The 2020 MacGuffin Awards—Honoring the Best in Film

Hello and welcome to the 2nd annual MacGuffin Awards. I am your host, film critic Jonathan Sim, and I will be guiding you through some of the best films this year has had to offer. While this has been the worst year for movies in decades by a long shot, we still have had some great movies this year.

So we're going to go category by category; I'm going to give you some nominations and reveal the winner of that category in a not-so-dramatic fashion. So here we go.

Best Action Film

Action movies are a genre that generally gets looked over at the awards shows. I think there is a lot to appreciate when it comes to the amount of training and stuntwork behind the scenes. So here are your nominees:

Bad Boys for Life

Tenet

Extraction

Honest Thief

Vanguard

And the Best Action Film of 2020 is…

Best Comedy Film

In a year filled with some of the worst experiences of our lives, these movies gave us a good laugh when we needed it. Here are your nominees for the best comedy of the year.

Impractical Jokers: The Movie

Palm Springs

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Happiest Season

On the Rocks

And the Best Comedy Film of 2020 is…

Best Actress

We saw some brilliant performances from many actresses this year, and today, we honor the best performances we saw in 2020. Here are your nominees for Best Actress.

Elisabeth Moss (The Invisible Man)

Sarah Paulson (Run)

Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman)

Frances McDormand (Nomadland)

Viola Davis (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)

And the Best Actress of 2020 is…

Best Visual Effects

Movies would not be the magic they are today without the advancement of visual effects. This year offered films with some incredible work from VFX artists, and here are your nominees:

Tenet

The Invisible Man

Wonder Woman 1984

The New Mutants

Birds of Prey

And the Best Visual Effects award goes to…

Best Animated Film

Animation is a long, tedious process; I learned the hard way in my animation class. The more I learn about it, the more I respect the artists who brought their work to life with these nominees for Best Animated Film:

Onward

Trolls World Tour

Soul

The Croods: A New Age

Over the Moon

And the Best Animated Film of 2020 is…

Best Superhero Film

Superhero movies are everywhere these days, and every year, we get a ton of action-packed, exciting superhero films. While we didn't get any installments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we still had some great superhero movies, including these nominees:

Birds of Prey

Bloodshot

Project Power

The Old Guard

Wonder Woman 1984

The New Mutants

And the Best Superhero Film of 2020 is…

Best Sequel

It has recently felt like sequels are everywhere, and with the existing franchises, there are a ton of sequels, reboots, and remakes. While many of them were pushed back to 2021, we were fortunate enough to get a few this year, including these nominees:

Bad Boys for Life

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Trolls World Tour

The Croods: A New Age

And the Best Sequel of 2020 is…

Best Actor

Acting is a difficult job, and what makes it difficult is making it look easy. These are your nominees for Best Actor:

Ben Affleck (The Way Back)

Tom Holland (The Devil All the Time)

Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods)

Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)

Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal)

And the Best Actor of 2020 is…

Best Horror Film

Horror movies can be fun, scary, and disturbing. They're also an easy genre to mess up, but these nominees proved great horror movies exist in this horror movie of a year.

The Invisible Man

Host

Freaky

Run

And the Best Horror Film of 2020 is…

Best Director

While I work as a film critic now, the dream is to be a director, and I always look up to directors who are great at their jobs. These are your nominees:

Christopher Nolan (Tenet)

David Fincher (Mank)

Spike Lee (Da 5 Bloods)

Leigh Whannell (The Invisible Man)

Chloé Zhao (Nomadland)

And the Best Director of 2020 is…

Best Screenplay

Movies are nothing without a script, and while these nominees aren't necessarily the best films of the year, they certainly offer some of the best screenplays of the year. So here are your nominees:

The Way Back (Brad Ingelsby)

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin)

Run (Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian)

Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Ruben Santiago-Hudson)

And the Best Screenplay of 2020 is…

That was a tough one to pick since I love them all about the same. But now, the moment you've all been waiting for!

Best Film

Movies have helped me through a lot of the year, and these are some of the best movies of 2020. I have taken into account the consensus and my own personal taste, and I hope you like these nominees:

Tenet

Mank

The Way Back

Soul

The Call (콜)

Sound of Metal

Minari

Nomadland

Promising Young Woman

And the Best Film of 2020 is…

Thank you for joining me at the 2nd annual MacGuffin Awards. This has been a rough year, but it's time to look ahead to the future. 2021 is very promising, so all we need to do is stay vigilant, and we will get through all of this. Movies provided me with escapism during some of my darker times this year, and I hope they did the same for you.

When we look at life differently, we can see the beauty that we never saw before. And with hope, luck, and a vaccine, we will make 2021 the best year ever.

I'm Jonathan Sim. Good night. And Happy New Year.