Discover the films our editorial team has chosen to carry forward from the year just past—ranging from works by world-renowned filmmakers to more intimate creations that proved no less powerful or unforgettable.
Making “top lists” can feel vain at times—a way of imposing hierarchy on works that were never meant to be ranked, of bending artistic creations to a logic of performance and classification that rarely suits them. Films resonate differently with each of us: some strike hard in the moment and slowly fade, others grow quietly over time. And then there are the films of the year we have yet to discover, simply because we haven’t had the chance to see them.
Let’s take this, instead, for what it is: a snapshot in time, a way of saying which films left the deepest mark on us this year, without speculating on how long they will linger in our minds. A way of keeping a trace of what moved us most over the past twelve months—and, above all, of shining a light on works we believe deserve to be seen.
As for the Film Fest Report team—who published 188 articles in 2025 and covered 26 film festivals around the world, from Cannes and Berlin to Venice and Sundance, and from Karlovy Vary and Sarajevo to Locarno, Tribeca, Visions du Réel, CPH:DOX, and many more—here are the films that marked us most in 2025 so far. Fiction and documentary alike, these are both essential titles and more intimate discoveries, encountered across remarkable festivals worldwide. These are our Top 10 films of 2025, as they stand today.
Top 10 Films of 2025 by Aurélie Géron:
- Kika (dir. Alexe Poukine)
- Love Letters (dir. Alice Douard)
- Nino (dir. Pauline Loquès)
- Agatha’s Almanac (dir. Amalie Atkins)
- The Mountain Won’t Move (dir. Petra Seliškar)
- Left-Handed Girl (dir. Shih-Ching Tsou)
- The Little Sister (dir. Hafsia Herzi)
- Shifting Baselines (dir. Julien Elie)
- Sirât (dir. Óliver Laxe)
- The Blueberry Blues (dir. Andrés Livov)
Top 10 Films of 2025 by Mehdi Balamissa:
- Sirât (dir. Óliver Laxe)
- Nino (dir. Pauline Loquès)
- The Mountain Won’t Move (dir. Petra Seliškar)
- The Blueberry Blues (dir. Andrés Livov)
- Case 137 (dir. Dominik Moll)
- Cutting Through Rocks (dirs. Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni)
- It Was Just an Accident (dir. Jafar Panahi)
- Young Mothers (dirs. Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne)
- Love Letters (dir. Alice Douard)
- Coexistence, My Ass! (dir. Amber Fares)
Top 10 Documentary Films of 2025 by Michael Granados:
- The Prince of Nanawa (dir. Clarisa Navas)
- Landmarks (dir. Lucrecia Martel)
- With Hasan in Gaza (dir. Kamal Aljafari)
- Little Boy (dir. James Benning)
- Videoheaven (dir. Alex Ross Perry)
- Evidence (dir. Lee Anne Schmitt)
- The Seasons (dir. Maureen Fazendeiro)
- Gods of Stone (dir. Iván Castiñeiras)
- Obscure Night – “Ain’t I a Child?” (dir. Sylvain George)
- Bomba Bernal (dir. Khavn)
Top 10 Films of 2025 by Abdul Latif:
- Desire Lines (dir. Dane Komljen)
- White Snail (dirs. Elsa Kremser, Levin Peter)
- The Message (dir. Iván Fund)
- Perla (dir. Alexandra Makarová)
- Time to the Target (dir. Vitaliy Manskiy)
- With Hasan in Gaza (dir. Kamal Aljafari)
- God Will Not Help (dir. Hana Jušić)
- Wind, Talk to Me (dir. Stefan Djordjevic)
- Broken Voices (dir. Ondřej Provazník)
- Cuerpo Celeste (dir. Nayra Ilic)
Top 10 Films of 2025 by Kristin Ciliberto:
- Sinners (dir. Ryan Coogler)
- One Battle After Another (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
- Hamnet (dir. Chloé Zhao)
- No Other Choice (dir. Park Chan-wook)
- Marty Supreme (dir. Josh Safdie)
- Bob Trevino Likes It (dir. Tracy Laymon)
- Rental Family (dir. Hikari)
- The Life of Chuck (dir. Mike Flanagan)
- Materialists (dir. Celine Song)
- Weapons (dir. Zach Cregger)
Top 5 Films of 2025 by Martha Bird:
- Nouvelle Vague (dir. Richard Linklater)
- Left-Handed Girl (dir. Shih-Ching Tsou)
- Souleymane’s Story (dir. Boris Lojkine)
- Mad Bills to Pay (dir. Joel Alfonso Vargas)
- It Was Just an Accident (dir. Jafar Panahi)
Top 10 Films of 2025 by Niikhiil Akhiil:
- A Poet (dir. Simón Mesa Soto)
- Meteors (dir. Hubert Charuel)
- Human Resource (dir. Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit)
- Sentimental Value (dir. Joachim Trier)
- Hamnet (dir. Chloé Zhao)
- A Useful Ghost (dir. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke)
- If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (dir. Mary Bronstein)
- Resurrection (dir. Bi Gan)
- Urchin (dir. Harris Dickinson)
- It Was Just an Accident (dir. Jafar Panahi)
Top 10 Films of 2025 by Prachi Bari:
- Kokuho (dir. Lee Sang-il)
- Home Bound (dir. Neeraj Ghaywan)
- Sirât (dir. Óliver Laxe)
- Out of Love (dir. Nathan Ambrosioni)
- Nuremberg (dir. James Vanderbilt)
- Sentimental Value (dir. Joachim Trier)
- It Was Just an Accident (dir. Jafar Panahi)
- Sorry, Baby (dir. Eva Victor)
- Broken Voices (dir. Ondřej Provazník)
- The President’s Cake (dir. Hasan Hadi)
We hope that these lists, reflecting our diverse, unique, vibrant, and open-minded team of writers, will assist you in discovering or rediscovering films that have appeared significant and impactful to us this year. We look forward to sharing our findings from what the 2026 festival season has in store for us.
