PSYCHIC GARDEN presents our ultimate Top 50 films & series of 2020.
We look back on our favourite releases that helped us get through the crazy year of 2020. The decision was hard but here's our official yearly round up.
This is a list of films and series strictly released in 2020 (UK), so that excludes the likes of Parasite and Lighthouse that won awards in the Oscars and festivals in 2020, but were released theatrically in 2019.
50. Psycho-Magic: A Healing Art
Director Alejandro Jodorowsky unveils his theory of trauma therapy (IMDb)
49. Driveways
A lonesome boy accompanies his mother on a trip to clean out his late aunt's house, and ends up forming an unexpected friendship with the retiree who lives next door. (IMDb)
48. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
A look at the final moments of a Las Vegas dive bar called 'The Roaring 20s'. (IMDb)
47. Ethos (Episodes: 8)
A group of unique characters from dramatically different socio-cultural backgrounds meeting in startling circumstances in the vibrant and colorful city of Istanbul, - some by chance and some by force of will. (IMDb)
46. Soul
After landing the gig of a lifetime, a New York jazz pianist suddenly finds himself trapped in a strange land between Earth and the afterlife. (IMDb)
45. Attenborough: A Life on Our planet
"In this unique feature documentary, the celebrated naturalist reflects upon both the defining moments of his lifetime and the devastating changes he has seen. The film addresses some of the biggest challenges facing life on our planet, providing a snapshot of global nature loss in a single lifetime. With it comes a powerful message of hope for future generations as Attenborough reveals the solutions to help save our planet from disaster." (Netflix)
44. Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds
"A new documentary from Werner Herzog about meteors and comets and their influence on ancient religions and other cultural and physical impacts they've had on Earth." (IMDb)
43. News Of The World
A Civil War veteran agrees to deliver a girl, taken by the Kiowa people years ago, to her aunt and uncle, against her will. They travel hundreds of miles and face grave dangers as they search for a place that either can call home. (IMDb)
42. Sound Of Metal
A heavy-metal drummer's life is thrown into freefall when he begins to lose his hearing. (IMDb)
41. The Mandalorian (Season 2 | Episodes: 8)
The travels of a lone bounty hunter in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the authority of the New Republic. (IMDb)
40. Be Water
Rejected by Hollywood, Bruce Lee returned to Hong Kong to complete four films. Charting his struggles in two worlds, Be Water explores questions of identity and representation through rare archive, intimate interviews, and his writings. (IMDb)
39. Messiah (Episodes: 10)
When a CIA officer investigates a man, and his followers, attracting international attention through acts of public disruption, she embarks on a global high-stakes mission to uncover whether he is a divine entity, or a deceptive con artist. (IMDb)
38. Possessor
Possessor follows an agent who works for a secretive organization that uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people's bodies - ultimately driving them to commit assassinations for high-paying clients. (IMDb)
37. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
A pair of teenage girls in rural Pennsylvania travel to New York City to seek out medical help after an unintended pregnancy. (IMDb)
36. Tenet
Armed with only one word, Tenet, and fighting for the survival of the entire world, a Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time. (IMDb)
35. Fargo Season 4 (Episodes: 11)
The fourth instalment of Fargo is set in 1950 Kansas City, where two criminal syndicates fighting for a piece of the American dream have struck an uneasy peace. Chris Rock stars as Loy Cannon, the head of the African American crime family who trades sons with the head of the Italian mafia as part of tenuous truce. (Rotten Tomatoes)
34. Queens Gambit (Episodes: 7)
Orphaned at the tender age of nine, prodigious introvert Beth Harmon discovers and masters the game of chess in 1960s USA. But child stardom comes at a price. (IMDb)
33. Wolf Walkers
A young apprentice hunter and her father journey to Ireland to help wipe out the last wolf pack. But everything changes when she befriends a free-spirited girl from a mysterious tribe rumored to transform into wolves by night. (IMDb)
32. Collective
Director Alexander Nanau follows a crack team of investigators at the Romanian newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor as they try to uncover a vast health-care fraud that enriched moguls and politicians and led to the deaths of innocent citizens. (IMDb)
31. His House
A refugee couple makes a harrowing escape from war-torn South Sudan, but then they struggle to adjust to their new life in an English town that has an evil lurking beneath the surface. (IMDb)
30. First Cow
A skilled cook has traveled west and joined a group of fur trappers in Oregon, though he only finds true connection with a Chinese immigrant also seeking his fortune. Soon the two collaborate on a successful business. (IMDb)
29. An American Pickle
An immigrant worker at a pickle factory is accidentally preserved for 100 years and wakes up in modern-day Brooklyn. (IMDb)
28. Spaceship Earth
A look at the group of people who built the Biosphere 2, a giant replica of the earth's ecosystem, in 1991. (IMDb)
27. Time
Fox Rich fights for the release of her husband, Rob, who is serving a 60-year sentence in prison. Combining the video diaries Fox has recorded for Rob over the years with intimate glimpses of her present-day life, director Garrett Bradley paints a mesmerizing portrait of the resilience and radical love necessary to prevail over the endless separations of the country's prison-industrial complex (Amazon Studios)
26. Portrait Of A Lady On Fire
On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman. (IMDb)
25. The Vigil
A man providing overnight watch to a deceased member of his former Orthodox Jewish community finds himself opposite a malevolent entity, in writer-director Keith Thomas' electrifying feature debut. (IMDb)
24. The Disciple
Self-doubt, sacrifice and struggle converge into an existential crisis for a devoted classical vocalist as the mastery he strives for remains elusive.
23. Sputnik
The lone survivor of an enigmatic spaceship incident hasn't returned back home alone-hiding inside his body is a dangerous creature. (IMDb)
22. My Octopus Teacher
A filmmaker forges an unusual friendship with an octopus living in a South African kelp forest, learning as the animal shares the mysteries of its world. (IMDb)
21. Feels Good Man
Artist Matt Furie, creator of the comic character Pepe the Frog, begins an uphill battle to take back his iconic cartoon image from those who used it for their own purposes. (IMDb)
20. Painter And The Thief
An artist befriends the thief who stole her paintings. She becomes his closest ally when he is severely hurt in a car crash and needs full time care, even if her paintings are not found. But then the tables turn. (IMDb)
19. Dave (Episodes: 10)
A neurotic mid 20's suburbanite's convinced he's destined to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Now he's got to prove it to everyone else. (IMDb)
18. Bacarau
After the death of her grandmother, Teresa comes home to her matriarchal village in a near-future Brazil to find a succession of sinister events that mobilizes all of its residents. (IMDb)
17. Wild Goose Lake
A sumptuously shot crime drama which screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019. This exhilarating, moody neo-noir follows a gang leader (Hu Ge) and a mysterious girl (Gwei Lun Mei) whose paths intertwine as they are both running away from their past, in search of freedom and redemption. (IMDb)
16. My Brilliant Friend (Season 2 | Episodes: 8)
A woman recounts the lifelong friendship and conflicts with a girl she met at primary school in Naples during the early 1950s. (IMDb)
15. The Invisible Man
When Cecilia's abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see. (IMDb)
14. Ramy (Season 2 | Episodes: 10)
The series follows first-generation, Egyptian-American Ramy Hassan who is on a spiritual journey in his politically-divided New Jersey neighborhood. RAMY brings a new perspective to the screen as it explores the challenges of what it’s like to be caught between a religious community who believes life is a moral test, and a millennial generation that doubts an afterlife even exists. In the second season, Ramy delves further into his spiritual journey, finding a new Muslim community and embracing a deeper commitment to his faith. (IMDb)
13. Ozark (Season 3 | Episodes: 10)
A financial advisor drags his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks, where he must launder money to appease a drug boss. (IMDb)
12. I Know This Much Is True (Episodes: 6)
Following the parallel lives of identical twin brothers Dominick and Thomas Birdsey in a story of betrayal, sacrifice and forgiveness. (IMDb)
11. Small Axe (Episodes: 5)
Small Axe is based on the real-life experiences of London's West Indian community and is set between 1969 and 1982. (IMDb)
10. About Endlessness
With ABOUT ENDLESSNESS, Roy Andersson adds to his cinematic oeuvre with a reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendour and banality. (IMDb)
9. Song Without A Name
Georgina's newborn daughter is stolen at a fake health clinic. Her desperate search for the child leads her to the headquarters of a major newspaper, where she meets a lonely journalist who takes on the investigation. (IMDb)
8. Calm With Horses
Douglas 'Arm' Armstrong has become the feared enforcer for the drug-dealing Devers family, whilst also trying to be a good father. Torn between these two families, Arm's loyalties are tested when he is asked to kill for the first time. (IMDb)
7. The Devil All The Time
Sinister characters converge around a young man devoted to protecting those he loves in a postwar backwoods town teeming with corruption and brutality. (IMDb)
6. The Painted Bird
A young Jewish boy somewhere in Eastern Europe seeks refuge during World War II where he encounters many different characters. (IMDb)
5. Nomadland
A woman in her sixties, after losing everything in the Great Recession, embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad. (IMDb)
4. Minari
A Korean family starts a farm in 1980s Arkansas. (IMDb)
3. Impetigore
Maya with her best friend, Dini, tries to survive in a city without a family. She realized that she might inherit a property from her rich family. Maya returns to the village with Dini and unaware of the danger was waiting for her. (IMDb)
2. Little Amercia (Episodes: 8)
Inspired by the true stories featured by Epic Magazine, "Little America" will go beyond the headlines to look at the funny, romantic, heartfelt, inspiring and surprising stories of immigrants in America, when they're more relevant now than ever. (IMDb)
1. Baby Teeth
Milla, a seriously ill teenager, falls in love with a drug dealer, Moses, her parents' worst nightmare. (IMDb)
~ PSYCHIC GARDEN