100 or More Best Movies of the 2020s (So Far) Survey

[SelwynMcGinty]

Yes, we have multiple live threads of movie list surveys - but it seems a little silly to ignore our current decade. Yes, we know the decade isn't even half-over yet. Between the global pandemic and the Hollywood labor strikes, it's been a difficult time for world cinema, to say the least - but also, a fascinating time.

Once again, it seems prudent to implement a weighted system - this time, participants are asked to list their
Top 25 of theatrical releases between January 1, 2020 and, well, whatever today's date is.

The counting will be as follows:
25 points for the #1 choice, 24 points for the #2 spot, 23 for #3, etc. down the line. The #25 selection will be afforded 2 points, in order to distinguish it from the Honorable Mentions.

If you'd like to list some Honorable Mentions past 25 selections, please do so -
each title past the 25th will be awarded 1 point.

If indicated that there's no particular order, each selection will be awarded 7 points.

Don't imagine this will be tallied any time soon, but we don't intend to wait until 2030, so there's plenty of chances to change titles and lists.

Of course, any comments, thoughts, suggestions, questions or any discourse regarding Cinema of the 2020s or anything else are encouraged and appreciated.

As always... thank you to everyone and cheers!

Starting off (this order may be subject to change in the coming days):

1. The Brutalist
2. The Worst Person in the World
3. The Banshees of Inisherin
4. Anatomy of a Fall
5. Drive My Car
6. I'm Still Here
7. Tar
8. The Holdovers
9. Fallen Leaves
10. Another Round
11. Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.
12. Love Lies Bleeding
13. Pearl
14. Parallel Mothers
15. Kajillionaire
16. Past Lives
17. Hard Truths
18. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
19. Argentina 1985
20. American Fiction
21. John Wick: Chapter 4
22. Holy Spider
23. The Apprentice
24. Minari
25. Barbie

Honorable Mentions: All of Us Strangers, Pacifiction, Judas and the Black Messiah, The Beast (dir. Bertrand Bonello, 2023), X (Ti West), MaXXXine, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, The Green Knight, Pig, Dream Scenario, Universal Language, Shiva Baby, In a Violent Nature, Janet Planet
Honorable Docs: Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat, Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros. City Hall, Dick Johnson is Dead, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.

Here's hoping the remaining years of the decade are even better....

[Cremildo]

01. Private Desert
02. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
03. Babylon
04. Dune: Part II
05. The Matrix Resurrections
06. Sertânia
07. The Room Next Door
08. Oppenheimer
09. The Batman
10. After Yang
11. A Bruddah's Mind
12. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3
13. Blonde
14. The Worst Person in the World
15. Anatomy of a Fall
16. The Brutalist
17. Nightmare Alley
18. Mank
19. Flow
20. Annette
21. Days
22. Monster
23. The Wild Robot
24. Maria
25. Drive My Car

Runner-up: All of Us Strangers

[Beckford]

The 2020's (so far)
My Personal Favorites

1. PROBLEMISTA(2024-Julio Torres)
2. BARBARIAN(2022-Zach Cregger)
3. ZACK SNYDER'S JUSTICE LEAGUE: JUSTICE IS GRAY(2021-Zack Snyder)
4. RED ROCKET(2021-Sean Baker)
5. PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN(2020-Emerald Fennell)
6. BABYLON(2022-Damien Chazelle)
7. FEMME(2024-Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping)
8. THE ZONE OF INTEREST(2023-Jonathan Glazer)
9. THE CREATOR(2023-Gareth Edwards)
10. PONNIYIN SELVAN I(2022-Mani Ratnam)
11. ASTEROID CITY(2023-Wes Anderson)
12. PINOCCHIO(2020-Matteo Garrone)
13. GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S PINOCCHIO(2022-Guillermo del Toro)
14. TAR(2022-Todd Field)
15. WILDFLOWER(2023-Matt Smukler)
16. STILLWATER(2021-Tom McCarthy)
17. JOYLAND(2022-Salim Sadiq)
18. THE LIFE OF CHUCK(2025-Mike Flanagan)
19. PARTHENOPE(2025-Paolo Sorrentino)
20. BLOOD RED SKY(2021-Peter Thorwarth)
21. THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD(2020-Armando Iannucci
22. THE DIG(2021-Simon Stone)
23. THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING(2022-George Miller)
24. MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM(2020-George C. Wolfe)
25. GODZILLA MINUS ONE MINUS COLOR(2024-Takashi Yamazaki)

Honorable Mention (chronological)
THE WHITE TIGER(2021-Ramin Bahrani)
OPPENHEIMER(2023-Christopher Nolan)
THE PEASANTS(2024-DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman)
THE APPRENTICE(2024-Ali Abbasi)

[Star Lord]

1. Anora
2. Poor Things
3. Tár
4. Furiosa
5. Licorice Pizza
6. Pearl
7. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3
8. Past Lives
9. Babylon
10. Oppenheimer
11. Thunderbolts
12. Shiva Baby
13. The Outrun
14. The Bikeriders
15. Dune: Part Two
16. Bodies Bodies Bodies
17. Deadpool & Wolverine
18. Materialists
19. His Three Daughters
20. Trap

[The Debts]

My number one pick is my favorite of the decade easily but everything else is a toss up. Also 15-20 are movies that I sincerely love but are there to fill space, but my first 14 are pretty set in stone. Should hopefully have a more refined - and better - list by the time this awful decade ends.

1. The Northman (2022, Robert Eggers).

2. The Matrix Resurrections (2021, Lana Wachowski).

3. Oppenheimer (2023, Christopher Nolan).

4. Dune Part Two (2024, Denis Villeneuve).

5. Babylon (2022, Damien Chazelle).

6. Titane (2021, Julia Ducournau).

7. Dune Part One (2021, Denis Villeneuve).

8. Blonde (2022, Andrew Dominik).

9. Queer (2024, Luca Guadagnino).

10. The Worst Person In The World (2021, Joachim Trier).

11. The Creator (2023, Gareth Edwards).

12. Napoleon (2023, Ridley Scott).

13. Another Round (2020, Thomas Vinterberg).

14. MAD GOD (2021, Phil Tippet).

15. 28 Years Later (2025, Danny Boyle).

16. Elvis (2022, Baz Luhrmann).

17. Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022, George Miller).

18. The Menu (2022, Mark Mylod).

19. I Saw The TV Glow (2024, Jane Schoenbrun).

20. Sinners (2025, Ryan Coogler).

[hasslein]

1. Let Him Go
2. Wrath of Man
3. Roger Waters This is not a Drill
4. Anora
5. Furiosa
6. Deadpool Wolverine
7. Wonder Woman 84
8. Joker Folie a Deux
9. Horizon
10. Godzilla Minus One
11. The King's Man
12. American Underdog
13. Air
14. The Flash
15. Coda

[Juan de Internet]

I haven't yet watched most of the movies I'm going to watch from the first part of this decade, let alone what's yet to be released. So most of these movies aren't going to be on the list a decade from now, if I'm still updating this then.

1. Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
2. CODA
3. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
4. Tenet
5. Poor Things
   
6. Promising Young Woman
7. Top Gun: Maverick
8. Past Lives
9. Thirteen Lives
10. French Exit
    
11. Love and Monsters
12. Anora
13. The Equalizer 3
14. News of the World
15. Wolfwalkers
    
16. Furiosa: A Mad Max Story
17. Sisu
18. A Quiet Place Part II
19. Vesper
20. Compartment No. 6

[Alan T]

1. Top Gun: Maverick
2. The Substance
3. Licorice Pizza
4. John Wick: Chapter 4
5. Alien: Romulus
6. Thanksgiving
7. Longlegs
8. Deadpool & Wolverine
9. Abigail
10. Zach Snyder's Justice League
11. Godzilla Minus One
12. Ambulance
13. The Black Phone
14. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
15. X
16. No Time to Die
17. Wrath of Man
18. The Flash
19. Crimes of the Future
20. Last Night in Soho
21. Sound of Freedom
22. Final Destinaton: Bloodlines
23. 28 Years Later
24. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
25. Halloween Ends

[DR Herbert West]

1. Possessor
2. Longlegs
3. Pig
4. Halloween Ends
5. Superman
6. The Flash
7. John Wick: Chapter 4
8. Alien: Romulus
9. The Substance
10. Pearl
11. Crimes of the Future
12. The Batman
13. The Suicide Squad
14. Napoleon
15. The Matrix Resurrections
16. Suitable Flesh
17. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning
18. Furiosa: A Mad Max Story
19. Sinners
20. Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
21. Thanksgiving
22. Prey
23. Ballerina
24. Halloween Kills
25. Top Gun: Maverick

[Whipsnade]

1. Palm Springs
2. Confess, Fletch
3. The Killer
4. Plane
5. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
6. On the Rocks
7. American Fiction
8. Boss Level
9. Prisoners of the Ghostland
10. The Outfit
11. Licorice Pizza
12. The Covenant
13. The Last Stop in Yuma County
14. The Green Knight
15. The Father
16. The Protégé
17. Dune: Part One
18. Fall
19. Barbarian
20. Tenet
21. Promising Young Woman
22. Smile
23. Run (2020)
24. The Iron Claw
25. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

[Steedeel]

1. Aftersun
2. Dune 2
3. All Of Us Strangers
4. Weapons
5. The Coffee Table
6. Furiosa
7. Longlegs
8. MI Dead Reckoning 1&2
9. Dr Sleep
10. John Wick 4
11. Warfare
12. Midsommar
13. Top Gun Maverick
14. The Father
15. The Menu
16. Pearl
17. Nosferatu
18. The Holdovers
19. Titane
20. The Banshees Of Insherin
21. The Royal Hotel
22. The Batman
23. Joker
24. The Black Phone
25. 28 Years Later

Biggest impact on me, Aftersun, The Father. But loved all these films.

[Atomic Salad]

1. Dune: Part Two
2. Dune: Part One
3. Zack Snyder's Justice League
4. Avatar: The Way of Water
5. Top Gun: Maverick
6. The Holdovers
7. Licorice Pizza
8. Elvis
9. The Fabelmans
10. Juror #2
11. Leave the World Behind
12. Music by John Williams
13. Eternals
14. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
15. The Boy and the Heron
16. Guy Ritchie's The Covenant
17. Asteroid City
18. Tenet
19. The Bikeriders
20. Everything Everywhere All at Once
21. The Suicide Squad
22. The Northman
23. The Wild Robot
24. Greenland
25. Greyhound

[ophone]

There are still almost 5 years to go and there'll be constant changes in my list, but I give it a try. It's also only since spring 2024 we're going to the cinema on a regular basis again, so there'll be an overflow of movies from 2023 until today.

Here the ones I attributed a 10/10 so far (ranked alphabetically by their English title (if there is one)):
Ամերիկացի [Amerikatsi] (2022: Michael A. Goorjan)
Le comte de Monte-Cristo [The Count of Monte Cristo] (2024: Alexandre de la Patellière & Matthieu Delaporte)
Sorda [Deaf] (2025: Eva Libertad)
Dune (2021: Denis Villeneuve)
Dune: Part Two (2024: Denis Villeneuve)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022: Daniel Scheinert & Daniel Kwan)
Memoir of a Snail (2024: Adam Elliot)
La plus précieuse des marchandises [The Most Precious of Cargoes] (2024: Michel Hazanavicius)
Nomadland (2020: Chloé Zhao)
لا أرض أخرى [No Other Land] (2024: Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Basel Adra)
Oppenheimer (2023: Christopher Nolan)
L'accident de piano [The Piano Accident] (2025: Quentin Dupieux)
Les pistolets en plastique [Plastic Guns] (2024: Jean-Christophe Meurisse)
Tatami (2023: Guy Nattiv & Zar Amir Ebrahimi)
Terre rouge - Topographie du poète (2025: Fränz Hausemer)


Honorable mentions among those I gave a 9/10:
Anatomie d'une chute [Anatomy of a Fall] (2023: Justine Triet)
L'amour ouf [Beating Hearts] (2024: Gilles Lellouche)
Bullet Train (2022: David Leitch)
Companion (2025: Drew Hancock)
Ennio (2021: Giuseppe Tornatore)
Führer und Verführer [Führer and Seducer] (2024: Joachim Lang)
The Holdovers (2023: Alexander Payne)
Ainda Estou Aqui [I'm Still Here] (2024: Walter Salles)
Joker: Folie à Deux (2024: Todd Phillips)
En fanfare [The Marching Band] (2024: Emmanuel Courcol)
Bastarden [The Promised Land] (2023: Nikolaj Arcel)
Affeksjonsverdi [Sentimental Value] (2025: Joachim Trier)
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat (2024: Johan Grimonprez)
On ira [We Will Go] (2025: Enya Baroux)
The Whale (2022: Darren Aronofsky)
Yannick (2023: Quentin Dupieux)

[thedaydreamer]

1. Nomadland
2. Everything Everywhere All at Once
3. The Banshees of Inisherin
4. Oppenheimer
5. Anatomy of a Fall
6. The Zone of Interest
7. Licorice Pizza
8. The French Dispatch
9. The Gentlemen
10. Belfast
11. Killers of the Flower Moon
12. Anora
13. I'm Still Here
14. Riceboy Sleeps
15. Decision to Leave
16. Judas and the Black Messiah
17. 20 Days in Mariupol
18. Late Night with the Devil
19. Uncle Frank
20. Tick, Tick... Boom!
21. The Whale
22. Promising Young Woman
23. Another Round
24. The Substance
25. The Worst Person in the World