Richard Brody: The Best Movies of 2020, as published by The New Yorker

[see also 2010s, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2012, 2011]

1. Kajillionaire — Miranda July
2. Da 5 Bloods — Spike Lee
3. The Whistlers — Corneliu Porumboiu
4. Dick Johnson Is Dead — Kirsten Johnson
5. An Easy Girl — Rebecca Zlotowski
6. Never Rarely Sometimes Always — Eliza Hittman
7. On the Rocks — Sofia Coppola
8. Small Axe: Lovers Rock — Steve McQueen
9. Time — Garrett Bradley
10. City Hall — Frederick Wiseman
11. Fourteen — Dan Sallitt
12. Yes, God, Yes — Karen Maine
13. Shirley — Josephine Decker
14. Cuties — Maïmouna Doucouré
15. Small Axe: Mangrove — Steve McQueen
16. Talking About Trees — Suhaib Gasmelbari
17. The 11th Green — Christopher Munch
18. The American Sector — Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez
19. The 40-Year-Old Version — Radha Blank
20. Paris Calligrammes — Ulrike Ottinger
21. Small Axe: Red, White and Blue — Steve McQueen
22. Small Axe: Alex Wheatle — Steve McQueen
23. Small Axe: Education — Steve McQueen
24. Joan of Arc — Bruno Dumont
25. Residue — Merawi Gerima
26. The 24th — Kevin Willmott
27. Bacurau — Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles
28. She Dies Tomorrow — Amy Seimetz
29. The Assistant — Kitty Green
30. Gatsby in Connecticut: The Untold Story — Robert Steven Williams
31. Ham on Rye — Tyler Taormina
32. Wojnarowicz: F--k You F-ggot F--ker — Chris McKim
33. One Night in Miami — Regina King
34. Build the Wall — Joe Swanberg
35. Mank — David Fincher
36. Santiago, Italia — Nanni Moretti

Cahiers du Cinéma: Top 10 Films of 2020

[see also 2010s, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011]

1. City Hall — Frederick Wiseman
2. The Woman Who Ran — Hong Sang-soo
3. Uncut Gems — Ben Safdie and Joshua Safdie
4. Malmkrog — Cristi Puiu
5. The Things We Say, the Things We Do — Emmanuel Mouret
6. Hotel by the River — Hong Sang-soo
7. Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains — Gu Xiaogang
8. The Salt of Tears — Philippe Garrel
9. Enormous — Sophie Letourneur
10. The August Virgin — Jonás Trueba

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

[see also 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 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 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

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

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 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 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014]

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 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 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. America — Garrett Bradley
4. Time — 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. Coded Bias — Shalini Kantayya
10. Collective — Alexander Nanau

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

[see also 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