Parallax View’s Best of 2025

Most of us at Parallax View are no longer actively reviewing new films but we still try to keep up with them. And after decades of making lists like this, it’s still part of our routine. So while, even a week into January 2026, we are still catching up on some of the most celebrated films of 2025, we can’t help ourselves. Though far from definitive, these are snapshots of what we have been able to see, and what impressed us, over the last year.

Contributors in reverse alphabetical order. Films list in preferential order (unless otherwise noted).

Jeffrey Overstreet

This list of my favorite films of the year comprises only titles that opened on big screens or on streaming services in Seattle before the end of the calendar year. Thus, a lot of titles you see on other 2025 lists are missing here because they reached Seattle moviegoers after January 1, 2026, and some titles were popular on 2024 lists but didn’t reach Seattle until early 2025.

You’ll find reviews of some of these films at jeffreyoverstreet.com, my new website (under construction). More reviews of these titles are coming soon.

THE TOP NINE
Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh)
Eephus (Carson Lund)
It Was Just An Accident (Jafar Panahi)
No Other Land (Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor)
On Becoming A Guinea Fowl (Rungano Nyoni)
One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson)
Seven Walks With Mark Brown (Vincent Barré and Pierre Creton)
Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson)

ELEVEN RUNNERS-UP
I’m still arguing with myself, so any of these could climb into the top ten in the coming weeks:
A Little Prayer (Angus MacLachlan)
Blue Sun Palace (Constance Tsang)
Bono: Songs Of Surrender (Andrew Dominik)
Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)
Harvest (Athina Rachel Tsangari)
Hedda (Nia DaCosta)
Left-Handed Girl (Shih-Ching Tsou)
Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)
Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk (Sepideh Farsi)
The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
Train Dreams (Clint Bentley)

Richard T. Jameson

From the top:
Sinners
One Battle after Another
It Was Just an Accident
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Train Dreams
Blue Moon
Sorry, Baby
Sirāt
A House of Dynamite

Continuing more or less in order: The Mastermind, Die My Love, Nouvelle Vague, No Other Choice, 28 Years Later, Weapons, Bugonia, After the Hunt, Nuremberg, Freaky Tales, Superman

Have yet to see Hamnet, Marty Supreme, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Materialists

Robert Horton

First Tier:
Blue Moon (Richard Linklater)
It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi)
One Battle After Another(Paul Thomas Anderson)
The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendoça Filho)

Second Tier:
Sirat (Oliver Laxe)
Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos)
Die My Love (Lynne Ramsay)
When Fall Is Coming (Francois Ozon)
Marty Supreme(Josh Safdie)
Weapons (Zach Cregger)
Sound of Falling (Mascha Schiliniski)
Hamnet (Chloé Zhao)
Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)
House of Dynamite(Kathryn Bigelow)

Not-Inconsiderable-Pleasure Tier:
No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook)
Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)
Friendship (Andrew DeYoung)
Ballad of Wallis Island (James Griffiths)
28 Years Later (Danny Boyle)

(originally published at The Scarecrow Wire)

Michael B. Jordan and cast in Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners.’ Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Kathy Fennessy

1. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2. Sinners (Ryan Coogler)
3. The Secret Agent / O Agente Secreto (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
4. Familiar Touch (Sarah Friedland)
5. 40 Acres (R.T. Thorne)
6. Sirāt (Oliver Laxe)
7. Blue Sun Palace (Constance Tsang)
8. Blue Moon (Richard Linklater)
9. It Was Just an Accident / Un Simple Accident (Jafar Panahi)
10. The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt)

(originally published at Andmoreagain)

David Coursen

1. Sinners, Ryan Coogler
2. One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson
3. Caught by the Tides, Jia Zhangke
4. It Was Just an Accident, Jafar Panahi
5. Souleymane’s Story, Boris Lojkine
6. Seed of the Sacred Fig, Mohammad Rasoulof
7. I’m Still Here, Walter Salles
8. Peter Hujar’s Day, Ira Sachs
9. The Mastermind, Kelly Reichardt
10. Blue Moon, Ethan Hawke.

Honorable Mentions: The Featherweight, Robert Kolodny; Grand Theft Hamlet, Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane

Wagner Maura in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s ‘The Secret Agent.’ Photo credit: Neon

Dennis Cozzalio

A Baker’s Dozen (plus one, because I just won’t be constrained by the whole number thing) of my favorites for 2025, in ascending order:
14. Merrily We Roll Along (Maria Friedman)
13. The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt)
12. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Rungano Nyoni)
11. It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi)
10. Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor)
9. Wake Up, Dead Man (Rian Johnson)
8. Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos)
7. Eephus (Carson Lund)
6. Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh)
5. La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino)
4. The Life of Chuck (Mike Flanagan)
3. Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)
2. Sinners (Ryan Coogler)
and finally, pure catnip…
1. Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)

I also liked: Becoming Led Zeppelin (Bernard Macmahon), Chain Reactions (Alexandre O. Philippe), Final Destination: Bloodlines (Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein), KPop Demon Hunters (Chris Applehans, Maggie Kang), The Long Walk (Francis Lawrence), The Monkey (Osgood Perkins), One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson), Superman (James Gunn), 28 Years Later (Danny Boyle), Weapons (Zach Cregger)

I have not yet had a chance to see either No Other Choice (Park Chan-Wook), Blue Moon (Richard Linklater) or The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho), three movies I fully expect would stir this baker’s dozen list up a bit, but so be it— as a wise candyman once said, so little time, so much to do. Others I have yet to experience include The Ugly Stepsister, The Shrouds, A House of Dynamite, If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You, Misericordia, Dust Bunny, After the Hunt, Eddington, Jay Kelly, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Naked Gun, Splitsville and Father Mother Sister Brother, among many others. I’ll get to them in 2026, along with other non-movie-related matters. Maybe.

Sean Axmaker

1. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2. Sinners (Ryan Coogler)
3. Train Dreams (Clint Bentley)
4. Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)
5. It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi)
6. The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
7. Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie)
8. Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)
9. Hamnet (Chloe Zhao)
10. A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow)

Runners-up (and on another day may have made the list): Cloud (Japan), Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (Embeth Davidtz), The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt), No Other Choice (South Korea), Sirāt (Oliver Laxe), Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor).

Honorable mentions and memorable cinematic experiences:
Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh), Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos), Caught Stealing (Darren Aronofsky), Dust Bunny (Bryan Fuller), Eephus (Carson Lund), Frankenstein (Guillermo Del Toro), Reflections in a Dead Diamond (Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani), Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson), Weapons (Zach Cregger).

There are, sadly, some significant films I have not yet seen (among them Blue Moon, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, The Sound of Falling, Father Mother Sister Brother and Peter Hujar’s Day) and hope to catch up with them soon, but as of publication this is where they stand.