The 25 Best Movies of the 2020s So Far

A Decade of Transformation

The 2020s began with the world in lockdown and movie theaters sitting dark. Yet from this disruption emerged one of the most creatively vibrant periods in recent film history. Streaming platforms matured into serious artistic forces, international cinema broke through to mainstream Western audiences like never before, and filmmakers found new ways to tell stories that reflected a world in flux. Here are the 25 films that have defined the decade so far.

The Essential 25

1. Parasite (2020 Awards Cycle)

Bong Joon-ho's genre-defying masterpiece about class warfare in Seoul swept the 2020 Academy Awards, becoming the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture. Its influence on Hollywood's openness to international cinema cannot be overstated. While technically a 2019 release, its cultural impact landed squarely in the new decade.

2. Nomadland (2020)

Chloe Zhao's meditative portrait of a woman living as a modern-day nomad in the American West won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress for Frances McDormand. Shot with real nomadic communities, it blurred the line between fiction and documentary with quiet grace.

3. Dune (2021)

Denis Villeneuve achieved what many considered impossible: a faithful, visually staggering adaptation of Frank Herbert's dense novel. The sandworm sequences and Hans Zimmer's thunderous score demanded theatrical viewing. It proved that patient, intelligent blockbusters could still find massive audiences.

4. Dune: Part Two (2024)

The conclusion of Paul Atreides' journey surpassed its predecessor in scope and emotional intensity. Villeneuve delivered one of the great science fiction epics, with Austin Butler's Feyd-Rautha emerging as a genuinely menacing antagonist.

5. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

The Daniels created a multiverse story that somehow managed to be both wildly absurdist and deeply moving. Michelle Yeoh's performance as a laundromat owner who must channel alternate versions of herself to save reality earned her a historic Best Actress win. The film swept seven Academy Awards.

6. Oppenheimer (2023)

Christopher Nolan's three-hour portrait of J. Robert Oppenheimer was a towering achievement in biographical filmmaking. Cillian Murphy's haunted central performance, combined with the Trinity test sequence filmed in IMAX without CGI, created cinema that was both intellectually rigorous and viscerally overwhelming.

7. The Power of the Dog (2021)

Jane Campion's return to feature filmmaking was a slow-burning Western about repression, masculinity, and quiet cruelty. Benedict Cumberbatch delivered his finest performance as a rancher whose dominance is subtly undermined. The film rewards patience and close attention.

8. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

A legacy sequel that had no business being this good. Tom Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski crafted a thrilling tribute to practical filmmaking, with real flight sequences that made audiences grip their armrests. It proved the theatrical experience was irreplaceable and grossed nearly $1.5 billion worldwide.

9. Past Lives (2023)

Celine Song's debut film about two childhood friends separated by immigration, reuniting decades later in New York, was a masterwork of restraint. The silences between its characters spoke volumes, and the final scene is one of the most emotionally devastating endings in recent memory.

10. Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Martin Scorsese's epic about the Osage murders was a damning portrait of American greed and systemic violence against Indigenous peoples. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro delivered career-spanning performances, but it was Lily Gladstone's quiet authority that anchored the film.

11. The Batman (2022)

Matt Reeves reimagined Gotham as a rain-drenched noir nightmare, with Robert Pattinson's brooding, detective-focused Batman offering a stark contrast to previous iterations. The Riddler as a digitally radicalized domestic terrorist felt disturbingly contemporary.

12. Poor Things (2023)

Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone created a wildly inventive feminist fable about a woman experiencing the world for the first time. Stone's fearless performance earned her second Academy Award, and the film's visual design was unlike anything else in cinemas that year.

13. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

The sequel to the groundbreaking Into the Spider-Verse expanded its visual ambition exponentially, with each universe rendered in a distinct animation style. It pushed the medium forward while telling a genuinely compelling story about identity and destiny.

14. Drive My Car (2021)

Ryusuke Hamaguchi's three-hour adaptation of a Haruki Murakami short story was a profound meditation on grief, art, and the stories we tell ourselves. It won Best International Feature Film and earned a surprise Best Picture nomination.

15. The Holdovers (2023)

Alexander Payne's warm, melancholic comedy about a misanthropic teacher, a grieving student, and a mourning cook stranded at a boarding school over Christmas felt like a classic from the moment it premiered. Paul Giamatti and Da'Vine Joy Randolph were extraordinary.

16. Aftersun (2022)

Charlotte Wells' debut reconstructed a daughter's memories of a holiday with her father through the fragmentary logic of recollection. Paul Mescal's performance contained entire worlds of suppressed pain, and the final scene, set to Queen and David Bowie, is an absolute gut punch.

17. Decision to Leave (2022)

Park Chan-wook's romantic thriller about a detective who falls for a murder suspect was elegant, witty, and ultimately devastating. It demonstrated Park's evolution as a filmmaker, trading his earlier shock tactics for something more emotionally complex.

18. The Fabelmans (2022)

Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical film about his childhood and the birth of his obsession with filmmaking was intimate and deeply personal. Michelle Williams and Paul Dano embodied his parents with nuance, and the film's final shot is a perfect visual joke.

19. Anora (2024)

Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winner was a screwball comedy that gradually transformed into something far more poignant. Mikey Madison's breakout performance as a Brooklyn exotic dancer who marries the son of a Russian oligarch was ferocious and heartbreaking in equal measure.

20. The Zone of Interest (2023)

Jonathan Glazer's Holocaust film never shows the horror directly. Instead, it observes the domestic life of the Auschwitz commandant's family in the house next to the camp. The sound design, capturing screams and gunshots as ambient background noise, is perhaps the most disturbing artistic choice in 2020s cinema.

21. Promising Young Woman (2020)

Emerald Fennell's revenge thriller starring Carey Mulligan confronted sexual assault and complicity with dark humor and genuine rage. Its candy-colored aesthetic masked a story with real teeth.

22. RRR (2022)

S.S. Rajamouli's Indian epic became a global sensation, proving that Tollywood spectacle could captivate audiences worldwide. The "Naatu Naatu" dance sequence won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and became one of the decade's most joyful viral moments.

23. Minari (2020)

Lee Isaac Chung's tender autobiographical story of a Korean-American family pursuing the American Dream on an Arkansas farm. Youn Yuh-jung's Academy Award-winning performance as the unconventional grandmother was a highlight.

24. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

Martin McDonagh reunited Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson for a darkly comic parable about a friendship's sudden, inexplicable end on a remote Irish island. Beneath its absurdist humor lay a meditation on legacy, mortality, and the petty cruelties of small communities.

25. All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

Edward Berger's German-language adaptation of the classic anti-war novel was a visceral, unflinching portrayal of World War I's senseless brutality. It won four Academy Awards and reminded audiences that some stories demand to be retold for each generation.

What Defines This Decade

Looking at these 25 films, several themes emerge: the breaking down of cultural barriers in cinema, the continued importance of the theatrical experience alongside streaming, and a willingness among filmmakers to tackle complex themes without simplifying them for mass consumption. If the rest of the decade maintains this standard, we are living through a golden age.