If you had asked me 3 months ago, I would have said this has been an exceptionally bare and down year for film. Thankfully some of the fall titles managed to rise to the top, even giving us some genuine success stories. Leading the way would of course be Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, which is arguably standing heads and shoulders above everything else. But its not without its companion pieces, including Zhao’s Hamnet, Marty Supreme (which has been finding some welcome box office success), the rising star in Sorry, Baby, the release of films like Panahi’s It was Just an Accident and Park’s No Other Choice.
In any case, it’s always fun looking back at what stood out and where things land come the end of December. Here’s my highlights and Top list for 2025 in cinema:
Some Hightlights:
Favorite Debut: Grand Theft Hamnet (Sam Crane, Pinny Grylls)
Honorable Mention: Bob Trevino Likes It (Tracie Laymon)/Exhibiting Forgivness (Titus Kephar)
Favorite Animated Film: Lost in Starlight (Han Ji-won)
Honorable Mention: Predator: Killer of Killers (Dan Trachtenberg)/The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie/Little Amelie (Mailys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang)
Favorite Blockbuster: Ballerina (Len Wiseman)
Honorable Mention: The Fantastic 4: First Steps/How To Train Your Dragon (Dean DeBlois)/Mission Impossile: Final Reckoning
Biggest Surprise: Predator: Badlands (Dan Trachtenberg)
Honorable Mention: Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (Michael Morris)
Favorite Horror: Weapons (Zach Cregger)
Honorable Mention: Dust Bunny (Bryan Fuller)/Bring Her Back (Michael and Denny Philippou)/Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro)/Presence (Steven Soderberg)
Favorite Comedy: Eternity (David Freyne)
Honorable Mention: Eleanor the Great (Scarlett Johansson)/The Naked Gun (Akiva Schaffer)/Roofman (Derek Clanfrance)
Most Underrated Film: A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (Kogonada)
Honorable Mention: Oh, Canada (Paul Schrader)/The Alto Knights (Barry Levinson)/Eden (Ron Howard)
Hidden Gems: Inside (Charles Williams)/Penguin Lessons (Peter Cattaneo)/Vulcanizadora (Joel Potrykus)/The Assessment (Fleur Fortune)/East of Wall (Kate Beecroft)/Xeno (Matthew Loren Oates)/The Old Woman with the Knife (Min Kyu-dong)
Favorite Canadian Film: The Order (Justin Kurzel)
Honorable Mention: Meadowlarks (Tasha Hubbard)
Favorite Documentary: John Candy: I Like Me (Colin Hanks)
Top 12 Movies of 2025
1. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
In the words of many a pundit: this is peak cinema
2. Hamnet (Chloe Zhao)
Tender, sweeping, poetic, and patient
5. Anemone (Ronan Day Lewis)
Visual, creative, intimate and ambitious debut
4. Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)
Insightful, full of depth, and highly symbolic
3. The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt)
A master of the craft and one of the best endings of the year
6. The Ballad of Wallis Island (James Griffiths)
Sweet, lovely, reflective, memorable and meaningful
7. The History of Sound (Oliver Hermanus)
Plays on all the senses
8. Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor)
Subtle and unexpected, it sneaks up on you with its character arc
10. 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle)
Visionary and epic, both in scale and theme
It Was Just An Accident (Jafar Panahi)
His most complete film yet, and layered with tension/moral questions
11. Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (Scott Cooper)
Immersive performance, engaging and relatable and accessible
12. Materialists (Celine Song)
Smart commentary, superb script
The Outliers
13. F1 (Joseph Kosinkski)- what the movies were made for)
14. Sinners (Ryan Coogler)- messy but transcendent
15. Eddington (Ari Aster)- brave and boundary pushing
16. Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh)- tons of delicious swagger, pitch perfect dialogue and best ensemble casting in recent memory
17. Highest to Lowest (Spike Lee)- a master exploring new metaphorical ground
18. Sore: A Wife From the Future (Yandy Laurens)- a rich and emotional sci-fi indie
19. Jazzy (Morrisa Maltz)- pastoral, contemplative
20. The Legend of Ochi (Isaiah Saxon)- magical, spiritual and enchanting
The Stories of my Life 