Year-End Lists

Davey Peppers: Top 10 Films of 2020, as published by Cinema Etc.

1. Spontaneous
   Brian Duffield
2. Promising Young Woman
   Emerald Fennell
3. Vivarium
   Lorcan Finnegan
4. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
   Eliza Hittman
5. Minari
   Lee Isaac Chung
6. Nomadland
   Chloé Zhao
7. Kajillionaire
   Miranda July
8. Shirley
   Josephine Decker
9. Bill & Ted Face the Music
   Dean Parisot
10. Possessor
    Brandon Cronenberg

This list contributes to:

• Cinema Etc.: Top 10 Films of 2020

Sarah Williams: Top 10 Films of 2020, as published by Cinema Etc.

1. She Dies Tomorrow
   Amy Seimetz
2. Beanpole
   Kantemir Balagov
3. House of Hummingbird
   Kim Bora
4. Dick Johnson Is Dead
   Kirsten Johnson
5. Sibyl
   Justine Triet
6. An Easy Girl
   Rebecca Zlotowski
7. If It Were Love
   Patric Chiha
8. Small Axe: Lovers Rock
   Steve McQueen
9. Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time
   Lili Horvát
10. Slalom
    Charlène Favier
10. Promising Young Woman
    Emerald Fennell

Honourable Mentions

• Little Girl
  Sébastien Lifshitz
• Ema
  Pablo Larraín
• The Metamorphosis of Birds
  Catarina Vasconcelos
• Tove
  Zaida Bergroth
• The August Virgin
  Jonás Trueba
• I'm Thinking of Ending Things
  Charlie Kaufman
• Les Sauvages
  Rebecca Zlotowski
• Vernon Subutex
• I May Destroy You
  Michaela Coel & Sam Miller
• Point and Line to Plane
  Sofia Bohdanowicz
• Genius Loci
  Adrien Merigeau
• Still Processing
  Sophy Romvari
• The Physics of Sorrow
  Theodore Ushev
• Invisible Life
  Karim Aïnouz
• Real Love
  Claire Burger

This list contributes to:

• Cinema Etc.: Top 10 Films of 2020

Cinema Etc.: Top 10 Films of 2020, compiled from individual staff lists

1. Possessor
   Brandon Cronenberg
2. Another Round
   Thomas Vinterberg
3. She Dies Tomorrow
   Amy Seimetz
4. Nomadland
   Chloé Zhao
4. Minari
   Lee Isaac Chung
6. The Invisible Man
   Leigh Whannell
7. Da 5 Bloods
   Spike Lee
8. Promising Young Woman
   Emerald Fennell
9. First Cow
   Kelly Reichardt
9. Hubie Halloween
   Steven Brill
9. Spontaneous
   Brian Duffield

This list summarizes other lists, including these:

• Cinema Etc.: Cole Duffy: Top 10 Films of 2020
• Cinema Etc.: Davey Peppers: Top 10 Films of 2020
• Cinema Etc.: Henry Baime: Top 10 Films of 2020
• Cinema Etc.: Jennings Collins: Top 10 Films of 2020
• Cinema Etc.: Kern Wheeling: Top 5 Films of 2020
• Cinema Etc.: Sarah Williams: Top 10 Films of 2020

Jordan Cronk: Top Ten Films of 2020 as submitted to Sight & Sound Poll, listed alphabetically

[see also The Ten Best Experimental Films of 2022 • Top Ten Films of 2022 • Top Ten Films of 2021 • The 50 Best Films of the 2010s • Top 20 Films of 2019 • Top 20 Films of 2018 • Top Ten Films of 2017]

1. DAU
   Ilya Khrzhanovsky
2. Days
   Tsai Ming-liang
3. Malmkrog
   Cristi Puiu
4. The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin)
   Anders Edström and C.W. Winter
5. Beginning
   Déa Kulumbegashvili
6. Her Socialist Smile
   John Gianvito
7. The Salt of Tears
   Philippe Garrel
8. Siberia
   Abel Ferrara
9. The Woman Who Ran
   Hong Sang-soo
10. The Year of the Discovery
    Luis López Carrasco

This list contributes to:

• Sight & Sound Poll: The Best Films of 2020
• Village Voice Film Poll: Top 50 Films of 2020

Kern Wheeling: Top 5 Films of 2020, as published by Cinema Etc.

1. Possessor
   Brandon Cronenberg
2. A White, White Day
   Hlynur Pálmason
3. Boys State
   Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine
4. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
   Charlie Kaufman
5. Fourteen
   Dan Sallitt

This list contributes to:

• Cinema Etc.: Top 10 Films of 2020

Jennings Collins: Top 10 Films of 2020, as published by Cinema Etc.

1. She Dies Tomorrow
   Amy Seimetz
2. Da 5 Bloods
   Spike Lee
3. The Invisible Man
   Leigh Whannell
4. Les Misérables
   Ladj Ly
5. Selah and the Spades
   Tayarisha Poe
6. Tenet
   Christopher Nolan
7. One Night in Miami
   Regina King
8. The Devil All the Time
   Antonio Campos
9. Premature
   Rashaad Ernesto Green
10. Be Water
    Bao Nguyen

Honorable Mentions

• Small Axe
  Steve McQueen
• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
  George C. Wolfe
• Concrete Cowboy
  Ricky Staub
• Dirty Money: Vol. 1
  Aaron Bahamondes

This list contributes to:

• Cinema Etc.: Top 10 Films of 2020

Henry Baime: Top 10 Films of 2020, as published by Cinema Etc., listed in alphabetical order except the first two, which are tied for the first spot

• Another Round
  Thomas Vinterberg
• Hubie Halloween
  Steven Brill
• Air Conditioner
  Fradique
• Crazy World
  Nabwana I.G.G.
• The Human Voice
  Pedro Almodóvar
• Let Them All Talk
  Steven Soderbergh
• The Midnight Sky
  George Clooney
• The Personal History of David Copperfield
  Armando Iannucci
• Psych 2: Lassie Come Home
  Steve Franks
• Tove
  Zaida Bergroth

This list contributes to:

• Cinema Etc.: Top 10 Films of 2020

Nictate: Top 10 Films of 2020, as posted to Letterboxd

[see also 2022 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015]

1. Undine
   Christian Petzold
2. Bacurau
   Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles
3. The Whistlers
   Corneliu Porumboiu
4. Dick Johnson Is Dead
   Kirsten Johnson
5. The Woman Who Ran
   Hong Sang-soo
6. First Cow
   Kelly Reichardt
7. Da 5 Bloods
   Spike Lee
8. I Was at Home, But
   Angela Schanelec
9. Another Round
   Thomas Vinterberg
10. Becoming
    Nadia Hallgren

Bustle: The Best Books Of 2020, listed in order of publication

[see also 2018]

• Why We Can't Sleep

  Women's New Midlife Crisis
  Ada Calhoun
• F*ck Your Diet

  And Other Things My Thighs Tell Me
  Chloé Hilliard
• Long Bright River
  Liz Moore
• Topics of Conversation
  Miranda Popkey
• Creatures
  Crissy Van Meter
• Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick

  Stories from the Harlem Renaissance
  Zora Neale Hurston
• Little Gods
  Meng Jin
• Uncanny Valley
  Anna Wiener
• A Long Petal of the Sea
  Isabel Allende
• Upright Women Wanted
  Sarah Gailey
• The Resisters
  Gish Jen
• Brother & Sister
  Diane Keaton
• The Illness Lesson
  Clare Beams
• Weather
  Jenny Offill
• The Antidote for Everything
  Kimmery Martin
• Hood Feminism

  Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
  Mikki Kendall
• The Mirror & the Light
  Hilary Mantel
• My Dark Vanessa
  Kate Elizabeth Russell
• The City We Became
  N.K. Jemisin
• The Glass Hotel
  Emily St. John Mandel
• Wow, No Thank You.
  Samantha Irby
• Afterlife
  Julia Alvarez
• If I Had Your Face
  Frances Cha
• How to Pronounce Knife
  Souvankham Thammavongsa
• Our Riches
  Kaouther Adimi
• Little Eyes
  Samanta Schweblin
• A Children's Bible
  Lydia Millet
• Stray
  Stephanie Danler
• This Is What America Looks Like

  My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman
  Ilhan Omar
• The Vanishing Half
  Brit Bennett
• Our Time Is Now

  Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America
  Stacey Abrams
• The Margot Affair
  Sanaë Lemoine
• Death in Her Hands
  Ottessa Moshfegh
• Mexican Gothic
  Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• True Love
  Sarah Gerard
• Crooked Hallelujah
  Kelli Jo Ford
• Trouble the Saints
  Alaya Dawn Johnson
• Empire of Wild
  Cherie Dimaline
• The Death of Vivek Oji
  Akwaeke Emezi
• No Offense
  Meg Cabot
• A Room Called Earth
  Madeleine Ryan
• Sitting Pretty

  The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body
  Rebekah Taussig
• Cemetery Boys
  Aiden Thomas
• That Time of Year
  Marie NDiaye
• Piranesi
  Susanna Clarke
• The Book of Two Ways
  Jodi Picoult
• Bestiary
  K-Ming Chang
• Spoiler Alert
  Olivia Dade
• Ring Shout
  P. Djèlí Clark
• Phoenix Extravagant
  Yoon Ha Lee
• The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop
  Fannie Flagg
• Too Much Lip
  Melissa Lucashenko
• We Keep the Dead Close

  A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence
  Becky Cooper
• These Violent Delights
  Micah Nemerever
• The Thirty Names of Night
  Zeyn Joukhadar
• Perestroika in Paris
  Jane Smiley
• The Mermaid from Jeju
  Sumi Hahn
• This Is How We Fly
  Anna Meriano
• Wound from the Mouth of a Wound
  torrin a. greathouse
• A Spy in the Struggle
  Aya de Leon

Hyperallergic: Favorite Movies of 2020

[see also 2021 • 2010s • 2019]

1. Time
   Garrett Bradley
2. Bacurau
   Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles
3. Small Axe
   Steve McQueen
4. Dick Johnson Is Dead
   Kirsten Johnson
5. First Cow
   Kelly Reichardt
6. Vitalina Varela
   Pedro Costa
7. I May Destroy You
   Michaela Coel & Sam Miller
8. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
   Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross
9. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
   Eliza Hittman
10. Shirley
    Josephine Decker
11. małni—towards the ocean, towards the shore
    Sky Hopinka
12. Through the Night
    Loira Limbal
13. Lingua Franca
    Isabel Sandoval
14. David Byrne's American Utopia
    Spike Lee
15. City Hall
    Frederick Wiseman

Honorable Mentions

• T
  Keisha Rae Witherspoon
• How To with John Wilson
• BLKNWS (installation)
  Kahlil Joseph