The 50 best films of 2020 in the UK: the full list

It’s number one time, and it’s a picture from the beginning of the year that nothing else has quite eclipsed for
wit, thrills and sheer watchability.
50Boys State
This eye-opening film looks at a role-play event to teach kids how politics works, organised by the American
Legion. Here the Texas version is scrutinised, with debates and power struggles reaching a crescendo in a
mock election. 
49White Riot
Documentary about the groundbreaking Rock Against Racism movement that helped to stem the rising tide
of far-right support in 1970s Britain, with its benefit gigs featuring the likes of the Clash and the Tom
Robinson Band. 
48Only the Animals
This is an ingenious, witty thriller from the French director Dominik Moll (Harry, He’s Here to Help), one
involving interconnected stories of six disparate people and stretching from the south of France to Ivory
Coast. 
47The County
There’s a harsh Icelandic backdrop to this tough corruption drama: Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir plays Inga, a
farmer who takes on the mafia who run the local co-op, trying to circumvent the monopoly by selling
produce on the internet. 
46The Perfect Candidate
The fourth feature by Wadjda director Haifaa al-Mansour sees the Saudi film-maker return home for a
politically inflected drama that interrogates the country’s supposed new liberalism, following a female
doctor’s attempt to run for office after she is denied a permit to travel abroad. 
45Bacurau
A Brazilian horror-western with an exceptionally disquieting tone, directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and
Juliano Dornelles. A woman returns to a remote outback town – the fictional settlement of Bacurau – which
appears to have fallen off the map, as a violent group of foreigners assemble nearby. 
44Shirley
Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss stars as celebrated horror writer Shirley Jackson (best known for The Lottery) in
a fictionalised biopic that speculates on what happens when a younger couple interrupts her tepid domestic
life with husband Stanley (Michael Stuhlbarg). 
43Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Individual films don’t often change the course of history, but by humiliating Donald Trump acolyte Rudy
Giuliani, this follow-up to Sacha Baron Cohen’s 2006 hit comedy may have done just that. This time around,
the Kazakhstani journalist tries to offload his daughter Tutar (Maria Bakalova). 
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18 Dec 2020

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/dec/01/the-50-best-films-of-2020