The Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 rocked the movie industry to its core. Plenty of films slated to release this year, like the Bond picture No Time to Die, were delayed again and again. Cinemas were shut down, then revived, only to be shut down immediately after. Warner Brothers shocked everyone when they announced that the majority of their film slate were to debut digitally on HBO Max.
The future looks uncertain; there is doubt that the theatre industry will survive much longer as online streaming (Disney+, Netflix) booms. Projects that were in the middle of production, especially those with limited budgets, may never see the light of day. Even if they do, they may not make the same money pre-pandemic.
On the bright side, film festivals like Toronto Film Festival still ran albeit with a much smaller slate. Despite cinemas being closed, there were still plenty of digital releases that exceeded expectations. I'm hesitant to accept a purely digital film experience, but if digital releases look/feel/sound like the following top ten then I'll be hooked.
10.Weathering With You (Makoto Shinkai)
9. Vast of Night (Andrew Patterson)
8. Ammonite (Francis Lee)
7.Get the Hell Out (I-Fan Wang)
6.American Utopia (Spike Lee)
5. Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman)
4. Shadow in the Cloud (Roseanne Liang)
3. One Night in Miami (Regina King)
2. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
1. Nomadland (Chloe Zhao)
