2025 was a good year for Benicio del Toro. Or, at the very least, it was a great year to watch Benicio del Toro on the big screen. Alongside a fantastically complex leading turn as arms dealer and reluctant patriarch Zsa-Zsa Korda in Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme, he was also a standout supporting actor in Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another – a role that's earned him the illustrious title of GamesRadar+'s character of the year.
In Anderson's tense, funny, moving film about revolution, family, and legacy, del Toro plays Sergio St. Carlos, AKA Sensei Sergio. He teaches karate to kids by day and is a figurehead for the undocumented community in Baktan Cross, California, on the side and, to me, it seems like a no-brainer to crown him our character of the year (my team seemingly agreed with me, too – I was uncontested in my campaign to rank him number one in the best of 2025's movie output).
