2025 has come to a close, so now is the time to go back and look at the best cinematic achievements of last year. After 2024’s less-than-stellar box office returns and lack of an exciting awards season, the tides seem to have been turned with a few special cultural events that have taken cinephiles and general audiences by storm. 

Here is a brief list of notable films that I have not seen yet, but plan to down the line:

• Train Dreams (dir. Clint Bently)

• Bugonia (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)

• Avatar: Fire and Ash (dir. James Cameron)

• Hamnet (dir. Chloe Zhao)

• The Ugly Stepsister (dir. Emilie Blichfeldt)

Honorable Mentions: 

• Superman (dir. James Gunn): The latest reinvention of the Man of Steel is a colorful, exciting, and refreshing comic book film that disposes of the grim darkness Zack Snyder’s DCEU had and opens the door for a more planned out DC film universe. Perhaps somewhat preachy in its climax, the film packs a generous amount of welcome social commentary and relevancy that made it such a crowd-pleaser. Gunn and David Corenswet understand the character of Superman, and the rest of the cast is excellent amid all of the action and necessary world-building. 

• Predator: Badlands (dir. Dan Trachtenberg): The second new entry to the Predator franchise last year (after the animated Predator: Killer of Killers) is a relatively familiar and typical blockbuster, essentially Kong: Skull Island with a Yautja hunter. But the film is effortlessly fun and surprisingly emotional, doing the hard work of beginning to pull the Alien franchise into the fray while also being a compelling story in its own right. The journey of Dek is one that we have all seen before, yet never in the form of an underdog Predator we can (and want to) root for. It is possible that Disney and Fox will learn the wrong lesson from the film’s success, but as it stands alone, it is a great entry. 

• Wake Up Dead Man (dir. Rian Johnson): Daniel Craig’s suave, brilliant detective Benoit Blanc returns in a darker and thematically richer Knives Out mystery, this time solving the murder of a corrupt monsignor played by Josh Brolin. Blanc actually takes the backseat for a portion of the film, giving Josh O’Connor’s reformed priest Jud the spotlight. It is an interesting look at religion; its lead characters Blanc and Jud share opposite opinions on the matter, but both of them provide a counterbalance to the morally bankrupt members of the small-town church. The film is a little long, especially near the middle act, yet it comes together at the end in typical Johnson fashion. Rarely are third chapters of the same quality as their predecessors, but this is nothing if not a cementation of Rian Johnson as the modern master of pulp mystery. 

• 28 Years Later (dir. Danny Boyle): As with my thoughts on this lists’ prior entry, it would be entirely plausible that 28 Years Later would be a disappointment, and being the most divisive film on said list, it was for many people. Yet, looking at the film as an apocalypse film, it is incredibly unique. Not only with its distinct visual style (having been shot on an iPhone 15), but with the world and characters it presents. The zombies infected with the Rage virus are a different breed of infected than we’re used to seeing on film. Some of the new characters, such as Ralph Fiennes’ Dr. Kelton and the vigilantes in the film’s closing moments are not the typical cinematic apocalypse survivors. And, the emotional core of the film is incredibly raw and vivid. The final moments between Spike and his mother was possibly the most emotionally searing moment I witnessed all year, and that is not something you get from a disappointment. A triumph of style and horror from an underrated filmmaker. 

• Companion (dir. Drew Hancock): It was a fine year for horror films. Marketed as “from the producers of Barbarian” (even though the director of that film would also have one release this year), Companion is tonally similar to the formerly mentioned film, relishing in its insanity and violence like a holy grail. The climax of the film brings the story to a satisfying (and for me, unexpectedly disturbing) close and has something relevant to say about the objectification of women and the misuse of technology that hits hard. It is also just an exciting and subversive film, with its twists coming at welcome intervals to keep a relatively streamlined story compulsively watchable. 

My top five is a close race. There were some excellent films last year, and these are the best of them. 

        (#5) Weapons (dir. Zach Cregger): Using Pulp Fiction-style chapter format, and following characters with interconnecting stories, Weapons is a thrilling and unsettling film that successfully takes a seemingly familiar premise and goes to far places with it. With a great cast including Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, and Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan steals the show as the disturbed Aunt Gladys, already sustaining horror icon status and gaining awards consideration. In my opinion, the final act goes a little bit off the rails, and lacks some of the tension of the film’s first half, but the film is an excellent package overall. Zach Cregger burst onto the scene with Barbarian, and has cemented himself as one of the 21st century’s foremost horror filmmakers, with a calculated, beautifully shot film that is proof that horror movies still have kick to them. 

        (#4) F1 (dir. Joseph Kosinski): While it is thematically similar to Kosinski’s previous effort Top Gun: Maverick, F1 takes the same excellent production values and delivers one of the year’s exhilarating films. The story here is nothing new, and it follows a similar template to many other sports films, but seeing it on an IMAX screen was absolutely incredible. For me, it is experiences like this that are necessary to remember why the theatrical experience is so important; a film that understands what it is, and is the best version of it, managing to make your heart race and feel immersed in what is on screen. The production story is fascinating; Kosinski and Brad Pitt’s dedication to making this film paid off incredibly. 

        (#3) Marty Supreme (dir. Josh Safdie): Insane is the best word to describe Marty Supreme. On its surface, from the trailers especially, it looks like a film about Timothee Chalamet playing ping-pong and sweating a whole lot. It is that film. It is also intense, vulgar, violent, emotionally resonant and most of all, fun. There is so much going on throughout a considerable runtime, but at no point does it feel boring or padded out. Normally films that piggyback solely on their shocking moments age poorly, but due to the lavish production design, confident direction, and breathless Chalamet performance, it is both a period tragicomedy and an intelligent critique of the modern day grindset culture, where hobbies become dreams that people will go to dark places to make come true. Best viewed with some friends who are willing to laugh hard. 

          (#2) Sinners (dir. Ryan Coogler): The cinematic cultural event of 2025. A jam-packed, nigh-unwieldy behemoth of a film that packs western, crime, horror, and racial identity into a rich tapestry of music and blood. It is long, and feels episodic (leading some commentators to believe it would be better as a miniseries), but presses forward purposefully, with transcendent moments aided by the wonderful score by Ludwig Goransson and gorgeous cinematography by newly-minted ASC member Autumn Durald Arkapaw. It markets itself as a Michael B. Jordan vehicle, but the film’s finest moments are on the back of Miles Caton as Sammie, the blues singer. It almost shouldn’t work as well as it does, but it is a roaring success that gets better with each viewing. 

           (#1) One Battle After Another (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson): These top two are splitting hairs, but this is what I would consider to be the best film of 2025. A monumental film of epic proportions, making use of 70mm VistaVision cameras to present massive, anxious sequences working in tandem with Jonny Greenwood’s erratic, distorted, yet expertly calibrated  soundtrack. In a year of political turmoil and conflict, One Battle presents an all-too-real alternate reality that is not much different from the one we live in. The presentation of white supremacist organizations is objective and intentionally humorous, poking fun at the underlying stupidity of racists without taking a moment to pause the story and describe it for the audience. The performances of Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti are among the year’s finest. It is a film with a vision and a statement that could very easily have been less effective or interesting. A technical marvel, a great screenplay, and the cinematic achievement of the year.