The best movies of 2025, ranked by AP film writers

The bean counters might say otherwise, but 2025 was a good year for movies, revealing an industry in transition yet still capable of delivering bold, personal, and wildly imaginative works.

Filmmakers both within and outside the studio system managed to create singular visions that resonated with audiences. Perhaps most surprising was the commercial success of “Sinners,” which ranked among North America’s highest-earning films alongside the expected sequels, reboots, and familiar franchises. While many of 2025’s most creative offerings seem destined for cult classic status rather than box office dominance, their artistic merit stands undiminished.

Hollywood continues to face significant structural challenges. Warner Bros. is now confronting a possible merger, adding to the industry’s ongoing consolidation trend. Despite these corporate upheavals, audiences demonstrated their enduring desire for theatrical experiences, whether joining in communal chants of “chicken jockey” or helping “KPop Demon Hunters” unofficially top box office charts two months after its Netflix debut—defying all polling predictions.

The year was also marked by profound loss, with the passing of cinema icons David Lynch, Robert Redford, Diane Keaton, and Gene Hackman. Their departures serve as poignant reminders that while box office tallies and awards are fleeting measurements, the films themselves endure as lasting cultural artifacts.

Among the year’s standouts was Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” which Associated Press film writers Lindsey Bahr and Jake Coyle both ranked as their top film of 2025. Bahr described it as “a clever farce, a frenetic thrill ride, a poignant drama about single parenting, a buddy comedy” that delivers “a great time and a reminder of an experience that can only really happen at the movies.”

Other notable entries on Bahr’s list included Mary Bronstein’s raw and surreal “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” featuring Rose Byrne in what Bahr called “an utterly fearless performance,” and Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme,” which provided “the defining Timothée Chalamet performance we’ve been waiting for” as a broke table tennis player in mid-century New York.

Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” appeared on both critics’ lists, with Coyle describing it as a “swaggering big-screen genre mashup” that Hollywood should take note of. Bahr called it “the bluesy, vampire, gangster musical we never knew we needed” and praised its vibrant storytelling and profound symbolism.

International cinema made a strong showing in 2025, with Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident” appearing on both lists. Created after Panahi’s own imprisonment, the film explores complex questions of justice and retribution with what Coyle described as “gripping and funny and human” storytelling. Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice” earned Coyle’s second-place spot for its “midnight-black comedy” about a desperate job-seeker who decides to eliminate his competition.

Documentary filmmaking also showed strength with entries like “Secret Mall Apartment,” which Coyle praised for revealing “something thoughtful and inspiring about art and commerce and community” in its story of eight Rhode Islanders who built and inhabited a hidden space within a Providence mall.

The year also saw impressive directorial debuts from actors. Harris Dickinson explored homelessness cycles in “Urchin,” Kristen Stewart delivered the “utterly electric” memory piece “The Chronology of Water,” and Embeth Davidtz confronted her personal history with the Rhodesian bush war in “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight.”

While many exceptional films struggled to find audiences, their artistic achievements stand as testament to cinema’s continued vitality and importance. As the industry navigates its ongoing transformation, 2025’s diverse and creative output suggests that filmmaking’s artistic spirit remains resilient despite corporate consolidation and market uncertainties.