Best Films of 2025: Individual Ballots

The results are in for our 2025 poll of Film Comment’s contributors and colleagues! On this page you’ll find a selection of the individual ballots submitted by our voters for the Best Films of 2025 category, covering features that were released either theatrically or virtually in 2025 in the United States. To see which films came out on top, check out our Best Films of 2025 list, which features original appreciations from critics, as well as links to features, reviews, and interviews about these films and directors from across the year.

Don’t see your favorite? Check out our Best Undistributed Films of 2025 list, featuring films that premiered this year but have not yet announced stateside distribution. And don’t miss our Best of 2025 Countdown Podcast, featuring guest critics Amy Taubin and Bilge Ebiri.

Coming next week: critic and programmer Inney Prakash’s list of the year’s Best Short Films, filmmaker and programmer Gina Telaroli’s list of the Best Restorations, critic and editor Gavin Smith’s list of the year’s Best Repertory Releases, and writing on the Best Scenes by Devika Girish ands the Best Performances by Michael Koresky.

The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt)

Lucia Ahrensdorf (critic)

1. The Shrouds
2. Eddington
3. Afternoons of Solitude
4. One Battle After Another
5. The Mastermind
6. Die My Love
7. No Other Choice
8. Sound of Falling
9. Blue Moon
10. Weapons
11. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
12. The Secret Agent
13. It Was Just an Accident
14. By the Stream
15. Sirāt
16. Invention
17. 28 Years Later
18. Who by Fire
19. Presence
20. Grand Tour

Jamsheed Akrami (critic and scholar)

1. It Was Just an Accident
2. One Battle After Another
3. Hamnet
4. Sirāt
5. Frankenstein
6. Bugonia
7. Sentimental Value
8. Palestine 36
9. Train Dreams
10. Sorry, Baby
11. Left-Handed Girl
12. The Secret Agent
13. The President’s Cake
14. Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk
15. Orwell: 2+2=5
16. 2000 Meters to Andriivka
17. Magellan
18. Cutting Through Rocks
19. Calle Malaga
20. The Perfect Neighbor

I could add several other notable films that I liked, including Nouvelle Vague, Familia, Peacock, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, Kokuho, Late Shift, Stella, A Life, The Penguin Lessons, and All That’s Left of You.

Julien Allen (critic, Reverse Shot)

1. Misericordia
2. Cover-Up
3. Bonjour Tristesse
4. Bring Her Back
5. It Was Just an Accident
6. The Mastermind
7. Eephus
8. Eddington
9. Friendship
10. The Things You Kill
11. Left-Handed Girl
12. The Ballad of Wallis Island
13. One Battle After Another
14. The Secret Agent
15. Sound of Falling
16. Who by Fire
17. Nouvelle Vague
18. The Empire

Florence Almozini (Vice President, Programming, Film at Lincoln Center)

Fatoumata Bah (critic)

Miriam Balanescu (critic)

1. Sentimental Value
2. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
3. Misericordia
4. The Mastermind
5. Harvest
6. Sorry, Baby
7. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
8. April
9. Father Mother Sister Brother
10. No Other Choice
11. Grand Tour
12. Viet and Nam
13. The Secret Agent
14. The Testament of Ann Lee
15. Nouvelle Vague
16. Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
17. Peter Hujar’s Day
18. The Shrouds
19. The Chronology of Water

Lots of films that I still haven’t seen—Sirāt, It Was Just an Accident,  The Voice of Hind Rajab, Left-Handed Girl, etc.—that I suspect would make it onto this list.

Erika Balsom (critic and scholar)

Hannu Björkbacka (critic)

1. One Battle After Another
2. Bugonia
3. Sisu: Road to Revenge
4. The Love That Remains
5. The Phoenician Scheme
6. Bring Her Back

So many 2025 titles still unseen in Finland. But it was nice to find out that the proven masters (who sometimes make only so-so films) can still get us to feel wonder and surprise in their love of the medium.

Michael Blair (Assistant Editor, Film Comment)

1. The Secret Agent
2. By the Stream
3. The Mastermind
4. 7 Walks with Mark Brown
5. Caught by the Tides
6. Misericordia
7. Afternoons of Solitude
8. The Shrouds
9. You Burn Me
10. Dracula
11. Cloud
12. One Battle After Another
13. Familiar Touch
14. Pee-Wee as Himself
15. It Was Just an Accident
16. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
17. Happyend
18. Black Bag
19. Cover-Up
20. Grand Tour

Richard Brody (critic, The New Yorker)

1. Sinners
2. The Mastermind
3. The Secret Agent
4. The Phoenician Scheme
5. Hedda
6. Afternoons of Solitude
7. Highest 2 Lowest
8. Misericordia
9. One Battle After Another
10. Marty Supreme
11. Nouvelle Vague and Blue Moon
12. Eephus
13. Peter Hujar’s Day
14. Invention
15. The Fishing Place
16. This Woman
17. The Empire
18. Fire of Wind
19. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
20. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Resurrection (Bi Gan)

Graham L. Carter (critic and filmmaker)

1. 7 Walks with Mark Brown
2. Where to Land
3. By the Stream
4. Bad Girl
5. La Dolce Villa
6. Fire of Wind

It hurts to submit this list without having seen the new James L. Brooks.

Chris Cassingham (critic)

1. It Was Just an Accident
2. Viet and Nam
3. Invention
4. The Secret Agent
5. The Mastermind
6. DIRECT ACTION
7. No Sleep Till
8. Happyend
9. Misericordia
10. Caught by the Tides
11. Vulcanizadora
12. By the Stream
13. Familiar Touch
14. Henry Fonda for President
15. Grand Tour
16. Peter Hujar’s Day
17. Afternoons of Solitude
18. 7 Walks with Mark Brown
19. Diciannove
20. Resurrection

Monica Castillo (critic)

1. One Battle After Another
2. No Other Choice
3. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
4. Sinners
5. Sorry, Baby
6. It Was Just an Accident
7. Frankenstein
8. Marty Supreme
9. Sound of Falling
10. The Secret Agent
11. The Testament of Ann Lee
12. Hedda
13. Misericordia
14. Peter Hujar’s Day
15. Sirāt
16. Left-Handed Girl
17. Cover-Up
18. Eephus
19. Selena y Los Dinos

Amanda Chen (critic)

1. Grand Tour
2. Viet and Nam
3. Debut, or, Objects of the Field of Debris as Currently Catalogued
4. Caught by the Tides
5. The Shrouds
6. Highest 2 Lowest
7. Sentimental Value
8. Sorry, Baby
9. Misericordia

Edo Choi (programmer, Metrograph)

1. One Battle After Another
2. Caught by the Tides
3. Blue Moon
4. Below the Clouds
5. Nouvelle Vague
6. It Was Just an Accident
7. My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow
8. Afternoons of Solitude
9. Desert of Namibia
10. No Other Choice
11. DIRECT ACTION
12. The Secret Agent
13. Eddington
14. The Phoenician Scheme
15. Suspended Time
16. The Shrouds
17. By the Stream
18. The Love That Remains
19. Cloud
20. Dracula

Shorts: Being Blue, Dooni, FELT, Full Out, Grounds Premises, Lover Lovers Loving Love, Morning Circle, The Phalanx, Rojo Žalia Blau

Bedatri Datta Choudhury (critic; programmer, DOC NYC; editor, The Philadelphia Inquirer)

1. Cactus Pears
2. The Secret Agent
3. The Perfect Neighbor
4. Homebound
5. Happyend
6. Familiar Touch
7. Sentimental Value
8. A Tale of Silyan
9. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
10. Sorry, Baby
11. Souleymane’s Story
12. The Wedding Banquet
13. It Was Just an Accident
14. Afternoons of Solitude
15. Sirāt
16. The Mastermind
17. Peter Hujar’s Day
18. Milisuthando
19. Viet and Nam
20. The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire

Benjamin Crais (critic and scholar)

1. 7 Walks with Mark Brown
2. By the Stream
3. Cloud

“Generosity pays but meanness has to be paid for.”

Jordan Cronk (critic; programmer, Acropolis Cinema; program consultant, Directors’ Fortnight)

1. Sirāt
2. The Shrouds
3. One Battle After Another
4. Caught by the Tides
5. Henry Fonda for President
6. Misericordia
7. By the Stream
8. Grand Tour
9. The Mastermind
10. Father Mother Sister Brother
11. Afternoons of Solitude
12. Videoheaven
13. DIRECT ACTION
14. Who by Fire
15. Magellan
16. 7 Walks with Mark Brown
17. Marty Supreme
18. Invention
19. Nouvelle Vague
20. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Olivia Crough (critic and scholar)

1. 7 Walks with Mark Brown
2. Afternoons of Solitude
3. Caught by the Tides
4. Misericordia
5. You Burn Me
6. Final Destination: Bloodlines
7. Who by Fire
8. By the Stream
9. DIRECT ACTION
10. Weapons
11. Sinners

7 Walks with Mark Brown (Pierre Creton and Vincent Barré)

Robert Daniels (critic, RogerEbert.com)

Poulomi Das (critic)

1. No Other Choice
2. It Was Just an Accident
3. Sentimental Value
4. One Battle After Another
5. Magellan
6. A Poet
7. Cactus Pears
8. Alappuzha Gymkhana
9. Homebound
10. The Chronology of Water

Nick Davis (critic and scholar)

1. Sirāt
2. Grand Tour
3. Sound of Falling
4. One Battle After Another
5. Roofman
6. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
7. Sex
8. Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk
9. Eddington
10. Cactus Pears
11. Die My Love
12. Caught by the Tides
13. Viet and Nam
14. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
15. Drunken Noodles
16. It Was Just an Accident
17. Ghost Trail
18. Sentimental Value
19. Love
20. A House of Dynamite

Ayanna Dozier (critic and scholar)

1. The Pleasure is Mine
2. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
3. Please Hold
4. Caught by the Tides
5. Pillion
6. Afternoons of Solitude
7. Atropia
8. River of Grass
9. Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
10. Palestine 36

Daniel Eagan (critic)

1. Left-Handed Girl
2. Train Dreams
3. One Battle After Another
4. Blue Moon
5. Sinners
6. Late Shift
7. Sentimental Value
8. Timestamp
9. The Perfect Neighbor
10. Sister Midnight
11. Below the Clouds
12. Resurrection
13. Wick Is Pain
14. Ghost Killer
15. Nobody 2
16. Havoc
17. A Working Man

5 entries are Netflix titles. For the first time in years, nothing from Disney.

Matthew Eng (critic)

1. One Battle After Another
2. Grand Tour
3. Sirāt
4. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
5. Ghost Trail
6. The Secret Agent
7. The Mastermind
8. Caught by the Tides
9. Peter Hujar’s Day
10. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
11. Nouvelle Vague
12. Cactus Pears
13. Below the Clouds
14. The Naked Gun

Joseph Fahim (critic)

1. Sirāt
2. One Battle After Another
3. Sound of Falling
4. Dreams (Sex Love)
5. No Other Choice
6. Resurrection
7. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
8. The Secret Agent
9. Arco
10. Father Mother Sister Brother
11. The Perfect Neighbor
12. The Mastermind
13. Orwell: 2+2=5
14. A Tale of Silyan
15. Little Trouble Girls
16. The Ugly Stepsister
17. The Things You Kill
18. Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
19. Sinners
20. Left-Handed Girl

Sarah Fensom (critic)

1. Afternoons of Solitude
2. Dracula
3. Peter Hujar’s Day
4. The Shrouds
5. No Other Choice
6. Misericordia
7. It Was Just an Accident
8. Castration Movie Anthology II: The Best of Both Worlds
9. Zodiac Killer Project
10. M3GAN 2.0

Jason Fox (editor, World Records)

1. Familiar Touch
2. The Voice of Hind Rajab
3. The Secret Agent
4. Happyend
5. The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire
6. Afternoons of Solitude
7. To a Land Unknown
8. The Perfect Neighbor

Happyend (Neo Sora)

Jean-Michel Frodon (critic)

1. Caught by the Tides
2. Harvest
3. The Mastermind
4. By the Stream
5. Sirāt
6. Nouvelle Vague
7. Resurrection
8. The Secret Agent
9. Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk
10. Souleymane’s Story
11. Sentimental Value
12. The Voice of Hind Rajab
13. The Damned
14. Henry Fonda for President
15. The Shrouds
16. Eephus
17. Grand Tour
18. Viet and Nam
19. Marcello Mio

There are so many more...

Lawrence Garcia (critic)

1. Misericordia
2. The Empire
3. Bugonia
4. By the Stream
5. The Damned
6. Afternoons of Solitude
7. Nouvelle Vague
8. Invention
9. Reflection in a Dead Diamond
10. Caught by the Tides

Caden Mark Gardner (critic)

Devika Girish (Editor, Film Comment)

1. The Mastermind
2. The Secret Agent
3. Afternoons of Solitude
4. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
5. Cover-Up
6. Dracula
7. Viet and Nam
8. Pepe
9. Happyend
10. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
11. Sinners
12. The Shrouds
13. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
14. DIRECT ACTION
15. Caught by the Tides
16. Familiar Touch
17. Misericordia
18. Who by Fire
19. Grand Tour
20. The Damned

Best Old-New Picks: every movie I saw as part of the "Through Cinema We Shall Rise!" retrospective at this year's International Film Festival of Rotterdam, which marked the 70th anniversary of the historic Bandung Conference and the Afro-Asian Film Festivals it spawned. Special mentions: Turang (Bachtiar Siagan, 1958) and A Phu and His Wife (Vợ chồng A Phủ, 1960).

Leonardo Goi (critic)

1. Grand Tour
2. Misericordia
3. DIRECT ACTION
4. Afternoons of Solitude
5. Familiar Touch
6. One Battle After Another
7. The Secret Agent
8. Eephus
9. Cloud
10. Sound of Falling
11. Peter Hujar’s Day
12. It Was Just an Accident
13. Resurrection
14. No Other Choice
15. Sirāt
16. No Sleep Till
17. You Burn Me
18. April
19. Bogancloch
20. Reflection in a Dead Diamond

Leo Goldsmith (critic and scholar)

1. 7 Walks with Mark Brown
2. The Shrouds
3. Sirāt
4. DIRECT ACTION
5. Harvest
6. Afternoons of Solitude
7. The Mastermind
8. Little, Big, and Far
9. Caught by the Tides
10. Fire of Wind

Caroline Golum (filmmaker, critic, programmer)

Tim Grierson (critic)

1. My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow
2. Sound of Falling
3. The Mastermind
4. Grand Tour
5. Below the Clouds
6. Sorry, Baby
7. Sirāt
8. Resurrection
9. Caught by the Tides
10. One Battle After Another
11. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
12. Peter Hujar’s Day
13. A Little Prayer
14. Marty Supreme
15. Blue Moon
16. Magellan
17. Weapons
18. Warfare
19. The Perfect Neighbor
20. Predators

Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)

Victor Guimarães (critic, programmer)

1. Pepe
2. Misericordia
3. The Secret Agent
4. Caught by the Tides
5. The Mastermind
6. By the Stream
7. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
8. Sinners
9. One Battle After Another
10. The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire

The order for me is not very important. I would just like to mention a few films with which I engaged in a deep, personal, and meaningful way this year. What strikes me about the list is that the works come from everywhere, including places where I’ve found it very difficult to find anything cinematically powerful lately: big-budget productions, blockbusters, films with a long list of labs in the opening credits, and works made by the usual suspects of the Cannes Film Festival. It’s exciting to notice that under all those logos, there’s still cinema breathing.

I don’t believe in the usual hierarchy between formats, so I wanted to name ten short and medium-length films that were as (or even more) important than the aforementioned features for me this year: Breu Febril (Wallace Douglas), Filme Sem Querer (Lincoln Péricles), Feiura Comovente (Ultra Martini), Piel de Toro Muerto (Aroldo Murguia), Abajo y a la Izquierda (Martín Baus), The Goblin Play (Chae Yu), Revolving Rounds (Johann Lurf, Christina Jauernik), Daimara y el Baile Zombie (Natalia Keiko, Tom Hamburguer), Bounded Intimacy (Ayanna Dozier).

Lovia Gyarkye (Editor, Hammer & Hope)

Matilda Hague (critic)

1. Caught by the Tides
2. DIRECT ACTION
3. Afternoons of Solitude
4. Fire of Wind
5. Grand Tour
6. Invention
7. Sentimental Value
8. By the Stream
9. Magellan
10. One Battle After Another
11. Cover-Up
12. Peter Hujar’s Day
13. The Secret Agent
14. Souleymane’s Story
15. The Mastermind
16. No Other Choice
17. Jay Kelly
18. Weapons

Sasha Han (critic)

1. Materialists
2. Viet and Nam
3. Happyend
4. No Other Choice
5. One Battle After Another
6. By the Stream
7. Olivia & Las Nubes
8. Life After
9. The Phoenician Scheme

Molly Haskell (critic; Contributing Editor, Film Comment)

1. Blue Moon
2. The Mastermind
3. Sentimental Value
4. Resurrection
5. The Love That Remains
6. One Battle After Another
7. The Secret Agent
8. Cover-Up
9. It Was Just an Accident
10. Train Dreams
11. Henry Fonda for President
12. Peter Hujar’s Day
13. Nouvelle Vague
14. Drop Dead City
15. A House of Dynamite
16. Highest 2 Lowest
17. Materialists
18. Frankenstein
19. Eddington
20. Is This Thing On?

Maggie Hennefeld (critic and scholar)

1. The Encampments
2. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
3. The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire
4. It Was Just an Accident
5. KPop Demon Hunters
6. The Mastermind
7. Sinners
8. The Last Showgirl
9. One Battle After Another
10. Riefenstahl
11. Predators
12. Harvest
13. Grand Tour
14. 28 Years Later
15. Eephus

There are loads of films I haven’t had the chance to see yet (Resurrection, Palestine 36, Sirāt)—the best films of the year were repertory releases of new archival restorations.

J. Hoberman (critic; Contributing Editor, Film Comment)

1. My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow
2. One Battle After Another
3. Henry Fonda for President
4. The Mastermind
5. Sinners
6. The Shrouds
7. Cover-Up
8. Suburban Fury
9. Dracula
10. An Officer and a Spy

Darren Hughes (critic; Artistic Director, Film Fest Knox)

1. Afternoons of Solitude
2. Sirāt
3. Eephus
4. Little, Big, and Far
5. The Sparrow in the Chimney
6. Souleymane’s Story
7. Familiar Touch
8. Peter Hujar’s Day
9. Collective Monologue
10. Invention
11. No Sleep Till
12. The Damned
13. An Evening Song (For Three Voices)
14. Sinners
15. Reflection in a Dead Diamond
16. Black Bag
17. Zodiac Killer Project
18. The Phoenician Scheme
19. Harvest
20. Caught by the Tides

Radu Jude (filmmaker)

1. By the Stream
2. My Undesirable Friends: Part 1—Last Air in Moscow
3. Misericordia
4. Grand Tour
5. Henry Fonda for President
6. The Shrouds

Sona Karapoghosyan (critic; programmer, Golden Apricot Film Festival)

1. DIRECT ACTION
2. Afternoons of Solitude
3. Caught by the Tides
4. The Secret Agent
5. The Shrouds
6. Grand Tour
7. Sirāt
8. Resurrection
9. The Mastermind
10. Misericordia
11. Urchin
12. Viet and Nam
13. The Love That Remains
14. The Ice Tower
15. Harvest
16. Reflection in a Dead Diamond
17. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
18. Sorry, Baby
19. Invention
20. Pepe

Daniel Kasman (Vice President Publishing, MUBI)

1. The Perfect Neighbor
2. Cloud
3. Afternoons of Solitude
4. The Shrouds
5. The Mastermind
6. Henry Fonda for President
7. Reflection in a Dead Diamond
8. The Ice Tower
9. Nouvelle Vague
10. In the Lost Lands
11. Weapons
12. Misericordia
13. Final Destination: Bloodlines
14. Black Bag
15. Caught by the Tides
16. Sound of Falling
17. A House of Dynamite
18. Viet and Nam

Highest 2 Lowest (Spike Lee)

Natalia Keogan (critic)

1. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
2. The Secret Agent
3. Sirāt
4. One Battle After Another
5. Misericordia
6. It Was Just an Accident
7. Vulcanizadora
8. Familiar Touch
9. Invention
10. The Testament of Ann Lee
11. Predators
12. Eephus
13. By the Stream
14. I’m Not Everything I Want to Be
15. The Perfect Neighbor
16. The Chronology of Water
17. Peter Hujar’s Day
18. The Shrouds
19. Magellan
20. Happyend

John Klacsmann (archivist, Anthology Film Archives)

Michael Koresky (Senior Curator of Film, The Musuem of the Moving Image; Editor, Reverse Shot)

Clinton Krute (Editor, Film Comment)

1. The Mastermind
2. Afternoons of Solitude
3. Marty Supreme
4. The Secret Agent
5. Misericordia
6. By the Stream
7. The Shrouds
8. Dracula
9. It Was Just an Accident
10. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
11. The Phoenician Scheme
12. Grand Tour
13. Invention
14. One Battle After Another
15. Viet and Nam
16. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
17. Father Mother Sister Brother
18. You Burn Me
19. Happyend
20. Jay Kelly

Nathan Lee (critic and scholar)

1. The Shrouds
2. 7 Walks with Mark Brown
3. Black Bag
4. Misericordia
5. Peter Hujar’s Day
6. The Mastermind
7. Sinners
8. Sirāt
9. Caught by the Tides
10. Secret Mall Apartment

Kevin B. Lee (critic, filmmaker, Locarno Film Festival Professor for the Future of Cinema and the Audiovisual Arts)

1. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
2. Sound of Falling
3. One Battle After Another
4. It Was Just an Accident
5. Caught by the Tides
6. Die My Love
7. Dracula
8. Invention
9. Nouvelle Vague
10. The Secret Agent

Dennis Lim (critic; Artistic Director, New York Film Festival)

1. Misericordia
2. The Secret Agent
3. Afternoons of Solitude
4. One Battle After Another
5. The Shrouds
6. Caught by the Tides
7. 7 Walks With Mark Brown
8. Father Mother Sister Brother
9. Magellan
10. Sirāt
11. The Love That Remains
12. Peter Hujar’s Day
13. My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow
14. By the Stream
15. The Mastermind
16. Grand Tour
17. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
18. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
19. Resurrection
20. Marty Supreme

Chloe Lizotte (Deputy Editor, MUBI Notebook)

1. Afternoons of Solitude
2. The Shrouds
3. Misericordia
4. Cloud
5. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
6. One Battle After Another
7. The Mastermind
8. Invention
9. Endless Cookie
10. Broken Rage

Beatrice Loayza (critic)

1. Afternoons of Solitude
2. The Shrouds
3. Misericordia
4. Caught by the Tides
5. The Secret Agent
6. Final Destination: Bloodlines
7. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
8. Bugonia
9. Reflection in a Dead Diamond
10. Sirāt
11. The Ice Tower
12. Cloud
13. One Battle After Another
14. Dreams
15. Fire of Wind
16. Marty Supreme
17. The Mastermind
18. Familiar Touch
19. Jay Kelly
20. The Testament of Ann Lee

Guy Lodge (critic, Variety)

1. Sirāt
2. April
3. Sound of Falling
4. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
5. Grand Tour
6. The Mastermind
7. Eddington
8. Who by Fire
9. The Love That Remains
10. Milisuthando
11. One Battle After Another
12. Familiar Touch
13. Resurrection
14. Eephus
15. Afternoons of Solitude
16. Diciannove
17. Magellan
18. Predators
19. Birdeater
20. Weapons

Abirami Logendran (critic, curator)

1. The Secret Agent
2. The Mastermind
3. With Hasan in Gaza
4. Peter Hujar’s Day
5. One Battle After Another
6. Afternoons of Solitude
7. It Was Just an Accident
8. Cover-Up
9. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
10. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
11. Sinners

Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh)

Lisa Wong Macabasco (critic)

1. One Battle After Another
2. Marty Supreme
3. The Testament of Ann Lee
4. It Was Just an Accident
5. The Mastermind
6. Ballad of a Small Player
7. The Phoenician Scheme
8. Frankenstein
9. Eephus
10. Sorry, Baby
11. Familiar Touch
12. Rebuilding
13. Lurker
14. Hedda
15. Black Bag
16. The Perfect Neighbor
17. Song Sung Blue
18. Below the Clouds
19. Is This Thing On?
20. Hamnet

Willow Catelyn Maclay (critic)

Celia Mattison (critic)

1. It Was Just an Accident
2. No Other Choice
3. Sorry, Baby
4. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
5. One Battle After Another
6. Magellan
7. Sirāt
8. The Love That Remains
9. Misericordia
10. The Mastermind
11. Caught by the Tides
12. The Shrouds
13. Lurker
14. The Secret Agent
15. Happyend

Carly Mattox (critic)

1. Sorry, Baby
2. 28 Years Later
3. Sound of Falling
4. Afternoons of Solitude
5. April
6. Weapons
7. Happyend
8. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
9. Sentimental Value
10. Sinners
11. Cloud
12. Urchin
13. One Battle After Another
14. Grand Tour
15. Bugonia
16. Grand Theft Hamlet
17. Bring Her Back
18. Plainclothes
19. Friendship
20. Predator: Badlands

Submitted without having seen The Mastermind or The Testament of Ann Lee, both of which I’m sure would have found their places here somewhere.

Edward McCarry (critic and film distributor)

Steven Mears (critic; Copy Editor, Film Comment)

1. Henry Fonda for President
2. It Was Just an Accident
3. Sound of Falling
4. A Little Prayer
5. Familiar Touch
6. One Battle After Another
7. Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk
8. Train Dreams
9. Blue Moon
10. The Perfect Neighbor
11. Sentimental Value
12. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
13. Eephus
14. April
15. The Mastermind
16. Grand Tour
17. Souleymane’s Story
18. Weapons
19. Riefenstahl
20. Sirāt

Jordan Mintzer (critic, The Hollywood Reporter)

1. One of Them Days
2. Who by Fire
3. Drop Dead City
4. Bring Her Back
5. Ghost Trail
6. Familiar Touch
7. A House of Dynamite
8. Drowning Dry
9. Diciannove
10. Sirāt
11. Architecton
12. Souleymane’s Story
13. Megadoc
14. It Was Just an Accident
15. Train Dreams
16. Sinners
17. Arco
18. Sound of Falling
19. Zodiac Killer Project
20. Holy Cow

AJ Morris (critic)

1. Souleymane’s Story
2. No Other Choice
3. It Was Just an Accident
4. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
5. Sinners
6. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
7. My Father’s Shadow
8. Sorry, Baby
9. The Secret Agent
10. Magellan
11. Sirāt
12. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
13. Mickey 17
14. Happyend
15. The Perfect Neighbor
16. Eddington
17. One Battle After Another
18. Hedda
19. 28 Years Later
20. After the Hunt

Dracula (Radu Jude)

Yuka Murakami (critic)

Vikram Murthi (critic, Downtime)

1. It Was Just an Accident
2. Marty Supreme
3. One Battle After Another
4. Grand Tour
5. Misericordia
6. Blue Moon
7. The Mastermind
8. The Secret Agent
9. Sirāt
10. The Love That Remains
11. Eephus
12. The Phoenician Scheme
13. Pavements
14. Predators
15. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
16. Cloud
17. Friendship
18. Jay Kelly
19. Suspended Time
20. Nouvelle Vague

A snapshot of my viewing up to 11/28/25. I haven’t had the chance to see a handful of “major titles” that likely would have impacted this list. These choices (and their ranking) are mine and mine alone; hence, they are flawed and imperfect, much like myself.

Ruun Nuur (critic, programmer, and producer)

1. Palestine 36
2. The Secret Agent
3. Cover-Up
4. Sinners
5. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
6. Familiar Touch
7. Milisuthando
8. Cutting Through Rocks
9. Life After
10. Predators
11. After the Hunt
12. Remaining Native
13. Mistress Dispeller
14. Songs from the Hole
15. Come See Me In the Good Light
16. WTO/99
17. The Perfect Neighbor
18. Friendship
19. Eddington
20. Frankenstein

Throughout the entirety of 2025, I had the distinct honor and privilege of bearing witness to SO many phenomenal films from around the world, stewarded by brilliant filmmakers. These rankings are not to be taken LITERALLY but merely to operate as a humble offering to other curious moviegoers who want to know what 2025 was all about... rebellion, reconciliation, remixing, redistribution, and reimagining new worlds. 

Madeline Ostdick (critic)

1. Resurrection
2. One Battle After Another
3. It Was Just an Accident
4. No Other Choice
5. Magellan
6. Happyend
7. The Secret Agent
8. Caught by the Tides
9. Eephus
10. 28 Years Later
11. Cloud
12. The Phoenician Scheme
13. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
14. The Mastermind
15. Roofman
16. Sinners
17. Eddington
18. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
19. Bugonia
20. Kiss of the Spider Woman

Maxwell Paparella (Managing Editor, MUBI Notebook)

1. The Secret Agent
2. The Shrouds
3. The Mastermind
4. Dracula
5. Magellan
6. Henry Fonda for President
7. Zodiac Killer Project
8. Misericordia
9. Sinners
10. Reflection in a Dead Diamond
11. Pepe
12. Pee-Wee as Himself
13. Mickey 17

Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer (Managing Editor, Screen Slate)

1. Presence
2. Henry Fonda for President
3. Endless Cookie
4. Debut, or, Objects of the Field of Debris as Currently Catalogued
5. Cloud
6. Marty Supreme
7. Father Mother Sister Brother
8. DIRECT ACTION
9. The Shrouds
10. Peter Hujar’s Day

Cici Peng (critic and programmer)

1. Afternoons of Solitude
2. By the Stream
3. Caught by the Tides
4. Dracula
5. The Mastermind
6. Henry Fonda for President
7. Misericordia
8. DIRECT ACTION

Savina Petkova (critic)

Matías Piñeiro (filmmaker)

Adam Piron (filmmaker, programmer, and critic)

Alana Pockros (critic, The Nation)

1. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
2. April
3. Sorry, Baby
4. Familiar Touch
5. Atropia
6. Sentimental Value
7. Twinless
8. The Mastermind

Inney Prakash (Curator of Film, Asia Society; founding programer, Prismatic Ground)

1. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
2. By the Stream
3. The Shrouds
4. Sinners
5. The Mastermind
6. Familiar Touch
7. Dracula
8. Afternoons of Solitude
9. Caught by the Tides
10. It Was Just an Accident
11. The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire
12. One Battle After Another
13. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
14. Happyend
15. Invention
16. Vulcanizadora
17. Left-Handed Girl
18. Sirāt
19. Cactus Pears
20. Resurrection

Films I haven’t seen that I suspect might’ve made this list: BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, Cover-Up, Father Mother Sister Brother, Misericordia, Life After, My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow, Little, Big and Far, The Damned.

Jed Rapfogel (programmer, Anthology Film Archives)

Jordan Raup (Editor, The Film Stage)

1. One Battle After Another
2. Caught by the Tides
3. The Mastermind
4. The Shrouds
5. Sirāt
6. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
7. Who by Fire
8. Eephus
9. The Secret Agent
10. Black Bag
11. Father Mother Sister Brother
12. It Was Just an Accident
13. The Perfect Neighbor
14. Afternoons of Solitude
15. Resurrection
16. Magellan
17. Sorry, Baby
18. Cloud
19. Familiar Touch
20. My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow

Vadim Rizov (Director of Editorial Operations, Filmmaker Magazine)

1. It Was Just an Accident
2. Grand Tour
3. The Empire
4. Sirāt
5. Caught by the Tides
6. Misericordia
7. DIRECT ACTION
8. The Phoenician Scheme
9. Predators
10. The Shrouds
11. Invention
12. Familiar Touch
13. The Perfect Neighbor
14. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
15. Viet and Nam
16. Pavements
17. Milisuthando
18. This Woman

Jonathan Romney (critic)

1. The Ice Tower
2. Resurrection
3. The Mastermind
4. Sirāt
5. It Was Just an Accident
6. The Time That Remains
7. The Voice of Hind Rajab
8. Sentimental Value
9. Cover-Up
10. Blue Moon
11. Peter Hujar’s Day
12. Sound of Falling
13. The Secret Agent
14. Nouvelle Vague
15. Left-Handed Girl
16. A House of Dynamite
17. Wake Up Dead Man

Fire of Wind (Marta Mateus)

Jonathan Rosenbaum (critic)

1. Fire of Wind
2. The Fishing Place
3. Henry Fonda for President
4. Little, Big, and Far
5. Sirāt
6. Caught by the Tides
7. Blue Moon
8. Cloud
9. The Mastermind

Nouvelle Vague is fun and well researched but taught me nothing about Breathless. One Battle After Another has incoherent politics, a naive aspiration to be both radical and forgettable, and a hilarious performance by Sean Penn worthy of Tex Avery.

Julian Ross (Head of Film Programming & Distribution, Eye Filmmuseum.)

1. Viet and Nam
2. DIRECT ACTION
3. Afternoons of Solitude
4. Sirāt
5. April
6. The Secret Agent
7. Caught by the Tides
8. My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow
9. Sound of Falling
10. The Mastermind
11. Happyend
12. Pepe
13. Resurrection
14. It Was Just an Accident
15. Misericordia
16. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
17. Desert of Namibia
18. Invention
19. Cloud

Jessica Dunn Rovinelli (filmmaker)

1. Peter Hujar’s Day
2. Castration Movie Anthology I: Traps
3. Eat the Night
4. Happyend
5. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
6. Misericordia
7. Happy Gilmore 2
8. 28 Years Later
9. Black Bag

Nicholas Russell (critic)

Isabel Sandoval (filmmaker)

1. Misericordia
2. Sound of Falling
3. Magellan
4. Marty Supreme
5. The Testament of Ann Lee
6. Sirāt
7. Dreams (Sex Love)
8. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
9. Bugonia
10. One Battle After Another
11. Happyend
12. Peter Hujar’s Day
13. Weapons
14. Familiar Touch
15. The Things You Kill

Stanley Schtinter (critic)

1. The Ice Tower

David Schwartz (programmer and critic)

1. My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow
2. Caught by the Tides
3. Below the Clouds
4. It Was Just an Accident
5. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
6. Sound of Falling
7. April
8. Afternoons of Solitude
9. By the Stream
10. The Love That Remains
11. Grand Tour
12. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
13. The Secret Agent
14. The Mastermind
15. Blue Moon
16. Die My Love
17. A Poet
18. Invention
19. The President’s Cake
20. My Father’s Shadow

Adam Shatz (author; U.S. Editor, London Review of Books)

Chris Shields (critic)

1. Afternoons of Solitude
2. Dracula
3. It Was Just an Accident
4. Castration Movie Anthology II: The Best of Both Worlds
5. Peter Hujar’s Day
6. The Shrouds
7. Zodiac Killer Project
8. Red Path
9. The Fishing Place
10. M3GAN 2.0
11. Misericordia
12. To a Land Unknown

Gavin Smith (critic; Editor Emeritus, Film Comment)

1. Train Dreams
2. Blue Moon
3. A House of Dynamite
4. The Secret Agent
5. Warfare
6. Weapons
7. Sinners
8. Caught by the Tides
9. Henry Fonda for President
10. Souleymane’s Story
11. Bring Them Down
12. Relay
13. It Was Just an Accident
14. Bring Her Back
15. The Perfect Neighbor
16. Cloud
17. Father Mother Sister Brother
18. Die My Love
19. Auction
20. Sentimental Value

BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (Kahlil Joseph)

Öykü Sofuoğlu (critic)

Srikanth Srinivasan (critic; programmer)

1. Peter Hujar’s Day
2. One Battle After Another
3. The Damned
4. My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow
5. The Things You Kill
6. Henry Fonda for President
7. Meeting with Pol Pot
8. An Officer and a Spy
9. Blue Moon
10. Cactus Pears

Jadie Stillwell (critic)

Isabel Stevens (Managing Editor, Sight and Sound)

1. Sirāt
2. The Secret Agent
3. Marty Supreme
4. One Battle After Another
5. Sentimental Value
6. The Mastermind
7. The Phoenician Scheme
8. Nouvelle Vague
9. Black Bag
10. It Was Just an Accident
11. Splitsville
12. Sorry, Baby
13. Sound of Falling
14. Sinners
15. Blue Moon
16. Little Trouble Girls
17. The Shrouds
18. Eddington
19. A House of Dynamite

Brett Story (filmmaker)

1. The Secret Agent
2. All That’s Left of You
3. The Voice of Hind Rajab
4. Familiar Touch
5. It Was Just an Accident
6. Fiume o morte!
7. To a Land Unknown
8. The Perfect Neighbor
9. Songs from the Hole
10. Co-existence My Ass
11. Little, Big, and Far
12. Realm of Satan

Dan Sullivan (programmer, Film at Lincoln Center)

1. The Secret Agent
2. The Mastermind
3. Misericordia
4. One Battle After Another
5. Grand Tour
6. The Naked Gun
7. Caught by the Tides
8. Afternoons of Solitude
9. By the Stream
10. Eddington
11. Avatar: Fire & Ash

Abby Sun (Editor, Documentary Magazine)

1. Afternoons of Solitude
2. One Battle After Another
3. Misericordia
4. It Was Just an Accident
5. Caught by the Tides
6. 2000 Meters to Andriivka
7. Happyend
8. Who by Fire
9. My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow

R. Emmet Sweeney (critic; producer, Kino Lorber)

1. Retro
2. Caught by the Tides
3. The Naked Gun
4. Bad Girl
5. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
6. Eephus
7. In the Lost Lands
8. Kantara, A Legend: Chapter 1
9. Grand Tour
10. The Woman in the Yard
11. Friendship
12. Diablo
13. Ghost Killer
14. Thug Life
15. Monk In Pieces
16. Prisoner of War

Ryan Swen (critic)

1. Caught by the Tides
2. Sirāt
3. Grand Tour
4. Misericordia
5. One Battle After Another
6. Resurrection
7. Henry Fonda for President
8. The Shrouds
9. Afternoons of Solitude
10. Blue Moon
11. By the Stream
12. Who by Fire
13. It Was Just an Accident
14. Marty Supreme
15. 7 Walks with Mark Brown
16. My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow
17. The Secret Agent
18. Father Mother Sister Brother
19. The Mastermind
20. The Phoenician Scheme

My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow (Julia Loktev)

Amy Taubin (critic; Contributing Editor, Film Comment)

1. My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow
2. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
3. The Secret Agent
4. Marty Supreme
5. It Was Just an Accident
6. Nouvelle Vague
7. A Tale of Silyan
8. Cloud
9. Sorry, Baby
10. Father Mother Sister Brother
11. Caught by the Tides
12. Blue Moon
13. The Shrouds
14. I Was Born This Way
15. Orwell: 2+2=5
16. Cover-Up
17. Little Trouble Girls
18. Familiar Touch
19. The Alabama Solution
20. One Battle After Another

Gina Telaroli (filmmaker and programmer)

1. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
2. Milisuthando
3. Relay
4. Jetty
5. Final Destination: Bloodlines
6. Henry Fonda for President
7. The Guardian Demon
8. The Naked Gun
9. 28 Years Later
10. Friendship

I missed many, many films this year due to time spent in Vietnam and a surgery that I had to recover from. That said, I stand behind the ten films I have listed here. They are a mix of extremely entertaining genre films and smaller independent films that do so much with so little.

Antoine Thirion (critic; programmer)

1. Afternoons of Solitude
2. The Secret Agent
3. One Battle After Another
4. Misericordia
5. The Mastermind
6. It Was Just an Accident
7. Viet and Nam
8. DIRECT ACTION
9. Sirāt
10. The Shrouds
11. Caught by the Tides
12. By the Stream
13. Sound of Falling
14. Collective Monologue
15. Bogancloch
16. You Burn Me
17. Pepe
18. Grand Tour
19. Fire of Wind
20. Resurrection

Matene Toure (critic)

1. Souleymane’s Story
2. It Was Just an Accident
3. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
4. Happyend
5. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
6. Sirāt
7. No Other Choice
8. 28 Years Later
9. The Secret Agent
10. Sinners
11. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
12. Sentimental Value
13. Mickey 17
14. Sorry, Baby
15. Cloud
16. Urchin
17. After the Hunt
18. One Battle After Another
19. Frankenstein
20. The Phoenician Scheme

Carlos Valladares (critic and scholar)

1. Invention
2. The Shrouds
3. Blue Moon
4. The Phoenician Scheme
5. The Mastermind
6. It Was Just an Accident
7. Fire of Wind
8. No Sleep Till
9. Happyend
10. Peter Hujar’s Day
11. Desert of Namibia
12. Frankenstein
13. Caught by the Tides
14. Sudan, Remember Us
15. One Battle After Another
16. Nouvelle Vague
17. Bonjour Tristesse
18. Urchin
19. Lurker
20. Die My Love

Charles Burnett’s The Annihilation of Fish was surely the best film I saw in theaters this year, finally in official distribution after a quarter of a century in distribution limbo.

Juan Camilo Velasquez (critic)

1. Magellan
2. It Was Just an Accident
3. Pepe
4. The Mastermind
5. The Secret Agent
6. One Battle After Another
7. Happyend
8. Peter Hujar’s Day
9. Materialists
10. Sentimental Value
11. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
12. Pavements
13. Bugonia
14. Eddington
15. Paddington in Peru
16. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Viet and Nam (Trương Minh Quý)

Madeline Whittle (programmer, Film at Lincoln Center)

1. It Was Just an Accident
2. Suburban Fury
3. My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow
4. Misericordia
5. Grand Tour
6. The Secret Agent
7. Dracula
8. Peter Hujar’s Day
9. Afternoons of Solitude
10. Sinners
11. Final Destination: Bloodlines
12. Blue Moon
13. Caught by the Tides
14. Sirāt
15. Who by Fire
16. The Mastermind
17. The Shrouds
18. Viet and Nam
19. The Perfect Neighbor
20. The Love That Remains

Manu Yáñez Murillo (critic; Director, Otros Cines Europa)

1. One Battle After Another
2. Afternoons of Solitude
3. Misericordia
4. The Secret Agent
5. Father Mother Sister Brother
6. Grand Tour
7. Nouvelle Vague
8. The Mastermind
9. The Shrouds
10. Warfare
11. Caught by the Tides
12. Sinners
13. Vulcanizadora
14. It Was Just an Accident
15. Dracula
16. Splitsville
17. Blue Moon
18. La Grazia
19. Resurrection
20. Souleymane’s Story

Genevieve Yue (critic and scholar)

1. Caught by the Tides
2. Peter Hujar’s Day
3. The Mastermind
4. DIRECT ACTION
5. The Secret Agent
6. Cover-Up
7. Nouvelle Vague
8. Jay Kelly
9. It Was Just an Accident
10. Little, Big, and Far

Daniel Zheng (critic)

1. Invention
2. It Was Just an Accident
3. Peter Hujar’s Day
4. Fire of Wind
5. The Secret Agent
6. One Battle After Another
7. Misericordia
8. The Perfect Neighbor
9. Dracula
10. The Mastermind