At the start of every January, I present myself with a fresh movie challenge. I look back at the past year, note how many new releases I watched, and I begin the effort to try and top that number. It’s worked out very well. In 2022, my total ended up being 128, with Everything Everywhere All At Once being my overall favorite (up from 107 in 2021). In 2023, I watched 138 new films, with Poor Things being the one that really blew me away. And in 2024, The Substance was the best of the 140 titles screened. As for this year, I ended up seeing 166 fresh features in 2025, counting both theatrical and streaming titles across all genres, and among them, I saw a lot of amazing stuff.
But what would I consider the best movie among everything I saw? That’s a tough question that I’ve been mulling for much of December, with new delights and surprises emerging every month and causing my rankings to shift… but now I’m out of time, and it’s time to make some calls. I won’t lie and say that the following order might change with a year or even possibly a month of reflection, but what I will say is that the following list represents my favorite 15 films I saw in 2025.
