This year, I have decided to fill in the gaps in my film knowledge and I’ve picked 20 films I feel like I should have seen to watch in 2020. I’ll keep you posted. In terms of new culture, there is untold amounts of good stuff on its way but this is what I’m REALLY looking forward to:
FILM
As well as the brilliant brilliant 2020 films I’ve already seen (Parasite, Rocks, The Personal History of David Copperfield, Portrait of Lady on Fire), I can’t wait to see No Time To Die (the new James Bond film - will we be able to tell Phoebe Waller-Bridge was involved with the script?), Top Gun: Maverick (guilty pleasure) and The French Dispatch (the new film from Wes Anderson).
I am horrified by the thought of a remake of West Side Story but apparently there’s nothing I can do to stop it so I will be sticking my fingers in my ears and singing lalalala in December when Steven Spielberg’s film comes out.
ART
It is great to see the gender imbalance of artist exhibitions in large institutions being addressed this year and I’m really looking forward to shows by Zanele Muholi and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at Tate, plus Marina Abramovic at the Royal Academy and the first exhibition of Artemisia Gentileschi’s work at the National Gallery.
I am a huge fan of Steve McQueen so I’m very excited at the prospect of his retrospective opening at Tate in February. Andy Warhol’s screen prints were my gateway drug into contemporary art so his show at Tate in March is also must-see for me.
TV
The second series of Sex Education starts on Netflix next week so I’ll be bingeing on that, and also particularly looking forward to the sixth (and final, sob) season of Schitt’s Creek, as well as Avenue 5 - the new series from Armando Iannucci - and Normal People - an adaptation of one of my favourite books of recent years. Oh and The Undoing comes later in the year and stars Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman. What’s not to love about that?
BOOKS
The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel’s third and final book in her Cromwell trilogy comes out in spring and I cannot wait. I am also excited about Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld, one of my favourite authors, which imagines Hillary Clinton’s life if she hadn’t married Bill.
THEATRE
I have tickets to see 4000 Miles at the Old Vic, starring Timothee Chalamet and Eileen Atkins, and the new production of To Kill A Mockingbird, adapted by Aaron Sorkin.