When deciding the best movie posters of any given year, it’s important to look for just how effective a marketing image captures the spirit of the film it’s selling. The most memorable film posters don’t just visually relay information about the plot, they manage to capture the atmosphere of what it’s like to experience the films themselves. Such was the cast with the following 25 movie posters, which have been deemed the best of 2020. From Oscar contenders “Nomadland” and “Da 5 Bloods” to smaller indies such as “She Dies Tomorrow” and “Spree,” it was a truly great year for movie poster artwork.
Below are the 25 movie posters that made the strongest impressions in 2020.
Searchlight Pictures’ official poster for Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” is all about the no-frills simplicity of main character Fern (Frances McDormand). After a limited virtual release in December, “Nomadland” is now set to open in theaters February 19, 2021.
The poster for David Fincher’s “Mank” was always going to be done up in black and white illustrations in order to capture an old Hollywood feel, but what was unexpected was how crude and brash the final art would turn out. For a scathing critique of Hollywood’s Golden Age, the poster’s roughness couldn’t be more perfect.
The 4K restoration of Wong Kar-wai’s “In the Mood for Love” world premiered at the New York Film Festival ahead of the virtual retrospective series “The World of Wong Kar Wai” launching in December. The entire poster collection for the retrospective series did justice to the evocative imagery that defines Wong’s filmography.
The pairing of Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan in a lesbian romance created instant buzz for Francis Lee’s “Ammonite” going into the fall movie season, and Neon’s official poster captured the love story with a delicate optical illusion.
Netflix’s alternative poster for Charlie Kaufman’s “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” proves the streaming giant knows how to do right by its most uncompromising auteurs. The image of Jessie Buckley’s unnamed character sitting inside covered in a blizzard’s worth of snow captures the film’s unforgettable mix of surreality and sadness.
Any great Pedro Almodóvar movie poster needs a vibrant pop of color. Fortunately, the one sheet for the director’s English-language short film “The Human Voice” has such an overwhelming color pallette that it almost looks 3D. Sony Pictures Classics surely has an Oscar contender for Best Live Action Short on its hands.
American moviegoers have been waiting quite awhile for Rose Glass’ horror film “Saint Maud.” A24’s spring release was delayed because of the pandemic and the film has yet to resurface on the calendar. Whereas A24’s poster opted for critical pull quotes, StudioCanal’s UK poster went for full emotion with this fiery image of Morfydd Clark’s character seemingly possessed.
Netflix’s banner year for film posters continued with the teaser one sheet for Spike Lee’s Vietnam war drama “Da 5 Bloods,” a bold subversion of classic wartime propaganda posters.
Sometimes a provocative image is all you need to make movie poster magic. Such is the case with Neon’s poster for Brandon Cronenberg’s “Possessor,” an electric body horror thriller that is one of the sickest and slickest genre experiments of 2020.
IFC Films’ teaser poster for Michael Almereyda’s “Tesla” is corny to the point of brilliance. The movie would later get a more traditional poster featuring star Ethan Hawke front and center, but the oddball visual pun at the center of this teaser poster did more justice to Almereyda’s unconventional approach to the biopic genre.
For many cinephiles, the delay of Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” was the hardest film postponement to deal with in 2020. Searchlight Pictures has not announced a 2021 date for Anderson’s latest (though speculation suggests it’s heading for Cannes), but the studio did release a fantastic poster that captures the spirit of the film’s magazine narrative device.
It would have been easy (and perhaps smarter) for IFC Films to market Dave Franco’s directorial debut “The Rental” by featuring the faces of cast members like Dan Stevens, Alison Brie, and “Shameless” favorite Jeremy Allen White on the poster, but the studio instead leaned into the uneasy atmosphere of Franco’s home invasion horror movie. Point goes to IFC for this riskier choice.
Ryan White’s documentary “Assassins” investigates the 2017 assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and the half-brother of current leader Kim Jong-un. Two women assassinated Kim Jong-nam and claimed they were tricked into thinking it was a television prank. A documentary about the craziest murder of the 21st century got the politically alluring poster it deserved.
Frederick Wiseman’s four hour “City Hall” takes a deep dive into the government of Boston, Massachusetts, so it’s only natural for the documentary’s poster to prominently feature Boston City Hall. Capturing the building’s striking architecture at just the right angle, the poster manages to leave a lasting impression from such simplicity.
Sometimes it pays to be quite literal. The Hulu poster for Aneesh Chaganty’s thriller “Run” details everything you need to know about the relationship between the central characters in the film, Sarah Paulson’s overprotective mother Diane and Kiera Allen playing the imprisoned daughter Chloe. It’s so effective in being a visual representation of the film that it almost functions as a trailer without footage.
Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ “Bacurau” recently picked up the Best Foreign Film prize from the New York Film Critics Circle. Kino Lorber kicked off marketing for the film in the U.S. with a poster as chaotically vibrant as the film itself.
Merawi Gerima’s “Residue” is a resonant reflection on gentrification that follows a failed Hollywood screenwriter who returns to his childhood home in Washington D.C. only to discover an unrecognizable neighborhood. The film’s gorgeous poster evokes the splendor children see in the world, and the film draws its power from showing how reality challenges and supports that splendor as an adult.
Eugene Kotlyarenko’s “Spree” casts “Stranger Things” favorite Joe Keery as a psychotic rideshare driver who goes to bloody extremes in his attempt to go viral on social media. The film’s poster, a mock cell phone screen featuring a selfie of Keery’s bloodied face, is attention grabby in all the right ways given the film’s satire.
IndieWire’s Eric Kohn hailed Amy Seimetz’s “She Dies Tomorrrow” as “a timely seriocomic thriller that’s equal parts David Cronenberg and Luis Buñuel.” Neon’s haunting and trippy poster for the film does a great job selling the surreal chills of such a warped filmmaking mixture.
M. Night Shyamalan stayed busy during the pandemic by filming a new movie in the Dominican Republic from September to mid-November. The film is a thriller titled “Old” and is based on the time warping graphic novel “Sandcastle.” Universal Pictures’ first poster is the best kind of teaser, a striking image that promises sinister delights to come.
Lawrence Michael Levine’s surreal comedy-drama “Black Bear” casts Aubrey Plaza as a filmmaker who upends the lives of a couple when her stay at their lake house in the Adirondack Mountains begins to blur the lines between autobiography and invention. The film’s Rorschach test-inspired poster is only fitting.
David Lowery’s “The Green Knight” is another A24 title that got pushed off the 2020 release calendar because of the pandemic. The studio started the marketing rollout for the Arthurian epic in February with this eye-catching teaser poster. Hiding the face of Dev Patel is easily forgiveable when artwork is this pronounced.
Ben Wheatley’s “Rebecca” adaptation for Netflix was one of the streamer’s biggest flops this year, but at least the film gave us one great bit of movie marketing. This teaser poster captures the uneasy bond among the film’s three main characters with more supernatural tension than the Wheatley’s film itself.
Focus Features’ amazing teaser poster for “Promising Young Woman” dropped in December 2019, when the film was gearing up for a Sundance world premiere in January and an April theatrical release. The pandemic pushed the film’s opening to Christmas, but luckily Focus had another effective one-sheet to deploy for the new date.
