Best Movies of 2025: A Top 30 and Sixty More to Discover
As theatrical and at-home viewing continue to blur, this year’s Top 30 offers a snapshot of contemporary cinema—messy, diverse, and still full of discoveries.
A few years ago, I made a practical decision: to stop separating theatrical releases from platform premieres. In real terms, that boundary has largely ceased to exist. For those of us who grew up with the liturgy of the darkened theater—the big screen, the opening-night ritual—that loss still carries a sting. Nostalgia is stubborn. But reality has moved on. For many viewers today, there is no meaningful difference between going to the movies and pressing play at home, and that cultural battle seems, whether we like it or not, largely settled. At this point, insisting on a rigid distinction feels less like a useful framework than a noble cause. Movies are watched where they are watched. Ideally, not on a phone.
In terms of quality, the picture is not as bleak as it is often made out to be. There are plenty of strong films circulating, even if their theatrical lives are increasingly brief. With a few exceptions, much of the most interesting work enjoyed short runs on the big screen and only found a second life—and a wider audience—later on. Without this ecosystem, the landscape would be dominated almost entirely by blockbusters, animation, horror, and the occasional prestige title buoyed by awards attention. Paradoxically, it is this same system that has expanded access to what is still labeled independent, auteur, festival, or niche cinema. That is simply the reality of the moment.
Before getting to the list, a few clarifications are in order. The length reflects an attempt to offer a broad map—something that encourages exploration rather than closure. This year, instead of stretching the exercise into an endless Top 100, I opted for a Top 30 and added sixty additional recommendations grouped into deliberately loose categories. These are not meant as rigid classifications or airtight arguments; they are, first and foremost, a playful way of organizing the chaos.
One last caveat before diving in: availability is fluid. Some of the films listed here are no longer where they first appeared; others have yet to reemerge after brief theatrical runs; a few followed the opposite path. The list functions as a snapshot, not a guarantee.
The selection is limited to international releases. There are no Argentine films, and no titles that circulated exclusively at festivals without a local commercial release in 2025 (which is why films like The Secret Agent and Marty Supreme, among others, are not included). As always, omissions are inevitable—some films went unseen, others slipped through the cracks. Consider this an open invitation to add your own recommendations. Even amid fragmentation, noise, and shifting habits, one thing remains clear: very good movies keep getting made. And there is still plenty of cinema left to enjoy.
Nine Documentaries
- Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) – Questlove
- Apocalypse in the Tropics – Petra Costa
- Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost – Ben Stiller
- Power – Yance Ford
- The White House Effect – Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos, and Jon Shenk
- Devo – Chris Smith
- One to One: John & Yoko – Kevin Macdonald
- Thoughts and Prayers – Zackary Canepari and Jessica Dimmock
- The Alabama Solution – Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman
Nine Films That Flew Under the Radar
- The Last Stop in Yuma County – Francis Galuppi
- One of Them Days – Lawrence Lamont
- Steve – Tim Mielants
- Relay – David Mackenzie
- East of Wall – Kate Beecroft
- Between the Temples – Nathan Silver
- She Rides Shotgun – Nick Rowland
- Broke – Carlyle Eubank
- Friendship – Andrew DeYoung
Auteur Cinema: Nine Films Worth Seeing
- Megalopolis – Francis Ford Coppola
- Bird – Andrea Arnold
- The Smashing Machine – Benny Safdie
- Bugonia – Yorgos Lanthimos
- Jay Kelly – Noah Baumbach
- A House of Dynamite – Kathryn Bigelow
- Roofman – Derek Cianfrance
- Two Prosecutors – Sergei Loznitsa
- Warfare – Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza
Four Horror Films
- Bring Her Back – Danny and Michael Philippou
- 28 Years Later – Danny Boyle
- Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person – Ariane Louis-Seize
- Presence – Steven Soderbergh
Six Oscar Contenders
- Conclave – Edward Berger
- Maria – Pablo Larraín
- September 5 – Tim Fehlbaum
- Sing Sing – Greg Kwedar
- A Different Man – Aaron Schimberg
- Homebound – Neeraj Ghaywan
Ten MUBI Premieres (in Latin America)
- Pepe – Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias
- Matt & Mara – Kazik Radwanski
- Le deuxième acte – Quentin Dupieux
- A Journey in Spring (春行) – Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang
- Super Happy Forever – Kohei Igarashi
- Wild Diamond – Agathe Riedinger
- Toxic (Akiplėša) – Saulė Bliuvaitė
- April – Dea Kulumbegashvili
- Hiver à Sokcho – Koya Kamura
- Moon (Mond) – Kurdwin Ayub
European Auteur Cinema (Six Films)
- Daaaaaalí – Quentin Dupieux
- Fogo do Vento – Marta Mateus
- A Savana e a Montanha – Paulo Carneiro
- Trois amies – Emmanuel Mouret
- Sex – Dag Johan Haugerud
- Hors-saison – Stéphane Brizé
Two Animated Films
- The Wild Robot – Chris Sanders
- Memoir of a Snail – Adam Elliot
Three Blockbusters
- Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Christopher McQuarrie
- Avatar: Fire and Ash – James Cameron
- F1 – Joseph Kosinski
One Classic Re-Release
- Possession – Andrzej Żuławski
A Tribute to Rob Reiner
- Spinal Tap II: The End Continues – Rob Reiner
TOP 30
- 1. One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson
- 2. It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi
- 3. Grand Tour – Miguel Gomes
- 4. The Brutalist – Brady Corbet
- 5. Misericordia – Alain Guiraudie
- 6. The Mastermind – Kelly Reichardt
- 7. Miroirs No. 3 – Christian Petzold
- 8. All We Imagine as Light – Payal Kapadia
- 9. By the Stream – Hong Sang-soo
- 10. Train Dreams – Clint Bentley
- 11. Sentimental Value – Joachim Trier
- 12. A Complete Unknown – James Mangold
- 13. Vermiglio – Maura Delpero
- 14. Better Man – Michael Gracey
- 15. A Real Pain – Jesse Eisenberg
- 16. A Traveler’s Needs (Yeohaengjaui Pilyo) – Hong Sang-soo
- 17. Cover-Up – Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus
- 18. The Phoenician Scheme – Wes Anderson
- 19. Nickel Boys – RaMell Ross
- 20. The Order – Justin Kurzel
- 21. Sinners – Ryan Coogler
- 22. Hard Truths – Mike Leigh
- 23. I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui) – Walter Salles
- 24. Frankenstein – Guillermo del Toro
- 25. Highest 2 Lowest – Spike Lee
- 26. Weapons – Zach Cregger
- 27. Harvest – Athina Rachel Tsangari
- 28. The Perfect Neighbor – Geeta Gandbhir
- 29. Left-Handed Girl – Tsou Shih-Ching
- 30. Cloud – Kiyoshi Kurosawa
