Year-End Lists

Nick Schager: The Best Movies of 2020, as published by Esquire

1. Dick Johnson Is Dead
   Kirsten Johnson
2. First Cow
   Kelly Reichardt
3. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
   Charlie Kaufman
4. The Painted Bird
   Václav Marhoul
5. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
   Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross
6. Nomadland
   Chloé Zhao
7. The Wild Goose Lake
   Diao Yinan
8. Martin Eden
   Pietro Marcello
9. Minari
   Lee Isaac Chung
10. The Assistant
    Kitty Green
11. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
    Eliza Hittman
12. Collective
    Alexander Nanau
13. Vitalina Varela
    Pedro Costa
14. City Hall
    Frederick Wiseman
15. Possessor
    Brandon Cronenberg
16. The Vast of Night
    Andrew Patterson
17. Another Round
    Thomas Vinterberg
18. Sorry We Missed You
    Ken Loach
19. Gunda
    Viktor Kosakovskiy
20. Tenet
    Christopher Nolan
21. Gretel & Hansel
    Oz Perkins
22. Let Them All Talk
    Steven Soderbergh
23. Bacurau
    Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles
24. The Cordillera of Dreams
    Patricio Guzmán
25. The Wolf House
    Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña
26. The Painter and the Thief
    Benjamin Ree
27. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
    Jason Woliner
28. The Dark and the Wicked
    Bryan Bertino
29. His House
    Remi Weekes
30. Tommaso
    Abel Ferrara
31. Rewind
    Sasha Neulinger
32. Koko-di Koko-da
    Johannes Nyholm
33. Da 5 Bloods
    Spike Lee
34. Sound of Metal
    Darius Marder
35. The Father
    Florian Zeller
36. Tesla
    Michael Almereyda
37. Aviva
    Boaz Yakin
38. Relic
    Natalie Erika James
39. The Invisible Man
    Leigh Whannell
40. To the Ends of the Earth
    Kiyoshi Kurosawa
41. Welcome to Chechnya
    David France
42. Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution
    Nicole Newnham and James LeBrecht
43. Ammonite
    Francis Lee
44. Capone
    Josh Trank
45. Small Axe: Mangrove
    Steve McQueen
46. Beanpole
    Kantemir Balagov
47. Father Soldier Son
    Catrin Einhorn and Leslye Davis
48. The Way Back
    Peter Weir
49. Emma.
    Autumn de Wilde
50. Shirley
    Josephine Decker
51. Driveways
    Andrew Ahn
52. Mank
    David Fincher
53. Apocalypse '45
    Erik Nelson
54. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
    George C. Wolfe
55. Young Ahmed
    Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
56. The Beach House
    Jeffrey A. Brown
57. Boys State
    Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine
58. Color Out of Space
    Richard Stanley
59. Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin
    Werner Herzog
60. Bad Education
    Cory Finley
61. Synchronic
    Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead
62. The Whistlers
    Corneliu Porumboiu
63. Lost Girls
    Liz Garbus
64. The Trip to Greece
    Michael Winterbottom
65. On the Rocks
    Sofia Coppola

This list contributes to:

• Top 50 Films of 2020 Filmmaker Magazine · Village Voice Film Poll