The 2021 Oscars will happen in April, though which movies they'll celebrate is anyone's guess - the pandemic decimated this year's calendar.

We were expecting Avatar 2 (the sequel slog begins), a new Jurassic Park (why do they keep going back?), a new James Bond (who still cares?), a revamped Top Gun (report for beach volleyball duty at 0500), and a heap of superhero vehicles (remind me, which ones can fly?).

More promising were to be Pixar's Soul, Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, and the bright shining hope of Dune.

Instead, the coronavirus caused an epic log jam of big budget movies now slated for release in mid-2021 and beyond - only the strong will survive.

The blockbuster we did get in 2020 was Tenet - a huge disappointment - a soulless "I'm smarter than you" we were glad to forget.

Mulan, directed by Kiwi Niki Caro, came and went on Disney+ without much impact.

What impact it did make related to its filming location of Xinjiang province, where Chinese authorities are alleged to widely abuse ethnic minorities - you might think location scouts would have covered that in their research.

Yet Disney+ can't complain, as streaming platforms benefited from movie theatres closing their doors.

While its parent company's revenue fell this year as its theme parks closed, the subscriber rate of Disney+ exceeded expectations.

Netflix, too, is still adding subscribers, as global viewers remain rooted to their couches.

Most of the content Netflix released this year was already in post-production by March, giving it a handy advantage.

The streaming services were better positioned for the pandemic - yet a potential lack of content going forward is causing the top suits headaches.

Theatres will be hoping for more positive news on the vaccine front - many are perched on the financial cliff - some have already toppled.

Thanksgiving weekend - usually one of the biggest of the year - passed by; Christmas will too.

The factory churns on, though.

Major movie sets have been back up and running for weeks - complete with routine swabs, temperature checks, and social distancing (where possible).

And masks, of course.

It should be little surprise that the best content of 2020 came via limited series like The Queen's Gambit - a sporting fairytale thats freshness came from its characters.

I May Destroy You - a British drama that explored assault and consent - made for compulsive watching, while Luca Guadagnino continues to do whatever he wants, with We Are Who We Are.

Oh, and there was the scarcely believable, shamefully entertaining Tiger King. Who could forget?

I spent much of the time wondering exactly what I was watching - yet by the end I was happy not knowing.

But let's talk about movies.

There are hopes next year's Oscars will focus more on the smaller, independent films that were given limited showings - films that distributors could afford to take losses on.

The favourites to claim Best Picture right now are probably Mank, by the methodic David Fincher, and The Trial of the Chicago 7, by the human typewriter Aaron Sorkin.

The former is a neat and tidy movie featuring a focused Gary Oldman - far better than his Oscar-winning caricature of Winston Churchill - but you have to deeply care about Citizen Kane to care about Mank.

The latter, released on Netflix, was quite good.

There was the typical American flag-draped Sorkin ending, but Eddie Redmayne and, somewhat surprisingly - Sacha Baron Cohen - were very convincing.

It's a good sign when historical dramas lead you down history holes on Wikipedia.

Staying with Netflix, Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods was an urgent journey through the jungle.

Delroy Lindo deserves to be in every Oscar conversation - and Chadwick Boseman could be too - his death this year was shocking.

I spent much of the time wondering exactly what I was watching - yet by the end I was happy not knowing.

The same could be said of I'm Thinking of Ending Things, by the inscrutable Charlie Kaufman.

I remember watching Jessie Buckley in the British talent show I'd Do Anything, where contestants compete for a lead role on the West End, and then in 2016's War and Peace.

She is terrific.

The Queen's Gambit's Anna Taylor-Joy also led Autumn de Wilde's Emma.

Jane Austen's novel didn't need another movie adaptation, but it got quite a good one this year.

As did Dickens' David Copperfield, with Dev Patel centre stage.

Both were stylised diversions which hit the right emotional notes.

The Personal History of David Copperfield also proved that cinema can ignore ethnicity in casting and still function - very well.

The new Borat was fun - but made necessary thanks to the discovery of sidekick Maria Bakalova, who is every bit Baron Cohen's equal, and more.

Kelly Reichardt's First Cow was a small, but accomplished achievement set in 1820s Oregon (not about the first bovine to land on the moon), as was The Painted Bird, a numbing experience about a Jewish boy seeking sanctuary in Nazi Germany.

Welcome to Chechnya exposed the republic's horrific treatment of LGBTQ communities, while ESPN's The Last Dance was a great one for basketball purists, even if it airballed exposing Michael Jordan's real flaws.

And finally - it's worth mentioning the time-travelling Synchronic - another endlessly intriguing effort by low-fi sci-fi whizzes Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.