2025 IN FILM

Of the 600 or so titles I saw this year, these were my most favourite. A Top 30 & many many honorables! Also, my 2025 film ballot at the Wandering Image, highlighting the year's best in film by category.

30.         ENDLESS COOKIE

29.          28 YEARS LATER

28.         SORRY, BABY

27.       VULCANIZADORA

26.            TORNADO

25.              EEPHUS

24.   THE LEGEND OF OCHI

23.      A LITTLE PRAYER

22.             FATHER 

   MOTHER SISTER BROTHER

21.

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT

20. 

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

 

19. MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS:

PART I - LAST AIR IN MOSCOW

18.               CLOUD

17.          VIDEOHEAVEN

16.            SPLITSVILLE

15.       NO OTHER CHOICE

14.

 THE GULLSPÅNG MIRACLE

13.         THE SHROUDS

12.         MISERICORDIA

11.        FAMILIAR TOUCH

10.       MARTY SUPREME

9.                ARCO

8.      BRING HER BACK

7. ON WEARY WINGS GO BY

               REFLECTION 

6.      IN A DEAD DIAMOND

5.                SINNERS

4.           CACTUS PEARS

3.      CAUGHT BY THE TIDES

2. 

HENRY FONDA FOR PRESIDENT

1. RESURRECTION 狂野时代

*****

ALSO ESSENTIAL. NOT RANKED.

↓other titles of 2025 I loved that could've placed↓

DIE MY LOVE

WEAPONS

PAVEMENTS

SENTIMENTAL VALUE

SLY LIVES!

(AKA THE BURDEN OF BLACK GENIUS)

BUGONIA

BLKNWS: 

TERMS & CONDITIONS

BONJOUR TRISTESSE

2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA

THE MASTERMIND

INVENTION

THE NIGHT BOOTS

SERIOUS PEOPLE

BLUE SUN PALACE

WARFARE

THE SECRET AGENT

DANGEROUS ANIMALS

PADDINGTON IN PERU

THE SWORD

[PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS]

ISLANDS

MAGIC FARM

HAPPYEND

A SAMURAI IN TIME

ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL

RELAY

THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER

PETER HUJAR'S DAY

THE OTHER

OMAR AND CEDRIC:

IF THIS EVER GETS WEIRD

COMME LE FEU

THE FRIEND

YOU BURN ME

MOGWAI:

IF THE STARS HAD A SOUND

THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME

KEEPER

NOUVELLE VAGUE

MICKEY 17

NO! YOU'RE WRONG. OR:

SPOOKY ACTION AT A DISTANCE

L'EMPIRE

PREDATOR: BADLANDS

THE ICE TOWER

A MAGNIFICENT LIFE

[MARCEL ET MONSIEUR PAGNOL]

NOCTURNES

WAKE UP DEAD MAN

F1

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA

ICK

DUST BUNNY

CHAINSAW MAN:

THE MOVIE - REZE ARC

SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE

INFINITE SUMMER

THE LONG WALK

THE FLAVOR 

OF CASSAVA LEAF OVER RICE

FOLKTALES

ROOFMAN

BLACK BAG

****

recap

2025

1. RESURRECTION (Bi Gan)
2. HENRY FONDA FOR PRESIDENT (Horwath)
3. CAUGHT BY THE TIDES (Jia Zhangke)
4. CACTUS PEARS (Kanawade)
5. SINNERS (Coogler)
6. REFLET DANS UN DIAMANT MORT (Cattet/Forzani)
7. ON WEARY WINGS GO BY (Tuttelberg)
8. BRING HER BACK (Philippou bros.)
9. ARCO (Bienvenu)
10. MARTY SUPREME (J.Safdie)
11. FAMILIAR TOUCH (S.Friedland)
12. MISERICORDIA (Guiraudie)
13. THE SHROUDS (Cronenberg)
14. THE GULLSPÅNG MIRACLE (M.Fredriksson)
15. NO OTHER CHOICE (Chan-wook)
16. SPLITSVILLE (Covino)
17. VIDEOHEAVEN (Alex Ross Perry)
18. CLOUD (K.Kurosawa)
19. MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS I (Loktev)
20. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (P.T. Anderson)
21. IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Panahi)
22. FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER (Jarmusch)
23. A LITTLE PRAYER (MacLachlan)
24. THE LEGEND OF OCHI (Saxon)
25. EEPHUS (Lund)
26. TORNADO (Maclean)
27. VULCANIZADORA (Potrykus)
28. SORRY, BABY (E.Victor)
29. 28 YEARS LATER (Boyle)
30. ENDLESS COOKIE (Scriver bros.)

RUNNER-UP:

DIE MY LOVE (Ramsay), WEAPONS (Cregger), PAVEMENTS (A.R.Perry), AFFEKSJONSVERDI (J.Trier), SLY LIVES! (Questlove), BLKNWS (Kahlil Joseph), BUGONIA (Lanthimos), BONJOUR TRISTESSE (Chew-Bose), 2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA (Chernov), THE MASTERMIND (Reichardt), INVENTION (C.Stephens), LES BOTTES DE LA NUIT (Granjon), SERIOUS PEOPLE (Gutierrez/Mullinkosson), BLUE SUN PALACE (Constance Tsang), WARFARE (Garland/Mendoza), O AGENTE SECRETO (Filho), DANGEROUS ANIMALS (S.Byrne), PADDINGTON IN PERU (D.Wilson), THE SWORD (Trachtenberg), INSELN (Gerster), MAGIC FARM (Ulman), HAPPYEND (Sora), A SAMURAI IN TIME (Yasuda), ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL (Nyoni), RELAY (Mackenzie), CHRONOLOGY OF WATER (K.Stew), PETER HUJAR'S DAY (Sachs), THE OTHER (Etheredge), OMAR & CEDRIC (NJ Davies), WHO BY FIRE (Lesage), THE FRIEND (McGehee/Siegel), YOU BURN ME (Piñeiro) IF THE STARS HAD A SOUND (Crook), PHOENICIAN SCHEME (W.Anderson), KEEPER (Perkins), NOUVELLE VAGUE (Linklater), MICKEY 17 (joon-ho), NO! YOU'RE WRONG (Glover), THE EMPIRE (Dumont), PREDATOR: BADLANDS (Trachtenberg), LA TOUR DE GLACE (Hadžihalilović), NOCTURNES (Dutta/Srinivasan), WAKE UP DEAD MAN (R.Johnson), F1 (Kosinski), LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA (Oliveros), ICK (Kahn), DUST BUNNY (Fuller), CHAINSAW MAN MOVIE REZE ARC (T.Yoshihara), SISU ROAD TO REVENGE (Helander), IGAVENE SUVI (Llansó), THE LONG WALK (Lawrence), FLAVOR OF CASSAVA LEAF OVER RICE (T.Todd), FOLKTALES (Ewing/Grady), ROOFMAN (Cianfrance), BLACK BAG (Soderbergh)

DECORADO (Vázquez) TBA release

MAGELLAN (Diaz) 2026 release

OBEX (Birney) 2026 release

SANATORIUM UNDER THE

SIGN OF THE HOURGLASS (Quay) TBA

(festival films I loved that got no 2025 theatrical release & no distribution)

IS THIS THING ON? (Cooper), TWINLESS (Sweeney), FRIENDSHIP (DeYoung), DEAD MAN'S WIRE (Van Sant), THE THREESOME (Hartigan), LA GRAZIA (Sorrentino), THE UGLY STEPSISTER (Blichfeldt), BLUE MOON (Linklater), HIGHEST 2 LOWEST (Spike Lee), HEDDA (DaCosta), BONE LAKE (MB Morgan), KÖLN 75 (Fluk), 100 METERS (Iwaisawa), THE LAST BLOSSOM (Kinoshita), DER TIGER (Gansel), GOODBYE JUNE (Winslet), OSIRIS (W.Kaufman), DREAM EATER (Drakulic/Drumm/AL Williams), A DESERT (Erkman), THE PLAGUE (Polinger), ALPHA (Ducournau), TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE AMANDA SEYFRIED (Fastvold), SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT (Nelson), THE LOST BUS (Greengrass), PUT YOUR SOUL ON YOUR HAND & WALK (S.Farsi), APOCALYPSE IN THE TROPICS (Petra Costa), VIỆT & NAM (TM Quý), SOUND OF FALLING (Schilinski), COVER-UP (Poitras/Obenhaus), NIGHT CALL (Blanchart), SIRĀT (Laxe), BELOW THE CLOUDS (G.Rosi), THINGS YOU KILL (A.Khatami), PERFECT NEIGHBOR (Gandbhir), WHERE TO LAND (Hartley), REBUILDING (Walker-Silverman), FISHING PLACE (Tregenza), THE CODE (Kotlyarenko), KLEZMER PROJECT (Schachmann/Koch), MISTRESS DISPELLER (Elizabeth Lo), TO A LAND UNKNOWN (Fleifel), DIRECT ACTION (Cailleau/Russell), THE VISITOR (Katkus), PEPE (de Los Santos Arias), COLLECTIVE MONOLOGUE (JS Rinland), PLAINCLOTHES (C.Emmi), ALABAMA SOLUTION (Jarecki/Kaufman), DICIANNOVE (Tortorici), YOUNG HEARTS (Schatteman), BABY (Caetano), LOVE THAT REMAINS (Pálmason), OCEANS ARE THE REAL CONTINENTS (Santambrogio), SEVEN VEILS (Egoyan) DREAMS, SEX, LOVE (DJ Haugerjud)