Rob Christopher
Years aren't relevant any more, if they ever were. Truth is truth. My top ten first views of 2020:
CAMERAPERSON (2016, Kirsten Johnson)
DON'T THINK I'VE FORGOTTEN: CAMBODIA'S LOST ROCK'N'ROLL (2014, John Pirozzi)
FIRST COW (2019, Kelly Reichardt)
I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS (2020, Charlie Kaufman)
JASPER MALL (2020, Brett Whitcomb & Bradford Thomason)
THE LONG WALK (2019, Mattie Do)
PARASITE (2019, Bong Joon-ho)
QUEEN & SLIM (2019, Melina Matsoukas)
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (2019, Matthew Rankin)
THE WIND: A DOCUMENTARY THRILLER (2019, Michał Bielawski)
Cody Corrall
Features
1. EMA* (Pablo Larraín)
2. BEANPOLE (Kantemir Balagov)
3. DOGS DON'T WEAR PANTS (Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää)
4. FIRST COW (Kelly Reichardt)
5. SHIRLEY (Josephine Decker)
6. WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES (Makoto Nagahisa)
7. SOUND OF METAL (Darius Marder)
8. NOMADLAND (Chloe Zhao)
9. NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS (Eliza Hittman)
10. THE ASSISTANT (Kitty Green)
Docs
1. DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD (Kirsten Johnson)
2. BORN TO BE (Tania Cypriano)
3. TIME (Garrett Bradley)
4. CIRCUS OF BOOKS (Rachel Mason)
5. QUEER JAPAN (Graham Kolbeins)
6. FEELS GOOD MAN (Arthur Jones)
7. BOYS STATE (Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine)
8. BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS (Turner Ross, Bill Ross IV)
9. THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE WATER (Elliot Page, Ian Daniel)
10. CRIP CAMP: A DISABILITY REVOLUTION (Nicole Newnham, James Lebrecht)
*While EMA had festival and digital circulation this year, Music Box Films is planning on a wide theatrical release for 2021
John Dickson
2020 MOVIES
DAU (Ilya Khrzhanovsky)
ZOMBI CHILD (Bertrand Bonnello)
TOMMASSO (Abel Ferrara)
THE WOMAN WHO RAN (Hong Sang-soo)
MALMKROG (Cristi Puiu)
TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
SIBERIA (Abel Ferrara)
BACURAU (Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles)
LIBERTE (Albert Serra)
DAYS (Tsai Ming-liang)
Dark Horse
WASP NETWORK (Olivier Assayas)
Megan Fariello
Top Ten Favorite New Films:
1) BLOW THE MAN DOWN (Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy, 2019)
2) VAST OF NIGHT (Andrew Patterson, 2019)
3) FIRST COW (Kelly Reichardt, 2019)
4) AMERICAN UTOPIA (Spike Lee, 2020)
5) PARASITE (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)
6) PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (Céline Sciamma, 2019)
7) THROUGH THE NIGHT (Loira Limbal, 2020)
8) HIS HOUSE (Remi Weekes, 2020)
9) TIME (Garrett Bradley, 2020)
10) EMMA (Autumn de Wilde, 2020)
Favorite New Short: LEAVE US HERE (Tari Wariebi, 2020)
Favorite Feature New-to-Me: SMOOTH TALK (Joyce Chopra, 1985)
Marilyn Ferdinand
Favorite New Features
1. ALL ABOUT ME (Caroline Link, 2018)
2. NOMADLAND (Chloé Zhao, 2020)
3. SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE (Cédric Klapisch, 2019)
4. HOUSE OF HUMMINGBIRD (Bora Kim, 2018)
5. THE 40-YEAR-OLD VERSION (Radha Blank, 2020)
6. MY MEXICAN BRETZEL (Nuria Giménez, 2019)
7. INVISIBLE LIFE (Karim Aïnouz, 2019)
8. THE NAMES OF THE FLOWERS (Bahman Tavoosi, 2019)
9. BOOKSMART (Olivia Wilde, 2019)
10. THE WHISTLERS (Corneliu Porumboiu, 2019)
11. THREE SUMMERS (Sandra Kogut, 2019)
Favorite Documentaries
1. FIDDLER: A MIRACLE OF MIRACLES (Max Lewkowicz, 2019)
2. JAZZ ON A SUMMER’S DAY (restoration/rerelease) (Bert Stern, Aram Avakian, 1960)
3. ISADORA’S CHILDREN (Damien Manivel, 2019)
4. 76 Days (Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, Anonymous, 2020)
5. MR. SOUL! (Melissa Haizlit and Sam Pollard, 2018)
6. MAYOR (David Osit, 2020)
7. WOMEN ACCORDING TO MEN (Saeed Nouri, 2019)
8. CIRCUS OF BOOKS (Rachel Mason, 2019)
Favorite Older Films (chronological)
THE FLAPPER (Alan Crosland, 1920)
CORSAIR (Roland West, 1931)
BLESSED EVENT (Roy Del Ruth, 1932)
D-DAY TO GERMANY, 1944 (Jack Lieb 1944)
UNA FAMILIA DE TANTAS (Alejandro Galindo, 1949)
NEVER FEAR (Ida Lupino, 1950)
THE LONG GRAY LINE (John Ford, 1955)
I FIDANZATI (Ermanno Olmi, 1963)
OIL LAMPS (Juraj Herz, 1971)
BADNAM BASTI (Prem Kapoor, 1971)
THE CLOCKMAKER OF ST. PAUL (Bertrand Tavernier, 1974)
THE LATE SHOW (Robert Benton, 1977)
PEPPERMINT SODA (Diane Kurys, 1977)
SAINT JACK (Peter Bogdanovich, 1979)
ZIGEUNERWEISEN (Seijun Suzuki, 1980)
SON OF THE WHITE MARE (Marcell Jankovics, 1981)
ANGELO MY LOVE (Robert Duvall, 1983)
DANZÓN (María Novaro, 1991)
DO NOT LEAN OUT THE WINDOW (Nae Caranfil, 1993)
CARO DIARIO (Nanni Moretti, 1993)
NAINSUKH (Amit Dutta, 2010)
AURORA (Cristi Puiu, 2010)
HOTEL SALVATION (Shubhashish Bhutiani, 2016)
THE INVISIBLE HAND (David Macián, 2016)
Hall of Fame
The film venues, distributors, archives, organizations, festivals, filmmakers, and especially the readers of Cine-File for continuing to make our work relevant and enjoyable in a time of grief, fear, and physical isolation.
These are the sources that made my personal viewing year possible:
Block Cinema, Chicago Film Archives, Chicago Film Society, Chicago Latino Film Festival, Cine-File, Cinema/Chicago, Cinephobe, Facets, Gene Siskel Film Center, Henri: Cinémathèque française, Internet Archive, JCC Chicago Jewish Film Festival, Kanopy, Library of Congress, Logan Center for the Arts, Making Waves Romanian Film Festival, MUBI, Music Box Theatre, National Film Board of Canada, National Film Preservation Foundation, Netflix, New York Film Festival, Noir City International, PBS Passport, San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Short of the Week, TCM, Tubi, Vimeo, Wilmette Theatre, YouTube
Michael Frank
My top 15 of 2020:
MINARI (Lee Isaac Chung)
FIRST COW (Kelly Reichardt)
NOMADLAND (Chloe Zhao)
DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD (Kirsten Johnson)
DA 5 BLOODS (Spike Lee)
BEGINNING (Dea Kulumbegashvili)
NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS (Eliza Hittman)
ANOTHER ROUND (Thomas Vinterberg)
I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS (Charlie Kaufman)
SHITHOUSE (Cooper Raiff)
SHE DIES TOMORROW (Amy Seimetz)
MANGROVE (Steve McQueen)
SOUND OF METAL (Darius Marder)
BACURAU (Kleber Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles)
BOYS STATE (Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss)
Patrick Friel
Top Films of 2020
This list consists of “new” films that I saw for the first time in 2020. I count 2019 and 2020 films as new. I also have two older films that became available in new restorations. As usual, my viewing remains eclectic, erratic, and incomplete (there are a LOT of new features I haven’t seen), and I continue to gravitate to old films and shorts. If I were to make a list of the films that sustained me the most in 2020, it would consist of hundreds of short silent (mostly early cinema) films.
These, then, are the “new” films that amazed, surprised, excited, and confounded (in a good way) me the most.
1. VITALINA VARELA (2019, Pedro Costa)
2. LA FRANCE CONTRE LES ROBOTS (2020, Jean-Marie Straub; short)
The rest alphabetical:
ALL, OR NOTHING AT ALL (2019, Persijn Broersen and Margit Lukács; short)
ANNIVERSARY OF THE REVOLUTION (1918, Dziga Vertov; new restoration/reconstruction)
ANOTHER HORIZON (2020, Stephanie Barber; short)
CATS (2019, Tom Hooper)
THE BROKEN BUTTERFLY (1919, Maurice Tourneur; new restoration)
CHASING DREAM (2019, Johnnie To)
CIRCUMSTANTIAL PLEASURES (2016-19, Lewis Klahr)
IN MY ROOM (2020, Mati Diop; short)
THE TANGO OF THE WIDOWER AND ITS DISTORTING MIRROR (1967/2020, Raúl Ruiz and Valeria Sarmiento)
UNUSUAL SUMMER (2020, Kamal Aljafari)
WORLD OF TOMORROW EPISODE THREE: THE ABSENT DESTINATIONS OF DAVID PRIME (2020, Don Hertzfeldt; short)
JB Mabe
First, two cheats.
The best thing I saw all year was Hakob Hovnatanyan (Sergei Parajanov, 1967) which I have seen dozens of times on VHS, but the gorgeous Kino Klassika restoration is like seeing it for the first time. I hope to see it on film someday.
I was also very lucky to present "…whatever Norm Bruns decides to bring (Norm Bruns, 1980s)" at the Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival. The festival was planned for March, so I had to shift the screening to the digital realm very quickly, but the Super 8 prints are lovely and I hope to be able to present them as soon as things like that happen again.
And a list of a dozen more, new and old, that I saw for the first time this year.
1. COME COYOTE (Dani & Sheilah ReStack, 2019)
2. WATER MOTOR (Babette Mangolte, 1978)
3. FANNIE'S FILM (Fronza Woods, 1981)
4. CUTE HOUSE (Robb Boardman, 2020)
5. IN/DIVIDU (Nicole Hewitt, 1999)
6. THE RUNAWAY (Ritwik Ghatak, 1958)
7. MUSIC FROM THE EDGE OF THE ALLEGHENY PLATEAU (Kevin Jerome Everson, 2018)
8. MY BROTHER, THE PUNK SINGER (Caitlin Ryan, 2014)
9. SOMETHING TO TOUCH THAT IS NOT CORRUPTION OR ASHES OR DUST (Mike Stoltz, 2020)
10. STANDING FORWARD FULL (Alee Peoples, 2020)
11. I AM SOMEBODY (Madeline Anderson, 1970)
12. VYV AND BEAT (Audrey Lam, 2018)
Douglas McLaren
Like everyone else, my media consumption shot through the roof in 2020. Here are the ~40 titles that stuck out to me this year. Included in the list is every feature film I saw on 35mm (Only six! A new record low!), which have stuck out to me by dint of their proper exhibition.
Were I to pick a top film of the year, it would be THE MOUTH AGAPE. Throughout this pandemic, as friends/acquaintances died and family members were sent to the hospital, Maurice Pialat’s unsentimental tale of palliative care was always at the top of my mind. It was a powerful film when I saw it at the beginning of the year, but it only grew more so as 2020 dragged on. My absolute highest recommendation!
ABOVE SUSPICION (Richard Thorpe, 1943)
ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK (Sergio Martino, 1972)
AMATEUR (Hal Hartley, 1994, 35mm)
AMERICAN REVOLUTION 2 (Howard Alk & Mike Gray, 1969)
AMSTERDAMNED (Dick Maas, 1988)
APOCALYPTO (Mel Gibson, 2006)
THE BIG KNIFE (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
CONVERSATION PIECE (Luchino Visconti, 1974)
THE EX-MRS. BRADFORD (Stephen Roberts, 1936)
FADE TO BLACK (Vernon Zimmerman, 1980)
FIRST COW (Kelly Reichardt, 2020)
LA FLOR (Mariano Llinás, 2018)
FREE VOICE OF LABOR: THE JEWISH ANARCHISTS (Steven Fischer & Joel Sucher, 1980)
GUNS OF THE TREES (Jonas Mekas, 1961, 35mm)
IF YOU COULD ONLY COOK (William A. Seiter, 1935)
THE INVINCIBLES (Dominik Graf, 1994)
LAWYER MAN (William Dieterle, 1932)
LISA (Gary Sherman, 1989)
LOVERS ROCK (Steve McQueen, 2020)
MAX, MON AMOUR (Nagisa Ôshima, 1986)
THE MONOPOLY OF VIOLENCE (David Dufresne, 2020)
THE MOUTH AGAPE (Maurice Pialat, 1974)
NATIONTIME (William Greaves, 1972/2020)
THE NIGHTCOMERS (Michael Winner, 1971)
NIGHT OF THE KINGS (Philippe Lacôte, 2020)
NO SUCH THING (Hal Hartley, 2001, 35mm)
ORLANDO (Sally Potter, 1992, 35mm)
LA PELLE (Liliana Cavani, 1981)
PHAROS OF CHAOS (Manfred Blank & Wolf-Eckart Bühler, 1983)
SHIRLEY (Josephine Decker, 2020)
A SNAKE OF JUNE (Shinya Tsukamoto, 2002)
STAGE FRIGHT (Michele Soavi, 1987)
STARSTRUCK (Gillian Armstrong, 1982)
TICKET OF NO RETURN (Ulrike Ottinger, 1979)
TRUST (Hal Hartley, 1990, 35mm)
UNCUT GEMS (Josh & Benny Safdie, 2019, 35mm)
UNDER THE SUN OF SATAN (Maurice Pialat, 1987)
WOMAN IN CHAINS (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1968)
THE YEAR OF THE DISCOVERY (Luis López Carrasco, 2020)
Michael Metzger
Best Features of 2020
1. maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (Sky Hopinka)
2. THE VIEWING BOOTH (Ra'anan Alexandrowicz)
3. TIME (Garrett Bradley)
4. LOVERS ROCK (Steve McQueen)
5. S01E03 (Kurt Walker)
6. THE TWO SIGHTS (Joshua Bonnetta)
7. MON AMOUR (David Teboul)
8. THE GIVERNY DOCUMENT (Single Channel) (Ja’Tovia Gary)
9. THE ASSISTANT (Kitty Green)
10. THINGS WE DARE NOT DO (Bruno Santamaria)
11. CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY (Jonathan Perel)
12. OUVERTURES (The Living and the Dead Ensemble)
13. COLLECTIVE (Alexander Nanau)
14. ACCESSION (Tamer Hassan, Armand Yervant Tufenkian)
15. FIRST COW (Kelly Reichardt)
Best British TV Horror Plays Watched in 2020
1. PENDA’S FEN (Alan Clarke, writer David Rudkin, 1974)
2. ROBIN REDBREAST (James MacTaggart, writer John Bowen, 1970)
3. WHISTLE AND I’LL COME TO YOU (Jonathan Miller, 1968)
4. DEAD OF NIGHT: THE EXORCISM (Don Taylor, 1972)
5. THE STONE TAPE (Peter Sasdy, writer Nigel Kneale 1972)
6. CHILDREN OF THE STONES (Peter Graham Scott, writers Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray, 1977)
7. THE SIGNALMAN (Lawrence Gordon Clark, writer Andrew Davies, 1976)
8. THE PLEDGE (Digby Rumsey, 1981)
9. STIGMA (Lawrence Gordon Clark, writer Clive Exton, 1977)
10. THE SPIRIT OF DARK AND LONELY WATER (Jeff Grant, 1973)
Scott Pfeiffer
The 16 Best Films I Saw For the First Time in 2020
1. BARAKA (Ron Fricke, 1992)
2. CITY HALL (Frederick Wiseman, 2020)
3. COLLECTIVE (Alexander Nanau, 2019)
4. DICK JOHSON IS DEAD (Kirsten Johnson, 2020)
5. HONEYLAND (Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, 2019)
6. I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS (Charlie Kaufman, 2020)
7. LEON MORIN, PRIEST (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1961)
8. LOVE STREAMS (John Cassavetes, 1984)
9. LOVERS ROCK (Steve McQueen, 2020)
10. THE ONLY SON (Yasujiro Ozu, 1936)
11. PUTNEY SWOPE (Robert Downey, Sr, 1969)
12. SHOAH (Claude Lanzmann, 1985)
13. SPIRITED AWAY (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
14. TESLA (Michael Almereyda, 2020)
15. TIME (Garrett Bradley, 2020)
16. THE UPRISING (Peter Snowdon, 2013)
Ben Sachs
The Ten Best New Films I Saw in 2020:
1. CARELESS CRIME (Shahram Mokri)
2. CITY HALL (Frederick Wiseman)
3. MALMKROG (Cristi Puiu)
4. THE WOMAN WHO RAN (Hong Sang-soo)
5. EMA (Pablo Larraín)
6. LOVERS ROCK (Steve McQueen)
7. TOMMASO (Abel Ferrara)
8. DAYS (Tsai Ming-liang)
9. TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
10. JUANITA (Leticia Tonos Paniagua)
Runners-up: YOUNG AHMED (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne), THE WOLF HOUSE (Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León), FIRST COW (Kelly Reichardt), THE TRAITOR (Marco Bellocchio), FOURTEEN (Dan Sallitt)
Kathleen Sachs
Favorite New(-ish) Releases I Saw for the First Time in 2020
1. CITY HALL (Frederick Wiseman)
2. DAYS (Tsai Ming-liang)
3. BEANPOLE (Kantemir Balagov)
4. THE WOMAN WHO RAN (Hong Sang-soo)
5. EMA (Pablo Larraín)
6. (Tie) MAAT MEANS LAND/SAN DIEGO (Fox Maxy)
7. JUANITA (Leticia Tonos Paniagua)
8. (Tie) FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO (Lynne Sachs)/A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME: WRIGHT OR WRONG (Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa)
9. ON A MAGICAL NIGHT (Christophe Honoré)
10. FIRST COW (Kelly Reichardt)
Best Films I Saw for the First Time in 2020
1. (Tie) PASSING STRANGERS/FORBIDDEN LETTERS (Arthur J. Bressan, Jr., 1974 and 1979)
2. (Tie) YOURSELF AND YOURS/HILL OF FREEDOM (Hong Sang-soo, 2016 and 2014)
3. THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR (Ivan Dixon, 1973)
4. WORKING GIRLS (Lizzie Borden, 1986)
5. SIMONE BARBES OR VIRTUE (Marie-Claude Treilhou, 1980)
6. THE STUDENT PRINCE IN OLD HEIDELBERG (Ernst Lubitsch, 1927)
7. THE LITTLE STORY OF GWEN FROM FRENCH BRITTANY (Agnès Varda, 2008)
8. DAY OF THE DEAD (George Romero, 1985)
9. SMOOTH TALK (Joyce Chopra, 1985)
10. MON ONCLE D'AMÉRIQUE (Alain Resnais, 1980)
Michael Glover Smith
The 10 Best New Films I Saw in 2020
10. TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH (K. Kurosawa)
9. ZOMBI CHILD (Bonello)
8. CITY HALL (Wiseman)
7. NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS (Hittman)
6. DAYS (Tsai)
5. BACURAU (Dornelles/Mendonca)
4. TOMMASO (Ferrara)
3. CITY SO REAL (James)
2. THE WOMAN WHO RAN (Hong)
1. TIME (Bradley)
(Extended top 30 with links to reviews at my blog)
K.A. Westphal
Best Films of 2020
THE AMUSEMENT PARK (George Romero - 1973/2020)
ANOTHER ROUND (Thomas Vinterberg)
APPLES (Christos Nikou)
CITY HALL (Frederick Wiseman)
COLLECTIV (Alexander Nanau)
DEAR COMRADES! (Andrei Konchalovsky)
FIRST COW (Kelly Reichardt)
HOPPER/WELLES (Orson Welles/Bob Muwraski, 1970/2020)
LAST AND FIRST MEN (Jóhann Jóhannsson)
THE MOLE AGENT (Maite Alberdi)
SUMMER OF 85 (François Ozon) ^
THIS IS NOT A BURIAL, IT'S A RESURRECTION (Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese)
^ Disclosure: Distributed by my employer, Music Box Films
Best Films I Saw for the First Time in 2020
AFERIM! (Radu Jude, 2015)
DIE BERGKATZE (Ernst Lubitsch, 1921)
A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY (Edward Yang, 1991)
CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (Agnes Varda, 1962)
COMRADES: A LANTERIST'S ACCOUNT OF THE TOLPUDDLE MARTYRS AND WHAT BECAME OF THEM (Bill Douglas, 1986)
INDIA SONG (Marguerite Duras, 1975)
JUSTIN DE MARSEILLE (Maurice Tourneur, 1935)
MARIE ANTOINETTE (Sofia Coppola, 2006)
THE QUEEN (Frank Simon, 1968)
THIEVES' HIGHWAY (Jules Dassin, 1949)
TWO FOR THE ROAD (Stanley Donen, 1967)
UNASHAMED: A ROMANCE (Allen Stuart, 1937)
UZI'S PARTY (Lyra Hill, 2015)
VARIETY (Bette Gordon, 1983)
YOU NEVER KNOW WOMEN (Willam A. Wellman, 1926)
Worst Cinema Trend of 2020
Zoom. This video teleconferencing service, unknown to most of its victims twelve months ago, is stealthily defining the moving image downwards. Its square, straight-on framing and relentless emphasis on the human face recalls an ABC Movie of the Week, circa 1973. It is slowly pushing its users towards a more conventional and utilitarian sense of mise en scene. May Cinemascope teach us how to see again in 2021.
Most Disappointing Cinema Event of 2020
Festivals adapted this year with a combination of virtual screenings and outdoor events, but the pipeline of exciting new films was very much constricted. We were supposed to get new films from Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Leos Carax, Paul Verhoeven, Wes Anderson, and many others this year (plus a new entry in the only modern blockbuster franchise that matters, THE PURGE series), but many top filmmakers struggled to finish post-production amid the pandemic or simply opted to skip 'virtual' premieres. So Cannes was a festival in name only, a year after launching PARASITE, PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, PAIN AND GLORY, BEANPOLE, and many other notable films. There were 'official selections' for Cannes 2020, but they didn't screen for the public or for critics, leaving programmers and buyers to sift through a grab bag of random screener links without the benefit of buzz, gossip, or conversation. Some films in the shadow Cannes 2020 class--e.g., ANOTHER ROUND, SUMMER OF '85--found critical backing later at the virtual edition of TIFF, but other 'official selections' vanished without a trace. If Jonathan Nossiter's Cannes-laureled LAST WORDS had screened for critics, it probably would have been slaughtered as thoroughly (and as memorably) as recent Croisette punching bags like THE BROWN BUNNY, MEKTOUB MY LOV