Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2025, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
The year 2025 was, for me, the first in my memory in which movies didn’t mean much. Well, mostly. Outside of parenting, work, home ownership, and general worrying, my pop culture ponderings were mostly centered around the Oasis reunion tour. Once the shows I attended (in Toronto and New Jersey) were finished, it was time to turn my attention back to cinema—in the form of September’s Toronto International Film Festival and then, a few weeks later, the mighty One Battle After Another. Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterpiece turned the movie year around for me. There were more pleasures to come, thankfully.
Before delving into my top 10 list, a few personal picks to share:
Most memorable cinema moment of 2025: While watching Jaws with my son on the big screen in August — his first time seeing it—I could not wait to see how the audience would respond to the great Ben Gardner jump scare. My son shot out of his seat, and even though I’ve seen Jaws countless times, so did I. And so did everyone else in the packed theater.
Favorite streaming debuts: Rebecca Miller’s Mr. Scorsese and the updated Beatles Anthology.
Best performance: Amanda Seyfried in The Testament of Ann Lee.
Most thrilling 4K release: Criterion’s Eyes Wide Shut.
Greatest surprise: That The Naked Gun was not just hilarious, but effectively captured the spirit of the Leslie Nielson-starrers.
Most jarring moments: The cliff sequence in Sirat. (Gulp.)
The Poor Things Award, i.e., it just didn’t work for me: Hamnet.
Most unjustly ignored 2025 release: Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love.
Favorite needle-drop: “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” in Marty Supreme.
Most impactful first-time watch: Funeral Parade of Roses.
2025 TIFF entries I can’t wait to re-watch in 2026: Erupjca, starring Charli XCX, and Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert, were the two finest films I saw at the festival. I feel like Charli and the King would get along well.
The 2026 biggies I was not able to see in time for this list: Avatar: Fire and Ash, Ella McCay (I think it looks good!), The Mastermind, Resurrection.
Now, onto the 15 films that most resonated for me in 2025 …
Honorable mention: Die My Love, A Little Prayer, The Naked Gun, The Secret Agent, The Testament of Ann Lee
10. Friendship (Andrew De Young)
The level of enjoyment audience members will have with Andrew DeYoung’s Friendship is tied directly to their tolerance for the humor of Tim Robinson. The star of the meme-inspiring Netflix series I Think You Should Leave has cultivated a devoted following by creating situations of embarrassment and characters who veer wildly from absurdist rage to complete self-delusion. While Robinson’s full-length feature as star does not reach his show’s highs, it’s still a hysterically funny, pitch-black comedy.
9. The Shrouds (David Cronenberg)
David Cronenberg’s latest was underrated when it screened at Cannes in 2024 and underrated when it opened stateside in 2025. It is not hard to see why; this somber, deeply upsetting piece of paranoia is drenched in grief and offers no easy answers. These features, however, are part of what makes it so resonant. Its final sequence (in flight) is one of the most enigmatic of Cronenberg’s career.
8. Blue Moon (Richard Linklater)
Richard Linklater’s second film of 2025 was one of his finest; Nouvelle Vague was pleasurable but never came close to reaching the emotional sucker-punch of Blue Moon. Ethan Hawke is devilishly funny and movingly wounded as the sad-eyed Lorenz Hart. It’s the strongest performance of his fine career.
7. Sinners (Ryan Coogler)
Ryan Coogler’s film was a raucous, truly memorable filmgoing experience. It is everything we want out of a blockbuster from a major filmmaker—bold, fresh, and unafraid to take big swings. Michael B. Jordan, Wunmi Mosaku, Jack O’Connell, and Hailee Steinfeld are stellar, but Delroy Lindo steals the film as aging bluesman Delta Slim.
6. It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi)
Jafar Panahi’s latest film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and it is easy to see why—this is a staggering drama about former political prisoners who may (or may not) have found their torturer. What is unexpected, though, is the laugh-out-loud humor. It is rare for a film to be both darkly funny and emotionally devastating; Accident packs a wallop, and leaves the audience feeling overcome in the best sense.
5. Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)
Joachim Trier makes Sentimental Value seem almost effortless, but consider what he has accomplished. A story that could seem trite—navigating the relationship of a filmmaker and his adult daughters—is instead mesmerizing. It shares that mix of warmth and melancholy that made The Worst Person in the World so memorable, and like all of Trier’s films, it is awash with empathy. The performances of Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning are sublime, as is the film’s payoff.
4. Sirāt (Oliver Laxe)
Nervewracking, upsetting, and outrageously funny, Sirāt belongs on a list of Most Stress-inducing Films Ever with Wages of Fear, Sorcerer, Uncut Gems, and the next three entries on my top 10 list. Óliver Laxe’s gem somehow brings together Moroccan ravers, a father desperately searching for his missing daughter, his adolescent son, and a series of increasingly dangerous obstacles for a film that is downright unforgettable.
3. No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook)
Park Chan-wook’s latest is a messier film than the remarkable Decision to Leave, but no less impactful. Park directs with thrilling rage—no surprise coming from the director of the legendary Oldboy. What’s different this time, though, is a “ripped from the headlines” feel that is oh-so-2025. The failure of employers to properly protect and compensate workers, the threat of AI, and the erasure of the individual are clearly issues as pressing in South Korea as they are in North America. It’s doubtful any filmmaker has tackled these matters with as much verve, innovation, or chutzpah as Park. The performances of Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, and the rest of the cast must also be acknowledged, as well as the bold screenplay based on Donald Westlake’s novel The Axe.
2. Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie)
My four favorite films of 2025 had something in common: They stressed me out so heavily that by the end credits I felt utterly—and joyfully—exhausted. That is a great feeling, honestly, and it sums up the experience of watching Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme. Have we ever seen this version of the 1950s onscreen? Drenched with sweat and with anger, steeped in sex, and flush with real faces. Speaking of those faces: When was the last time a major film featured a cast as delightfully batshit as Marty Supreme? Consider: Abel Ferrara. Kevin O’Leary. Fran Drescher. Larry “Ratso” Sloman. Sandra Bernhard. Penn Jillette. Ted “The Golden Voice” Williams? Why not! And of course, there are the likes of Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, the remarkable Odessa A’zion, Tyler Okonma, Géza Röhrig, and Moses the dog. And the soundtrack. And the vision of Darius Khondji. And a screenplay with lines that linger in one’s memory. (“You’re making your star player huddle in a rat’s ass!” “I’m like Hitler’s worst nightmare.” “That doesn’t even enter my consciousness.” “Clearly I’m old enough.”) We never have a sense of where Marty, one of 2025’s greatest achievements, is headed.
1. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Walking out of One Battle After Another, the thump of “American Girl” rattling around my brain, I felt positively exhilarated—and quickly realized that my faith in the power of cinema was restored. Is it Paul Thomas Anderson’s greatest achievement? Hard to determine; how can one decide between Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, The Master, There Will Be Blood, etc.? Let’s instead say it is his most confident, heartstopping, and ambitious. It is also the PTA film that best captured the supremely messed-up period of its creation. Perhaps the greatest indicator of Battle’s success is that despite strong box office, rapturous reviews, and top placement on countless best-of-2026 lists, it does not feel overhyped. Open a few small Modelos and embrace the chaos of PTA’s America.