The 25 best films of 2025

Sundance Festival

18. lurking

Of the many films that have taken on the subject of fame in the age of social media, with its close but illusory association between fans and celebrities, few have been as accomplished or as fresh as this psychological thriller. In his debut film, writer-director Alex Russell (writer and producer on The Bear and Beef) expertly controls the trajectory of the story as its central character crosses the line from fandom into a toxic, anti-social relationship. Matthew (Theodore Pellerin) is working as a shop assistant when pop star Oliver (charismatic Archie Madekwe) enters. An enthusiastic Matthew is taken into Oliver’s entourage, but although the film gives us his perspective, this does not make him a hero. As an audience, we complain about the way he allows himself to be ridiculed and treated like a mascot. When Oliver freezes him, Matthew goes over the edge. While most movies about audiences go straight for the scares, this clever, creepy take is all the more effective because it ultimately reaches nothing more than the thrill of the chase. Along the way, he reveals the all-too-common roots of delusions about fame. (CG)

Warner Bros. Pictures

19. Rafiq

The sharpest American film of the year so far, Companion stars Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher as a devoted young couple who go to stay with some friends at the remote forest retreat of a Russian businessman. (Rupert Friend has a hilarious turn as the oligarch with a mullet.) As a drunken evening of confessions, suspicions, and disagreements unfolds, at first glance the film seems like it might be a romantic comedy, or perhaps a raucous thriller about a robbery gone wrong. Indeed, Companion is a thrilling sci-fi comedy – but beyond that, the less you know about the film upfront, the more enjoyable its many twists and ingenious turns will be. Suffice it to say that writer-director Drew Hancock’s big-screen debut is a brilliantly entertaining satire about modern technology and the never-more-relevant topic of how entitled and misogynistic some young men are. He collects all his ideas in 97 minutes. (note)

Warner Bros. Pictures

20. Sinners

As amazing as Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther was, he outdid himself with Sinners. Michael B. Jordan makes a slyly convincing turn as twins Smoke and Stack, who return from Chicago to their hometown in Mississippi, in the Jim Crow South of 1932, to open a music bar. With tremendous ambition and imagination, Coogler transforms familiar genres and tropes into a wholly original film that blurs reality and the supernatural. Sinners is an period piece as well as a vampire film. It’s a drama about racism, family, superstition and spirituality, and comes with passionate sex and upbeat blues music. Coogler directs brilliantly, at times creating a fantasy featuring dressed-up African musicians alongside rappers. The first hour is so textured that it could stand on its own as a period film, but supernatural forces eventually intervene, leading to a finale of action, blood, and revenge. Jordan is surrounded by a great supporting cast, including Delroy Lindo, Wunmi Mosaku, and Hailee Steinfeld. Sex, blues and vampires at the door? What more could anyone want from a movie? (CG)

Cozy Cottage Films, LLC

21. Art is for everyone

Miranda Youssef’s riveting documentary tells the stranger-than-fiction story of Thomas Kinkade, one of the biggest-selling artists in history. Critics dismissed his work as sick to the point of nausea, but in the 1990s and 2000s, there were stores across the United States dedicated to Kincaid’s sentimental images of cozy country cottages. “Art for All” raises fascinating questions about who has the right to decide what constitutes legitimate art, and whether some paintings are more ethical than others – questions that resonate today, in light of the ongoing culture wars in the United States. But Youssef’s balanced and sensitive film is as interesting on personal issues as it is on social and political issues. A key part of Kincaid’s marketing was his carefully constructed public image as a devout, all-American Christian family man, yet the so-called “painter of light” had a dark side as well. Did the pressures of being a clean Dr. Jekyll drive him to become a self-destructive Mr. Hyde? (note)

A24

22. War

Alex Garland, writer and director of the film Civil War, and Ray Mendoza, a war veteran who was the military consultant for this film, have created a harrowing and visceral real-time drama that recreates a real battle between Navy SEALs and Al-Qaeda jihadists. Garland’s virtuoso technique and Mendoza’s first-hand experience of war blend into a film that is relentlessly focused, immersing us in the intensity of combat without explanation or backstory. However, the faces of Joseph Quinn, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, and D’Fran Won-a-Tai are enough to convey the fear and determination of being under siege. By creating characters far removed from the bravado of traditional Hollywood war movies, the actors depict bravery in battle as a test of endurance filled with horror. The film immerses us in this feeling. It is loud and intense, relentless in the volley of grenades and gunfire, and when the cries of pain from the wounded men begin, they never stop. War is an impressive technical achievement, but it is much more than that. By focusing on the personal cost of combat and the violence itself rather than the politics of the conflict in Iraq, he reinvents the war film with freshness and immediacy. (CG)

Agat films

23. Holy cow

Deep in the lush French countryside, scruffy teenager Toton (Clément Faveau) must take care of his younger sister Claire (Luna Garrett) after their father’s sudden death. His answer to their difficult financial problems? Making award-winning premium cheeses. Louise Courvoisier’s debut film is a moving coming-of-age drama, rooted in the soil of the Jura region where she grew up. She offers an earthy, insider’s perspective on how hard life is for farmworkers, and how painful it is when carefree youth transitions into responsible, uncompromising adulthood. But she also crafts a warm, romantic, scenic, and ultimately hopeful story about underdogs working together under the sun to improve their lives. Blessed are the cheesemakers, as Monty Python once said. (note)

BBC/Aardman Animation

24. Wallace and Gromit: Revenge of Most Birds

The Aardman’s greatest heroes are back – and so is their sneakiest opponent ever, a demonic penguin named Feathers McGraw. The Oscar-nominated Vengeance Most Fowl, directed by Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham, is full of the qualities that make Wallace & Gromit’s farcical adventures so dear: painstaking stop-motion technique, clever Heath Robinson-style gadgets, dark homage to classic cinema, delightfully silly British humor, and a deep affection for the characters and their world. Above all, it’s fun to see Feathers McGraw, more than 30 years after his introduction in The Wrong Trousers. But there’s more to the Bristol-based studio’s new film than just the nostalgic whimsy you’d expect. When Wallace invents a robot garden gnome that does all of Gromit’s favorite gardening jobs (and that’s even before he turns evil), the story takes a boat ride into Mission: Impossible territory by addressing concerns about artificial intelligence. (note)

A24

25. Becoming a guinea fowl

The hugely talented director Rungano Nyoni, whose I’m Not a Witch (2017) won a BAFTA for Best British Debut, makes witty, accessible films with great visual panache. Her latest work is a sharp-edged drama about cultural and generational conflict. The heroine, Shula, is a cosmopolitan woman who has recently returned from the city to her village in Zambia. Nyoni conveys this dissonance immediately, when Shula returns home from a costume party wearing a shiny silver helmet and dark glasses (an homage to the Missy Elliott video) and finds her Uncle Fred dead on a dirt road. As the story takes us through the family’s traditional funeral rites, it slowly reveals that Shula and two of their cousins ​​were abused by Fred as children, a fact their mothers put aside as they grieved for their brother. Neon’s style is realistic even when it drops into surreal imagery. The narrative about secrecy and the trauma of sexual assault builds forcefully until the end, when Shula remembers a children’s TV show and the title of this stunning film finally makes sense. (CG)

The numbers in this piece do not represent ratings, but are intended to make the separate entries as clear as possible.

—

If you liked this story Subscribe to the Essential List newsletter – A handpicked collection of unmissable features, videos and news, delivered to your inbox twice a week.

For more culture stories from the BBC, stay tuned Facebook, X and Instagram.