***
50-41
***
50
Black Bag
Steven Soderbergh’s spy thriller sends two married agents – Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender – after a mole, who might turn out to be one of them. Read the full review.
***
49
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Zambian-Welsh film-maker Rungano Nyoni’s unconventional, and blackly comic, family drama is an inventive and playful surprise. Read the full review.
***
48
Train Dreams
Joel Edgerton is superb in Clint Bentley’s Malickian story of trees, grief and railroads. Read the full review.
***
47
Peter Hujar’s Day
Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall star in this verbatim retelling of Hujar’s day in hip 1970s New York, recounting encounters with Ginsberg, Burroughs and Leibowitz. Read the full review.
***
46
Father Mother Sister Brother
Jim Jarmusch explores the awkwardness and closeness of parents with their grownup children in three slyly comic panels of drama set in the US, Dublin and Paris. Read the full review.
***
45
Sound of Falling
The same location in seen over four different timeframes in this unsettling and unusual German drama. Read the full review.
***
44
Sentimental Value
Stellan Skarsgård is an egomaniac director in act of ancestor worship in Joachim Trier’s entertaining drama. Read the full review.
***
43
Cover-Up
Laura Poitras’s Seymour Hersh documentary is a thrilling and impeccably structured ode to journalism. Read the full review.
***
42
Ghost Trail
Jonathan Millet makes his fiction feature debut with an ambitious slow-burn thriller that opens up a complex world of pain as a Syrian refugee attempts to track down his torturer. Read the full review.
***
41
One to One: John & Yoko
Kevin Macdonald’s surprising documentary catches a radioactively charismatic Lennon enjoying his rambunctious post-Beatles heyday in New York. Read the full review.
***
40-31
***
40
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
The often under-utilised actor Rose Byrne gives a monumental performance as a mother on the edge in an exhausting spiral of a movie. Read the full review.
***
39
The Perfect Neighbor
Geeta Gandbhir’s study of the Ajike Owens killing in Florida turns police footage into a devastating lens on fear, race and a nation fatally addicted to firearms. Read the full review.
***
38
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.
***
37
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.
***
36
Happyend
Teen romance and paranoid surveillance collide to dysfunctional effect in Neo Sora’s beguiling debut future set in an oppressive near-future Japan. Read the full review.
***
35
Lurker
A desperate wannabe attaches himself to a singer on the rise in a darkly compelling Hollywood melodrama. Read the full review.
***
34
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.
***
33
The Librarians
Kim A Snyder’s documentary highlights the defenders of young readers’ rights facing rightwing attacks. Read the full review.
***
32
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.
***
31
Bugonia
Possible alien Emma Stone stars in Yorgos Lanthimos’s macabre conspiracy theory comedy co-starring a superb Jesse Plemons. Read full review.
***
30-21
***
30
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 1987 Oscar win. Read the full review.
***
29
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.
***
28
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.
***
27
The Testament of Ann Lee
Amanda Seyfried plays the 18th-century missionary who took her message to the New World in Mona Fastvold’s elusive film with extraordinary soundtrack by Daniel Blumberg. Read the full review.
***
26
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.
***
25
Souleymane’s Story
Abou Sangaré is magnificent in a story that shines light on the enforced invisibility of economic migrants on the margins of Paris. Read the full review.
***
24
Toxic
Saule Bliuvaite’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.
***
23
From Ground Zero: Stories from Gaza
This heartbreaking collection of short films mentions neither Israel nor Hamas, instead offering a mosaic of everyday living under nonstop attack. Read the full review.
***
22
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.
***
21
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.
***
20-11
***
20
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.
***
19
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.
***
18
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.
***
17
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.
***
16
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.
***
15
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.
***
14
Predators
David Osit’s documentary takes a disturbing look at the televised shaming served up by the hit TV show To Catch a Predator. Read the full review.
***
13
Left-Handed Girl
Shih-Ching Tsou and frequent collaborator Anora’s Oscar-winning auteur Sean Baker have created an affecting and original Taiwanese drama of both humour and pathos. Read the full review.
***
12
The Voice of Hind Rajab
In an audacious move, director Kaouther Ben Hania reconstructs the killing of the five-year-old in Gaza using her real voice as she is bombarded by the Israeli army. Read the full review.
***
11
Hamnet
Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal are knockouts in Chloé Zhao’s poignant adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel with a stirring tearjerker ending. Read the full review.
***
10-6
***
10
No Other Choice
An unemployed paper worker hatches a cunning plan to murder his way back into the job market in this continually surprising black comedy from Park Chan-Wook. Read the full review.
***
9
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 expose the corruption and tyranny at the heart of Iran. Read the full review.
***
8
The Mastermind
Kelly Reichardt’s quietist, observational style is unexpectedly successful at creating a super-naturalistic depiction of an art gallery robbery. Read the full review.
***
7
The Secret Agent
Kleber Mendonça Filho’s study of a man attempting to escape corrupt politics in 1970s Brazil is a tremendous, novelistic study of corruption in high and low places. Read the full review.
***
6
Twinless
James Sweeney’s tightrope-mastering mix of genres and tones is an incredibly effective feat in this inventive comedy that veers from funny to creepy to devastatingly sad. Read the full review.
***
No 5
***
5
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 4
***
4
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 3 coming soon
***
• The 50 best movies 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
***
