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.     THE LEGEND OF OCHI

29.             SPLITSVILLE

28.         ENDLESS COOKIE

27.          28 YEARS LATER

26.      A LITTLE PRAYER

25.         SORRY, BABY

24.       VULCANIZADORA

23.            TORNADO

22.              EEPHUS

21.             FATHER 

   MOTHER SISTER BROTHER

20.

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT

19. 

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

 

18.MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS:

PART I - LAST AIR IN MOSCOW

17.               CLOUD

16.          VIDEOHEAVEN

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

BUGONIA

BLKNWS: 

TERMS & CONDITIONS

BONJOUR TRISTESSE

2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA

THE MASTERMIND

INVENTION

THE NIGHT BOOTS

THE SECRET AGENT

DANGEROUS ANIMALS

PADDINGTON IN PERU

THE SWORD

[PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS]

ISLANDS

MAGIC FARM

DUST BUNNY

HAPPYEND

A SAMURAI IN TIME

RELAY

THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER

PETER HUJAR'S DAY

THE OTHER

OMAR AND CEDRIC:

IF THIS EVER GETS WEIRD

COMME LE FEU

YOU BURN ME

MOGWAI:

IF THE STARS HAD A SOUND

THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME

KEEPER

NOUVELLE VAGUE

NO! YOU'RE WRONG. OR:

SPOOKY ACTION AT A DISTANCE

THE ICE TOWER

A MAGNIFICENT LIFE

[MARCEL ET MONSIEUR PAGNOL]

SLY LIVES!

(AKA THE BURDEN OF BLACK GENIUS)

ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL

SERIOUS PEOPLE

BLUE SUN PALACE

THE FRIEND

L'EMPIRE

PREDATOR: BADLANDS

NOCTURNES

WAKE UP DEAD MAN

F1

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA

ICK

MICKEY 17

WARFARE

CHAINSAW MAN:

THE MOVIE - REZE ARC

SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE

INFINITE SUMMER

THE LONG WALK

THE FLAVOR 

OF CASSAVA LEAF OVER RICE

FOLKTALES

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. FAMILIAR TOUCH (S.Friedland)
11. MARTY SUPREME (J.Safdie)
12. MISERICORDIA (Guiraudie)
13. THE SHROUDS (Cronenberg)
14. THE GULLSPÅNG MIRACLE (M.Fredriksson)
15. NO OTHER CHOICE (Chan-wook)
16. VIDEOHEAVEN (Alex Ross Perry)
17. CLOUD (K.Kurosawa)
18. MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS I (Loktev)
19. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (P.T. Anderson)
20. IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Panahi)
21. FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER (Jarmusch)
22. EEPHUS (Lund)
23. TORNADO (Maclean)
24. VULCANIZADORA (Potrykus)
25. SORRY, BABY (E.Victor)
26. A LITTLE PRAYER (MacLachlan)
27. 28 YEARS LATER (Boyle)
28. ENDLESS COOKIE (Scriver bros.)
29. SPLITSVILLE (Covino)
30. THE LEGEND OF OCHI (Saxon)

RUNNER-UP:

DIE MY LOVE (Ramsay), WEAPONS (Cregger), PAVEMENTS (A.Ross Perry), AFFEKSJONSVERDI (J.Trier), 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), O AGENTE SECRETO (Filho), DANGEROUS ANIMALS (S.Byrne), PADDINGTON IN PERU (D.Wilson), THE SWORD (Trachtenberg), INSELN (Gerster), MAGIC FARM (Ulman), DUST BUNNY (Fuller), HAPPYEND (Sora), A SAMURAI IN TIME (Yasuda), RELAY (Mackenzie), CHRONOLOGY OF WATER (K.Stew), PETER HUJAR'S DAY (Sachs), THE OTHER (Etheredge), OMAR & CEDRIC (NJ Davies), WHO BY FIRE (Lesage), YOU BURN ME (Piñeiro) IF THE STARS HAD A SOUND (Crook), PHOENICIAN SCHEME (W.Anderson), KEEPER (Perkins), NOUVELLE VAGUE (Linklater), NO! YOU'RE WRONG (Glover), LA TOUR DE GLACE (Hadžihalilović), MARCEL ET MONSIEUR PAGNOL (Chomet), SLY LIVES! (Questlove), ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL (Nyoni), SERIOUS PEOPLE (Gutierrez/Mullinkosson), BLUE SUN PALACE (Constance Tsang), THE FRIEND (McGehee/Siegel), THE EMPIRE (Dumont), PREDATOR: BADLANDS (Trachtenberg), NOCTURNES (Dutta/Srinivasan), WAKE UP DEAD MAN (R.Johnson), F1 (Kosinski), LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA (Oliveros), ICK (Kahn), MICKEY 17 (joon-ho), WARFARE (Garland/Mendoza), 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), 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), KIM NOVAK'S VERTIGO (Philippe), TWO PIANOS TBA (Desplechin), FILMLOVERS! TBA (Desplechin), THE ACTOR (Duke Johnson), TWINLESS (Sweeney), FRIENDSHIP (DeYoung), DEAD MAN'S WIRE (Van Sant), THING WITH FEATHERS (Southern), THE THREESOME (Hartigan), LA GRAZIA (Sorrentino), THE HOUSEMAID (P.Feig), A PRIVATE LIFE (Zlotowski), THE UGLY STEPSISTER (Blichfeldt), BLUE MOON (Linklater), HIGHEST 2 LOWEST (Spike Lee), HEDDA (DaCosta), APRIL (Kulumbegashvili), 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 2026 (Ducournau), TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE (Fastvold), KOKUHO (Lee Sang-il), IT ENDS (Ullom), SHARP CORNER (Buxton), SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT (Nelson), 11 REBELS (Shiraishi), MYTH OF MAN (Winans), 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), DRACULA (Jude), KONTINENTAL '25 TBA (Jude), 8 POSTCARDS FROM UTOPIA (Jude), 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), ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO (Macdonald), CATHEDRALS (Algrant), THE SAND CASTLE (Brown), NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH (Farley), EDEN (Howard), MOUNTAINHEAD (Armstrong), NIGHT ALWAYS COMES (Caron), DRY LEAF TBA (Koberidze) , DEATH WILL COME TBA (Hochhäusler), LE DERNIER SOUFFLE (Costa-Gavras), BLACK RABBIT WHITE RABBIT (Mokri), YOUNG MOTHERS 2026 (Dardenne), JE N'AVAIS QUE LE NÉANT - SHOAH PAR LANZMANN (Ribot), L'HISTOIRE DE SCÉNARIO (Godard), ARIEL TBA (Patiño), RABBIT TRAP (Chainey), RENOIR (Hayakawa), AKIPLESA (Bliuvaite), PRISONER OF WAR (Mandylor), BEAST OF WAR (K.Roache-Turner), LIFE AFTER (Davenport), THIS LIFE OF MINE TBA (Fillières), DESCENDENT (Cilella), SEPTEMBER SAYS (Labed), EMMANUELLE (Diwan), SILENT FRIEND (Enyedi), TUNNELS: SUN IN THE DARK TBA (Chuyen), FRÉWAKA (Aislinn Clarke), MR BURTON (M.Evans), TRUE CHRONICLES OF BLIDA JOINVILLE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL (Zahzah), SHADOW'S EDGE (Larry Yang), BLUE FIGHT TBA (Miike), SOROP TBA (Avianto), VICIOUS (Bertino), TILL DEATH DO US PART (Avianto), CURSED / SIHIR PELAKOR (Prasetyo), CORPSE WASHER (H.Daeng Ratu), 2551.03 THE END (Pfaffenbichler)