A Happy New Year to all followers of One Mann’s Movies! It’s time for the Films of the Year 2025!
This is the written version of my Films of the Year video which is also included below.
My Top 20 Films of the Year 2025
I’ve seen 214 new films this year, so making a top 20 list like this is difficult and subjective. I actually had 67 films released in the UK during the year that I rated 4 stars and above (and if I went back to some of my 3.5 star films I might be tempted as well!).
How I came up with this list is to score them not only by the star rating I gave them but also by an assessment of “re-watchability” that was factored into the ranking of the list. So, for example, even though I gave “The Brutalist” 4.5 stars, it didn’t make my Top 20 list as I only gave it a 2/5 for my desire to rewatch it.
With such a great year of film, there are some films that I have agonised about leaving out of the list. In a VERY strong year for innovative horror movies I was sorry to leave out “Sister Midnight“, “Bring Her Back“, “Companion“, “Hallow Road” and “Together“, all terrific films. I also left out “Ocean by David Attenborough” which I viewed as one of the most important films of the year in giving a strong ecological call to action for the world.
Some may be shocked that I have left a strongly tipped Oscar film – “One Battle After Another” – out of the Top 20 (it is actually sitting at No. 21 in my list). I had a great time at the cinema with my daughter Jenn watching this, but it didn’t resonate with me quite as much as the other films that made my list.
I’ve specifically not included any films that I’ve seen at Film Festivals during the year that have not had an official UK release during 2025. Some of these (I’m looking at you “Hamnet“!) will definitely be making an appearance in my 2026 list.
So here is my Top 20 video presentation, followed by my scripted countdown of the Top 20. To find where you can watch each film (if streaming) in your region, check out the “Justwatch” widget beneath each entry. And, as always, the hot-links in the text lead to my specific reviews of the films.
The Top 20 Films of the Year 2025:
20 Sinners
I suspect many might be furious that “Sinners” didn’t get a higher position in my list and perhaps if I’d found the time to give it another watch, it would have done. But – hey – in terms of rating and ‘rewatchability’ this is how the dice fell.
Ryan Coogler’s exciting take on a classic genre, set in the Deep South and infused by a throbbing jazz beat, was innovative and extremely engaging.
Michael B Jordan is brilliant playing the dual roles of twin-brothers Smoke and Stack and there are some memorable supporting performances including Jack O’Connell as a seriously creepy rancher… one of two seriously creepy roles he’s had to play this year!
Where can I watch it?
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19 28 Years Later
Danny Boyle returns to the world of the zombie apocalypse with the UK, now a quarantine island, and the residents of Holy Island as an infection free conclave within that. Danny Boyle artistically combines some traditional zombie-style action with some really interesting artistic inserts. As well as including a particularly well-endowed zombie, Boyle also leaves us with a whacky, tonally-inconsistent ending that set the internet ablaze… well, in the UK at least! “The Jimmys” will return in Nia DaCosta’s sequel – “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” – on January 16th (with previews on the 14th). So not long to wait.
Where can I watch it?
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18 The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Original title: Dane-ye anjir-e ma’abed.
Like Jafar Panahi for “It Was Just an Accident“, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” director Mohammad Rasoulof is another Iranian director putting his life in danger for the sake of film-making. The film is a tense thriller where a father is working with the Iranian government putting him in direct conflict with his family and particularly with his teenage children. A gripping watch that I would love to see again.
Where can I watch it?
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17 Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
Tom Cruise (allegedly) rounds off his stint as Ethan Hunt in one of last summer’s most anticipated blockbusters. Although hindered by some clunky mansplaining dialogue and a rather too desperate attempt to tie every film in the franchise together, this movie THOROUGHLY entertained me and it scores very highly on the ‘re-watchability’ scale: hell, I can sit and rewatch virtually ANY of the M:I films without any issue. With a truly astonishing aerial stunt in the finale, this was an epic way to close the series.
Where can I watch it?
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16 Swing Bout
Of all of the films on my Top 20 list, “Swing Bout” is probably the one that fewest of you will have seen as it got a very limited distribution in the UK and Ireland. I saw it at the Irish Film Festival in late 2024 and was struck by what a clever film it was. It’s a boxing film that doesn’t actually feature any boxing: very helpful for a low-budget production!
The story takes place in the changing rooms at a boxing tournament and involves a lot of double-dealing and betting fraud. It’s a really engaging film and it has really made my Top 20 because I was seriously impressed with what could be achieved for a budget of little more than £100,000.
Where can I watch it?
The film is not currently available on the Justwatch database.
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15 Thunderbolts*
It been a while since I’ve been able to feature a Marvel movie in my Top 20, but I really enjoyed “Thunderbolts*” from May. As this followed the abysmal “Captain America: Brave New World” (which will make my other list) I had zero expectations for the film. But this was a film with an engaging story that perfectly balanced the action and the comedy elements in my eyes. Florence Pugh was just magnificent in ass-kicking mode. It also featured Lewis Pullman as a superhero called “Bob” so what’s not to love?
I think we are far enough away from the release now to reveal that the temporary name of “Thunderbolts” was a placeholder for “The New Avengers”, so this team should be very much back in the premiere of “Avengers: Doomsday” on December 18th 2026.
Where can I watch it?
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14 Black Bag
The prolific director Steven Soderburgh had two films released in the UK in 2025: the spooky 1st person ghost story “Presence” and this film, “Black Bag“. I didn’t particularly rate the former, but the latter was an extremely engaging and watchable spy thriller starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as George and Kathryn: a married couple of spies. A mole is suspected in the organisation and George is put in a tricky spot when suspicion falls on Kathryn. With a strong supporting cast including Tom Burke, Regé-Jean Page, Naomie Harris and Pierce Brosnan this was a 90 minute gem that both myself and the illustrious Mrs Movie Man loved watching.
Where can I watch it?
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13 When the Light Breaks
Original title: Ljósbrot
Actually, I probably told a lie when I said that “Swing Bout” was the film in my list that fewest of you would have seen, because there is this one as well that only played in a few selected UK cinemas.
“When the Light Breaks” is a bijou little 82 minute drama set in Reykjavik where a tragedy leaves a teenage girl in grief whilst in the middle of an illicit love triangle.
One of the reasons this is up here in my list is for the outstanding performance of the Icelandic actress Elín Hall who is just magnificent in the film. Another standout is the cinematography by Sophia Olsson.
Where can I watch it?
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12 Weapons
As I’ve already mentioned, 2025 has been a great year for horror and “Weapons“, released in August, really resonated. The premise is brilliantly weird: a teacher (Julia Garner) turns up to school to find only one of her 18 pupils in class waiting for her. The other 17 all got up in the middle of the night, precisely at 2:17 am and ran off into the night, their arms all drawn back like jet fighters.
The film is all over the place, both in terms of a fragmented and repeated timeline but also tonally, with the mood veering from horror to farce comedy and back again. But it all comes over as novel and innovative and with superb performances from Julia Garner and Amy Madigan it cements itself as one of the more memorable films from 2025.
Where can I watch it?
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11 No Other Land.
The best documentaries need to either move you or make you angry and this one managed to achieve both. The documentary follows the local Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra and his visiting Israeli journalist friend, Yuval Abraham, as they document the attempts by the Israeli army in the West Bank to clear the communities of Masafar Yatta to make way for a ‘Military Training Area’.
The film is devastating and, after further months of utter devastation in Gaza, you really wonder what has happened with this particular community in the intervening months.
Where can I watch it?
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10 September 5
Spielberg covered the same events in his 2005 film “Munich”, but here we take the viewpoint of an ABC team of sports journalists covering the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics and being thrust into coverage of a major terrorist attack against the Israeli team. Released in the UK in early February, it’s a tight and claustrophobic little thriller with a great script and reminding us of how basic the broadcasting technology was just 50 years ago.
Where can I watch it?
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9 We Live in Time
We whizz back to the first film I saw in 2025! (I checked that it was a 2025 film: it got released on Jan 1st!) “We Live in Time” is a beautifully crafted romantic drama starring an immaculate Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. The couple had fantastic chemistry together and with a wonderful cute-meet (spoiled by the trailer) and an emerging cancer theme, this was a film that I absolutely loved… so much so that I went to see it twice at the cinema, which is pretty rare these days.
Where can I watch it?
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8 Blue Moon
Another delight first seen at the London Film Festival and released in the UK in December, “Blue Moon” shows the last days in the life of the famous lyricist Lorenz Hart on the night of the premiere of “Oklahoma!”. It’s a stunning, transformational (Oscar worthy?) performance from Ethan Hawke as Hart and supported by terrific supporting turns by the wonderful Andrew Scott as Richard Rogers and Margaret Qualley as his indecently young muse and love interest Elizabeth Weiland. With a clever, occasionally politically incorrect, script, I absolutely loved this slice of 1943 life.
Where can I watch it?
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7 Warfare
Written and directed by Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza – one of the soldiers actually featured in this real-life story – “Warfare” is an extraordinarily visceral cinema experience that hits you in the guts (and shows you some too). Part of this is down to some incredible sound design.
My one question would be how well this will translate to home viewing on a smaller screen with a sub-cinema-standard sound system.
Where can I watch it?
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6 I Swear
I’m sure this one will be high on many UK viewer’s Best of the Year lists, “I Swear” is an absolute crowd-pleaser showing the true-life struggle of John Davidson (played brilliantly by Scott Ellis Watson and Robert Aramayo) with Tourette’s syndrome. The film has extreme highs and extreme lows but few other films this year will have positively affected the general public’s understanding of, and compassion for, mental illness. I can see this doing well at the BAFTAs.
Where can I watch it?
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5 Nickel Boys
I actually saw this at the London Film Festival in October 2025 but it didn’t get released until the first week of January 2025 in the UK. “Nickel Boys” stuck with me since that first viewing, a brilliantly conceived first-eye-view of a wronged young black man – Elwood (Ethan Herisse) – sent to a terrifyingly racist institution in the Deep South. Based on a true story which makes it 10x more distressing.
Where can I watch it?
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4 A Real Pain
Another film released in early January but making my list, “A Real Pain” is a joy of a comedy/drama perfectly mixing broad comedy with pathos. It sees two very different cousins -played by Kieron Culkin and Jess Eisenberg – who take a group tour through Poland to honour their beloved, recently-deceased grandmother.
It really takes something special for a movie like this – with the word “comedy” in the genre – to include a visit to a real life concentration camp and still keep things in perfect taste: thankfully it has, to date, not been subject to a Farrelly Brothers remake.
Where can I watch it?
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3 The Life of Chuck
Peter Debruge of Variety magazine recently voted “The Life of Chuck” as his worst movie of the year! How mad is that!
For me, “Life of Chuck” was just an adorable and very moving fantasy film about how we “all contain multitudes”, taken to a very literal extent. It contains a masterly drum-based dance section (that the Illustrious Mrs Movie Man got bored with, but I loved) and an instalment covering the early life of Chuck that had spooky “2001” vibes. But it was the first chapter of the film that I particularly loved: a scene with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Karen Gillan in deckchairs watching the stars gave me genuine goosebumps. Based on a story by Stephen King, I thought this was a tour de force for director Mike Flanagan.
Where can I watch it?
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2 Bugonia
A film that has divided people: some have this on their “worst of the year” lists! Yorgos Lanthimos is a director who I often find goes too over-the-top in terms of surrealism for my taste. “Bugonia“, which I first saw at the London Film Festival, was Lanthimos at his most accessible. An intriguing but linear plot, with only a few diversions into surrealism, before a truly killer ending! The performances from Emma Stone and (particularly) Jesse Plemons are fabulous and I would like to see both of them nominated for the Oscar acting categories. I’d go as far as saying that Plemons will probably be my choice for the win.
This one not only got 5 stars from me, but is so damned cleverly put together that I could watch it again and again without getting bored.
Where can I watch it?
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1 The Ballad of Wallis Island
And so to my Number One choice for 2025. “The Ballad of Wallis Island” is just a delightfully old-fashioned, character-driven comedy with fantastic performances from Tim Key as Charles – the rich, ‘McGwyer-Mortimer’ uber-nerd – with Tim Basden as Herb McGwyer and a delightful Carey Mulligan as Nell Mortimer. Tim Key gives one of the underappreciated acting performances of the year: a scene where the camera closes in on his face as McGwyer-Mortimer sing a song around the kitchen table is one of my very favourite movie scenes of the year.
The movie had a quiet opening in cinemas at the end of May, with word of mouth bringing in audiences for many weeks after that and packing out screenings.
Where can I watch it?
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So that’s my Films of the Year 2025. I’m quite sure you will disagree with many of them and be furious with me for omitting your favourites!
Have a Happy New Year and thanks for continuing to follow and support One Mann’s Movies!
Watch out tomorrow for my next post…. the worst films I’ve seen during 2025.
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