As always, in an unranked order, here are the thirty best movies I was able to watch in 2025. This list was also published on Letterboxd.

I don’t think this year’s list is particularly interesting, except in that Hong Sang-soo has three entries and there are a couple (Aftersun, Sexy Beast) directorial debuts in here. If I had to throw these all out and pick out only one it’d be Haneke’s Benny’s Video.

Here are links to previous lists: 2024, 2023 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017.

  • Charlotte Wells: Aftersun, 2022
  • Larry Clark: Another Day in Paradise, 1998
  • Michael Haneke: Benny’s Video, 1992
  • Jack Dunphy: Bob’s Funeral, 2024
  • Hong Sang-soo: By the Stream, 2024
  • Adam Curtis: Can’t Get You Out of My Head, 2021
  • Agnès Varda: Cléo from 5 to 7, 1962
  • Bill Duke: Deep Cover, 1992
  • Sidney Lumet: Dog Day Afternoon, 1975
  • Stanley Kwan Kam-Pang: Full Moon in New York, 1989
  • Tracey Todd: The Flavor of Cassava Leaf Over Rice, 2025
  • Sam Crane, Pinny Grylls: Grand Theft Hamlet, 2024
  • Hong Sang-soo: In Another Country, 2012
  • Leos Carax: It’s Not Me, 2024
  • Clint Eastwood: Juror #2, 2024
  • Werner Herzog: Lessons of Darkness, 1992
  • Alain Guiraudie: Misericordia, 2024
  • Kelly Reichardt: The Mastermind, 2025
  • Norman Jewison: Moonstruck, 1987
  • Richard Linklater: Nouvelle Vague, 2025
  • Wim Wenders: Room 666, 1982
  • Jonathan Glazer: Sexy Beast, 2000
  • Adam Curtis: Shifty, 2025
  • David Cronenberg: The Shrouds, 2024
  • Kristoffer Borgli: Sick of Myself, 2022
  • Ryan Coogler: Sinners, 2025
  • Boris Lojkine: Souleymane’s Story, 2024
  • Johan Grimonprez: Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, 2024
  • Hong Sang-soo: A Traveler’s Needs, 2024
  • Tsai Ming-laing: The Wayward Cloud, 2005