema, but the cinematography and direction are magnificent as well, of course, as the story and acting.
• Rocks (Sarah Gavron): Such a wonderful portrait of young women in London today, and created in an interesting manner.
• Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen): A fever dream of a film in these lonely times.

And my 6-10, again not in order, are:

• Clemency (Chinonye Chukwu): Alfre Woodard should win all the awards.
• The Assistant (Kitty Green): I can’t stop thinking about what this says about young women in the workplace.
• Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman): A film about friendship with a central scene that ate through my emotions.
• Time (Garrett Bradley): A highly effective and moving portrait of an admirable woman.
• Saint Maud (Rose Glass): Not my genre, but brilliant on every level, including its additions of humour.

And five to look out for next year

• Limbo (Ben Sharrock)
• Ammonite (Francis Lee)
• After Love (Aleem Khan)
• Nomadland (Chloé Zhao)
• Minari (Lee Isaac Chung)

Kayleigh Donaldson (@ceilidhann), Writer/Critic for Pajiba

1. Wolfwalkers (Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart)
2. Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg)
3. One Night in Miami… (Regina King)
4. Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee)
5. Shirley (Josephine Decker)
6. Monsoon (Hong Khaou)
7. Judy and Punch (Mirrah Foulkes)
8. Bacurau (Juliano Dornelles, Kleber Mendonça Filho)
9. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman)
10. Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)

Read Kayleigh’s article “Review: Promising Young Woman Tackles A Taboo Revenge Fantasy In A Fittingly 2020 Way” (Pajiba).

Ben Flanagan (@manlikeflan), Freelance writer and Co-Founder of Cinema Year Zero

1. Days (Tsai Ming Liang)
2. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross)
3. Los Conductos (Camilo Restrepo)
4. The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell)
5. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman)
6. Notturno (Gianfranco Rosi)
7. Vitalina Varela (Pedro Costa)
8. Liberté (Albert Serra)
9. David Byrne’s American Utopia (Spike Lee)

Honourable mentions: Time (Garrett Bradley), I Was at Home, But… (Angela Schanelec), Rocks (Sarah Gavron), The Viewing Booth (Ra’anan Alexandrowicz), Anne at 13,000 ft (Kazik Radwanski), Hubie Halloween (Steve Brill), City Hall (Frederick Wiseman), Fourteen (Dan Sallitt), Let Them All Talk (Steven Soderbergh), Swallow (Carlo Mirabella-Davis), The Hunt (Craig Zobel), To the Ends of the Earth (Kiyoshi Kurosawa), Abel Ferrara (for releasing/premiering 3 bangers amidst the chaos: Tommaso, Siberia, Sportin’ Life) 

Ricardo Gallegos (@wallyrgr), Editor in chief of La Estatuilla and contributor at Shuffle Online

I have a Top 100 list of films that I absolutely adored, so cutting it down to just 10 was quite tough; it feels cruel to leave out so many incredible movies. I guess this is a reflection of the great year of cinema we had. Despite the lows, controversies, and the challenging state of the industry, we had the privilege of witnessing a burgeoning of new, bright filmmakers that left their mark. Invaluable documentaries filled our brains with urgent stories and information. Also, women directors took by storm our screens and created some of the finest pieces of film art you’ll ever see. Festivals transitioned to digital platforms and I was lucky enough to cover some of them, which, despite the lack of accessibility of some of the so-called “big films” to people outside of the US and Canada, allowed me to watch a ton of international cinema and most importantly, meet new friends, learn from new critics and discover wonderful websites such as Seventh Row.

(Many of the films in my Top 10 were only released in Mexico this year, so they count as 2020 films for me)

1. Identifying Features (Fernanda Valadez)

Sin señas particulares (its original title in Spanish) shook me. A masterpiece that talks about the horrific and violent reality in my country through the tale of a desperate mother in search for his missing son. A cry of anguish in support of the millions of disappeared brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, wives and husbands on the border.

2. Collective (Alexander Nanau)

As I mentioned earlier, investigative journalism in film is my cup of tea. Collective was even more than that. A passionate and perfectly edited documentary that kindles frustration, opens your eyes and captures in great detail how sick humanity is, but also celebrates journalistic integrity and the heroes who tirelessly dug to find the truth. 

3. Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)

Promising Young Woman melted my screen. A smart, bold and angry movie that leaves its mark and prompts you to reflect on the culture in which we live. Carey Mulligan is astonishing.

4. The Hater (Jan Komasa)

A stark contrast from my number 5, Jan Komasa’s The Hater hit me like a train. An authentic and eerie representation of our society that explores the influence of social media in the rise of fascism. It keeps you glued to the screen with relevant ideas about ethics, classism, fashion, and hatred.

5. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Marielle Heller)

With environmental problems, intolerance, threats of war, insecurity and a general lack of empathy, it is very difficult to find light in such a dark world, and I think that A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is just what I needed to remember that goodness exists and that a kind action can be enough to change a life. 

6. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman)

Eliza Hittman portrayed the reality of youth without transgressing or judging. This is an urgent movie about femininity and adolescence that makes you feel the weight of the oppressive patriarchal society and highlights the terrible vulnerability that millions of women face due to the lack of a decent system of reproductive laws. It is a devastating and real story. The long sequence that gives the film its title will forever remain in my memory. 

7. Uncut Gems (Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie)

I’ve watched Uncut Gems a bunch of times and it gets better every time. A film that assaults your senses and doesn’t let go. It’s like watching a grueling, loud and exciting ping pong match that never seems to come to an end and where every move brings you closer to a panic attack. You kind of want to leave, but can’t take your eyes off it.

8. Summertime (Carlos López Estrada)

Carlos López Estrada is one of the brightest new directors out there. After flooring me with the extraordinary Blindspotting a couple of years ago, he inspired and lifted me with Summertime, a unique, passionate and vibrant slam poetry musical that celebrates diversity with an overflow of energy and art. I can’t wait to watch this wonderful film again.

9. The Best is Yet to Come (Jing Wang)

I love films about journalism and The Best is Yet to Come hit all the right notes for me. An engaging story about an up-and-coming Chinese reporter using a pen to fight discrimination despite the risk it entails for his career.

10. Weathering With You (Makoto Shinkai)

An astonishing tale of love and climate change that reflects on the impact of our decisions and our ability to create change. Another gorgeous achievement by Makoto Shinkai.

Shout out to other wonderful movies I loved but couldn’t squeeze in my Top 10: A Sun (Mong-Hong Chung), Quo Vadis, Aida? (Jasmila Žbanić), The Half of It (Alice Wu), Bad Education (Cory Finley), Feels Good Man (Arthur Jones), Penguin Bloom (Glendyn Ivin), Dinner in America (Adam Rehmeier), Corpus Christi (Jan Komasa), Swallow (Carlo Mirabella-Davis), The Truffle Hunters (Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw), Waves (Trey Edward Shults), and I could keep going.

Read Ricardo’s review of Identifying Features.

Rhys Handley (@RhysHandley2113), Freelance culture journalist

Dark Waters (Todd Haynes) / David Byrne’s American Utopia (Spike Lee) / Ema (Pablo Larraín) / First Cow (Kelly Reichardt) / Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman) / Parasite (Bong Joon-ho) / Rocks (Sarah Gavron) / Alex Wheatle (Steve McQueen) / Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen) / Mangrove (Steve McQueen)

Like pretty much everyone else, a lot has changed for me this year – not least how I approach cinema and why I choose to write about it. As a result of this repositioning, my (unranked) favourites from the past 12 months all speak to me in how they approach the familiar and the established from the left field, gently encouraging reflection, reappraisal, reassessment. Steve McQueen challenges the British historical canon and our collective psyche in his incredible Small Axe anthology, and Sarah Gavron does something similar (if more family-friendly) in Rocks. Pablo Larraín skews notions of family and motherhood in Ema, and Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a deliriously cinematic whistle-stop tour of the class struggle, while Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a challengingly plotless, un-preachy abortion drama. I was especially thrilled to see Todd Haynes bring the full might of his wonky, Queer Cinematic vocabulary to bear on what could’ve been strait-laced ‘issues’ work with Dark Waters.

But what most gives me hope is the exuberant joy of how age-old, long-cherished artefacts are rendered anew in Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow and David Byrne’s American Utopia (a Spike Lee joint). The former gives us a boy’s-own Western adventure unafraid to explore the sweet homoeroticism of male friendship on the American frontier, while the latter repurposes the ex-Talking Heads frontman’s considerable songbook as a how-to guide for staying upbeat and open in an increasingly isolating modern world. We’ve all been very far apart from one another in 2020, and our viewing habits have been destabilised as much as everything else, but films like the ones above make me excited to return to the well of human kindness and ingenuity in the coming year – hopefully that’ll mean you and I, vaccinated and tactile, at a cinema screen again someday soon.

Read Rhys’s article “Top 20 Films of 2020: Mangrove” (One Room With a View).

Laura Anne Harris (@lauraanneharri1), Theatre maker and actress

Fav movie of 2020: I would like to highlight two documentaries since the majority of the list will likely be fiction films this year. 

Director Sam Feder’s Disclosure is an excellent addition to the LGBTQ film canon about how trans people are depicted in film history and media. Like Celluloid Closet, which explored depictions of gay and lesbian people within film history, Disclosure examines the many ways pop culture has let down the trans community. For example, it could be the emphasis by interviewers such as Oprah to ask about surgical procedures, or the villianization and mockery of cross dressing men. Education is power, and there were many clarifying moments that allowed a general audience to understand the trans persons’ experience and struggles. Modern actors and personalities are paving the way for trans people to take their power back and represent the complexity of their lived experiences. 

The second film is a short documentary titled, No Crying at the Dinner Table (available to view for free worldwide on Vimeo). This short film by wunderkind director Carol Nguyen should be essential viewing this year. A poignant look at intergenerational grief that has a clever conceit of interweaving the interviews she took of her mother, father, and sister and having the family members listen to these revealing interviews later at the dinner table. This adds to the emotional authenticity of the film’s narrative. This short not only explored its subject, but helped a family reveal their honest feelings in front of each other. Seeing the mother and her daughter say, “I love you,” to one another was a powerful lesson that it’s never too late to reveal what’s in your heart.  

Alex Heeney (@bwestcineaste), Editor in Chief of Seventh Row

1. Proxima (Alice Winocour)

I fell in love with Proxima, Alice Winocour’s film about motherhood, space travel, and life as a woman in STEM, at TIFF last year. Only weeks after having seen it, we put it on our top 50 films of the decade list. Having seen it several times since, I think we placed it too low. Boasting the best and most emotional sound design of the year, Proxima is also filled to the brim with great performances, beautiful montages, and some of the best editing in any film I’ve seen. As a woman in STEM, I’ve never felt more seen than with this film, which nails everything from the microaggressions to the costumes. It’s an incredibly inspiring film, about how, as Winocour has put it, women are both mothers and have a mission. 

2. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)

I co-authored a book on Reichardt’s latest film, a milk heist caper that is so low key that it never actually treats its central characters like criminals. Featuring across the board excellent performances, Reichardt brings us into the world of Oregon in the 1820s with April Napier’s incredible costumes and Anthony Gasparro’s hand-made production design, while reminding us that plus ça change, plus ça ne changera pas. Like Proxima, it’s a film about both the macro — early capitalism and its failures — and the micro — the friendship between two outsider men.

3. City Hall (Frederick Wiseman)

Frederick Wiseman’s latest, about Boston’s city hall, is one of his best and most complex films about a failing institution, if not perhaps my favourite. It’s an incredible look at the many moving parts that run Boston and the people served (or failing to be served) by the inner-workings of city hall. Like Welfare, it incisively diagnoses how an institution, even with the best intentions, can fail when the people running it have a limited imagination about how to solve problems. It also features some of Wiseman’s crispest and cleverest editing, not just in individual sequences but in the way he juxtaposes one sequence with the next, so that every scene builds on all previous scenes.

4. Sibyl (Justine Triet)

The first time I saw Justine Triet’s Sibyl, I didn’t know what to make of it: the story of a novelist-turned-psychiatrist-turned-writer who breaks every rule of professional ethics before returning to alcoholism is as messy as its protagonist, but purposefully so. It veers from thriller to melodrama to farce, but I find every time I revisit it, I find more to love about it. It’s a complex portrait of a woman who is very flawed but smart and accessible, features gorgeous costumes, and a panoply of great performances. Efira is amazing throughout, carrying a film that could go off-the-rails with a lesser actress, and yet the few scenes where Sandra Hüller is present, she steals with what will likely prove to be one of the very best performances of the decade.

5. Amanda (Mikhaël Hers)

Mikhaël Hers’s quietly devastating Amanda is a low key story about grief and family that pulls your heart out and puts it back together. Vincent Lacoste has never been better or more likeable as the twentysomething uncle of Amanda who suddenly finds himself taking on the role of a parent in the wake of tragedy. I first saw the film in 2018, and it’s stuck with me. Revisiting it, I only found it was even better than I’d remembered.

6. Ema (Pablo Larraín)

Part melodrama, part comedy, part dance film, Ema is a sensory delight — from the moody score to the enrapturing dance sequences to the compulsively watchable performances. It’s also completely bonkers to the point that it feels like part Greek tragedy, part farce. Whatever it is, it’s never boring, and it’s impossible to get its sounds, images, and movements out of my head.

7. Spinster (Andrea Dorfman)

Spinster is one of the most under-rated and under-the-radar delights of the year — disappointingly unsurprising given it’s the story of a woman on the cusp of her 40th birthday as she finds a way to be happy without a partner or children. Putting her career first, and forging multiple rewarding relationships, Gaby’s (Chelsea Peretti) struggles in Spinster are increasingly common experiences for the increasing numbers of single women, and yet so rarely seen on screen. Conceived as an ‘anti-rom-com’, it’s a great film about finding yourself, loving yourself, and finding happiness off the beaten path.

8. Ammonite (Francis Lee)

The sophomore feature from Francis Lee, writer-director of God’s Own Country, is greater in scope and complexity. It’s the story of a community and a place as much as it is of a relationship, layered with details about class, the role of women, and the history of archeology. It’s also beautifully made, incredibly acted, and has sound so evocative you believe you’re on the beach with these characters, and costumes you feel like you want to reach out and touch.

9. First Stripes (Jean-François Caissy)

Jean-François Caissy’s look at the Canadian military is a formally made verité doc, edited so well as to reveal the institution’s systemic problems and preoccupations that would otherwise remain invisible — from the focus on conformity to the deeply ingrained sexism and chauvinistic culture. As it follows new recruits from the beginning of basic training to the end, as they lose their individual identity and harden into their militaristic role, it felt like a feature-length exploration of Rineke Dijkstra’s photographs of Israelis before and after they became soldiers.

10. No Crying at the Dinner Table (Carol Nguyen)

I first saw Carol Nguyen’s heartrending short No Crying at the Dinner Table at TIFF last year, and after bringing me to tears, its images and ideas have stuck with me more than most features. In just 15 minutes, its exploration of family, the immigration experience, and the silence around trauma finds more depth than much-lauded feature-length films like Minari.

Honourable mentions: Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach), The Assistant (Kitty Green), Rustic Oracle (Sonia Boileau), Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg), The Perfect Candidate (Haifaa Al-Mansour)

Kanika Katyal (@missworldwydweb), Co-Founder of Cinespotting

The best Indian films I saw this year:

1. A Rifle and a Bag (Isabella Rinaldi, Arya Rothe, Cristina Haneș)
2. Cargo (Arati Kadav)
3. CatDog (Ashmita Guha Neog)
4. Nasir (Arun Karthick)
5. Chhapaak (Meghna Gulzar)

Read Kanika’s article “DIFF 2020: A Rifle and a Bag Observes a Marginalised Life Beyond the Gaze of Pity, Empowerment or Rescue” (Cinespotting).

Jesse Knight (@Superfluously), Film programmer

1. Ghost Tropic (Bas Devos)
2. I Was At Home, But… (Angela Schanelec)
3. Trolls World Tour (Walt Dohrn, David P. Smith)
4. The Assistant (Kitty Green)
5. Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island (Jeff Wadlow)
6. Spree (Eugene Kotlyarenko)
7. The Wolf House (Joaquín Cociña, Cristóbal León)
8. Liberté (Albert Serra)
9. Relic (Natalie Erika James)
10. Murmur (Heather Young)

Per Morten Mjølkeråen, Freelance writer

1.     Time (Garrett Bradley) 

Garrett Bradley’s America was my favorite film of 2019 (shared with Zombi Child), and she somehow managed to do it again with Time. Bradley is a force to be reckoned with, as an experimental filmmaker and human storyteller.

2.     We Are Here Now (Mariken Halle) 

Mariken Halle’s films are sadly quite difficult to find for an international audience, but she’s been a major influence on me since her feature debut in 2011. She may not be as recognized a Norwegian filmmaker as Joachim Trier, Dag Johan Haugerud, or Maria Sødahl, but she’s certainly in their ranks. Her work is docu-fiction amalgamation taken to its extremes, formally and thematically. No moment in her films feels safe or recognizable. 

3.     My First Film (Zia Anger) & Forensickness (Chloé Galibert-Laîné) 

The “desktop movie” has been around for a while, but Zia Anger and Chloé Galibert-Laîné’s respective entries on this list feel fresh, engaging (Anger’s quite literally so), and daring. While the mainstream industry uses the genre/tool for cheap (financially and artistically) scares for the most part, with certain exceptions, the experimental scene uses it to explore the very nature of film and storytelling. 

4.     Still Processing (Sophy Romvari) 

Sophy Romvari’s extraordinarily empathetic films have been very important to me for years now, and Still Processing is no different. Romvari makes films that are deeply personal — the emotional journey she manages to pull you through in her films is nothing short of incredible — and at the same time, deeply complex pieces that can be analyzed and dissected in a myriad of ways, which cannot be summed up here. She’s essential to anyone who watches movies.

5.     Apiyemiyekî? (Ana Vaz) 

Ana Vaz’ relatively short filmography has the unfortunate quality of being too dense and complex to be given the short summary treatment of lists like this, but Apiyemiyekî? (which addresses the genocide of the Waimiri-Atroari people in the ‘70s) is a devastation that sits with you and forces you to engage. Reconstruction and recontextualization, re-centering the focus of the conversation. As Vaz would surely agree, as she cites him a lot here, read Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. 

6.     Autoficción (Laida Lertxundi) 

7.     The Grand Bizarre (Jodie Mack) 

8.     Proxima (Alice Winocour) 

9.     The Inheritance (Ephraim Asili)

10.  First Cow (Kelly Reichardt) 

Honorable mentions: Correspondencia (Carla Simón, Dominga Sotomayor), The Exit of the Trains (Radu Jude), Nomadland (Chloé Zhao), Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen), Film Adventure (Lee Sang-deok), Ema (Pablo Larraín).

Read Per’s article “We Are Here Now — To Be Present Today, To Be Present Tomorrow” (NoPress).

Cassidy Olsen (@olsencassidy), Freelance writer and filmmaker

1. Nomadland (Chloé Zhao)
2. Sound of Metal (Darius Marder)
3. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
4. Minari (Lee Isaac Chung)
5. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)
6. Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg)
7. David Byrne’s American Utopia (Spike Lee)
8. Lingua Franca (Isabel Sandoval)
9. The Grand Bizarre (Jodie Mack)
10. Wolfwalkers (Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart)

Andrew Pope (@WhitlockAndPope), Writer at WhitlockAndPope.com

1. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)
2. I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman)
3. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
4. Possessor (Brandon Cronenberg)
5. Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman)
6. The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell)
7. 1917 (Sam Mendes)
8. Black Bear (Lawrence Michael Levine)
9. Survival Skills (Quinn Armstrong)
10. His House (Remi Weeks)

Read Andrew’s article “The best horror films of 2020” (Whitlock and Pope).

Stephen Puddicombe (@s_puddicombe), Freelance writer

1. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman)

Carried by an revelatory breakthrough performance by Sidney Flanigan, and quietly building up to an extraordinary centrepiece scene, this was the most emotionally overwhelming film of the year. 

2. The Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane)

Indian classical music might not be the most relatable subject matter for most western audiences, but The Disciple’s story about a singer suffering from self-doubt will resonate with anyone who has dedicated themselves to perfecting an art or craft. 

3. The Assistant (Kitty Green)

Rarely has the cold, impersonal environment of a work office been represented in such bleak detail as in The Assistant, a subtly harrowing account of harassment and abuse. 

4. Days (Tsai Ming-liang) 

A film about loneliness, briefly and ecstatically interrupted by one intimate encounter, felt particularly powerful in a year where so many of us have been forced apart. 

5. Rocks (Sarah Gavron)

Sarah Gavron’s real triumph in Rocks is to stand back and allow her young cast to improvise, resulting in warm, naturalistic performances that richly bring to life a multiethnic community of teenage Londoners.

6. Dick Johnson is Dead (Kirsten Johnson)

In a year where many have either lost or feared losing eldery relatives, Kirsten Johnson’s documentary offered witty, thoughtful ideas about the power of film to help deal with grief. 

7. Possessor (Brandon Cronenberg) 

Revisiting the same preoccupations of body horror, technology, sex, and violence that his father David has spent a career exploring, Brandon Cronenberg’s body-possessing sci-fi is worthy of its place alongside the greats of the Cronenberg canon.  

8. Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach)

Every bit as good as I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach once again proved he still has his finger on the pulse of austerity Britain with this typically well-researched indictment of the precariousness of working in the gig economy, that has become even more relevant amid the economic turmoil of the pandemic. 

9. The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sang-soo)

Understated to the point of inertia yet beguilingly absorbing, Hong Sang-soo’s series of mundane conversations between a married woman and her old friends is troubling in ways that are difficult to articulate. 

10. Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee)

Of Spike Lee’s two 2020 releases, Da 5 Bloods was the most interesting thanks to the captivating presence of Delroy Lindo’s bitter, right-wing Vietnam vet, a typically thought-provoking and provocative character from a director who has lost none of his edge. 

Lindsay Pugh (@lindsayrpugh), Creator of Woman in Revolt

I spent most of the year watching old comfort movies that I had already seen many times before, so there are still a few 2020 heavy hitters (like Proxima and Ammonite) waiting in my queue. My plan is to watch them all in bed during the weird time between Christmas and New Year’s Day. In no particular order, here are the films that I most enjoyed this year.

• The Forty-Year-Old Version (Radha Blank): Radha Blank’s beautiful debut film shows the difficulties of remaining true to yourself as an artist when your passions fail to pay the bills.
• The Assistant (Kitty Green): The dread I felt while watching this film is unparalleled. Horror filmmakers should take a note from Kitty Green’s book: the office is a terrifying place full of microaggressions, harsh lighting, and an overwhelming aura of entrapment.
• Spinster (Andrea Dorfman): A film where the protagonist realizes that there’s more to life than getting married and having children? More of this, please.
• Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman): Hittman perfectly encapsulates the quiet, devastating experience of being a young woman with limited options. 
• Sibyl (Justine Triet): I’ve never seen anything quite like this film. It’s funny, never boring, and full of interesting ideas. It doesn’t always work but when it does, it’s magic.
• Lingua Franca (Isabel Sandoval): Another beautiful debut film that impressed the hell out of me by diverting my expectations at every turn. 
• Shirley (Josephine Decker): I’m a little surprised that I liked this as much as I did, because it gave me waves of procrastination anxiety. If I had a nickel for every time I laid on the floor with my cat instead of meeting a deadline…
• First Cow (Kelly Reichardt): Kelly Reichardt is a true master at taking a sparse narrative and imbuing it with the type of tender melancholia that sticks in my brain forever.
• Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg): I immediately watched this film a second time because there was so much subtle character development that it was hard to pick up on it all after just one viewing.
• Saint Frances (Alex Thompson): What a year for debut feature films. Read my interview with Alex Thompson and writer-star, Kelly O’Sullivan.

Read Lindsay’s review of Mouthpiece (Woman in Revolt).

Jordan Raup (@jpraup), Editor in Chief of The Film Stage

1. Time (Garrett Bradley)
2. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
3. Vitalina Varela (Pedro Costa)
4. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)
5. City Hall (Frederick Wiseman)
6. Tesla (Michael Almereyda)
7. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman)
8. Tie: Hill of Freedom (Hong Sang-soo) and Yourself and Yours (Hong Sang-soo) 
9. Mayor (David Osit)
10. Martin Eden (Pietro Marcello)

Read Jordan’s article “Sundance Review: Time is a Masterwork of Empathy, Exhaustion, Love, and Rage” (The Film Stage).

Shelagh Rowan-Legg (@bonnequin), Contributing Editor at ScreenAnarchy

These titles are not ranked:

• First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
• Nomadland (Chloé Zhao)
• She Dies Tomorrow (Amy Seimetz)
• Shirley (Josephine Decker)
• Relic (Natalie Erika James)
• Residue (Merawi Gerima)
• La Llorona (Jayro Bustamante)
• Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman)
• The Assistant (Kitty Green)
• Bacurau (Juliano Dornelles, Kleber Mendonça Filho)

Read Shelagh’s article “Review: She Dies Tomorrow, the Long, Dark, Last Night of the Soul” (ScreenAnarchy).

Christopher Schobert (@FilmSwoon), Freelance film critic and contributor to The Film Stage

These titles are not ranked:

• Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg)
• David Byrne’s American Utopia (Spike Lee)
• Ema (Pablo Larraín)
• Emma. (Autumn de Wilde)
• I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman)
• Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)
• Education (Steve McQueen)
• Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)
• Sound of Metal (Darius Marder)
• The Twentieth Century (Matthew Rankin)

Read Christopher’s article “You Don’t Nomi Review: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Showgirls” (The Film Stage).

Jourdain Searles (@jourdayen), Freelance writer

These titles are not ranked:

• She Dies Tomorrow (Amy Seimetz)
• Shirley (Josephine Decker)
• Time (Garrett Bradley)
• Miss Juneteenth (Channing Godfrey Peoples)
• Kajillionaire (Miranda July)
• Crip Camp (James Lebrecht)
• The Giverny Document (Ja’Tovia Gary)
• The Other Lamb (Małgorzata Szumowska)
• Saint Frances (Alex Thompson)
• Swallow (Carlo Mirabella-Davis)

Read Jourdain’s article “Ms. Jackson If You’re Scary: Shirley Is a Biopic in the Form of a Domestic Ghost Story” (Bitch Media).

Fatima Sheriff (@reaffirmsfaith), Staff Writer at Screen Queens and One Room With a View

1. Birds of Prey (Cathy Yan)
2. Emma. (Autumn de Wilde)
3. Nomadland (Chloé Zhao)
4. Enola Holmes (Harry Bradbeer)
5. Wolfwalkers (Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart)
6. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman)
7. I’m Your Woman (Julia Hart)
8. Mangrove (Steve McQueen)
9. The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell)
10. Monsoon (Hong Khaou)

(11. Saint Frances, Alex Thompson)

Not seen yet: Shirley, Miss Juneteenth, Martin Eden, Clemency, Small Axe

Read Fatima’s article “Parasite has changed the face of the Oscars – but the fight for film industry diversity doesn’t end here” (The Independent).

Orla Smith (@orlamango), Executive Editor of Seventh Row

As bad as 2020 has been, the movies have been pretty great. This list was even harder to make than last year’s: although I’ve spent December frantically catching up with titles I missed, and still have more to speed through, part of me wants to stop now for fear that I’ll watch yet another gem that knocks something I love off of the top 10. That’s what happened last night when I caught Mikhaël Hers’ Amanda at the 11th hour and fell for it so hard that it knocked Andrea Dorfman’s delightful, smart anti-rom com Spinster off my list.

For honourable mentions, check out my Letterboxd top 40, the top 25 of which I consider absolute must sees (although all of them have my heart in some way or another).

1. Proxima (Alice Winocour)

I treasure the experience of seeing Alice Winocour’s awe inspiring Proxima on the big screen, at its world premiere at TIFF in 2019. Although the film is about an astronaut, Sarah (Eva Green), it all takes place before she launches into space, so the film features none of the visuals that typically characterise space movies. Nevertheless, the emotions in Proxima are epic. Winocour takes the intimate relationship between Sarah and her young daughter and blows them up to cosmic scale.

2. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)

Kelly Reichardt is my favourite working filmmaker, and First Cow is just another reason why. I think something that characterises a lot of my favourite films, and particularly the top two films on this list, is storytelling that explores big ideas through the prism of intimate relationships. In this case, we follow Cookie (John Magaro) and King-Lu (Orion Lee) as they become friends and bake cakes. Through their simple tale, Reichardt delivers one of the most scathing cinematic critiques of capitalism and the American Dream I’ve ever seen.

3. The Perfect Candidate (Haifaa Al-Mansour)

The Perfect Candidate is a crowdpleaser that’s also smart and political — something that’s incredibly tricky to pull off, and is never appreciated as much as it should be. Al-Mansour’s film mines the comedy of a young female doctor running a campaign for local office with absolutely zero political experience, but never falls into mocking her determined protagonist. She also manages to critique a patriarchal society without turning the men in the film into villains. Just like the women, they’re caught up in an unjust system that’s bigger than any individual.

4. Ammonite (Francis Lee)

Francis Lee’s unfairly dismissed Ammonite is an unconventional biopic of 19th century paleontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) that explores her relationship to work and her position as a working class woman in Britain. Her romance with Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan), while intimate, is quiet, established through looks and gestures rather than words, and fraught with complicated class dynamics. It’s rare to see a British period piece about working class people, perhaps because it’s rare that a working class filmmaker like Lee is given the support to make a period piece. As a result, Lee’s film is smarter and richer than most films in the genre — and his filmmaking is exquisite to boot.

5. The Assistant (Kitty Green)

Kitty Green’s fiction debut, The Assistant, is shot and edited with incredible precision — not to mention the sound design, which makes an office feel like the setting of a horror movie. By chronicling the mundane daily tasks of an assistant (Julia Garner) to a sexually abusive film exec (think Harvey Weinstein), The Assistant says more about rape culture than any bombastic, over-stylised revenge movie could (I’m looking at you, Promising Young Woman).

6. Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach)

Despite how prolific he is and his legendary status in the British film industry, I still tend to think that Ken Loach is underrated. Every few years he turns out a scathing, meticulously researched indictment of the British government and the myriad ways it fails working class people. They’re always well made and incredibly well acted. Sorry We Missed You is one of his best in years.

7. The Forty-Year-Old Version (Radha Blank)

If the words “2 hour long Sundance dramedy” make your recoil, make an exception for Radha Blank’s The Forty-Year-Old Version. Blank writes, directs, and stars in a film that’s inspired by her own experiences as a middle-aged Black woman in the New York theatre scene. It’s packed to the brim with ideas about art vs. commerce, compromise, poverty porn, gate keeping, gentrification, and more. Plus, it’s fucking hilarious, and features original rap songs that are actually good, performed incredibly well by Blank. Is there anything she can’t do?

8. Amanda (Mikhaël Hers)

I’ve only had 24 hours to sit with Amanda, but Mikhaël Hers’ latest thoroughly has my heart. It wins the award for this year’s “Movie in which you most want to step through the screen and give the characters a big hug.” Vincent Lacoste is fantastic as a 24-year-old who suddenly has to learn to be a father after his beloved sister dies in a terrorist attack, leaving behind her seven year old daughter, Amanda (Isaure Multrier). It’s a film in which every character is a good person trying their best, and you’ll root for them every step of the way.

9. Swallow (Carlo Mirabella-Davis)

I wondered if I’d overrated Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ thrilling, stylish film because of the excited atmosphere of watching it in the cinema, at a festival, just before the world fell apart. But upon rewatch, the film only deepened for me — and surprisingly became more moving. It seems conventional on the surface — a repressed housewife rebels against social constraints — but Mirabella-Davis’ film goes in all sorts of directions I didn’t expect. 

10. I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman)

I’m Thinking of Ending Things so thoroughly perplexed me that I was compelled to watch it twice in one week. It’s a film that has stuck with me for months as I’ve slowly come to understand its twisty plot more and more, peeling back the dense psychological layers. Even on the viewings where I didn’t totally understand what was going on, I was always immersed in the unsettling atmosphere Charlie Kaufman creates.

Read Orla’s article “‘Astronauts are so fragile’: Alice Winocour on Proxima” (Seventh Row).

Michael Snydel (@Snydel), Freelancer and chair of The Film Stage Show

These titles are not ranked:

• Vitalina Varela (Pedro Costa)
• First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
• City Hall (Frederick Wiseman)
• Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)
• The Assistant (Kitty Green)
• Driveways (Andrew Ahn)
• To the Ends of the Earth (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
• The Father (Florian Zeller)
• The Grand Bizarre (Jodie Mack)
• Proxima (Alice Winocour)

Kristal Sotomayor (@KristalSotomayr), Co-Founder of ¡Presente! Media, and Programming Director at the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival

While film premieres were impacted by the pandemic, this has been a particularly great year for documentary films. Documentary has a special way of allowing us to learn something new about ourselves and re-evaluate the world. Below are a list of my top documentary picks this year:

• Through The Night (Loira Limbal)
• Landfall (Cecilia Aldarondo)
• Mucho Mucho Amor (Cristina Costantini, Kareem Tabsch)
• Finding Yingying (Jiayan “Jenny” Shi)
• Stray (Elizabeth Lo)
• The Mole Agent (Maite Alberdi)
• 76 Days (Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, Anonymous)
• No Ordinary Man (Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase Joynt)
• Time (Garrett Bradley)
• Dick Johnson is Dead (Kirsten Johnson)

Read Kristal’s article “Pa’ Encima: Documentary Filmmaking En La Isla de Puerto Rico” (International Documentary Association).

LV Taylor (@LVtaylor_esq), Contributing writer for We Live Entertainment and Editor in Chief of Musings of a Streaming Junkie

These titles are not ranked:

• Quo Vadis, Aida? (Jasmila Zbanic)
• The Mole Agent (Maite Alberdi)
• Collective (Alexander Nanau)
• Wolfwalkers (Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart)
• The Forty-Year Old Version (Radha Blank)
• Martin Eden (Pietro Marcello)
• Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach)
• Apples (Christos Nikou)
• Nomadland (Chloé Zhao)
• Night of the Kings (Philippe Lacôte)

Read LV’s article “This is Not a Burial, It’s Resurrection Review: A Beautiful and Haunting Look at Grief and Forced Relocation” (We Live Entertainment).

Mike Thorn (@MikeThornWrites), Author and film critic

1. Still Processing (Sophy Romvari)
2. Color Out of Space (Richard Stanley)
3. Siberia (Abel Ferrara)
4. City Hall (Frederick Wiseman)
5. In Sudden Darkness (Tayler Montague)
6. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
7. The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sang-soo)
8. Days (Tsai Ming-liang)
9. Hopper/Welles (Orson Welles)
10. Alone (John Hyams)

Oralia Torres de la Peña (@oraleia), Mediator/Film critic at Cinescopia, Malvestida, and Girls at Films

These titles are not ranked:

1. Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg)
2. Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov)
3. Bacurau (Juliano Dornelles, Kleber Mendonça Filho)
4. Memory House (João Paulo Miranda Maria)
5. Ya No Estoy Aquí (Fernando Frias)
6. Strasbourg 1518 (Jonathan Glazer)
7. The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo (Carlos Perez Osorio)
8. Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (Werner Herzog, Clive Oppenheimer)
9. Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman)
10. Quo Vadis, Aida? (Jasmila Zbanic)

Fiona Underhill (@FionaUnderhill), Editor in Chief of JumpCut Online

1. True History of the Kelly Gang (Justin Kurzel)
2. Shirley (Josephine Decker)
3. Woman of the Photographs (Takeshi Kushida)
4. I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman)
5. The Human Voice (Pedro Almodóvar)
6. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)
7. Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee)
8. Summer of 85 (François Ozon)
9. Ema (Pablo Larraín)
10. The Forty-Year-Old Version (Radha Blank)

Read Fiona’s article “The Power of the Confrontational Gaze in Orlando and The Souvenir” (Filmotomy).

Sarah Williams (@newsfrmhome), Associate Editor of Filmotomy

1. Still Processing (Sophy Romvari)
2. She Dies Tomorrow (Amy Seimetz) 
3. Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov)
4. House of Hummingbird (Bora Kim)
5. The Physics of Sorrow (Theodore Ushev)
6. Dick Johnson is Dead (Kirsten Johnson)
7. Sibyl (Justine Triet)
8. An Easy Girl (Rebecca Zlotowski)
9. If It Were Love (Patric Chiha)
10. Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time (Lili Horvát)

Read Sarah’s article “What We Never See About Sexual Trauma Onscreen” (Filmotomy).

Lena Wilson (@lenalwilson), Culture critic

1. Possessor (Brandon Cronenberg)
2. Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman)
3. And Then We Danced (Levan Aki)
4. Summerland (Jessica Swale)
5. Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov)
6. Birds of Prey (Cathy Yan)
7. She Dies Tomorrow (Amy Seimetz)
8. Host (Rob Savage)
9. The Lodge (Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala)
10. Spiral (Kurtis David Harder)

Read Lena’s article “What Megan Fox Taught Me About the Power of Subversive Girls” (New York Times).

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Read more of our best of 2020 content…

The 20 best lead performances of 2020