Best of 2020 Poll

[flip]

Getting an early start on the SCFZ "Best of 2020" poll, where we poll our favourite films released last year:

- post a list of your favourite films from 2020
-- you can list no more than half of the 2020 films you have seen, up to a maximum of 10, except:
--- if you have seen between 40 and 59 feature films from last year: then you can list up to 11 films
--- if you have seen 60 or more feature films from last year: then you can list up to 12 films

The longer ballots are meant to give lesser-seen films (that only those who have seen a lot of 2020 movies might have seen) more of a chance.

- ranked ballots are *strongly* encouraged (if you aren't sure how to rank, maybe rank in reverse-order of letterboxd views, to give less-seen films more weight). Unless you tell me otherwise, I'll assume your ballot is ranked.
- scoring for ranked ballots will be on a 1-2-3-4-...-maximum scale (so a three-film ranked ballot will award 3, 2 and 1 points to the three films)
- unranked ballots will award the same total points as a ranked one would, but of course awarding an equal number of points to each film. So a ten-film unranked ballot, say, will award 5.5 points per film

- you can post a ballot now and edit it later - no need to let me know about changes unless you make changes on the day of the deadline. As usual, I post the results on Academy Award day, which is April 25 this year

deadline: April 23, 2020


I'll start the never-very-popular Academy Awards poll in a separate thread when the nominations are announced in mid-March

[flip]

very early ballot, i wouldn't actually vote for all of these if it was deadline day since the last few aren't all that good imo, hoping to see some better 2020 films soon:

1. There Is No Evil (Mohammad Rasoulof)
2. Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg)
3. The Hunt (Craig Zobel)
4. Movie That Invites Pausing (Ken Jacobs)
5. Uppercase Print (Radu Jude)
6. Voices in the Wind (Nobuhiro Suwa)
7. Emma. (Autumn de Wilde)
8. Air Conditioner (Fradique)
9. Run Hide Fight (Kyle Rankin)
10. Kajillionaire (Miranda July)
11. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin)

seen 44 so far

[nrh]

are we using imdb date of 2020 for this, or other variations of "released in 2020"? i.e. would something like eeb allay oo! which played one festival in 2019 and therefore has a 2019 imdb date but didn't release until 2020 count?

[flip]

are we using imdb date of 2020 for this, or other variations of "released in 2020"? i.e. would something like eeb allay oo! which played one festival in 2019 and therefore has a 2019 imdb date but didn't release until 2020 count?

no, we don't strictly go by imdb dates. the short answer is: voters can decide what they want to consider eligible. the longer answer: ideally (and of course for some films this is a blurry line) each film would be eligible for only one end-of-year poll. so a 2020 film on imdb is definitely (or almost definitely) eligible for this poll; a 2021 film on imdb is definitely (or almost definitely) not eligible for this poll; and a 2019 (or in rare cases, earlier) film on imdb can certainly be eligible if no one or almost no one would have had the chance to vote for it in our 'best of 2019' poll, because it wasn't available to see until 2020. by that criterion, it sounds like eeb allay oo! should certainly qualify for the poll we're running now. but films that got wide releases in the usa in 2019 but didn't come out in some worldwide markets until 2020 probably shouldn't be considered eligible. and if a film ended up making our 'best of 2019' list, i don't think it should get votes in this poll too (though i'll have to think about whether i want to make that a rule, or whether to just leave these decisions up to each voter).

[nrh]

Eeb Allay Ooo! (Prateek Vats)
Nasir (Arun Karthik)
Voices in the Wind (Nobuhiro Suwa)
Psycho (Mysskin)
Kadakh (Rajat Kapoor)
On-Gaku: Our Sound (Kenji Iwaisawa)
Ayyappanum Koshiyum (Sachy)
AK vs. AK (Virkramaditya Motwane)
The 7th Annual LIve 'On Cinema' Oscar Special (Eric Notarnicola)
yarn (takahisa zeze)

[greennui]

Atarrabi & Mikelats (Eugene Green)
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (Bill Ross IV/Turner Ross)
The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sang-soo)
The Brilliant Biograph: Earliest Moving Images of Europe (1897-1902)
Last Year at Dachau (Mark Rappaport)
Anna/Nana/Nana/Anna (Mark Rappaport)
First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
Sportin' Life (Abel Ferrara)

[therouxxx]

Bheeshma (Venky Kudumula)
Love Aaj Kal (Imtiaz Ali)
Psycho (Mysskin)
Gypsy (Raju Murugan)
Sarileru Neekevvaru (Anil Ravipudi)
Voices in the Wind (Nobuhiro Suwa)
Fourteen (Dan Sallitt)
Shithouse (Cooper Raiff)
Guilty (Ruchi Narain)
Sethum Aiyram Pon (Anand Ravichandran)

I chopped off Guest of Honour because it received a vote last year. Some I'd still like to see: Raat Akeli Hai, Bulbbul, Soorarai Pottru, Amit Dutta chess movie, Mrs. Serial Killer

[St. Gloede]

1. Uppercase Print (2020, Radu Jude)
2. Sheytan vojud nadarad / There is No Evil (2020, Mohammad Rasoulof)
3. A Metamorfose dos Pássaros / The Metamophosis of Birds (2020, Catarina Vasconcelos)
4. I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020, Charlie Kaufman)
5. Ar Condicionado (2020, Fradique)
6. Dorogie tovarishchi / Dear Comrades (2020, Andrey Konchalovskiy)
7. Emma. (2020, Autumn de Wilde)
8. Circumstantial Pleasures (2020, Lewis Klahr)
9. Lúa vermella (2020, Lois Patiño)
10. Druk / Another Round (2020, Thomas Vinterberg)

11. Été 85 (2020, François Ozon)
12. Eyimofe / This is My Desire (2020, Arie Esiri, Chuko Esiri)
13. Quo vadis, Aida? (2020, Jasmila Zbanic)
14. The Kid Detective (2020, Evan Morgan)
15. Last Letter (2020, Shunji Iwai)

[Silga]

1. The Burnt Orange Heresy (Giuseppe Capotondi)
2. The Way I See It (Dawn Porter)
3. Guest of Honour (Atom Egoyan)
4. Hillary (Nanette Burstein)
5. Coda (Claude Lalonde)
6. Tenet (Christopher Nolan)
7. Blow the Man Down (Bridget Savage Cole, Danielle Krudy)
8. The Last Thing He Wanted (Dee Rees)
9. Colewell (Tom Quinn)
10. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)

Seen 54

[grabmymask]

only seen a measly 15 features from 2020 so far, hopefully will see a ton more before deadline.

[---]

seen 7

1. I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman, 2020)
2. Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg, 2020)
3. "Goldman v Silverman" (Joshua Safdie/Benny Safdie, 2020)

[Lencho of the Apes]

2020 movies I didn't hate:

Eeb Allay Ooo
Dark Forces - Bernardo Arellano

Only seen 5 or so, so I have hardly any business voting. Possibly I'll watch some others before voting closes.

[bipolarvision]

nasir (arun karthick)
the woman who ran (hong sang soo)
psycho (mysskin)
voices in the wind (nobuhiro suwa)
eeb allay ooo (prateek vats)
laila aur satt geet (pushpendra singh)
wife of a spy (kiyoshi kurosawa)
on-gaku: our sound (kenji iwaisawa)
ayyappanum koshiyum (sachy)
undine (christian petzold)

[cinesmith]

Seen 27 so far and there's been such a massive amount of releases pushed back which makes this a very odd year to count.
I've only got a handful that I found worth mentioning.

Sound of Metal (Darius Marder)
Shirley (Josephine Decker)
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman)
The Painter and The Thief (Benjamin Ree)
J'accuse "An Officer and a Spy" (Roman Polanski)
Pooka! (Nacho Vigalondo)

[grabmymask]

Not a ton of action for this year huh. Oh well, I’m trying to watch a few more things but will post an updated ballot before the deadline.

If anyone has english subs for Voices in the Wind, they’d be much appreciated.

[flip]

If anyone has english subs for Voices in the Wind, they’d be much appreciated.

if you're willing to watch the copy on youtube (which is not bad at all), that has english subs, just search for "the phone of the wind 2021"

[grabmymask]

If anyone has english subs for Voices in the Wind, they’d be much appreciated.

if you're willing to watch the copy on youtube (which is not bad at all), that has english subs, just search for "the phone of the wind 2021"

Thank you! Would’ve never thought to check YouTube haha

[nrh]

updated my list to drop the very good hong for the great zeze

[St. Gloede]

This poll had completely slipped out of my mind. I have seen a few 2020 films since the poll started though. I would consider putting Druk on the list - but as the deadline is so short now I think I need to prioritize Last Letters and I'm Thinking of Ending Things.

- Seen since poll started -

Druk / Another Round (2020, Thomas Vinterberg) 8/10
Quo vadis, Aida? (2020, Jasmila Zbanic)
The Kid Detective (2020, Evan Morgan)
-
Até o Fim / To the End (2020, Glenda Nicácio & Ary Rosa) 7.5/10
Minari (2020, Lee Isaac Chung) 7/10
Pripadnost / Beginnings (2020, Tea Lukac)
Ta fang jian li de yun / The Cloud in Her Room (2020, Xinyuan Zheng Lu) 6.5/10
Soul (2020, Pete Docter, Kemp Powers) 6/10
Die Adern der Welt / Veins of the World (2020, Byambasuren Davaa)
Nakitai watashi wa neko wo kaburu / A Whisker Away (2020, Jun'ichi Satô, Tomotaka Shibayama) 5/10

[wba]

I've seen some 40+ releases, and these were the ones I've really enjoyed:


01. Ahlat Agaci "The Wild Pear Tree" (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey/Republic of North Macedonia/France/Germany/Bosnia and Herzegovina/Bulgaria/Sweden/Qatar)
02. Das freiwillige Jahr "A Voluntary Year" (Ulrich Köhler/Henner Winckler, Germany)
03. The Fanatic (Fred Durst, USA)
04. Kayhan (Togan Gökbakar, Turkey)
05. J'accuse "An Officer and a Spy" (Roman Polanski, France/Italy)
06. Somebody Up There Likes Me (Mike Figgis, UK)
07. Ga woo man si ging "A Home With a View" (Herman Yau, Hong Kong)
08. Zheng tu "Double World" (Teddy Chan, China)
09. A California Christmas (Shaun Paul Piccinino, USA)
10. The Gentlemen (Guy Ritchie, UK/USA)
11. Der Irrtum "The Mistake" (Bruno Sukrow, Germany)

[ofrene]

missed a lot(as usual) and delayed a lot but not that weak year...


World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime
City Hall
First Cow (2019 stuff but actual releasing was 2020...)
The Brilliant Biograph: Earliest Moving Images of Europe (1897-1902)
Lovers Rock
Wife of a Spy
Bora Bora
Undine
The Woman Who Ran
Days
Still Processing
Voices in the Wind

[St. Gloede]

Caught Last Letters. I will probably list it as a great film, but still slightly disappointed as it did not quite feel as an Iwai (it was almost as if he was trying to be Koreeda). The way the camera moved into the opening scene made me extremely hopeful, but the latter is not the living, breathing (and sometimes maddening) sensory experience he can create at his best - and the narrative is far more traditional. The characters are strong enough, as is the plotting - and the encounter with the ex-husband and his new wife was a particular highlight - but I don't see this being overly remembered and think it will disappear into his filmography (unless it marks a new, more conventional phase).

I do think people who enjoy narrative drama will find a lot to enjoy here though - from multiple characters with their own views - to the way past and reality can blend together - to awkward mixes of identity. It is a very gentle film, with some darker undertones - and manages to be about youth, adulthood and the process of growing up. I do think the dauhter/niece dynamics were the most lacking/conventional - while the woman who always lived under her sister's shadow evoked a lot of interesting ideas - the film could have played with further.

[grabmymask]

Edited my old post so I could just post my full ballot here. Now seen 76 features from 2020 and I'm finished lol

1. Tenet (Christopher Nolan)
2. Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always (Eliza Hittman)
3. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) [Cathy Yan]
4. The Tango of the Widower and Its Distorting Mirror (Raul Ruiz)
5. The Kid Detective (Evan Morgan)
6. Malmkrog (Cristi Puiu)
7. The Man in the Woods (Noah Buschel)
8. Freaky (Christopher Landon)
9. Siberia (Abel Ferrara)
10. Red Moon Tide (Lois Patino)
11. The Empty Man (David Prior)
12. Tesla (Michael Almereyda)



edit: just realized every movie on my poll besides Tenet didn’t have any prior votes—sorry for messing y’all’s poll up w/ my genre bias

[St. Gloede]

Deadline day!

Had expected a little more activity in the final day (or maybe it will be more extreme as other time zones near the end of the day)

Managed to update my top 10 to a top 15 - and up to 45 films overall. Not quite where I want to be (will probably be closer to 80, maybe even 90 by the end of the year - but that is a long way off).

The film I had the most hope for but didn't make it was Jean-Claude Rousseau's A Floating World, which had a lot of the beauty and magic we remember from his work a few decades ago, but just felt slighter, a bit derivative and the short runtime did not help. Some of the scenes and shots were utterly incredible though.

[flip]

okay... i am officially starting to tally this up in about ten minutes. so as usual, that means:

- new ballots are perfectly fine, i'll probably take them up until sunday morning montreal time
- but if you want to edit a ballot you posted above, please don't edit your post. instead, quote your old ballot in a new post, along with your updated ballot, so i can see what's changed. edits also fine up until sunday morning.

thanks as always!

[Silga]

1. The Burnt Orange Heresy (Giuseppe Capotondi)
2. The Way I See It (Dawn Porter)
3. Guest of Honour (Atom Egoyan)
4. Hillary (Nanette Burstein)
5. Coda (Claude Lalonde)
6. Tenet (Christopher Nolan)
7. Blow the Man Down (Bridget Savage Cole, Danielle Krudy)
8. The Last Thing He Wanted (Dee Rees)
9. Colewell (Tom Quinn)
10. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)

Seen 54

Updated and Final ballot:

1. Nomadland (Chloe Zhao)
2. The Burnt Orange Heresy (Giuseppe Capotondi)
3. The Way I See It (Dawn Porter)
4. Guest of Honour (Atom Egoyan)
5. Hillary (Nanette Burstein)
6. Coda (Claude Lalonde)
7. Blow the Man Down (Bridget Savage Cole, Danielle Krudy)
8. Twilight's Kiss (Ray Yeung)
9. Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue (Jia Zhangke)
10. Apples (Christos Nikou)
11. The Last Thing He Wanted (Dee Rees)
12. Tenet (Christopher Nolan)

Seen 75

[flip]

edit: just realized every movie on my poll besides Tenet didn’t have any prior votes—sorry for messing y’all’s poll up w/ my genre bias

i'm genre-biased too, i hope that doesn't mess up our polls! the patino film also got a second vote, by the way, and i'd guess your ballot overlaps with others roughly as much as the average ballot -- really not a lot of duplicate votes this year...

[grabmymask]

really not a lot of duplicate votes this year...

very good point! kinda impressive how varied the ballots are actually, considering most people (myself included) seem to think that this was a bit of a lackluster year for obvious reasons.

[---]

seen 7

1. I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman, 2020)
2. Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg, 2020)
3. "Goldman v Silverman" (Joshua Safdie/Benny Safdie, 2020)

seen 8

1. I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman, 2020)
2. Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg, 2020)
3. "Goldman v Silverman" (Joshua Safdie/Benny Safdie, 2020)
4. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Jason Woliner, 2020)

[flip]

tallied everything so far, including silga and bure's updates...

i've ignored votes for films that were listed as 2018 on imdb and which had international theatrical releases in that year, since they don't really fit the criteria for the poll