Ella Kemp dives into Letterboxd’s 100 highest-rated, obsessively rewatched films of 2020 to find out what exactly it is that we want to rewatch again and again.

From seventeenth-century werewolves to WWII gremlins to present-day nomads, the stripped-back, mostly virtual 2020 fall festivals still managed to bring the goods. Our team rounds up the very best titles we saw at TIFF, NYFF, the BFI London Film Festival and beyond.

Kajillionaire writer and director Miranda July tells Ella Kemp about soap suds, pink nails, Evan Rachel Wood’s impressive tuck-and-roll skills, and the playfulness of queer culture. 

In ten recent coming-of-age films, Ella Kemp finds the genre thriving—and looking very different than the 1980s might have predicted. Film directors and Letterboxd weigh in on the specific satisfactions of the genre, especially in a pandemic.

Andy Siara, writer of time-loop rom-com Palm Springs, talks to Ella Kemp about having one foot on a banana peel and the other in the grave, and the expansive magic of being a ‘desert person’.

Australian director Shannon Murphy on her artful debut, the screaming intensity of Australia’s bird-life, and the genius of Jim Henson.

Shirley director Josephine Decker talks to Ella Kemp about novelist Shirley Jackson’s aspirational qualities, Elisabeth Moss’s voice, and the Pixar film that changed everything for her.

Dating Amber writer and director David Freyne introduces our London correspondent Ella Kemp to 25 of his favorite LGBTQIA films.

The Assistant writer and director Kitty Green talks about putting the audience in the shoes of the youngest woman in a toxic work environment.

Searching for cinema that soothes? Ella Kemp suggests it could be as simple as looking for a film poster with a white background.

Peerless American filmmaker Kelly Reichardt talks to Ella Kemp about her new film, First Cow, her favorite animal performers, and getting down to the nitty gritty of things.

Levan Akin, writer and director of And Then We Danced, talks to Ella Kemp about masculinity, queer love stories, Georgian cinema and the ever-quotable joys of Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion.