Gif: Allison Corr
Don’t trust anyone who says it’s impossible to make a best movies list in 2020. There were plenty of films to like and even love over this dark, strange, unprecedented year. Just ask the 12 contributors to
The A.V. Club’s list. Each made a ranked ballot of their 15 favorites of 2020, and while there’s certainly overlap on all of them, you’ll also find passion picks sprinkled throughout: the movies that spoke, powerfully and singularly, to one critic in particular. We call those the outliers the films that appeared on one ballot and no others and they’re among the five superlatives affixed to each individual list. Keep reading to get a look behind the scenes of our best-of process, a sense of how our contributors aligned and diverged in their tastes, and maybe a few extra titles to add to your catch-up list as 2020 cycles over to 2021.