***
50-41
***
50
Blue Moon
Ethan Hawke plays with campy brilliance and criminal combover the lyricist Lorenz Hart as he spirals into vinegary jilted despair after his split from Richard Rodgers in this latest collaboration with Richard Linklater. Read the full review.
***
49
Happyend
Teen romance and paranoid surveillance collide to dysfunctional effect in Neo Sora’s beguiling debut feature set in an oppressive near-future Japan. Read the full review.
***
48
I Swear
Kirk Jones’s moving film of John Davidson, the man who taught Britain about Tourette, offers compassion and catharsis. Read the full review.
***
47
Lurker
A desperate wannabe attaches himself to a singer on the rise in a darkly compelling Hollywood melodrama. Read the full review.
***
46
Homebound
An emotionally rich study of friends in rural India trying to get home in the pandemic, Neeraj Ghaywan’s film benefits from excellent lead performances and strong cinematography. Read the full review.
***
45
The Librarians
Kim A Snyder’s documentary highlights the defenders of young readers’ rights to see their lives in print facing rightwing attacks. Read the full review.
***
44
Motherboard
Victoria Mapplebeck’s documentary stitches 20 years’ worth of footage into a home video love letter to her son, whose whole life so far is observed. Read the full review.
***
43
The Kingdom
Corsica-set mafia tale boasts outstanding performances from first-time actors as it follows a teenage girl discovering and revelling in her status as the blueblood daughter of a crime boss. Read the full review.
***
42
Bugonia
Possible alien Emma Stone stars in Yorgos Lanthimos’s macabre conspiracy theory comedy co-starring a superb Jesse Plemons. Read the full review.
***
41
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore
A compelling portrait of deaf actor and campaigner Marlee Matlin’s life reveals she achieved much more than her widely lauded 1980s Oscar win. Read the full review.
***
40-31
***
40
Sorry, Baby
In their feature debut, writer-director Eva Victor depicts the aftermath of sexual assault with striking naturalism and surprising grace. Read the full review.
***
39
Misericordia
A man moves in with his employer’s widow in this playful but dreamlike and inscrutable drama from Alain Guiraudie, the director of Stranger By the Lake. Read the full review.
***
38
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Daniel Craig is joined by a sparkling array of talent including Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close and Josh Brolin in this latest murder mystery with a religious undercurrent. Read the full review.
***
37
Souleymane’s Story
Abou Sangaré is magnificent in a story that shines a light on the enforced invisibility of economic migrants in the margins of Paris. Read the full review.
***
36
Dying
Lars Eidinger plays the conductor embarking on a major orchestral project, but whose professional status is threatened by family turmoil behind the scenes. Read the full review.
***
35
Toxic
Saulė Bliuvaitė’s debut feature follows two Lithuanian teens seduced by a “modelling school” promising to take them away from their tough home town. Read the full review.
***
34
From Ground Zero: Stories From Gaza
This heartbreaking collection of short films mentions neither Israel nor Hamas, instead offering a mosaic of everyday life under nonstop attack. Read the full review.
***
33
The Brutalist
In an Oscar-winning performance, Adrien Brody plays a Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor who comes to the US and begins a distinguished career under the patronage of a wealthy man. Read the full review.
***
32
Gazer
A fascinatingly uneasy debut from Ryan J Sloan has hints of Lynch and Cronenberg with star and co-writer Ariella Mastroianni radiating suppressed anguish and rage. Read the full review.
***
31
The Rule of Jenny Pen
Geoffrey Rush’s retired judge is terrorised by John Lithgow’s therapy puppet-wielding fellow resident in this claustrophobic tale of elder-on-elder abuse. Read the full review.
***
30-21
***
30
Sudan, Remember Us
Hind Meddeb’s documentary draws on her on-the-spot experience in 2019 Khartoum as protesters rose against the 30-year rule of Omar al-Bashir. Read the full review.
***
29
Dead of Winter
Emma Thompson turns up the accent dial to play a good-natured Minnesota widow bringing her charm – and her gun – to tackle some concentrated nastiness in this Fargo-ish thriller. Read the full review.
***
28
Holding Liat
Brandon Kramer’s powerful study of a family torn apart by the 7 October attacks complicates any simple view of the Israel-Gaza war in its portrait of one family’s agonising divisions. Read the full review.
***
27
A New Kind of Wilderness
When photographer Maria Vatne died in 2019, her family had to come to terms with not just the loss of a parent but a whole lifestyle, including their off-grid home. Read the full review.
***
26
Where Dragons Live
In this warm documentary, three siblings clear out their enormously grand childhood home in Oxfordshire where, among the happy memories, are those of cruelty. Read the full review.
***
25
Julie Keeps Quiet
A star player at an elite tennis school decides to stay silent when the head coach is suspended in Leonardo Van Dijl’s absorbing movie of things unsaid and subjects avoided. Read the full review.
***
24
The Stimming Pool
A group of young artists on the spectrum examine how their creativity and sense of self is shaped by autism in this funny and atmospheric docufiction. Read the full review.
***
23
Santosh
Sunita Rajwar and Shahana Goswami lead a sinewy crime drama as a cynical veteran and a wide-eyed rookie who has inherited her late husband’s job. Read the full review.
***
22
Christy
Diarmuid Noyes and Danny Power play two Cork brothers finding their feet after time in care in a social-realist film with heart and humour. Read the full review.
***
21
Sinners
Michael B Jordan plays a double role in Ryan Coogler’s intriguing period tale of anti-heroic brothers making their way into much wilder country. Read the full review.
***
20-11
***
20
On Falling
Laura Carreira’s impressive debut drama sees a quietly excellent Joana Santos endure dehumanising work conditions in a huge Scottish warehouse while looking for a way out. Read the full review.
***
19
To a Land Unknown
Danish-Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel’s tale of displacement, desperation and the lengths one man will go to survive makes for suspenseful, melancholic viewing. Read the full review.
***
18
Hard Truths
Marianne Jean-Baptiste is exceptional as a woman in the terrifying endgame of depression in Mike Leigh’s deeply sober and compassionate drama, not without flashes of fun. Read the full review.
***
17
Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story
One of Ireland’s most important novelists and a woman of fierce intelligence and bravery is celebrated in Sinéad O’Shea’s thoroughly enjoyable documentary. Read the full review.
***
16
Vermiglio
Maura Delpero’s beautifully made drama explores the complex dynamics of a sprawling Italian family near the wartime border with Germany. Read the full review.
***
15
Pillion
Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling play unlikely lovers in this sweet and extremely revealing first-time drama from Harry Lighton, adapted from Adam Mars-Jones’s novel Box Hill. Read the full review.
***
14
Pepe
This huge and wayward docufictional meditation depicts the consciousness of a hippo shipped out to furnish Pablo Escobar’s estate. Read the full review.
***
13
Little Trouble Girls
This utterly absorbing Slovenian debut reinvents the cliched idea of a Catholic girl’s sexual awakening, and proves that no teacher can be as cruel as a music teacher. Read the full review.
***
12
Predators
David Osit’s documentary takes a disturbing look at the televised shaming served up by the hit show To Catch a Predator. Read the full review
***
11
Left-Handed Girl
Shih-Ching Tsou and frequent collaborator Sean Baker, the Oscar-winning auteur behind Anora, have created an affecting and original Taiwanese drama of humour and pathos. Read the full review.
***
10-6
***
10
A Real Pain
Jesse Eisenberg effortlessly walks a tonal tightrope in this film about Jewish American cousins on a Holocaust tour in Poland. But Kieran Culkin steals the show. Read the full review.
***
9
Nickel Boys
This adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel about two young friends trapped by institutional abuse is told with piercing beauty by RaMell Ross. Read the full review.
***
8
It Was Just an Accident
An unfortunate encounter with a dog sets off a chain of surreal, grotesque events in Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner, which exposes the corruption and tyranny at the heart of Iran. Read the full review.
***
7
The Mastermind
Kelly Reichardt’s quietist, observational style is unexpectedly successful at creating a supernaturalistic depiction of an art gallery robbery. Read the full review.
***
6
Riefenstahl
Andres Veiel shows how the film-maker loved by Hitler hit the heights with her Berlin Olympics movie – and how she tried and failed to save her Nazi-tinged reputation. Read the full review.
***
No 5
***
5
Marty Supreme
Following every dizzying turn of Timothée Chalamet’s supercharged, blustering ping-pong hustler, Josh Safdie’s spectacular screwball nightmare is pure craziness. Read the full review.
***
No 4
***
4
The Ice Tower
Marion Cotillard plays a movie actor starring in a production of The Snow Queen in Lucile Hadžihalilović’s unwholesome story of yearning. Read the full review.
***
No 3 coming soon
***
• The 50 best films of 2025 were voted for by Peter Bradshaw, Catherine Bray, Xan Brooks, Luke Buckmaster, Sian Cain, Cath Clarke, Leslie Felperin, Ryan Gilbey, Jesse Hassenger, Phil Hoad, Adrian Horton, Richard Lawson, Ann Lee, Benjamin Lee, Rebecca Liu, Mike McCahill, Gwilym Mumford, Philip Oltermann, Andrew Pulver, Steve Rose and Catherine Shoard
***
