The very best film posters of 2020
It's been a strange year for cinema. In films like Wonder Woman 1984 and No Time to Die – which should have been the big blockbusters of 2020 – the advertising campaigns were put into a bizarre queue pattern. Every now and then, new variations of their key art pop up to keep audiences warm for those elusive release dates. An example of this ongoing eking-out: Andy Park's poster for Black Widow was on our list for 2019, but shouldn't be released until next May.
Despite the whims of cinema (venue), there was still a lot of cinema (medium) going on at various platforms and festivals, and it's been a strange but strong year for the art of poster. Below are my ten that caught my eye:
Until midnight marauder
From Akiko Stehrenberger
I am thinking of ending things. Design: Midnight Marauder, Akiko Stehrenberger
They know that a film will be special when it earns posters from Midnight Marauder and Akiko Stehrenberger. For a film bursting at the seams full of images, Marauder's design, commendably, betrays little – the mere presence of Charlie Kaufman's name combined with the strange design of Jessie Buckley is enough to imply that this is not going to be an easy dinner party – while Stehrenberger literally adds another level of intrigue.
From Empire Design
From Empire Design
From AV Squad
Saint Maud. Design: Empire Design, AV team
With the pressure to keep making noise about a movie in the extreme ephemeral nature of the internet, some campaigns seem willy-nilly to ditch multiple design directions and often sell a messed up vision of the movie. Despite different visual approaches to Rose Glass & # 39; horror, this great trifecta of posters for Saint Maud by Empire Design and AV Squad preserves the connective tissue through type and color, providing a unified identity for the film without giving too much away.
To swallow. Design: Spin
For the publication of Carlo Mirabella-Davis & # 39; Body Horror Swallow, MUBI turned to the design studio Spin to create a bold poster that playfully suggests the protagonist's compulsion to consume dangerous objects. At first glance, it doesn't seem like there's much going on here, but it manages to be minimal, stylish, and scary. Haley Bennett holds your attention while the implication of that one simple visual device gnaws at your imagination.
Lost girls & love hotels. Midnight Marauder Design
More reserved type of Midnight Marauder, who here takes a seemingly harmless frame from William Olsson's Tokyo-based psychological drama and gives it an eerie glow that is reminiscent of the aura photography of Guy Coggins. It's just a shame that the portrait of a burning lady has already been taken.
Tiger tail. Design: BLT
With any release that essentially appeals to new subscribers, the streamers' posters must serve as an advertisement for the platform itself as well as for the film in question. The hierarchy of information can be a little crooked at times, so it's good to see the normally haughty red Netflix branding on BLT's poster for Alan Yang's debut film is being held back to make way for this flashy yellow guy. While we're all stuck indoors, it's quite fitting that with that, and I think of the end of things, they rely heavily on cozy, homely wallpaper.
The French Dispatch of Freedom, Kansas Evening Sun. Design: Javi Aznarez
Tackling the bulging cast of a Wes Anderson film has become an art in itself (see previous posters for the Grand Budapest Hotel and Isle of Dogs). The Spanish painter and illustrator Javi Aznarez was asked to create a poster in the form of the cover magazine and also to create cover designs for the film itself. Every time you look at it, the title seems to get longer and more names appear – hey Henry Winkler!
There are not thirty-six ways of showing a man how to get on a horse. Design: Marcelo Granero
Speaking of long titles … Nicolás Zukerfeld's meditation on Raoul Walsh's films receives a suitably peculiar poster by the Argentine designer Marcelo Granero, cowboys that have been carefully rearranged according to your language.
Residue. Design: matte needle
Cardiff-based illustrator and graphic designer Matt Needle was recently featured on Creative Review for his wonderfully redesigned James Bond posters. A little less action-packed, but no less striking, is this design for the first-time director Merawi Gerima. A happy coincidence: Twitter's image cropping algorithm focuses on areas of higher contrast and prefers the upper area. First, the text is framed and the image is saved for disclosure.
Come to Daddy. Design: Mondo
While Mondo is best known for his iconic and classic retrospective artwork, he occasionally produces material for new releases – like this poster by Gary Pullin for Ant Timpson's black comedy. Although there are only a hundred copies of this screen print in the real world, the bold two-tone design is perfect for on-screen marketing that is effective at any scale.
A Metamorfose dos Pássaros. Design: ilhas studio
Catarina Vasconcelos and Margarida Rêgo, who are split between London and Lisbon, run the ilhas studio. You stand behind this haunting poster for Vasconcelos' biographical documentary (English title: The Metamorphosis of Birds). Writing, directing, narrating, composing, designing – this is a rare case in which an author can see her vision through to the end.
Daniel Benneworth-Gray is a freelance designer based in York. See danielgray.com and @ gray; bookshop.org