2020 was the year of COVID-19 and the corresponding implosion of the film business where many films that I eagerly awaited to see on a big screen, the way films should be, were dumped to various streaming platforms. If the year proceeded the way it should have, I would have watched more films on big screens, discovered new talent and my Top 10 choices may have been completely different. That being said, the films I’ve chosen are all worth checking out as I was watching films up until the day all the movie theaters were shuttered. It’s rather fitting that the last film I saw was the Filipino zombie film BLOCK Z.
On the business side a number of longterm sales agents closed shop due to streaming as catalog product is now relegated to AVOD platforms on rev share deals which are a joke as there are no audit protocols as the platform controls the stream and you have to “trust them” that they are reporting accurately. A friend who was a distributor for 35 years walked away when his most profitable film in 2019 grossed him $12 on AVOD. Even worse is the unprofessionalism at media companies where there are no listed phone numbers, no staff lists and no corresponding email addresses. If one turns to LinkedIn (which is becoming like Facebook) one can’t connect to a number of industry execs if you do not have their email address already. The only email address one can find is usually “info@” that no one ever responds to. It is common knowledge that you can’t email an exec at Netflix, even if they gave you their email address, if they didn’t originate an email to you that you are responding to.
Top 10 Films Of 2020*
(125 Films)
The Painted Bird [Czech Republic/Slovakia/Ukraine]
Created Equal: Clarence Thomas In His Own Words [Documentary]
Liberation aka Liberation: Finally Rescued [China]
The Last Full Measure
The Man Standing Next [South Korea]
Boys State [Documentary]
Greed [UK]
Emma [UK]
Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior [India]
Nina Wu [Taiwan/Malaysia/Myanmar]
Best Actor – Ajay Devgn (Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior)
Best Actress – Ke-Xi Wu (Nina Wu)
Best Supporting Actor – Bill Nighy (Emma)
Best Supporting Actress – Tara Lee (Schemers)
Best Director – Michael Winterbottom (Greed)
Best Screenplay – Brad Inglesby (The Way Back)
Best Cinematography – Vladimir Smutny (The Painted Bird)