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.
As the goal posts draw nearer my attention falters. Culture slips away. The state of transcendence movies used to induce is replaced too often by boredom, by the sense that I’ve seen all these fights, embraces, chases, confrontations, ultimatums, revelations and reversals before. The hype surrounding festival favorites, the hysteria of blockbuster campaigns, the draining demands of streaming, the video reviews and Q&As and roundtables and lists of favorites and dream double features and intros and outros are making me hate show business.
Even my guilty pleasures disappointed. Jason Statham has abandoned Corey Yuen’s carefully constructed mayhem for routine shoot-’em-ups. Don Lee turned out two of his most dispiriting potboilers, one of which had him punching VFX ghosts for ninety minutes. Bi Gan surrounded that spectacular oner with two hours of dithering. Johnnie To’s creative block has stretched to six years.
My list lacks several critical darlings, like Marty (What Makes Sammy Run) Supreme or Avatar: Fire and Ash, a remake of a story that was already a remake. It’s also missing films I genuinely loved, like Caught by the Tides and Grand Tour, because they were on my list last year. At least a dozen good movies were out of consideration because they will almost certainly never be released in the US.
10. The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
I don’t know enough about Brazilian politics and culture to understand everything that’s going on in The Secret Agent, but I can see smart filmmaking and appreciate strong acting. Long but rewarding, it’s a film that keeps unfolding after it’s over.
9. Timestamp (Kateryna Gornostai)
Propaganda produced with the backing of the Ukrainian government, this documentary details efforts to keep education programs running in the midst of war with Russia. If that sounds unpalatable, the movie itself is surprisingly honest and moving. By the way, Putin is trying to kill everyone in this picture.
8. Late Shift (Petra Volpe)
The winner of the Golden Frog at this year’s Camerimage is so unassuming you might wonder what the fuss is about. Jury president Niki Caro told me Late Shift was a unanimous decision: no other film addressed its issues with such care and insight. Leonie Benesch delivers another outstanding performance as a nurse and mother at the end of her rope who has to make life-and-death decisions over and over.
7. The Perfect Neighbor (Geeta Gandbhir)
How do you break through to naysayers and nonbelievers? Bodycams don’t lie (as long as they’re on). No one who sees The Perfect Neighbor will be able to swallow the rationale for “stand your ground” laws. Gandbhir’s genius decision to construct scenes from different POVs pays off with an uncommonly strong narrative.
6. Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)
For a filmmaker as inventive as Trier, Sentimental Value may seem too slight. Sure, family dynamics, declining career, a house with feelings—all captured with skill, but also a bit familiar. But so many elements caught me, from the equivalent to a course in directing to miraculous impromptu shots. The opening scene, where Renate Reinsve’s stage fright threatens to disrupt opening night, is among the most exciting footage I saw all year.
5. Sinners (Ryan Coogler)
It’s not the best vampire film ever, but the audacity behind Coogler’s vision commands respect. Have Michael B. Jordan play twins? Mix 70mm and IMAX? Resurrect Delta blues for a modern audience? Coogler pulls it off, with a special nod to DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw, the first woman to shoot an IMAX feature.
4. Blue Moon (Richard Linklater)
Linklater (with screenwriter Robert Kaplow) doesn’t just get all the period details right, he elicits superb performances from the excellent cast. Then he finds a way into the soul of a brilliant but bitter lyricist who can’t stop antagonizing everyone he meets. Then Ethan Hawke sacrifices his ego to nail Lorenz Hart.
3. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Had never been won over by Anderson, but OBAA did the trick. Heartfelt, relevant, made with confidence and wit, it’s a movie of its time, from the super-charged large format photography to the pervasive paranoia and the uniformly superb performances (apart from Penn’s turn as Popeye the General).
2. Train Dreams (Clint Bentley)
The crafts behind this film fleshed out Denis Johnson’s morose novella, building a compelling world for Joel Edgerton’s deeply felt portrayal of a man of limited means. Its closing montage hits harder the older you are.
1. Left-Handed Girl (Shih-Ching Tsou)
Tsou’s script (written with Sean Baker) follows three Taiwanese women one step away from catastrophe: a young thief, a sexually exploited quasi-drug dealer, and a deep-in-debt noodle cook in a night market stall. All three are victims of a male-dominated society rife with cruelty and superstition. Tsou depicts these women with grace, empathy, and manic energy, finding love and humor in their darkest moments. She made me believe that cinema matters.