It's that time of the year again. A quick update on structural changes and the schedule for the 2020 KavehJReviews Year-In-Review content.
While 2020 has upended and ruined basically everything, there have still been so many great films, television series, music, and books released into the world. Quite unsurprisingly, though, things have been quite different – with more reliance on streaming, a very different slate of releases, and some major delays to the release schedule. While my end of the year content for this site usually just consists of a single list of awards, with nominations and winners, released on Christmas Day, I've decided to switch things up this year. It's become evident to me that just highlighting a single list of my favorite films released this year doesn't serve the all of the various and incredible content released this year any justice, so instead, I present: KavehJAwards Week (sort of).
Movies. Television Series. Music. Books. That's the plan, at least so far. While the KavehJAwards for 2020 will be released on December 25th, keeping up with tradition from years past, I've decided to set up a bunch of other lists, in editorial form, released in the days preceding 12/25. While the schedule is very tentative, and subject to change depending on film releases and writing time, the following is the schedule I'm planning on following for this KavehJAwards week. I hope to see you on the site for each of these days, and I hope the variety of these lists can provide not only a recap of the truly great pieces of art released this year, but perhaps new things that you may have not heard of before.
The KavehJAwards 2020 – KavehJAwards Week
"On Books" - December 19
While I haven't read close to as many books as I've wanted to this year, I've definitely read some stuff that I really enjoyed, and stuff that I thought was worthy a shout-out at the least. So, while this will be a list like the rest of the planned coverage, it will not be a ranked one. Just a simple list of books that are definitely worth your time - including fiction and nonfiction.
"The KavehJAwards", Complete Nominations List - December 20
While in past years, as highlighted above, I would release both the nominations and winners together on 12/25, I've decided this year to release the nominations five days in advance. Not to build hype or anything, but solely for the purpose of giving myself time to see all the nominations before I choose the winners, and a general list of movies worth checking out as winter breaks and holidays begin.
"The Best Albums of The Year" - December 21
Similar to books, I haven't really been altering my music rotation a lot over the past few months, and the entire year for that matter. But, there are definitely a lot of 2020 albums that I truly enjoy and think are great pieces of music – some of which I highlighted in my Albums of the Summer list. In contrast to "On Books", this will be a ranked list, although the number of albums that make the cut I'm not entirely sure.
"The Best Television Series of the Year" - December 22
Following up albums will most likely be television series, a ranked list (unknown number so far for this one as well) but with more of an emphasis on limited series, because that is the type of television series I tend to watch more of. Obviously, there will be a lot of emphasis on I May Destroy You, which I both reviewed and wrote about at great length back in the summer, but there are definitely a lot of other shows I'm excited to highlight here. And while I haven't actually watched The Queen's Gambit yet, I'm hoping to catch up on it before releasing this so I can be accurate, since I've heard some great things.
"The Best Documentaries of the Year" - December 23
While we've definitely missed out on so many films this year, the documentary game throughout the entire year has been particularly strong. Partly because documentaries are easier to release online, and partly because there were some big Sundance names that were sold before the pandemic started to streaming services, a lot of my favorite films this year are actually documentaries. Another ranked list for this one, but I'm choosing to separate documentaries and films just to give a little more options to watch, and cover more content.
"The Best Films of the Year" - December 24
And since a list of nominations and winners isn't enough, I'm hoping to write an editorial list of my top films of the year – ranked, but not as much to give away too much of the KavehJAwards results (while this will highlight my favorite film of the year, it won't cover performances and technical aspects). Plus, I feel that this will be a better place for me to give my reasoning for why I think these are truly great films, giving deeper insight than the KavehJAwards do.
"The KavehJAwards", Winners Announced - December 25
And finally, the one and only. It will most likely be the same exact list as the nominations list (depending on certain Christmas Day releases), but with the first and second winners of each category marked separately. It will be very similar, if not the same, to last year's KavehJAwards.
I hope this clears some logistical stuff up, and regardless, I'm very excited to begin crafting these final lists. I've made the shortlists for each category, and narrowing the lists down to a reasonable number is proving to be a very difficult (as expected) task. Just once again, this schedule is subject to change, and certain days may be nixed from the final schedule depending on content/space/time etc., but I will try my best to communicate this ahead of time.