8 months into 2026, I am finally ready to publish my Best Films list of 2025. The delay is due to waiting to see as many relevant films from the past year. Now, unlike previous years, many of the big Cannes 2025 films were released in cinemas less than a year after their Cannes premiere. Films such as It Was Just an Accident, The Secret Agent, No Other Choice, Sentimental Value were all released in a cinema in fall of 2025 (in a multiplex no less) while Sirat and Resurrection were released by March-April 2026. This was a huge positive move from previous years due to all these films distribution held by Neon, Mubi and Janus Films. Neon’s incredible race to buy all worthy Cannes films is certainly helping get many Cannes films in Cinema in good time but it also re-emphasizes that struggling distribution market where a few distributors are locked in a fight with each other for the limited few foreign cinema titles, much like the topic of No Other Choice. The limited foreign titles playing in North America cinemas in 2025 also meant that the same few films were in almost every end of the year list.
There are still quite a few 2025 titles I need to see such as
What Does That Nature Say to you or Dry Leaf, both
of whose North American distribution rights are held by Cinema Guild and none
of these films played in a cinema close to me. I might still get a chance to
see these films in 2026 or for sure by 2027 at least. In the meantime, it is
time to publish this list and move on to trying to see 2026 films!
Best Films of 2025
1. Our Land (Nuestra Tierra, Argentina
co-production, Lucrecia Martel)
This remarkable documentary feels like a natural historical progression
to Zama. Our Land (formerly called Landscapes)
is about a specific instance of land grab and killing in our current world but issues
related to land disputes can be drawn back to Spanish colonial times (Zama)
which featured racist treatment of locals, their displacement/killing and
annexation of land. Centuries haven’t erased these racial and colonist
attitudes and they are instead found under different labels: modernization,
land rights, progress, jobs. Martel’s film highlights that the onus is on
indigenous people to constantly fight for their rights. Similar stories exist
all over the world.
2. Blue Heron (Canada/Hungary, Sophy Romvari)
Beautiful and devastating at the same time. The comparisons
with Aftersun are appropriate but both films are different in how
they highlight the parent-child dynamic. The core sentiment joining both films
is that parents and kids struggle in their own way and even though each tries
to shelter the other from their personal battles, both must live with the
consequences.
3. Cactus Pears (Sabar Bonda,
India/UK/Canada, Rohan Kanawade)
It is impressive to see such a film being made in current
India where censorship is reaching new lows. The film depicts the struggle to
exert one’s identity when surrounded by decades of rituals, cultural and
societal expectations.
4. My Father’s Shadow (UK/Nigeria, Ireland, Akinola
Davies)
Another beautiful parent-child film in this list. Lovely
usage of children’s perspective which doesn’t spell everything out and ensures
one can fill in the blanks.
5. Sirat (Spain/France, Oliver Laxe)
6. Materialists (US/Finland/UK, Celine Song)
When the trailer first appeared for this film, it felt this film
was going to be like Past Lives with a woman torn between two
men. Even though that aspect of the film is true (1 women, 2 men), the film is
completely different from Past Lives which is an emotional
romantic film. Materialists, befitting its title, breaks down a
relationship into a set of transactions that each couple does, consciously or
unconsciously. A highly relevant and worthy film!
7. One Battle After Another (US, Paul Thomas Anderson)
8. The Secret Agent (Brazil co-production, Kleber
Mendonça Filho)
9. It Was Just an Accident (Iran/France/Luxembourg, Jafar Panahi)
10. Homebound (India, Neeraj Ghaywan)
Based on a real-life incident, the film manages to cover a
lot of ground. The film uses the pandemic as a background to shed a light on class
differences that still exist in India and how that impacts jobs, careers and
has a knock-on effect on urban-rural issues.
Honourable mentions:
Urchin (UK/US, Harris Dickinson)
Any British film depicting struggles of people on fringes of
society immediately makes one think of Ken Loach but it becomes clear very soon
that Urchin is a different film altogether. The shots of forest
and nature recalled Tom Geens’ Couple in a Hole and aspects of
early Ben Wheatley.
Kontinental ’25 (Romania co-production, Radu Jude)
Radu Jude has found an incredible rhythm by alternating his
releases by having a contemplative film followed by a film that pushes boundaries
(such as 2025’s Dracula) or vice-versa. Kontinental ’25
is more compact, coherent and overall far more completive than Dracula
and covers plenty of insightful historical-cultural elements of Hungary-Romania
plus a commentary on changing face of Europe.
Two Prosecutors (Ukraine co-production, Sergey Loznitsa)
Packs a silent punch. The setting is 1937 but the core story
is still relevant in our current times.
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (Canada, Matt
Johnson)
The film answers the question that we didn’t know existed.
What if Back to the Future was recreated as a Canadian film? This
film is that creative and energetic answer.
Rose of Nevada (UK, Mark Jenkin)
Mark Jenkin offers his own unique creative take on a sci-fi genre.
Best seen without reading anything about story.
The Things You Kill (Turkey/France/Poland/Canada, Alireza
Khatami)
The film pulls off such an incredible trick that if one
suspends their belief, one can appreciate the film. However, if one doesn’t
want to go with the slight of hand, then the film will not work. Interestingly,
the knock on the door at the end of the film echoes the footsteps at the end of
It was Just an Accident.
The Blue Trail (Brazil/Mexico/Netherlands/Chile, Gabriel
Mascaro)
Quite different from Gabriel Mascaro’s previous film, The
Blue Trail is an imaginative take on a futuristic dystopian genre spliced
with a road journey film even though there are no roads traveled in this film
but merely rivers.
No Other Choice (South Korea/France, Park Chan-wook)
Only including this film on the list specifically for the
ending, which anticipates how our current world will be shaped AI and how that
turns an ultra-competitive job market into an even more ruthless effort. The
film feels like a natural successor to Parasite in showing how the
next stage of capitalism is impacting our society and leaving people at the
middle and bottom fighting for tinier scraps in the form of jobs.
