My favorite films of 2025 featured a wider range of genres, budgets, and themes than in the past. From heart-wrenching dramas to maximalist action, and tiny Sundance debuts to $100 million studio blockbusters, all ten films give me hope for the industry’s future. While it’s an especially challenging time for filmmakers, theaters, and financiers, great art continues to flourish.
To avoid genre bias, my list is in alphabetical order and limited to theatrical or streaming releases from this year. There are also several buzzy films I wasn’t able to see before locking in my selections, including Urchin, Pillion, and Resurrection.
Netflix planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery for $82 billion could deliver a massive blow to the movie industry. There are hurdles to cross — antitrust regulators, Trump’s whims, and a hostile bid from Paramount. But a record breaking $5.8 billion breakup fee signals high levels of confidence that the deal will close.
If it does, the consequences will be profound: lower quality mainstream films, rising subscription prices, theater closures, a shrinking video on demand and Blu-ray market, and reduced access to classic films. Many filmmakers will lose their jobs and have a less competitive market to distribute their movies. The waning cultural relevance of film will accelerate.
Netflix, of course, disagrees. Ever since the news broke, CEO Ted Sarandos has tried to assuage fears of a theatrical collapse and mass industry layoffs. But based on the streamer’s past behavior, the results will likely be far worse than they suggest.
Once again the box office is in crisis. Almost none of the fall dramas and comedies have succeeded financially. These films — original stories not based on existing franchises, often star-driven with budgets lower than a typical blockbuster — are struggling.
But the main problem is demand, not supply. Younger generations are less interested in movies than older audiences are. Films are just one option among endless digital entertainment alternatives, from TikTok to PS5 gaming. No supply side fix — lower ticket prices, longer theatrical windows, fresh original screenplays, or new release strategies — can reverse that trend.
In an era where the major studios mostly release sequels, reboots, and superhero movies, Warner Bros. took a more diversified approach this year. Half of its 2025 slate came from original screenplays without connections to popular intellectual property, roughly double the rate of its competitors. Unlike original films from Sony, Universal, or Disney, most of WB’s were R rated, high budget, and gave filmmakers wide creative control.
WB’s approach has proven lucrative and consistent. They are the first studio to surpass four billion in revenue this year, with fifteen number one weekends, and nine movies with opening weekends over $40 million. I predict WB’s success will push majors and mini-majors like Amazon MGM to expand their high budget lineups beyond franchises. It’s a smart financial movie that also helps keep movies culturally relevant.
It may seem odd to anchor such cultural weight to massive studio conglomerates. But these companies produce most of what mainstream audiences watch. Disney, Universal, Sony, Paramount, and WB bankroll films with broad genre appeal, recognizable stars, and huge marketing campaigns. For casual moviegoers who only see a few movies a year, there’s a good chance at least one of them came out of the studio system, whether in theaters or on streaming platforms.
We’re in a challenging market for 4K Blu-ray players. In today’s streaming-dominant world, the demand for physical media has dropped sharply, leaving minimal competition for 4K hardware. Most players are old and expensive.
Thankfully, the Sony UBP-X700U stands out as an excellent choice. The player is reliable, quick to operate, relatively quiet, and supports Dolby Vision. It’s also new hardware when most rival alternatives originate from 2019 or earlier. There are a few annoyances, primarily around manual settings adjustments, build quality, and a dated user interface. But with a relatively affordable $300 or less price point, the X700U’s offers excellent value. It’s my default recommendation for most people who want to enjoy 4K Blu-rays at home.
Over the past few years film restorations have exploded in popularity, driven by demand from reparatory theaters and UHD Blu-ray collectors. Boutique labels like Criterion, Arrow, and Shout Factory have upgraded once shoddy releases into pristine 4K transfers. The projects span a wide range of decades and genres, from Barry Lyndon to RoboCop, High and Low to Se7en, Hard Boiled to A History of Violence.
But restorations often generate controversy. Critics argue the restorations go too far, distracting from a movie’s original artistry and aesthetics, and in some cases edging into remake territory. For example, the 2021 restoration of Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love shifted the color palette towards greens, muting the the reds and whites of earlier releases. Many complained the colder color palette dulled the movie’s lauded costuming and cinematography. Similarly, David Fincher’s updates to Se7en used digital touchups to replace actors heads, change backgrounds, and reframe shots. Online debates broke out on whether Fincher’s edits ultimately helped or distracted from the final picture.
The restoration debate is ultimately about ownership. Should restorations honor the creator’s intent or the audience’s original memory? And how far can you restore a movie before it becomes a different work altogether?
Smart, tailored film recommendations are one of the best ways to get friends and family more into movies. The right selection can open someone’s eyes to great cinema beyond Netflix originals and the occasional blockbuster at the local multiplex.
For many people, it’s not that movies are universally bad, it’s they rarely encounter films they really love. Local theaters show few films outside of big franchise blockbusters. Theaters are often old, with expensive tickets and unruly audiences. At home, algorithmic-based streaming recommendations tend to be poor and unfocused. Finding good movies can feel like chasing a moving target. Digital rental and streaming release dates are often unclear. Movies regularly shuffle in and out of streaming services every month.
However, through streaming services and digital rentals, a mainstream audience can access more high quality movies than ever before. Good recommendations in this landscape need minimal resistance. Access and convenience are key. Focus on movie recommendations from digital services your audience already uses regularly, be they monthly subscription services or rental stores. Services like JustWatch help to browse what’s available across multiple services.
Now that we’re halfway through the 2020s, I’ve been thinking about which films will be regarded as the best of the decade many years from now. To stand out among tens of thousands of movies requires widespread critical appreciation that deepens over the years, along with enough originality in a film’s plotting or construction to keep it to memorable decades later.
Using that logic for the 2010s, I’d include films like Children of Men, Mad Max: Fury Road, Phantom Thread, The Social Network, and The Tree of Life. Each movie is broadly appreciated today, regardless of how many wins it received from various critics groups and craft guilds they received at the time. Each also stands out for its bold, original filmmaking, even if the film’s distinctiveness may not be apparent at first glance.
Take Phantom Thread, which has the outward appearance of a stately, serious period piece. But Paul Thomas Anderson injects enough humor and cattiness to make the picture play like a romantic comedy. He adds modernist flourishes like coded S&M and a partner who grows from muse to equal.
We undervalue how challenging it is to be both critically lauded and steadfastly original. Most movies that regularly crowd top ten lists and win Oscars succeed in one area but not both.
High quality older movies are hard to find across most streaming services. Titles more than a decade old are largely buried under noisy home pages and poor algorithmic recommendations. Even specific searches for a title, actor, or director often give disappointing results.
When we lose cinema’s past greats, I worry we’re losing a treasure trove of films that could appeal to potential movie lovers. Without them, many view movies only as modern blockbuster franchises, limiting their interest to occasional trips to the multiplex.
Older movies expand our perspective through the lens of different time periods and creative teams. Many remain exceptional highlights of genre or showcase remarkable performances. Mainstream studio releases from decades ago regularly featured original, non-franchise stories across a range of genres. Genres that were once commonplace — romantic comedies, courtroom dramas, adult-oriented thrillers — rarely get much exposure given today’s blockbuster-dominated theaters. Ultimately, a richer back catalog encourages interest in the medium.
Movies using unorthodox aspect ratios like 4:3 and 1.66:1 have surged in recent years. Notably, this trend has grown beyond arthouse and festival circuits into mainstream releases like Longlegs, Maestro, and The Holdovers.
For the right movie, boxier ratios convey intimacy, making the shift both welcome and long overdue. The narrower and taller frame mutes the impact of landscapes, moving action, and large ensembles of actors. Characters take center stage, and this focus can make them loom larger than life. This approach harkens back to the classic 1.5:1 aspect ratio of 35mm photography, a format especially flattering for portraiture and full body shots. As director Andrea Arnold notes, who has favored the 4:3 ratio for her films, people are “not small in the middle of something.”
It’s understandable that several of my favorite recent films using 4:3 or 1.66:1 feature humble, low key character studies. For example, Perfect Days follows the routines of a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. The Holdovers presents a holiday-set chamber piece featuring a college professor, a few of students, and a school cook. All We Imagine As Light centers on the lives of two nurses in Mumbai.
But a shakeup in aspect ratio benefits more than small scale stories; it’s also an effective visual signifier of history. The 4:3 ratio originated in television and early studio films like Casablanca and The Third Man. When Osgood Perkins shoots Longlegs in 2:39 for present day scenes while setting flashbacks in 4:3 with rounded corners, he cleverly nods to seventies and eighties VHS horror. Bradley Cooper’s Maestro captures the Leonard Bernstein’s early days in 4:3 and black and white, matching the cinematography of the era.