Best of 2020 Poll

[john ryan]

Sorry for the tardiness.

Seen an ungodly amount.

1. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
2. The 20th Century (Matthew Rankin)
3. I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman)
4. Wolfwalkers (Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart)
5. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (Turner Ross, Bill Ross IV)
6. The Climb (Michael Angelo Covino)
7. Ham on Rye (Tyler Taormina)
8. Residue (Merawi Gerami)
9. She Dies Tomorrow (Amy Seimetz)
10. The Nest (Sean Durkin)
11. The Assistant (Kitty Green)
12. Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg)

[flip]

one or two hours to go! i'll announce the results soon

[flip]

and the results are in, it was close, the top five films each had between 21 and 27 points, so there wasn't much separating them. there weren't many ties early, but lots of them from 15th place onwards, i broke them using letterboxd views (fewer views = higher ranking)

SCFZ's #1 film from 2020 is...

1. Voices in the Wind (Nobuhiro Suwa)

the rest of the top ten:

2. I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman)
3. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
4. Psycho (Mysskin)
5. There Is No Evil (Mohammad Rasoulof)
6. Nasir (Arun Karthik)
7. The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sang-soo)
8. Uppercase Print (Radu Jude)
9. Eeb Allay Ooo! (Prateek Vats)
10. Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg)

and the rest of the list:

11. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (Bill Ross IV/Turner Ross)
12. The Brilliant Biograph: Earliest Moving Images of Europe (1897-1902)
13. Tenet (Christopher Nolan)
14. World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime (Don Hertzfeldt)
15. Nomadland (Chloe Zhao)
16. A Voluntary Year (Ulrich Kohler/Henner Winckler)
17. Air Conditioner (Fradique)
18. Wife of a Spy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
19. City Hall (Frederick Wiseman)
20. The Burnt Orange Heresy (Giuseppe Capotondi)
21. The Twentieth Century (Matthew Rankin)
22. Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always (Eliza Hittman)
23. Bheeshma (Venky Kudumula)
24. The Way I See It (Dawn Porter)
25. The Fanatic (Fred Durst)
26. Emma. (Autumn de Wilde)
27. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (Cathy Yan)
28. Somebody Up There Likes Me (Mike Figgis)
29. The Tango of the Widower and Its Distorting Mirror (Raul Ruiz)
30. Guest of Honour (Atom Egoyan)
31. Love Aaj Kal (Imtiaz Ali)
32. The Metamophosis of Birds (Catarina Vasconcelos)
33. Wolfwalkers (Tomm Moore/Ross Stewart)
34. The Hunt (Craig Zobel)
35. Atarrabi & Mikelats (Eugene Green)
36. Movie That Invites Pausing (Ken Jacobs)
37. A Home With a View (Herman Yau)
38. On-Gaku: Our Sound (Kenji Iwaisawa)
39. Hillary (Nanette Burstein)
40. The Kid Detective (Evan Morgan)
41. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)
42. Gypsy (Raju Murugan)
43. Coda (Claude Lalonde)
44. Double World (Teddy Chan)
45. Malmkrog (Cristi Puiu)
46. The Climb (Michael Angelo Covino)
47. Bora Bora (Kim Do-joon/Kim Mi-young/Kim Seung-hwa)
48. The Man in the Woods (Noah Buschel)
49. Kadakh (Rajat Kapoor)
50. Sarileru Neekevvaru (Anil Ravipudi)
51. Red Moon Tide (Lois Patino)
52. Ayyappanum Koshiyum (Sachy)
53. Dear Comrades! (Andrey Konchalovsky)
54. Ham on Rye (Tyler Taormina)
55. A California Christmas (Shaun Paul Piccinino)
56. Undine (Christian Petzold)
57. Blow the Man Down (Bridget Savage Cole, Danielle Krudy)
58. Sound of Metal (Darius Marder)
59. Laila Aur Satt Geet (Pushpendra Singh)
60. Residue (Merawi Gerami)
61. Twilight’s Kiss (Ray Yeung)
62. The Forest of Love (Sion Sono)
63. Shirley (Josephine Decker)
64. Freaky (Christopher Landon)
65. Last Year at Dachau (Mark Rappaport)
66. Circumstantial Pleasures (Lewis Klahr)
67. Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue (Jia Zhangke)
68. Fourteen (Dan Sallitt)
69. Siberia (Abel Ferrara)
70. She Dies Tomorrow (Amy Seimetz)
71. The Gentlemen (Guy Ritchie)
72. The Mistake (Bruno Sukrow)
73. Anna/Nana/Nana/Anna (Mark Rappaport)
74. AK vs. AK (Virkramaditya Motwane)
75. Apples (Christos Nikou)
76. Run Hide Fight (Kyle Rankin)
77. Days (Tsai Ming-liang)
78. The Painter and The Thief (Benjamin Ree)
79. The Nest (Sean Durkin)
80. Shithouse (Cooper Raiff)
81. Still Processing (Sophy Romvari)
82. Guilty (Ruchi Narain)
83. The 7th Annual LIve 'On Cinema' Oscar Special (Eric Notarnicola)
84. The Last Thing He Wanted (Dee Rees)
85. The Empty Man (David Prior)
86. Goldman v Silverman (Joshua Safdie/Benny Safdie)
87. Kajillionaire (Miranda July)
88. The Assistant (Kitty Green)
89. Hubie Halloween (Steven Brill)
90. Yarn (Takahisa Zeze)
91. Sethum Aiyram Pon (Anand Ravichandran)
92. Dark Forces (Bernardo Arellano)
93. Sportin' Life (Abel Ferrara)
94. Pooka! (Nacho Vigalondo)
95. Tesla (Michael Almereyda)
96. Ete 85 (Francois Ozon)
97. Extraction (Sam Hargrave)
98. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin)
99. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Jason Woliner)
+ subject to change:
100. The Stendhal Syndrome or My Dinner with Turhan Bey (Mark Rappaport) - 39 views
--. Autoficcion (Laida Lertxundi) - 415 views
--. The History of the Seattle Mariners (Jon Bois) - 2.4k views
--. News of the World (Paul Greengrass) - 45k views
--. The King of Staten Island (Judd Apatow) - 90k views
--. Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell) - 199k views
--. Palm Springs (Max Barbakow) - 242k views

[flip]

we ended up with votes for 97 different films... i might post a top 100 to letterboxd, but that would mean we need 3 more titles.

so i'll open up a vote to add three final films to the list:
- everyone can nominate one film not on the list already
- i'll then rank the suggestions, first by number of votes if anything gets 2+ votes, then by letterboxd views -- fewest views gets a higher ranking. so it will likely be the less-seen films that round out the top 100, and if you want your suggestion to make it, vote accordingly!

[flip]

i'll vote for News of the World (Paul Greengrass), which won't make it unless almost no one votes, or unless it gets multiple votes, but that's cool, i'd rather something underseen made it instead!

[Silga]

i'll vote for Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell).

[rischka]

i'll watch bloody nose empty pockets today i think. looks like a nice antidote to nomadland

[greennui]

I'll vote for The Stendhal Syndrome or My Dinner with Turhan Bey, knew there was a film I forgot to add to my list.

[nrh]

i'll vote for the history of the seattle mariners.

[grabmymask]

I’m voting for The King of Staten Island

[wba]

I'm voting for Hubie Halloween, which would have made it onto my list, if I hadn't kicked it out because of my No. 1 pick, which didn't make the final list because it was produced in 2018 and seems to have come out in most SCFZ relevant places in 2019 or such (instead of the 2020 theatrical release in Germany, which is were I screened as well as watched the film).

[flip]

I'm voting for Hubie Halloween, which would have made it onto my list, if I hadn't kicked it out because of my No. 1 pick, which didn't make the final list because it was produced in 2018 and seems to have come out in most SCFZ relevant places in 2019 or such (instead of the 2020 theatrical release in Germany, which is were I screened as well as watched the film).

i probably should have offered you the chance to update your ballot, because i think there were two 2018 films i decided probably shouldn't count for this exercise. so if you want to submit a replacement ballot, i'll update the results accordingly!

i can't remember who voted for it, but i'm also removing j'accuse (polanski) from the final list, because it made our 2019 list too, and the intention with these polls is that they not overlap year to year. edit - oh it was cinesmith and you, if either of you want to update your ballot i'll adjust the results

[Curtis, baby]

Autoficcion (Laida Lertxundi)

[wba]

I'm voting for Hubie Halloween, which would have made it onto my list, if I hadn't kicked it out because of my No. 1 pick, which didn't make the final list because it was produced in 2018 and seems to have come out in most SCFZ relevant places in 2019 or such (instead of the 2020 theatrical release in Germany, which is were I screened as well as watched the film).

i probably should have offered you the chance to update your ballot, because i think there were two 2018 films i decided probably shouldn't count for this exercise. so if you want to submit a replacement ballot, i'll update the results accordingly!

i can't remember who voted for it, but i'm also removing j'accuse (polanski) from the final list, because it made our 2019 list too, and the intention with these polls is that they not overlap year to year. edit - oh it was cinesmith and you, if either of you want to update your ballot i'll adjust the results

updated Top 11


01. Das freiwillige Jahr "A Voluntary Year" (Ulrich Köhler/Henner Winckler, Germany)
02. The Fanatic (Fred Durst, USA)
03. Somebody Up There Likes Me (Mike Figgis, UK)
04. Ga woo man si ging "A Home With a View" (Herman Yau, Hong Kong)
05. Zheng tu "Double World" (Teddy Chan, China)
06. A California Christmas (Shaun Paul Piccinino, USA)
07. Ai-naki mori de sakebe "The Forest of Love" (Sion Sono, Japan)
08. The Gentlemen (Guy Ritchie, UK/USA)
09. Der Irrtum "The Mistake" (Bruno Sukrow, Germany)
10. Hubie Halloween (Steven Brill, USA)
11. Extraction (Sam Hargrave, USA)

[flip]

thanks wba! with the new updates, we actually had votes for 99 different films in the regular course of voting, which leaves only 1 slot at the end for a write-in film. i'll leave the voting for that open for a few more hours, it will be the rappaport film unless something gets multiple votes or something more unseen gets a vote

[flip]

i also finished breaking all the ties, so the full top 99 is in order now

[john ryan]

if you need one more, I vote for Palm Springs (Max Barbakow)

[flip]

i posted this to letterboxd:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... scfz-poll/

i decided to go to 101 instead of 100, because the write-in vote at 100 was for a mark rappaport film, and he already had two films on the list, so i decided to make room for a film made by someone who wasn't on the list yet

[St. Gloede]

Will be interesting to see how different this poll will be next time we do 2020. The canon seems quite uncertain still.

Extremely happy to see There is No Evil and Uppercase Print on the top 10.

Oh, and ... Only seen 5 of the top 10, and 19 from the entire list.

[grabmymask]

Quite an amazing list! I’ve also only seen 5 of the top 10, and only 35 from the entire list