The Best of 2020: 40th Shadows Awards

To put it mildly, this has been an unusual year. So there has been a wider range of films eligible, as I've included titles released direct to streaming services. I saw all of these in the calendar year 2020, regardless of release dates. My top film of the year is a true original, a blur of drama and documentary that has a lot to stay about the state of the world at the moment. The performances, improvised dialog, camerawork and editing are simply gorgeous. Some of these categories were very difficult to whittle down to 10 - it was often painful cutting the list off there, especially for lead performances.

There is rather a lot more posted on the website, including longer lists and a dazzling array of additional categories and trivia to wrap up the year: 40th SHADOWS AWARDS. Here are the top 10s...

BEST FILM:

1. 
   Nomadland (Chloe Zhao)
2. Mangrove (Steve McQueen)
3. The Mauritanian (Kevin Macdonald)
4. System Crasher (Nora Fingscheidt)
5. Notturno (Gianfranco Rosi)
6. The Half of It (Alice Wu)
7. Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee)
8. Soul (Pete Docter)
9. The Perfect Candidate (Haifaa Al Mansour)
10. On the Rocks (Sofia Coppola)

DIRECTOR:

1. 
   Steve McQueen - Small Axe
2. Kevin Macdonald - The Mauritanian
3. Chloe Zhao - Nomadland
4. Spike Lee - Da 5 Bloods, David Byrne's American Utopia
5. Nora Fingscheidt - System Crasher
6. Florian Zeller - The Father
7. Christopher Nolan - Tenet
8. Haifaa Al Mansour - The Perfect Candidate
9. Sally Potter - The Roads Not Taken
10. Melina Leon - Song Without a Name

SCREENWRITER:

1. 
   MB Traven, Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani - The Mauritanian
2. Pete Docter, Mike Jones, Kemp Powers - Soul
3. Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller - The Father
4. Alice Wu - The Half of It
5. Haifaa Al-Mansour, Brad Niemann - The Perfect Candidate
6. Chloe Zhao - Nomadland
7. Alastair Siddons, Steve McQueen - Mangrove
8. Jayro Bustamante, Lisandro Sanchez - La Llorona
9. Eliza Hittman - Never Rarely Sometimes Always
10. James Montague, Craig W Sanger - The Vast of Night

ACTRESS:

1. 
   Julia Garner - The Assistant
2. Helena Zengel - System Crasher, News of the World
3. Jodie Foster - The Mauritanian
4. Elisabeth Moss - The Invisible Man, Shirley
5. Letitia Wright - Mangrove
6. Frances McDormand - Nomadland
7. Joanna Scanlan - After Love
8. Jessie Buckley - Misbehaviour, I'm Thinking of Ending Things
9. Carey Mulligan - Promising Young Woman, The Dig
10. Aubrey Plaza - Black Bear, Happiest Season

ACTOR:

1. 
   Tahar Rahim - The Mauritanian
2. John Boyega - Red, White and Blue
3. Cosmo Jarvis - Calm With Horses
4. Anthony Hopkins - The Father
5. Chadwick Boseman - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Da 5 Bloods
6. Riz Ahmed - Mogul Mowgli, Sound of Metal
7. Lee Byung-hun - The Man Standing Next
8. Sacha Baron Cohen - The Trial of the Chicago 7, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
9. Christopher Abbott - Possessor, Black Bear, The World to Come
10. Robert Pattinson - Tenet, The Devil All the Time, Waiting for the Barbarians

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

1. 
   Maria Bakalova - Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
2. Olivia Colman - The Father
3. Amanda Seyfried - Mank
4. Cherry Jones - A Rainy Day in New York
5. Dhay - The Perfect Candidate
6. Lesley Manville - Misbehaviour, Let Him Go
7. Talia Ryder - Never Rarely Sometimes Always
8. Orla Brady - Rose Plays Julie
9. Shailene Woodley - The Mauritanian, Endings Beginnings
10. Laura Linney - The Roads Not Taken, Falling

SUPPORTING ACTOR:

1. 
   Barry Keoghan - Calm With Horses
2. Lance Henriksen - Falling
3. Leslie Odom Jr - Hamilton, One Night in Miami
4. Jonathan Majors - Da 5 Bloods, Jungleland
5. Benedict Cumberbatch - The Mauritanian
6. Nicholas Hoult - True History of the Kelly Gang, Rebel in the Rye
7. Steve Toussaint - Red, White and Blue
8. Sverrir Gudnason - Falling
9. Harris Dickinson - County Lines
10. Alfredo Castro - The Prince

WORST FILM:

1. 
   Fantasy Island (Jeff Wadlow)
2. Jexi (Jon Lucas, Scott Moore)
3. Hillbilly Elegy (Ron Howard)
4. Buddy Games (Josh Duhamel)
5. Love, Weddings & Other Disasters (Dennis Dugan)
6. Fatal Affair (Peter Sullivan)
7. The Last Days of American Crime (Olivier Megaton)
8. Come Away (Brenda Chapman)
9. The Ringmaster (Soren Juul Petersen)
10. Ava (Tate Taylor)

N O N - F I L M   D I V I S I O N

TV SERIES:

1. 
   Schitt's Creek (CBC)
2. The Good Place (Netflix)
3. Ted Lasso (Apple)
4. The Mandalorian (Disney)
5. We Are Who We Are (HBO)
6. Dave (FX)
7. Staged (BBC)
8. Normal People (BBC)
9. I May Destroy You (BBC)
10. Shameless (Showtime)

SINGLES:

1. 
   No Time to Die - Billie Eilish
2. Hurt - Arlo Parks
3. Head & Heart - Joel Corry & MNEK
4. Coffee for Your Head - Powfu & Beabadoobee
5. Cuz I Love You - Lizzo
6. Watch Your Step - Disclosure & Kelis
7. Diamonds - Sam Smith
8. This Is the Place - Tom Grennan
9. Far Away - Jessie Reyez
10. Rainfall - Stormzy & Tiana Major9