The Best Films Released in 2025

Happy New Year to all of my dear readers!

First off, thank you for being here. Truly. Without you, none of this would be possible. I'm thankful every day that anyone reads my ramblings, let alone in these numbers.

I'm closing off the year with an immense number of new subscribers, and I find myself at a loss to express how much it means as a motivator going into 2026. I hope that you'll find new movies to love through this site.

It's been one heck of a year for film, and I've been there to cover as much of it as I can. Even with 300 films seen and almost 240 reviews published on the site in the past 12 months, it still feels like I've missed out on some major titles.

Others – including one of my favorite films of the decade: The Furious – still don't have release dates, so they sadly can't make it on the list, no matter how much I'd want them to. They'll get their chance to shine soon, I hope. [Edit: The Furious arrives in theaters June 5th, 2026.]

Next year will hopefully be equally busy and packed with things to see. I hope to cover at least two major festivals if my budget allows it. As always, Region Free is entirely reader-funded, so tell your friends and keep the Ko-Fi fund and subscriptions on your mind.

Now, let's get to the good stuff, and I'll see you all next year.

20. Foreigner

Foreigner is writer/director Ava Maria Safai's second feature film, though you wouldn't know it from how assured and eloquent it is. This is a movie that tackles complex themes and emotions with grace that most mature filmmakers, well into their careers, struggle to achieve.

As an exploration of identity and assimilation, it is brave and intensely humane, but also mischievous and witty when you least expect it.

19. The Phoenician Scheme

I'm a massive Wes Anderson fan, so it's almost a given that his latest would appear somewhere on the best-of-the-year list. Any other year, and this would be much higher, but that just speaks to what an amazing time it's been for film.

Anderson's latest is yet another exploration of broken fathers trying to make good, but it's also a witty and surprisingly timely denunciation of colonialism and the ways oligarchs toy with the planet. It's also hysterically funny, oddly touching, and always entertaining.

18. Black Bag

Steven Soderbergh directs films at a pace that puts most others to shame. It also means his output isn't always top-tier, but it's never short of interesting.

This year we got two films from the American auteur. The second is The Christophers, which premiered at TIFF, and I adored it.

The first is Black Bag, a superlative and sexy spy thriller that is also a meticulously crafted anti-romantic comedy that dispels notions of traditional love in the modern era.

Playful, funny, and perfectly paced, it's one of the most compact delights all year.

17. How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies

A heartfelt drama where you know the ending from the title alone, How to Make Millions is nonetheless a journey worth taking, thanks to its winning cast and wry humor.

It takes its sweet time to make a point, but when it finally reaches the climactic realization of what all of this means, I would bet the coins in my pocket there isn't a dry eye in the house.

16. A House of Dynamite

The one major film I didn't have a chance to review this year is also one of the best. I have a love/hate relationship with Kathryn Bigelow, but there's no denying that she knocked it out of the park with this breathtaking and deeply troubling depiction of a world on the brink of collapse.

The film splits the potentially world-ending narrative of a rogue nuclear warhead hurtling towards Washington into three separate sections, each telling the same events in semi-real time. It's an act of deliberate anti-climax, as the point isn't to give viewers the catharsis of seeing the potential devastation.

Instead, Bigelow forces us to stew in our own failures and glass houses and contemplate how flimsy the power structures holding our society together truly are. By the end, there are no answers and nothing to pacify our fears. As House of Dynamite draws to a close, it teases us with the most chilling realization of all: Whatever happens, it will happen without anyone knowing, and with nothing we can do about it.

15. The Smashing Machine

Sadly overlooked after a triumphant festival run, The Smashing Machine does for Dwayne Johnson what The Wrestler did for Mickey Rourke.

This tremendous portrait of an almost-was is deeply compelling in all its rough edges and emotional dead ends, as Johnson delivers a career-defining turn in the leading role. He's never been better, and with any luck, this is the beginning of a phase in his career that only improves with each passing year.

14. Highest 2 Lowest

Spike Lee is devilishly funny and surprisingly poignant in his director-for-hire take on Kurosawa's crime thriller High and Low. Denzel Washington delivers an electrifying performance as a music mogul caught in a kidnapping plot, as the city of New York grows into its own character in the background.

This genre-hopping and subversive trickster divided audiences at Cannes and then again in the autumn when it premiered on streaming services. But one thing that it won't do is leave anyone without an opinion. It's far too interesting a film for that.

13. Sentimental Value

I wasn't initially convinced that I enjoyed Joachim Trier's life-as-a-house metaphor when I saw it at Cannes. In fact, I was so puzzled by it that I had to go back at the end of the festival for a second round. I'm glad I did.

Sentimental Value is a heartfelt and beautiful exploration of grief and reconciliation through art, a profoundly moving story of family and time, told with the greatest eloquence by some of the finest Scandinavian talent in film history.

12. Superman

I would not have expected to include a DC film in a best-of-the-year listing ever again after these past few years. But leave it to James Gunn to deliver the most compelling take on the Man of Steel since the Richard Donner era almost 50 years ago.

In Gunn's hands, Superman becomes once again a beacon of hope and optimism, and the message of punk rock kindness couldn't be more timely. Full of excitement and humor, it's the most accessible take on the Kryptonian hero in ages and one of the most purely enjoyable popcorn films of the year.

11. The Mastermind

Kelly Reichardt's tremendous and deliberately paced anti-heist movie about a layabout circling the drain isn't for everyone, but those willing to go along with the meticulous narrative will find a lot to love.

This wonderfully taciturn story of a hopeless art thief in 1970s America starts as a tragicomic heist movie and morphs into a portrait of both a lost man and country, as both find themselves incapable of adapting to the times.

10. Nouvelle Vague

Richard Linklater's ode to cinema is one of the most joyous films of the year. It charts the making of Breathless, Jean-Luc Godard's breakthrough feature, and captures the romantic heyday of the French New Wave in a way that feels almost tangible.

A major part of that joy is in the casting. At the last minute, I got an opportunity to speak with Guillaume Maubec, who plays Godard, and he said the infectious energy came from Linklater himself.

"It’s not just about Godard and Nouvelle Vague; it’s a chance for everyone to get to hang out on a film set."

He pauses for a moment. Then:

"Richard was like a masterclass on set, a never-ending masterclass where I could ask him about everything and he’d always help. Like how Godard had his mentors, I had Richard."

Speaking from his apartment in Paris, Maubeck is as laid back as the French maestro he emulates, but nowhere near as exacting. In fact, Maubeck initially was apprehensive about the opportunity to play the famed director.

"It’s weird playing someone who was loved and hated at the same time. He was a character that everyone had an opinion about," Maubeck ponders.

It's a daunting task, especially for a first-time actor. One that was nowhere on Maubec's radar when it first arrived on his doorstep.

"I got an email from the casting director, and I thought it was a hoax," Maubeck laughs.

"But then, six months later, I got a call that Richard would be in Paris for three days, and I would have to memorize 23 pages of a script!"

True to his on-screen counterpart, Maubec arrived at the casting session full of bluster. "I was late, so instead of apologizing, I answered: Of course I'm late, I needed my glasses!"

He refers to the thick-rimmed and pitch-black sunglasses Godard wears throughout the film.

"I had to act without my eyes because Godard wears sunglasses all the time. I had to learn how to stand on my hands and how to avoid saying certain things, because the language has changed so much since that time."

In Nouvelle Vague, that love for a distant era comes full circle when, in a moment of inspired frenzy, Godard has his cast lean against a parked car on a densely packed street, just as the lights come on, and Paris awakens for the night.

Full of nostalgia, wit, and heart, Nouvelle Vague is a deliriously fun and loving tribute to anyone who has ever dreamed.

9. Frankenstein

Guillermo del Toro's superb adaptation of Mary Shelley's brilliant book is the film we've all waited for him to make, and now it's finally a reality.

Sumptuously crafted and with stellar performances from the entire cast, this operatic and tender retelling feels both classic and brand new as it refocuses the story as an exploration of fathers and sons and the dangers of tech bros throughout the ages.

8. Alpha

This heartbreaking fable about the AIDS epidemic will leave many angry, devastated, and weeping. It is a rough and uncompromising film that comes with immense trigger warnings. But it is also vital cinema, the kind that is best experienced in a movie theater.

7. The Testament of Ann Lee

In the same spirit as Alpha, The Testament of Ann Lee is audacious filmmaking on a grand scale, telling the history of the Shaker movement as a kind of hypnotic musical that always teeters on the edge of religious fervor.

Anchored by a stunning Amanda Seyfried, The Testament of Ann Lee is the single most visionary film I've seen all year, and one of the best musicals in recent memory.

6. The History of Sound

This anti-love story about two men coming together and drifting apart through the decades as they find each other connecting through the elusive threads of folk music left me in tears.

The History of Sound is beautifully told, though with such a tender and muted touch that many have argued it is without emotion altogether. I couldn't disagree more. It communicates the longing and pain of unexpressed feelings and desires like no other.

5. Sirat

Another hypnotic and deeply unnerving experience for the year, Sirat is part road trip, part nightmare, and part something completely different.

Sirat is the hypnotic and immensely tragic story of a father and son who arrive in the Tunisian desert seeking their lost family member, and the earth-shattering road trip that follows. The less you know about it, the better. Go in blind and take the trip; it's worth it.

4. Wake Up Dead Man

Rian Johnson's sublime detective series arrives on screen for the third time at its most poignant and personal. Wake Up Dead Man is a deep and complex conversation with the audience about the power of faith and how easily it can be weaponized by the hateful.

Brilliantly written and uncontrollably funny, it is also Johnson at his most lyrical and poetic, especially when he builds the mystery up to one of the most satisfying conclusions in his illustrious career.

3. Blue Moon

The second Richard Linklater film to make the list, and one of his best in a long career of great movies. Blue Moon is Ethan Hawke's best performance ever, and the film itself is a stunning example of how much a brilliant screenplay can do with very little.

This beautiful movie about loving and longing takes place entirely in a small lobby bar, but by the end, it feels like we've seen the world entirely through the eyes of a charming man who has never received the love he feels he deserves.

2. Train Dreams

This gorgeous film about time, love, loss, and the ever-shifting nature of life left me a wreck when I saw it at TIFF in September.

I returned to it again later in the year and cried endlessly once again. It is one of the most moving films I've ever seen, and I believe I'll return to it over and over again for the rest of my life.

1. Sinners

No other film this year married big ideas, deep subtext, and massive crowd-pleasing thrills like Sinners.

Superficially, it's a brilliant mix of period drama, thriller, and horror, but look beyond that, and you'll find director Ryan Coogler in a deliberate and intricate conversation about culture and heritage in America as told through genre cinema.

This is bold, brilliant, and thoroughly captivating filmmaking that highlights Coogler as one of the seminal talents of his generation.