2020 IN FILM

Of the 600+ titles I saw this year, these were my most favourite. A Top 30 & many many honorables. Also, my 2020 film ballot at the Wandering Image, highlighting the year's best in film by category.

30.  THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

29.     ON-GAKU: OUR SOUND

28.           KAJILLIONAIRE

.

27.     COLOR OUT OF SPACE

.

26. THE PORTUGUESE WOMAN

.

25.            HAM ON RYE

.

           THE TRUE HISTORY

24.OF THE KELLY GANG

.

23.             FOURTEEN

.

22.      I WAS AT HOME, BUT...

.

21.    THE WILD GOOSE LAKE

.

20.

THE CORDILLERA OF DREAMS 

.

19.           DA 5 BLOODS

.

18.              BACURAU

.

17.          WOLFWALKERS

.

16.        KOKO-DI KOKO-DA

.

15.         GRETEL & HANSEL

.

  WORLD OF TOMORROW - EP.3

   THE ABSENT DESTINATIONS

14.  OF DAVID PRIME

.

13.  WELCOME TO CHECHNYA

.

12.TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

.

11. MARONA'S FANTASTIC TALE

.

10.            COLLECTIVE

.

               

9.

BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS

.

8.       THE GRAND BIZARRE

.

7.             LOVERS ROCK

.

6.     WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES

.

5.                   MINARI

.

4.                     TIME

.

3.                FIRST COW

.

2.          VITALINA VARELA

.

1.         THE WOLF HOUSE

*****

ALSO ESSENTIAL. NOT RANKED.

(the other titles of 2020 I loved that could've placed)

MARTIN EDEN

.

JUDAS

AND THE BLACK MESSIAH

MANGROVE

EPICENTRO

WHAT DID JACK DO?

JESUS SHOWS YOU

THE WAY TO THE HIGHWAY

CITY HALL

SORRY WE MISSED YOU

BORAT

SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM

EDUCATION

SHIRLEY

POSSESSOR [UNCUT]

LINGUA FRANCA

SYSTEM CRASHER

QUO VADIS AIDA?

FARMAGEDDON:

A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE

THE WOLF OF SNOW HOLLOW

YOURSELF AND YOURS

TESLA

Docampo & Jacinto's 

METAMORPHOSIS

BLOOD MACHINES 

[Roadshow version]

SPACE DOGS

PROXIMA

BEATS

THE INVISIBLE MAN

AMERICAN UTOPIA

THE HUMAN VOICE

THE ASSISTANT

CRIP CAMP:

A DISABILITY REVOLUTION

SPUTNIK

DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD

ALONE

NEVER

RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS

DRIVEWAYS

ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI...

STRASBOURG 1518

CODED BIAS

THE PHYSICS OF SORROW

THE WHISTLERS

ON THE ROCKS

BEASTIE BOYS STORY

THE GIVERNY DOCUMENT

(SINGLE CHANNEL)

HIS HOUSE

2040

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF

DAVID COPPERFIELD

ANOTHER ROUND

LA LLORONA

MY PSYCHEDELIC LOVE STORY

COME TO DADDY

NO CRYING

AT THE DINNER TABLE

THE VAST OF NIGHT

FEELS GOOD MAN

ZAPPA

MONSTER HUNTER

CARNE [FLESH]

MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM

DEAR COMRADES!

.

CARGO कार्गो

****

recap

2020

1. LA CASA LOBO (León/Cociña)
2. VITALINA VARELA (P.Costa)
3. FIRST COW (Kelly Reichardt)
4. TIME (G.Bradley)
5. MINARI (Lee Isaac Chung)
6. WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES (Makoto Nagahisa)
7. LOVERS ROCK (McQueen)
8. THE GRAND BIZARRE (Jodie Mack)
9. BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS (Ross bros)
10. COLECTIV (Nanau)
11. MARONA'S FANTASTIC TALE (Anca Damian)
12. TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH (K.Kurosawa)
13. WELCOME TO CHECHNYA (France)
14. WORLD OF TOMORROW 3 (Hertzfeldt)
15. GRETEL & HANSEL (Osgood Perkins)
16. KOKO-DI KOKO-DA (Nyholm)
17. WOLFWALKERS (T.Moore)
18. BACURAU (Filho)
19. DA 5 BLOODS (Spike Lee)
20. CORDILLERA OF DREAMS (Guzmán)
21. WILD GOOSE LAKE (Diao Yinan)
22. I WAS AT HOME, BUT (Angela Schanelec)
23. FOURTEEN (Dan Sallitt)
24. TRUE HISTORY OF KELLY GANG (Kurzel)
25. HAM ON RYE (Taormina)
26. THE PORTUGUESE WOMAN (Rita Gomes)
27. COLOR OUT OF SPACE (Stanley)
28. KAJILLIONAIRE (July)
29. ON-GAKU: OUR SOUND (Kenji Iwaisawa)
30. THE 20TH CENTURY (Rankin)

RUNNER-UP:

MARTIN EDEN (Marcello), JUDAS & THE BLACK MESSIAH (Shaka King), MANGROVE (McQueen), EPICENTRO (Sauper), WHAT DID JACK DO? (Lynch), JESUS SHOWS YOU THE WAY TO THE HIGHWAY (Llanso), CITY HALL (Wiseman), SORRY WE MISSED YOU (Loach), BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIE FILM (Woliner), EDUCATION (McQueen), SHIRLEY (Decker), POSSESSOR (B.Cronenberg), LINGUA FRANCA (Sandoval), SYSTEM CRASHER (Fingscheidt), QUO VADIS AIDA? (Zbanic), FARMAGEDDON (Becher/Phelan), WOLF OF SNOW HOLLOW (Cummings), YOURSELF AND YOURS (Hong Sangsoo), TESLA (Almereyda), METAMORPHOSIS (Docampo/Jacinto), BLOOD MACHINES (Ickerman), SPACE DOGS (Kremser), PROXIMA (Winocour), BEATS (Welsh), THE INVISIBLE MAN (Whannell), AMERICAN UTOPIA (Spike Lee), THE HUMAN VOICE (Almodovar), THE ASSISTANT (Kitty Green), CRIP CRAMP (Lebrecht/Newnham), SPUTNIK (Abramenko), DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD (K.Johnson), ALONE (Hyams), NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS (Hittman), DRIVEWAYS (Ahn), ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI (Regina King), STRASBOURG 1518 (Glazer), CODED BIAS (Kantayya), PHYSICS OF SORROW (Ushev), THE WHISTLERS (Porum), ON THE ROCKS (Sofia Coppola), BEASTIE BOYS STORY (Spike Jonze), THE GIVERNY DOCUMENT (Ja'tovia Gary), HIS HOUSE (Weekes), 2040 (Gameau), DAVID COPPERFIELD (Iannucci), ANOTHER ROUND (Vinterberg), LA LLORONA (Bustamante), MY PSYCHEDELIC LOVE STORY (Morris), COME TO DADDY (Timpson), NO CRYING AT THE DINNER TABLE (Carol Nguyen), THE NEST (Durkin), VAST OF NIGHT (A.Patterson), FEELS GOOD MAN (Jones), ZAPPA (Winter), MONSTER HUNTER (W.S. Anderson), MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM (Wolfe), CARNE (Kater), DEAR COMRADES! (Konchalovsky) CARGO कार्गो (Kadav)

UNDINE (Petzold) 2021 release 

ABOUT ENDLESSNESS (Andersson) 2021 release

STILL PROCESSING (Romvari) 2021 release

NASIR (Karthick) TBA release 

EMA (Larrain) 2021 release

ROCKS (Gavron) 2021 release

FRIED BARRY (Kruger) 2021 release

(festival films I loved that got no 2020 theatrical release & no distribution deal)

THE TRUTH (Kore-eda), BEANPOLE (Balagov), 1BR (Marmor), ALEX WHEATLE (McQueen), THE FATHER (F.Zeller), THE HATER (Komasa), LIBERTE (A.Serra), THE MOLE AGENT (Alberdi), ISADORA'S CHILDREN (Manivel), HOWARD (Hahn), THE WRETCHED (Pierce bros), BAD EDUCATION (Finley), BABYTEETH (Murphy), YOUNG AHMED (Dardenne bros), MY OCTOPUS TEACHER (Ehrlich,Reed), THE SIREN (Blackshear), HISTORY OF THE SEATTLE MARINERS (Bois), WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS (Guerra), LOST GIRLS (Garbus), JUDY & PUNCH (Foulkes), ON THE RECORD (K.Dick), PAINTER & THE THIEF (Ree), THE OLD GUARD (Prince-Bythewood), PROJECT POWER (Joost/Schulman), SCOOB! (Cervone), THE SWERVE (Kapsalis), CUTIES (Doucouré), SANKARA IS NOT DEAD (Viver), 2067 (Larney), YOU CANNOT KILL DAVID ARQUETTE (Darg), THE DISSIDENT (Fogel), FATIMA (M.Pontecorvo), SAVE YOURSELVES! (Wilson,Fischer), FAITH BASED (Masciale), COME PLAY (J.Chase), CORPUS CHRISTI (Komasa), SIBYL (Triet), I'M YOUR WOMAN (Hart), PIECES OF A WOMAN (Mundruczó), UNKNOWN ORIGINS (Galindo), THE PHOTOGRAPH (Meghie)