My Top Films (and Books) of 2020

I may not have made it to the cinema much in 2020, but that didn't stop me watching films, both old and new… As always, I've limited myself to one film per director/one book per author.

My Top Films of 2020

01) Last and First Men (dir. Jóhann Jóhannsson)

02) The Assistant (dir. Kitty Green)

03) 180° Rule (dir. Farnoosh Samadi)

04) Shadow Country (dir. Bohdan Sláma)

05) Days (dir. Tsai Ming-liang)

06) Red, White and Blue (dir. Steve McQueen)

07) Build the Wall (dir. Joe Swanberg) 

08) The Truth (dir. Hirokazu Koreeda)

09) Moffie (dir. Oliver Hermanus)

10) The Reason I Jump (dir. Jerry Rothwell)

11) Fire Will Come (dir. Oliver Laxe)

12) Where'd You Go, Bernadette (dir. Richard Linklater) 

The Best Films from Previous Years that I Saw for the First Time in 2020

01) Red Beard (1965, dir. Akira Kurosawa)

02) Doktor Glas (1968, dir. Mai Zetterling)

03) Distant Journey (1949, dir. Alfréd Radok)

04) Transport from Paradise (1962, dir. Zbyněk Brynych)

05) The Last Stage (1948, dir. Wanda Jakubowska) 

06) Hiroshima (1953, dir. Hideo Sekigawa)

07) The Heiress (1949, dir. William Wyler)

08) Black Girl (1966, dir. Ousmane Sembène)

09) Columbus (2017, dir. Kogonada)

10) The Cheaters (1930, dir. Paulette McDonagh) 

11) The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929, dirs. Arnold Fanck and G. W. Pabst)

12) Moontide (1942, dir. Archie Mayo)

13) The Magician (1926, dir. Rex Ingram)

14) The Song of Ceylon (1934, dir. Basil Wright)

15) Chess of the Wind (1976, dir. Mohammad Reza Aslani)

16) Frieda (1949, dir. Basil Dearden)

17) The Farewell (2019, dir. Lulu Wang)

18) Western Approaches (1945, dir. Pat Jackson)

The Best Books I Read for the First Time in 2020

01) Mariamne – Pär Lagerkvist

02) Unquiet – Linn Ullmann

03) The Book of Dads – ed. Ben George

04) Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race – Reni Eddo-Lodge 

05) The Prague Cemetery – Umberto Eco 

06) Africa's Tarnished Name – Chinua Achebe

07) The White Plague – Karel Čapek

08) I Should Have Stayed Home – Horace McCoy 

09) Spring Awakening – Frank Wedekind

10) Lysistrata – Aristophanes