2025 in Films

Format adapted from Charles François, who I still hope will one day rediscover his cinephilia and start hanging out with myself and the Skandies crew again. It’s been ten years since he last used it and I hereby declare it in the public domain.

Combine the first two columns for a list of films released (or "released") in 2025, and the last two columns for films seen in 2025. Ordering is preferential when ratings are identical.

Seen Previously
Movies I saw in 2024 {or before} that were released in the U.S. in 2025. Films not yet released but currently scheduled for this year are indicated by a (→).
Seen in 2025
Movies I saw shortly before, during or after their 2025 U.S. run. Asterisks (*) indicate films seen prior to their actual release. TV-only "runs" (arbitrarily deemed eligible) get a (†).
To Be Released
Movies I saw in 2025 which are still awaiting a U.S. release. Those known to have lined up distribution are indicated by a (→). Production {year} is listed if film is more than two years old.

A For All Time

A- Event

Chime (Kurosawa) 84

B+/A- Near Great

The Currents (Mumenthaler) 78

B+ Must See

Sinners (Coogler) 73

B/B+ Warmly Recommended

*The Mastermind (Reichardt) 72
*Bugonia (Lanthimos) 71
*If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (Bronstein) 71
The Christophers (Soderbergh) 70
One Battle After Another (Anderson) 70
Stranger Eyes (Yeo) 69
*Highest 2 Lowest (Lee) 69

B Recommended

*Eephus (Lund) 68
Eagles of the Republic (Saleh) 68
Below the Clouds (Rosi) 68
*Nouvelle Vague (Linklater) 67
*Die My Love (Ramsay) 67
Case 137 (Moll) 66
Olmo (Eimbcke) 65
Carolina Caroline (Rehmeier) 65
Black Bag (Soderbergh) 64
Köln 75 (Fluk) 64
Nino (Loquès) 64

B-/B Recommended with Mild Reservations

No Other Choice (Park) 63
Reflection in a Dead Diamond (Cattet & Forzani) 63
Is This Thing On? (Cooper) 62
The Little Sister (Herzi) 62
Caught Stealing (Aronofsky) 62
The Shrouds (Cronenberg) 62
Weapons (Cregger) 61
*It Was Just an Accident (Panahi) 61
Misericordia (Guiraudie) 61
The Furious (Tanigaki) 61
*Souleymane's Story (Lojkine) 60
The Last One for the Road (Sossai) 60
Grand Tour (Gomes) 60
Rose of Nevada (Jenkin) 60

B- Recommended with Strong Reservations

F1 (Kosinski) 59
Exit 8 (Kawamura) 59
My Undesirable Friends: Part I · Last Air in Moscow (Loktev) 59
Sirāt (Laxe) 59
Dead Man's Wire (Van Sant) 59
Twinless (Sweeney) 58
Wake Up Dead Man (Johnson) 58
Sketch (Worley) 58
The Love That Remains (Pálmason) 58
Father Mother Sister Brother (Jarmusch) 58
Little Trouble Girls (Djukić) 57
Good Boy (Leonberg) 57
Marcello mio (Honoré) 57
To the Victory! (Vasyanovych) 57
Who by Fire (Lesage) 57
Good Fortune (Ansari) 56
Blue Heron (Romvari) 56
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Nyoni) 56
The Wedding Banquet (Ahn) 56
The Luckiest Man in America (Oliveros) 55
*Seven Veils (Egoyan) 55
Lurker (Russell) 55
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (Curtis) 55
La grazia (Sorrentino) 55

C+/B- On the Fence, Leaning Forward

The Actor (Johnson) 54
*Blue Moon (Linklater) 54
Suspended Time (Assayas) 54
The Phoenician Scheme (Anderson) 54
Final Destination Bloodlines (Stein, Lipovsky) 53
Materialists (Song) 53
The Ice Tower (Hadžihalilović) 53
Fuze (Mackenzie) 53
Two Prosecutors (Loznitsa) 53
A House of Dynamite (Bigelow) 52
*The Sparrow in the Chimney (Zürcher) 52
Happyend (Sora) 52
The Secret Agent (Mendonça Filho) 52
Duse (Marcello) 51
Romería (Simón) 51
Resurrection (Bi) 51
Việt and Nam (Trương) 51

C+ Take It or Leave It

Miroirs no 3 (Petzold) 50
How to Train Your Dragon (DeBlois) 50
The Friend (McGehee, Siegel) 50
Kontinental '25 (Jude) 50
Renoir (Hayakawa) 50
*Parthenope (Sorrentino) 49
Jay Kelly (Baumbach) 49
Cover-Up (Poitras, Obenhaus) 49
28 Years Later (Boyle) 48
Orphan (Nemes) 48
Harvest (Tsangari) 48
*Henry Johnson (Mamet) 47
Frankenstein (Del Toro) 47
What Does That Nature Say to You (Hong) 47
Peak Everything (Emond) 46
*Motel Destino (Aïnouz) 46
Pepe (Santos Arias) 46

C/C+ On the Fence, Leaning Backward

Caught by the Tides (Jia) 45
*The History of Sound (Hermanus) 45
*Peter Hujar's Day (Sachs) 44
Mickey 17 (Bong) 44
BLKNWS®: Terms & Conditions (Joseph) 43

C Pass

Young Mothers (Dardennes) 42
Sentimental Value (Trier) 42
Magellan (Diaz) 41
Hamnet (Zhao) 40
After the Hunt (Guadagnino) 40
*By the Stream (Hong) 39
*Sound of Falling (Schilinski) 38
Chaos: The Manson Murders (Morris) 38
The Damned (Minervini) 38
Eddington (Aster) 37
Wild Diamond (Riedinger) 37

C- Ugh

*Presence (Soderbergh) 32
Jurassic World Rebirth (Edwards) 31
April (Kulumbegashvili) 28
Forever Young (Bruni Tedeschi) 28

D+ Double-Ugh

The Fence (Denis) 26

D Bomb

F Burn the Negative

Walk-outs Channel Surfing

All of You (Bridges)
Ashkal (Chebbi)
Bad Apples (Etzler)
Blue Sun Palace (Tsang)
Dandelion's Odyssey (Seto)
Familiar Touch (Friedland)
The Fantastic 4: First Steps (Shakman)
Gazer (Sloan)
Girl (Shu)
Good News (Byun)
*Left Handed Girl (Tsou)
Lucky Lu (Choi)
Mama (Sinai)
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (Céspedes)
A Nice Indian Boy (Sethi)
Oceans Are the Real Continents (Santambrogio)
A Pale View of Hills (Ishikawa)
Sorry, Baby (Victor)
The Things You Kill (Khatami)

Incomplete Mishap/Bad Timing