{"id":25670,"date":"2025-12-31T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T04:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/?p=25670"},"modified":"2026-02-23T07:16:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T12:16:29","slug":"top-10-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/2025\/12\/top-10-of-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 10 of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

*Click on the ‘Lists & Logs’ tab to see lists from previous years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This list will be updated each time I see a film from 2025 (world premiere\/imdb date) that is better than at least one of the films already on the list.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Dry Leaf (Alexandre Koberidze)<\/li>\n
  2. Pedra e Montanha (Tetsuya Maruyama)<\/li>\n
  3. Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (Matt Johnson)<\/li>\n
  4. Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos)<\/li>\n
  5. The Perfect Neighbor (Geeta Gandbhir)<\/li>\n
  6. Reflection in a Dead Diamond (H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Cattet & Bruno Forzani)<\/li>\n
  7. Yes (Nadav Lapid)<\/li>\n
  8. What Does That Nature Say to You (Hong Sang-soo)<\/li>\n
  9. Father Mother Sister Brother (Jim Jarmusch)<\/li>\n
  10. Final Destination Bloodlines (Zach Lipovsky & Adam B. Stein)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Polls Top 10<\/span><\/strong> (Eligible titles appear here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Baby Invasion (2024, Harmony Korine)<\/li>\n
    2. Misericordia (2024, Alain Guiraudie)<\/li>\n
    3. Afternoons of Solitude (2024, Albert Serra)<\/li>\n
    4. DIRECT ACTION (2024, Ben Russell & Guillaume Cailleau)<\/li>\n
    5. Bugonia (2025, Yorgos Lanthimos)<\/li>\n
    6. The Perfect Neighbor (2025, Geeta Gandbhir)<\/li>\n
    7. Reflection in a Dead Diamond (2025, H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Cattet & Bruno Forzani)<\/li>\n
    8. About Thirty (2023, Mart\u00edn Shanly)<\/li>\n
    9. The Shrouds (2024, David Cronenberg)<\/li>\n
    10. Father Mother Sister Brother (2025, Jim Jarmusch)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Top 10 “Oldies”<\/span><\/strong> (first-time viewings of films made before 2010)<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. The Store (1983, Frederick Wiseman)<\/li>\n
      2. Le boucher (1970, Claude Chabrol)<\/li>\n
      3. They Live (1988, John Carpenter)<\/li>\n
      4. Model (1980, Frederick Wiseman)<\/li>\n
      5. Zoo (1993, Frederick Wiseman)<\/li>\n
      6. The Brood (1979, David Cronenberg)<\/li>\n
      7. Scattered Clouds (1967, Mikio Naruse)<\/li>\n
      8. Deep End (1970, Jerzy Skolimowski)<\/li>\n
      9. Angst (1983, Gerald Kargl)<\/li>\n
      10. High School (1968, Frederick Wiseman)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Other 2025 films I\u2019ve seen<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

          \n
        • The Love That Remains (Hlynur P\u00e1lmason) – 6.4<\/li>\n
        • Dracula (Radu Jude) – 6.4<\/li>\n
        • The Christophers (Steven Soderbergh) – 6.4<\/li>\n
        • Le Lac (Fabrice Aragno) – 6.3<\/li>\n
        • Sir\u00e2t (Oliver Laxe) – 6.2<\/li>\n
        • Blue Heron (Sophy Romvari) – 6.2<\/li>\n
        • Die My Love (Lynne Ramsay) – 6.2<\/li>\n
        • After Dreaming (Christine Haroutounian) – 6.1<\/li>\n
        • The Smashing Machine (Benny Safdie) – 6.1<\/li>\n
        • Case 137 (Dominik Moll) – 6.1<\/li>\n
        • Rose of Nevada (Mark Jenkin) – 6.0<\/li>\n
        • Debut, or, Objects of the Field of Debris as Currently Catalogued (Julian Castronovo) – 6.0<\/li>\n
        • Kontinental \u201825 (Radu Jude) – 5.9<\/li>\n
        • Bouchra (Orian Barki & Meriem Bennani) – 5.9<\/li>\n
        • The Shipwrecked Triptych (Deniz Eroglu) – 5.9<\/li>\n
        • Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) (Joel Alfonso Vargas) – 5.9<\/li>\n
        • Pillion (Harry Lighton) \u2013 5.9<\/li>\n
        • Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes (Gabriel Azor\u00edn) \u2013 5.8<\/li>\n
        • Gavagai (Ulrich K\u00f6hler) \u2013 5.8<\/li>\n
        • With Hasan in Gaza (Kamal Aljafari) \u2013 5.8<\/li>\n
        • Two Prosecutors (Sergei Loznitsa) \u2013 5.7<\/li>\n
        • Paul (Denis C\u00f4t\u00e9) – 5.7<\/li>\n
        • Levers (Rhayne Vermette) \u2013 5.6<\/li>\n
        • Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater) \u2013 5.6<\/li>\n
        • Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due (Abdellatif Kechiche) \u2013 5.6<\/li>\n
        • Good Luck, Have Fun, Don\u2019t Die (Gore Verbinski)\u00a0\u2013 5.6<\/li>\n
        • One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson) \u2013 5.6<\/li>\n
        • Maddie\u2019s Secret (John Early) \u2013 5.6<\/li>\n
        • Balearic (Ion de Sosa) \u2013 5.6<\/li>\n
        • The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt) \u2013 5.6<\/li>\n
        • Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk (Sepideh Farsi) \u2013 5.6<\/li>\n
        • Powwow People (Sky Hopinka) \u2013 5.6<\/li>\n
        • John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office (Michael Almereyda & Courtney Stephens) – 5.6<\/li>\n
        • Ella McCay (James L. Brooks) \u2013 5.5<\/li>\n
        • Copper (Nicol\u00e1s Pereda) \u2013 5.5<\/li>\n
        • The Currents (Milagros Mumenthaler) \u2013 5.5<\/li>\n
        • The Last One for the Road (Francesco Sossai) \u2013 5.5<\/li>\n
        • Blue Moon (Richard Linklater) – 5.5<\/li>\n
        • Magellan (Lav Diaz) \u2013 5.4<\/li>\n
        • Landmarks (Lucrecia Martel) – 5.4<\/li>\n
        • A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow) – 5.4<\/li>\n
        • BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (Kahlil Joseph) – 5.4<\/li>\n
        • Two Pianos (Arnaud Desplechin) – 5.4<\/li>\n
        • Lucky Lu (Lloyd Lee Choi) \u2013 5.4<\/li>\n
        • Sinners (Ryan Coogler) – 5.4<\/li>\n
        • 80+ (\u017delimir \u017dilnik) – 5.4<\/li>\n
        • Eddington (Ari Aster) \u2013 5.3<\/li>\n
        • Exit 8 (Genki Kawamura) – 5.3<\/li>\n
        • After the Hunt (Luca Guadagnino) \u2013 5.3<\/li>\n
        • Sound of Falling (Mascha Schilinski) \u2013 5.3<\/li>\n
        • I Only Rest in the Storm (Pedro Pinho) \u2013 5.3<\/li>\n
        • Romeria (Carla Sim\u00f3n) \u2013 5.3<\/li>\n
        • The Ice Tower (Lucile Had\u017eihalilovi\u0107) – 5.3<\/li>\n
        • Drunken Noodles (Lucio Castro) \u2013 5.3<\/li>\n
        • Predators (David Osit) – 5.3<\/li>\n
        • Canone effimero (Gianluca De Serio) – 5.3<\/li>\n
        • Enzo (Robin Campillo) \u2013 5.2<\/li>\n
        • The Fence (Claire Denis) – 5.2<\/li>\n
        • The Incredible Snow Woman (S\u00e9bastien Betbeder) – 5.2<\/li>\n
        • Escape (Masao Adachi) – 5.2<\/li>\n
        • Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie) – 5.2<\/li>\n
        • Highest 2 Lowest (Spike Lee) \u2013 5.1<\/li>\n
        • A Balcony in Limoges (J\u00e9r\u00f4me Reybaud) \u2013 5.1<\/li>\n
        • Dead Man\u2019s Wire (Gus Van Sant) – 5.1<\/li>\n
        • Left-Handed Girl (Shih-Ching Tsou) \u2013 5.1<\/li>\n
        • Below the Clouds (Gianfranco Rosi) – 5.1<\/li>\n
        • Little Trouble Girls (Urska Dukic) – 5.1<\/li>\n
        • Phantoms of July (Julian Radlmaier) \u2013 5.1<\/li>\n
        • The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendon\u00e7a Filho) \u2013 5.0<\/li>\n
        • Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson) – 5.0<\/li>\n
        • The Plant from the Canaries (Ruan Lan-Xi) – 5.0<\/li>\n
        • little boy (James Benning) – 5.0<\/li>\n
        • Hair, Paper, Water\u2026 (Nicolas Graux & Tr\u01b0\u01a1ng Minh Qu\u00fd) \u2013 5.0<\/li>\n
        • Mickey 17 (Bong Joon-ho) – 4.9<\/li>\n
        • Mission: Impossible \u2014 The Final Reckoning (Christopher McQuarrie) \u2013 4.9<\/li>\n
        • Peter Hujar\u2019s Day (Ira Sachs) – 4.9<\/li>\n
        • Hen (Gy\u00f6rgy P\u00e1lfi) – 4.9<\/li>\n
        • Resurrection (Bi Gan) \u2013 4.9<\/li>\n
        • No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook) – 4.9<\/li>\n
        • Timestamp (Kateryna Gornostai) – 4.9<\/li>\n
        • The Blue Trail (Gabriel Mascaro) – 4.9<\/li>\n
        • Punku (Juan Daniel Fern\u00e1ndez Molero) – 4.9<\/li>\n
        • Weapons (Zach Cregger) \u2013 4.8<\/li>\n
        • Miroirs No. 3 (Christian Petzold) \u2013 4.8<\/li>\n
        • Ari (L\u00e9onor Serraille) – 4.8<\/li>\n
        • Videoheaven (Alex Ross Perry) – 4.8<\/li>\n
        • Tales of the Wounded Land (Abbas Fahdel) \u2013 4.7<\/li>\n
        • Wolf Man (Leigh Whannell) – 4.7<\/li>\n
        • The History of Sound (Oliver Hermanus) – 4.7<\/li>\n
        • Urchin (Harris Dickinson) \u2013 4.7<\/li>\n
        • Dreams (Michel Franco) – 4.6<\/li>\n
        • Woman and Child (Saeed Roustaee) \u2013 4.6<\/li>\n
        • Leave One Day (Amelie Bonnin) \u2013 4.6<\/li>\n
        • Ariel (Lois Pati\u00f1o) – 4.5<\/li>\n
        • The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson) \u2013 4.5<\/li>\n
        • Twinless (James Sweeney) – 4.5<\/li>\n
        • Olmo (Fernando Eimbcke) – 4.5<\/li>\n
        • The Seasons (Maureen Fazendeiro) \u2013 4.5<\/li>\n
        • Cover-Up (Laura Poitras & Mark Obenhaus) – 4.4<\/li>\n
        • Late Fame (Kent Jones) \u2013 4.4<\/li>\n
        • Desire Lines (Dane Komljen) \u2013 4.4<\/li>\n
        • It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi) \u2013 4.3<\/li>\n
        • Orphan (L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Nemes) – 4.3<\/li>\n
        • Mosquitoes (Valentina Bertani & Nicole Bertani) \u2013 4.3<\/li>\n
        • Eel (Chu Chun-Teng) – 4.3<\/li>\n
        • Young Mothers (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne) \u2013 4.2<\/li>\n
        • Duse (Pietro Marcello) – 4.2<\/li>\n
        • White Snail (Elsa Kremser & Levin Peter) \u2013 4.2<\/li>\n
        • Train Dreams (Clint Bentley) – 4.2<\/li>\n
        • No! YOU\u2019RE WRONG. or: Spooky Action at a Distance (Crispin Hellion Glover) – 4.1<\/li>\n
        • The Wizard of the Kremlin (Olivier Assayas) – 4.1<\/li>\n
        • A Private Life (Rebecca Zlotowski) \u2013 4.1<\/li>\n
        • The Little Sister (Hafsia Herzi) \u2013 4.0<\/li>\n
        • Roofman (Derek Cianfrance) – 4.0<\/li>\n
        • The Voice of Hind Rajab (Kaouther Ben Hania) – 4.0<\/li>\n
        • Plainclothes (Carmen Emmi) – 4.0<\/li>\n
        • Bono: Stories of Surrender (Immersive) (Andrew Dominik) \u2013 3.9<\/li>\n
        • To the Victory! (Valentyn Vasyanovych) – 3.8<\/li>\n
        • Girls on Wire (Vivian Qu) – 3.8<\/li>\n
        • Silent Friend (Ildik\u00f3 Enyedi) – 3.7<\/li>\n
        • The Testament of Ann Lee (Mona Fastvold) – 3.6<\/li>\n
        • The Plague (Charlie Polinger) \u2013 3.6<\/li>\n
        • Evidence (Lee Anne Schmitt) – 3.6<\/li>\n
        • Alpha (Julia Ducournau) \u2013 3.4<\/li>\n
        • Back Home (Tsai Ming-liang) \u2013 3.4<\/li>\n
        • Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach) \u2013 3.4<\/li>\n
        • TRON: Ares (Joachim R\u00f8nning) \u2013 3.3<\/li>\n
        • Mare\u2019s Nest (Ben Rivers) \u2013 3.3<\/li>\n
        • The Light (Tom Tykwer) – 3.3<\/li>\n
        • Where the Night Stands Still (Liryc Dela Cruz) – 3.1<\/li>\n
        • Barrio Triste (STILLZ) – 3.0<\/li>\n
        • Her Will Be Done (Julia Kowalski) \u2013 2.9<\/li>\n
        • Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier) \u2013 2.8<\/li>\n
        • Hot Milk (Rebecca Lenkiewicz) – 2.7<\/li>\n
        • If I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You (Mary Bronstein) – 2.4<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          *Click on the ‘Lists & Logs’ tab to see lists from previous years. This list will be updated each time I see a film from 2025 (world premiere\/imdb date) that is better than at least one of the films already on the list. Dry Leaf (Alexandre Koberidze) Pedra e Montanha (Tetsuya Maruyama) Nirvanna the Band […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25670"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25935,"href":"https:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25670\/revisions\/25935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blakewilliams.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}