Year-End Lists

Eric Kohn: The Best Movies of 2020, as published by IndieWire

[see also 2023 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2012]

1. First Cow
   Kelly Reichardt
2. Small Axe: Lovers Rock
   Steve McQueen
3. Collective
   Alexander Nanau
4. Nomadland
   Chloé Zhao
5. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
   Eliza Hittman
6. Time
   Garrett Bradley
7. The Climb
   Michael Angelo Covino
8. The Mole Agent
   Maite Alberdi
9. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
   Jason Woliner
10. Bacurau
    Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles
11. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
    Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross
12. The Assistant
    Kitty Green
13. Sound of Metal
    Darius Marder
14. Soul
    Pete Docter
15. Mank
    David Fincher
16. Mayor
    David Osit
17. Small Axe: Mangrove
    Steve McQueen
18. The Vast of Night
    Andrew Patterson
19. Dick Johnson Is Dead
    Kirsten Johnson
20. She Dies Tomorrow
    Amy Seimetz

Runners-up

• Another Round
  Thomas Vinterberg
• Gunda
  Viktor Kosakovskiy
• I Carry You with Me
  Heidi Ewing
• Minari
  Lee Isaac Chung
• Relic
  Natalie Erika James
• The Truffle Hunters
  Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw
• The Painter and the Thief
  Benjamin Ree

Stephanie Zacharek: The 10 Best Movies of 2020, as published by Time Magazine

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013]

1. First Cow
   Kelly Reichardt
2. Collective
   Alexander Nanau
3. The Trial of the Chicago 7
   Aaron Sorkin
4. David Byrne's American Utopia
   Spike Lee
5. Small Axe: Lovers Rock
   Steve McQueen
6. Emma.
   Autumn de Wilde
7. Wolfwalkers
   Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart
8. Nomadland
   Chloé Zhao
9. Miss Juneteenth
   Channing Godfrey Peoples
10. Bill & Ted Face the Music
    Dean Parisot

Honorable mentions

• Martin Eden
  Pietro Marcello
• On the Rocks
  Sofia Coppola
• The Assistant
  Kitty Green
• The Old Guard
  Gina Prince-Bythewood
• The Half of It
  Alice Wu
• Relic
  Natalie Erika James
• Small Axe: Mangrove
  Steve McQueen
• The Jesus Rolls
  John Turturro

Jonathan Rosenbaum: Ten Best Films of 2020, as submitted to the Sight & Sound Poll on October 26, 2020, in alphabetical order

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Last Year in Dachau
   Mark Rappaport
2. Bottled Songs: My Crush Was a Superstar
   Chloé Galibert-Laîné
3. Cenote
   Oda Kaori
4. First Cow
   Kelly Reichardt
5. France Against the Robots
   Jean-Marie Straub
6. Her Socialist Smile
   John Gianvito
7. MLK/FBI
   Sam Pollard
8. Schoolgirls
   Pilar Palomero
9. Vitalina Varela
   Pedro Costa
10. Women According to Men
    Saeed Nouri

This list contributes to:

• Sight & Sound Poll: The Best Films of 2020

Cassie da Costa: 10 Best Films of 2020, as published by Artforum

[see also 21 Most Underrated Movies of 2021 • Best Films of 2021]

1. Shakedown
   Leilah Weinraub
2. Beau Travail [rerelease]
   Claire Denis
3. Fourteen
   Dan Sallitt
4. The Assistant
   Kitty Green
5. Advocate
   Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaïche
6. Empty Metal
   Adam Khalil and Bayley Sweitzer
7. Uncut Gems
   Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
8. Harriet
   Kasi Lemmons
9. The Hottest August
   Brett Story
10. Atlantics
    Mati Diop

Erika Balsom: 10 Best Films of 2020, as published by Artforum

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017]

1. Defiant Muses: Delphine Seyrig and the Feminist Video Collectives in France in the 1970s and 1980s [exhibition]
1. Out Of The Shadows: The Pioneering Work Of Atteyat Al-Abnoudy, Assia Djebar, Jocelyne Saab, Heiny Srour [exhibition]
2. The Year of the Discovery
   Luis López Carrasco
3. Days
   Tsai Ming-liang
4. Route One/USA
   Robert Kramer
5. First Cow
   Kelly Reichardt
6. Apiyemiyekî?
   Ana Vaz
7. Forum 50 Anniversary Program, Berlinale
8. The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin)
   Anders Edström and C.W. Winter
9. małni—towards the ocean, towards the shore
   Sky Hopinka
10. La Loupe [Facebook group]

James Quandt: 10 Best Films of 2020, as published by Artforum, "culled exclusively from the superbly curated 2020 New York Film Festival."

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012]

1. The Woman Who Ran
   Hong Sang-soo
2. Days
   Tsai Ming-liang
3. The Year of the Discovery
   Luis López Carrasco
4. The Pickpocket
   Jia Zhang-ke
5. A Night at the Opera
   Sergei Loznitsa
6. The Monopoly of Violence
   David Dufresne
7. Malmkrog
   Cristi Puiu
8. Notturno
   Gianfranco Rosi
9. While Cursed by Specters
   Burak Çevik
10. Gunda
    Viktor Kosakovskiy

Amy Taubin: 10 Best Films of 2020, as published by Artforum

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012]

1. The handy, affordable-to-everyone, moving-image camera
2. I May Destroy You
   Michaela Coel & Sam Miller
3. Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time
   Lili Horvát
4. Time
   Garrett Bradley
4. America
   Garrett Bradley
5. Gunda
   Viktor Kosakovskiy
6. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
   Eliza Hittman
7. Tesla
   Michael Almereyda
8. David Byrne's American Utopia
   Spike Lee
9. Da 5 Bloods
   Spike Lee
10. The Monopoly of Violence
    David Dufresne
10. MLK/FBI
    Sam Pollard
10. Collective
    Alexander Nanau
10. Coded Bias
    Shalini Kantayya

John Waters: 10 Best Films of 2020, as published by Artforum

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011]

1. Butt Boy
   Tyler Cornack
2. Swallow
   Carlo Mirabella-Davis
3. The Hunt
   Craig Zobel
4. Why Don't You Just Die!
   Kirill Sokolow
5. The Audition
   Ina Weisse
6. Deerskin
   Quentin Dupieux
7. The Human Voice
   Pedro Almodóvar
8. True History of the Kelly Gang
   Justin Kurzel
9. American Murder: The Family Next Door
   Jenny Popplewell
10. The Trial of the Chicago 7
    Aaron Sorkin
10. Small Axe: Mangrove
    Steve McQueen