From December through April, the best movies of 2020/2021 are recognized by the press, fans, and members of the film industry in dozens of awards competitions. With the added wrinkle of an extended season of mostly streaming titles due to the pandemic shutting down theaters, we’re your perfect one-stop-shop to keep track of who is winning. And we’re nearing the end (at last).

As we head into into Oscar weekend, a couple of late-season entries are loosening the hold early favorites had on frontrunner status. After racking up a bunch of wins recently – many for supporting actress Youn Yuh-jung – Minari has emerged as a legitimate Best Picture contender, though is still very much behind Nomadland on our leaderboard, which heads towards Sunday with 144 wins across the season. Also, Judas and the Black Messiah, which began its run in the season with Daniel Kaluuya’s Golden Globes win, has been unstoppable of late picking up several prizes; so too has Promising Young Woman, with multiple wins for lead actress Carey Mulligan and writer-director Emerald Fennell. Will they be enough to topple Nomadland come Oscar night?

Read on to find out where your favorite movies stand, and let us know what you think in the comments. 

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Small Axe – 5 wins

• LAFCA: Best Film
• LAFCA: Best Cinematography
• NYFCC: Best Cinematography
• FFCC: Best Ensemble (Mangrove)
• OFCS: Special Achievement
  

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(Photo by IFP)

The 30th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards were awarded Monday night in New York during a semi-live virtual broadcast. The Gothams honor films that encapsulate every facet of modern independent cinema and pay tribute to the industry’s best, including a tear-jerking tribute to Chadwick Boseman and stunned acceptance speeches from people like The Forty-Year-Old Version writer/director Radha Blank, who took home the prize for Best Screenplay. Amazon led the night with four wins, followed by HBO and Searchlight Pictures with two each.

Riz Ahmed took home the Best Actor trophy for his visceral performance of a drummer losing his hearing in Sound of Metal, while Nicole Beharie took Best Actress for her turn in the Texas pageant queen drama Miss Juneteenth. Newcomer Kingsley Ben-Adir was awarded the Breakthrough Actor prize for his role as Malcolm X in One Night in Miami, adding to a landmark year for representation as people of color took home prizes in most of the top categories. See below for the full list of winners.

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Best Feature

93% The Assistant (2019)

96% First Cow (2019)

93% Nomadland (2020) – WINNER

92% Relic (2020)

99% Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)

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Best Actor

Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal – WINNER
Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Jude Law – The Nest
John Magaro – First Cow
Jesse Plemons – I’m Thinking of Ending Things

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Best Actress

Nicole Beharie – Miss Juneteenth – WINNER
Jessie Buckley – I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Youn Yuh-jung – Minari
Carrie Coon – The Nest
Frances McDormand – Nomadland

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Breakthrough Actor

Jasmine Batchelor – The Surrogate
Kingsley Ben-Adir – One Night in Miami – WINNER
Sidney Flanigan – Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Orion Lee – First Cow
Kelly O’Sullivan – Saint Frances

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Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award

Radha Blank – The Forty-Year-Old Version
Channing Godfrey Peoples – Miss Juneteenth
Alex Thompson – Saint Frances
Carlo Mirabella-Davis – Swallow
Andrew Patterson – The Vast of Night – WINNER

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Breakthrough Series – Long Form

96% The Great

94% The Leftovers: Season 2 (2015)

95% P-Valley

96% Unorthodox

96% Watchmen – WINNER

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Breakthrough Series – Short Form

98% Betty

90% Dave

98% I May Destroy You – WINNER

- - Taste the Nation With Padma Lakshmi

100% Work in Progress

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Best Screenplay

94% Bad Education (2019)

96% First Cow (2019)

99% The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020) – WINNER (TIE)

98% Fourteen (2019) – WINNER (TIE)

92% The Vast of Night (2019)

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Best Documentary

100% 76 Days (2020)

98% City Hall (2020)

100% Our Time Machine (2019)

100% A Thousand Cuts (2020) – WINNER (TIE)

98% Time (2020) – WINNER (TIE)

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Best International Feature

93% Bacurau (2019)

93% Beanpole (2019)

88% Cuties (2020)

97% Identifying Features (2020) – WINNER

88% Martin Eden (2019)

99% Wolfwalkers (2020)

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Jury Award for Ensemble Performance

89% The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) – WINNER

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Audience Award

93% Nomadland (2020) – WINNER

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Thumbnail image by ©Amazon

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Like most other industries, Hollywood was thrown for a loop when COVID-19 reared its ugly head and forced communities all over the world to impose rather strict stay-at-home orders. With widespread theater closures in effect, all of the major movie studios began shifting their biggest titles further and further back in the release calendar, until most of them just threw their hands up and tossed everything over to 2021. In other words, we saw an unprecedented drop in the number of movies released this year, and even the ones that did come out were frequently too small to draw any attention. With that in mind, the staff here at RT present a small handful of our favorite underseen films of the year, just in case you missed them entirely or simply forgot they existed. Read on for the full list.

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93% Bacurau (2019)

The Assault on Precinct 13 playbook, patterned after Rio Bravo, is flung back into wild Western territory with Bacurau. Set in the remote, dusty mountains of Brazil, Bacurau’s people begin their wicked and righteous tale with the funeral of the village matriarch. Apparently, she served as a sort of spiritual ward, as her death opens their world to a pile-on of bad juju, including UFO sightings, bullet holes appearing in tankers, and Bacurau itself disappearing off maps. When friends and family start getting assassinated, the townspeople must unite for a last stand, and in the process unleash their own hidden history of bloody retribution. So, here’s a movie that not only satisfies on genre thrills, but once you get the big reveal as to why the town is being besieged (involving a devilishly hammy Udo Kier), its clear writers/directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles dress the screen in gore and carnage with social purpose, transforming Bacurau into parable.

Available on: Amazon, FandangoNOW, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu

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93% Beanpole (2019)

Beanpole, directed with unwavering intensity by the mind-bogglingly young Kantemir Balagov, is not a breezy watch. It announces as much with an uncomfortably intimate opening shot of the titular character, Iya “Beanpole” Sergueeva, in a catatonic state. A nurse and veteran working at a Leningrad hospital in the immediate aftermath of WWII, she is wheezing through the lingering aftershocks of a concussion sustained during the war. Watching her struggle to regain her breath is so unnerving that you might just lose your own.

Iya, played by Viktoria Miroschnichenko with a childlike meekness that belies her striking physicality, becomes tragically indebted to her former comrade Masha, who makes an unreasonable demand for restitution. Things only get grimmer from here. Miroschnichenko is terrific, but Vasilisa Perelygina — who plays the spiteful Masha — is absolutely astounding; her name ought to be inscribed onto a mountaintop. This is her debut performance, which is both remarkable and oddly fitting. Her every mannerism, from the resigned rage in her eyes to her disquietingly forced smile, is wholly unique. It’s as if the camera has never before captured a presence quite like hers.

Beanpole is the kind of clenched viewing experience that is endured rather than enjoyed. However, when measured by its sheer depth of feeling, it’s pretty unbeatable. Becoming invested in Iya and Masha is as easy as falling over a ledge: it’s a simple fact of gravity.

Available on: Amazon, FandangoNOW, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu

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99% Driveways (2019)

There’s a lot you’ll likely find familiar about Driveways, a story of lost and lonely souls finding connections across generational and racial lines. The film focuses on a young boy (Lucas Jaye) and his mother (Hong Chau), who move into her late sister’s home to clean it out and prepare it for sale; while there, the boy forms a friendship with a Korean War veteran (Brian Dennehy) who lives next door. The understated story avoids some of the beats you might be expecting – little is made of the fact the young mother and son are Asian-American and how that might affect their relationship with the vet – and renders the slow-forming bond between the trio with tenderness and gentle humor. Chau further cements her growing reputation as a talent with extraordinary range (and her quiet work as a struggling single mom here next to the cold villainy of her turn in Watchmen) and Jaye is believable and charming as the loner kid. But it’s Dennehy, weary, grizzled, but fully open-hearted, who makes this small film something hugely special.

Available on: Amazon, FandangoNOW, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu

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92% Impetigore (2019)

Indonesian director Joko Anwar is one of the most exciting horror talents working today, and Impetigore might be his most effective – and surprisingly moving – film to date. The story is free-wheeling and complex, but essentially involves a young woman returning to her ancestral village, where she’s inherited a house. Is it haunted? Probably. Why do the locals seem so suspicious of her? We’re about to find out. This incredibly atmospheric film kicks off with what might be the tensest horror opening of the decade – a strange man terrorizes a toll booth worker – and from there piles on killer set pieces and unforgettable imagery at a clip. Indonesia selected Impetigore as its entry for the Oscars’ international feature category; we hope the Academy takes a risk on this genre gem and shortlists it.

Available on: Shudder

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87% Spaceship Earth (2020)

When director Matt Wolf began working on Spaceship Earth, there was no way he could have known how eerily relevant his film would be when it finally saw release. The documentary, which premiered at Sundance in January last year, chronicles the inception, construction, progression, and ultimate termination of the notorious real-life science experiment known as Biosphere 2. Born of an idea cooked up in a counterculture commune, Biosphere 2 was meant to be an entirely self-sufficient enclosed ecosystem that would serve as a prototype for the kinds of facilities humans might require to live, say, on the surface of Mars. Because, you know, at this rate, that’s looking more and more like an inevitability. Spaceship Earth details how the Biosphere 2 project came to life, who the eight “lucky” souls were that cloistered themselves inside the 3.14-acre facility from 1991 to 1993 (yes, two whole years), and what — aside from “people suck” and “life is hard” — we all learned from it. It’s a fascinating, absolutely bonkers look not just at a remarkable and exceptionally unique experiment, but also at the social nature of humanity itself and our capacity both to enrich and to impair the lives of those around us. Throw in the fact that it debuted on Hulu in May, smack dab in the middle of widespread coronavirus lockdowns, and you’d be hard pressed to find more appropriate quarantine viewing.

Available on: Amazon, FandangoNOW, Google Play, Hulu, iTunes, Vudu

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87% Swallow (2019)

Hunter Conrad seems to have it all. She’s married into a wealthy family, and her place within it solidifies once she becomes pregnant with her partner’s child. Her days are spent tending to her stylish, modern home and attending dinner parties. The movie lulls you into believing this a story of upper-middle-class ennui that could be resolved with a job outside the home and a newfound sense of purpose, but Hunter’s problem is not that simple. The film becomes a lovingly shot but no less visceral body horror movie as Hunter’s drive to ingest objects that were not meant to enter a digestive tract grows out of control. It speaks to Haley Bennett’s performance that throughout it all, we empathize with her. We cringe when she picks up a thumbtack, and feel her relief when it’s out of sight. We feel her confusion as she tries to understand and reign in her compulsion to endanger herself now that all of her immediate needs are finally met.  More than anything, however, Swallow is a reminder that if we don’t confront our demons, they may devour us, or we may end up devouring them.

Available on: Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu

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Thumbnail images by ©IFC Films, ©CJ Entertainment, ©Kino Lorber

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(Photo by Pixar. Thumbnail: Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection.)

The Best Movies of 2020, Ranked by Tomatometer

Rotten Tomatoes has collected every movie designated Certified Fresh over the past year, creating our guide to the best movies of 2020.

Movies achieve Certified Fresh status by maintaining a Tomatometer score of at least 75% after a minimum number of reviews, with that number depending on how the movie was released. For wide releases (of which there were significantly fewer this year, as you can imagine), the minimum number of reviews is 80. For streaming or limited release movies, that number is 40. And finally, it’s 20 reviews for movies premiering on television. Across all release types, each movie needs at least five of its reviews to be written by Top Critics. Once a movie goes Certified Fresh, the only way to lose it is by dropping below 70%.

So what were some notable movies approved by critics in the most unpredictable, disrupted year in film history? Early in 2020, we saw the likes of The Invisible Man, Emma., and Birds of Prey connect with critics. At one point, January’s Bad Boys for Life hitting Certified Fresh seemed like that was going to be the craziest story of the year.

As theaters shut down two weeks into Onward‘s release, audiences turned to streaming. Over the next eight months, Certified Fresh originals each gave platforms their moment to entertain. Greyhound and On the Rocks shored up on Apple TV+. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Blow the Man Down and The Vast of Night beamed onto Amazon Prime. Hamilton and Black Is King started the conversation on Disney+. David Byrne’s American Utopia danced onto HBO Max, while Palm Springs got weird on Hulu. Netflix covered all the bases with His House, Jingle Jangle, The Platform, Da 5 Bloods, and Enola Holmes. Even boutique streamer Shudder had the year’s viral hit with quarantine-shot Host.

The new normal continues to refine itself, as seen among 2020’s final Certified Fresh releases: Steve McQueen’s series of Small Axe films on Amazon, and prestige Pixar pic Soul going straight into homes. And because awards seasons must not be denied, buzz of Nomadland, One Night in Miami, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom continues into 2021.

Read on for the best movies of 2020, ranked by Tomatometer. —Alex Vo

(Photo by Magnolia Pictures, Film Movement, Eleven Arts, Kino Lorber)

Over the last couple months, in response to the ongoing pandemic, several independent distributors have opted to release their new films via digital theatrical experiences that allow audiences to access the films from their homes while supporting local art houses. The revolutionary initiative has expanded access to the best of international cinema to viewers across the country, some of whom may otherwise not have had the chance to see these gems and can now rent them from any participating theaters. The list below takes you around the world via 23 new titles with stories representing 16 countries from four continents, including award-winners at festivals like Cannes, Sundance, Venice, and SXSW. These highlights feature a variety of genres, a mix of emerging and established filmmakers, and above all, a tapestry of human experiences that can help us feel connected in the midst of uncertainty.

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Thumbnail images by Magnolia Pictures, Film Movement, Greenwich Entertainment, Eleven Arts, Kino Lorber

This week at the movies, we’ve got a woman at war (The Rhythm Section, starring Blake Lively and Jude Law) and a witch in the woods (Gretel & Hansel, starring Sophia Lillis and Alice Krige). What are the critics saying?

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Also Opening This Week In Limited Release

• () , a thriller about an Orthodox Jew in Israel who becomes an extremist activist when Yitzhak Rabin announces the terms of the Oslo Accords in 1993, is at 100%.
• Beanpole (2019) 93% , a drama about two young women in Russia trying to rebuild their lives in the wake of World War II, is Certified Fresh at 87%.
• The Assistant (2019) 93% , a drama that follows the assistant to a powerful film mogul as she increasingly bears witness to the abusive nature of the industry, is Certified Fresh at 86%.
• José (2018) 86% , a romantic drama about a young man living in socially conservative Guatemala City who falls in love with another man, is at 86%.
• Taylor Swift: Miss Americana (2020) 91% , a biographical documentary charting several years in the career of pop music icon Taylor Swift, is at 85%.
• The Traitor (2019) 86% , a based-on-true-events drama about a Mafia man who becomes an informant, is at 78%.

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Toronto International Film Festival 2019 Scorecard

Awards season is officially in high gear with the conclusion of the Toronto International Film Fest, the nexus of the mainstream, the arthouse, the niche, and the plain weird stuff you only show deep into the night. For its 2019 edition, TIFF featured some major premieres: Tom Hanks’ Mr. Rogers biopic A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Wall Street takedown Hustlers with a stacked cast including Jennifer Lopez, Just Mercy with Michael B. Jordan and Brie Larson, Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit – which took home the festival’s audience award – and Rian Johnson’s murder mystery, Knives Out.

And that’s not even mentioning major films that had premiered elsewhere and stopped at TIFF on their journey towards possible Oscar glory, like Joker, The Truth, Honey Boy, The Lighthouse, Marriage Story, and Bong Joon-ho’s recently Certified Fresh Palme d’Or winner, Parasite. —Alex Vo