Doc Corner: The Best Documentaries of 2020

By Glenn Dunks

Before this column takes a few weeks break, it’s that time of the year to make lists! I have spent the last few weeks churning through screeners trying to ensure I saw enough of 2020’s documentary output to justify a list of the year’s best, although I do not have the time nor the inclination to watch 238 of the damn things! Nevertheless, below are 30 non-fiction titles (or non-fiction adjacent, but we’ll get to that later) that I believe are among the year’s best movies. I stuck to the 2020 calendar as much as possible because, like Nathaniel, I want to keep some order to it all.

If you were to sit down and watch every film below, you would be taken from rural towns in the heart of the Florida peninsula to rural towns in the heart of the Ukraine via the protests of Hong Kong and a nursing home in Chile. There are serious themes, important subjects, powerful ideas... and hand sanitizer.

There’s also a stripper named Nomi. Something for everything, I reckon...

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Showbiz History: Eddie Izzard, Blazing Saddles, and Berlinale Prizes

10 random things that happened on this day, February 7th, in showbiz history

1914 Charlie Chaplin's world famous film character "The Tramp" debuts in Kid Auto Races at Venice

1940 Pinnocchio, Walt Disney's second full length animated feature premieres...

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Best International Feature: Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia

by Cláudio Alves

In the past decade, Middle Eastern cinema has been having a moment among Oscar voters. At the very least, the cinema of Asghar Farhadi has earned AMPAS' attention. The director's A Separation and The Salesman won the trophies for Best International Feature, and the first film got an additional nomination for Best Original Screenplay. As for other countries from the region, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon have each won at least one nomination in the past ten years. I'm excited to see if this trend continues in the 2020s. With that in mind, let's delve into the films submitted for the 93rd Academy Awards by Iran, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia…

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Stunt Ensemble SAG Nominations - How should they be decided?

One of the reasons we'll never see a Casting Oscar is how invisible that art is. Like editing, only even more hidden, you dont know what the person in charge was working with at all. What did they have to choose from to help create that movie magic? The fact that there's still no "Stunt" Oscar is infinitely weirder, though, because you can actually SEE stuntwork onscreen. And in some movies a lot of it. So thankfully we at least have Stunt prizes from the Screen Actors Guild. 

How should the Stunt Ensemble winners be decided at SAG #SAGAwards

— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) February 4, 2021

I was joking on twitter about them, but at the same time, all awards categories should be taken seriously. It's an art form. What do you think of their nominations and how would you determine the winners... 

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Eligible for "Best Original Song"

Thanks to The Wrap for providing this list that though it's a pity (as with all of these types of list) that it's taken so long for it to arrive. Now we have barely a moment to think on it before Oscar whittles it down to 15 songs on February 9th. The complete list is after the jump and we've put 25 titles in bold that we think have a great shot at the finalist list...

 PLEASE NOTE, THE NAMES LISTED ARE WHO PERFORMS THE SONG. WE DON'T KNOW WHY THE LIST WAS ORIGINALLY SHARED THIS WAY BUT IT IS ONLY THE SONGWRITERS WHO ARE NOMINATED IF A SONG MAKES IT TO THE OSCARS... 

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