Each year we do a Top 10 list for our awards show, and it’s one of my favorite things we do on the podcast. 2025 was a unique year because outside of a few notable films, it was a so-so year up until October and it had me nervous as to how good of a year it would end up being. But, of course, I had nothing to worry about as it was an avalanche of great movies once the fall season kicked off.
In the end, 2025 was an incredibly well rounded year with stellar box office / streaming hits, a plethora of extraordinary international features and some indie gems that made for nice variety. There was also one major theme that arose; movies about parenthood, death and grief. Hamnet, The Chronology of Water, The Testament of Ann Lee, Sirat, The Voice of Hind Rajab, Train Dreams, 28 Years Later and The Secret Agent all explored that notion in one way or another. Then you have films like Die My Love, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and Sentimental Value that are less about death, but certainly about parenthood and trauma. You could argue that Good Boy fits this idea as well. Not all of these films made my Top 20, but I did quite respond to all of these films in some way. Overall 2025 was a great year with some all-time moments on its resume.
We do encourage you to listen to Episode 670 to hear more about our picks, but as we do every year, listed here are my Top 10 Movies of 2025.
RELATED: JD’s Top 10 Movies of 2024
10. It Was Just An Accident
In a lot of ways, It Was Just An Accident is the movie of the year given our current political landscape. Jafar Panahi has famously been arrested several times over the last 15 years and was banned from making movies. So, crafting a tale on morality and catharsis like we see in this film was clearly personal for him. Where do you draw the line between your moral convictions and the urge for revenge and justice after being tortured and stripped of your humanity? A question that Panahi has no doubt posed to himself, and thus this film was born as it becomes the mechanism in which he wrestles with deep, abraded thoughts on vengeance and violence. The writing and directing here from Panahi is maybe the best of his career. It’s poignant and timely. It’s nuanced and complex. Everything we see here was not an accident. It’s cogently thought out and it fosters arguably the best ending of 2025. Click here to listen to our full review.
9. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is a stunner. A raw and unrestrained examination of parenthood and the exhaustive challenges you sometimes face, especially when you’re wrestling with this deep void of emptiness and isolation (Linda’s husband is absent for most of the film). Linda is forced to confront motherhood in seclusion while succumbing to stress and pressures due to complications outside of her control. As a result, we see a mother recoiling and living in a different reality from everyone else around her. Rose Byrne with one of the very best performances of 2025. Mary Bronstein, I’m sorry I wasn’t familiar with your game. Click here to listen to our full review.
8. The Mastermind
The Mastermind is a movie straight out of the New Hollywood era. It’s almost as if it time-traveled from the 1970s into 2025. Harnessing the likes of The Long Goodbye and California Split, it’s the exact kind of anti-heist movie you’d expect from the great Kelly Reichardt. It’s methodical and unconventional. You could almost accuse the film of being scant, which I think is the point, because James (played wonderfully by Josh O’Connor, my favorite 2025 performance from him) is remarkably detestable. He’s utterly clueless and couldn’t be more detached from the politics of the time. Reichardt isn’t interested in some sort of psycho-analysis of why he squandered his comfortable middle class life, it’s as simple as him having the luxury to do so. In that sense, it’s a brilliant film with stunning period details. Click here to listen to our full review.
7. Hamnet
I cannot begin to articulate the levels in which Hamnet destroyed me. However, while it is devastating, but what I really love about the film (and this isn’t talked about enough) is that it’s so much more than just a movie about grief and death. It’s equally interested in life, love and the power of art as a means of healing. We don’t know for certain if Hamlet was inspired by the death of Hamnet, but let me say this loud and clear: WHO F***KING CARES! Hamnet unequivocally buys that idea and essentially infers that Hamlet is William Shakespeare’s The Fabelmans. A work of art that becomes the nucleus for hope and healing. Hamnet is reinterpreting Hamlet as a mechanism to explore grief and art. Taking it literally is akin to taking the Bible literally. Which, to each their own I guess, but I’d argue that’s silly and not at all what Chloé Zhao is going for with the film. I find it inspired. Great filmmaking from Zhao and this cast is sensational. Paul Mescal is excellent as always. Jacobi Jupe with one of the best child performances of the last decade. And Jessie Buckley deserves every bit of the Oscar. Click here to listen to our full review.
6. Resurrection
Bi Gan’s Resurrection is an extraordinary piece of filmmaking. It’s almost hard to describe, but it’s this strikingly beautiful dreamscape about broken people finding healing in dreams and cinema. the way it weaves time, history and the evolution of cinema is nothing short of sublime. It’s structured into six chapters, with each one paying homage to different era’s of cinema, as well as incorporating one of the six senses recognized in Buddhist thought. Starting in the early 19th Century the film begins in the Silent Film stage, progressing to a film noir murder-mystery, weaving to the rise of slow cinema, the harkening back to the New Hollywood era and then transporting us into a modern vampire movie. That alone is fascinating, but additionally each segment is soaked in distinct color pallets and composition. Resurrection is, by far, the winner for Best Cinematography. It flexes at every moment as each frame is painted with vivid detail. It’s absolutely breathtaking. Review coming soon on the pod.
5. Sentimental Value
Sentimental Value is my pick for the best screenplay of the year. A masterclass in storytelling. It’s this deeply poignant examination on the connection between parents, children and shared grief. An idea that is ciphered through art and history in this all encompassing way that gives context to the kind of trauma that defines the Borg family, and how art has become their coping mechanisms. And in the end, it echoes the likes of Gavin O’Connor’s Warrior with a drunken father at the center of a sibling relationship where his exploits bring them together in a beautiful moment of catharsis and finding closure. I love that Joachim Trier does not hold your hand through any of this. He simply offers the puzzle pieces and cogently allows you to put it all together. Leading to a final moment between a father and a daughters who communicate, not though dialogue, but art and expression. It’s remarkably moving. One of the best ensemble casts of 2025. It should have no less than four Oscar nominations for acting alone. Click here to listen to our full review.
4. Marty Supreme
Marty Supreme is as electric and propulsive as we’d expect from Josh Safdie. From the opening credits, it’s bursting with confidence and vibrancy. It somehow turns ping pong into the most riveting sport on earth, capturing the action prodigiously with great emotion underneath. Which is vital given that this is a film about traversing the volatility of ambition and a deep yearning for greatness. Something that comes through in both Safdie’s direction and a career-defining performance from Timothée Chalamet. He is spellbinding as Marty, letting the character’s ego, in security and hunger exist all at once in every moment. He’s charming and funny. He’s repulsive and irksome. He’s your best friend. He’s your worst enemy. Marty is all of those things as his obsession for greatness consumes him. That is, until he’s forced into humility. There’s been a lot of debate about the ending to Marty Supreme, but it works for me because Marty is humbled and it does change him. Unequivocally. Those final scenes are a scorcher and totally earned. Click here to listen to our full review.
3. Sinners
I was completely blown away by Sinners. It’s the very rare breed of movie that’s perfectly imperfect. A messy masterpiece. On one hand it’s this sexy and seductive Southern gothic vampire movie. But it’s also this soulful and exquisite music movie, illuminating the deep connection of blues to the Black community, with Ryan Coogler somehow fusing those genres together seamlessly. As if that’s not enough, what’s even more astounding is how those varying aesthetics and styles work congruently to examine the Black diasporic experience, assimilation and passing and the looting of black musicianship. It cannot be overstated, the brilliance of using Irish colonization to symbolically tap into those ideas, denoting that Remmick sees vampirism as a means of escape. Not to mention how the film includes the deep ties to East Asians in the delta, superstitions and myths that live in the bayou and even what Native American vampire hunters mean as far as their role in it all. There’s a ton to unpack and I don’t care how messy it may be at times. It’s stunning. It’s fun. It’s moving. The “I Lied to You” moment is the SCENE OF THE YEAR. Coogler is my pick for Best Director. The score by Ludwig Göransson is absurd. A ravishing cast that is excellent. Click here to listen to our full review.
2. 28 Years Later
28 Years Later is my pick for the Best Overlooked Movie of 2025. It’s everything you’d want out of a Danny Boyle film. Visually speaking, it’s audacious, weird, gross, evocative, and incessantly beautiful. The kaleidoscopic vistas rendered by the iPhone rigs are incredible. The nighttime Alpha chase sequence is breathtaking in its ethereal thrills. And my god, the gnarly, yet gorgeous vestige at the end of the film is truly extraordinary. The action sequences in the first act are enthralling. The pregnant zombie sequence is assiduously crafted and unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. The artistry and craftsmanship on display is nothing short of sublime, and it’s why I nominated Boyle for Best Director. However, it’s also his most emotionally arresting and thematically compelling film to date. Spike’s coming-of-age isn’t born out of traditional masculinity and how well he shoots a bow, but rather his willingness to be vulnerable. The juxtaposition of him going into the woods to “become a man” by killing zombies to him going into the woods with his mom to save her is very moving to me. And ironic because Spike isn’t going on a journey to save her, but to remember and grieve her. Those final images, the contrast of grotesqueness and beauty, is fervently poignant. A thorough deconstruction of the franchise while also being a subtle rebuke of nationalism. Click here to listen to our full review.
1. One Battle After Another
One Battle After Another is another masterpiece from Paul Thomas Anderson. I love how vast and wide-ranging it is. On one side of the coin, it’s this provocative, yet timely, examination of revolution, parenthood and white supremacy. While on the other side it’s a stoner comedy where Leonardo DiCaprio can’t remember pass codes, falls 40 feet from a rooftop, jumps out of a moving vehicle, and is the world’s worst sniper. PTA has always been an audacious filmmaker, but the tonal and narrative swings in this film are as enthralling as anything he’s ever done. The bookends are intense, pulsating heartstoppers (the road scene at the end is one of the year’s best sequences hands down). Yet at the same time it’s maybe PTA’s funniest film to date. Leo on the phone will never not be hilarious. In the hands of another filmmaker, that tonal whiplash would be too jarring, but PTA is a (ahem) master of his craft and he’s in control of this at all times. Coupled with how this is his most politically overt to date, without having to constantly revel in black and white politics. It’s simply a reflection of the fallacy of political extremes, and the devastating consequences that come about when those extremes collide. Given the current discourse on this film, he 1000% nailed it. Not to mention a stellar ensemble cast that includes arguably Leo’s best performance, MY best supporting actress in Teyana Taylor and one of the biggest discoveries of the year in Chase Infinity. Click here to listen to our full review.
To round out my Top 20, here is the rest of my list:
11) Sorry, Baby
12) Die My Love
13) No Other Choice
14) Sound of Falling
15) Eephus
16) The Shrouds
17) The Chronology of Water
18) Train Dreams
19) The Secret Agent
20) On Becoming A Guinea Fowl
Because it was such a deep year, and I felt so compelled, I compiled a full Top 50 on Letterboxd.
Let us know what you think. Do you agree or disagree? We’d like to know why. Leave a comment in the comment section below or tweet us @InSessionFilm.
To hear us discuss our InSession Film Awards and our Top 10 Best Movies of 2025, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Soundcloud or you can listen below.
