We’ve seen so many exciting things when it comes to cinema in 2025. Whether it be returning to Pandora in Avatar: Fire and Ash, meeting Aunt Gladys in Weapons, or watching Ice Cube and Amazon Prime save us all in War of the Worlds, this year’s movies had a little bit of everything.
Now, the time has come for all of us over here at ComingSoon to pick the top ten movies of the year. There’s been a lot of great films we can’t stop talking about, and narrowing it down to ten is never an easy task, but here’s a look at our staff’s absolute favorites.
10. Eephus
America’s pastime: baseball. There’s nothing quite like a baseball movie. But what’s even better than a baseball movie is a baseball movie that makes you think. It’s not in your face about it — you can watch Eephus and just hang out with the dudes, and you’ll be in your fun time. There’s more happening under the surface of all of that, though. And this movie does an excellent job at slowly but confidently feeding it to the audience.
9. Wake Up Dead Man
Benoit Blanc is back in his best case yet! Yeah, he might get less screen time in this one compared to the first two movies, but you know what? That’s okay! Because, in return, we get a phenomenal performance from Josh O’Connor. The mystery is intriguing and unpredictable, the way it deals with religion is handled with care, and the supporting players make Wake Up Dead Man tons and tons of fun.
8. Avatar: Fire and Ash
We’ll just never get tired of looking at these Avatar movies. Level any criticisms you want at the script; sitting down in a theater and knowing that James Cameron is about to take you back to Pandora for the next three and a half hours, there’s just nothing like it. And then Fire and Ash gives us Oona Chaplin’s Varang, which, yup! Sold!! Say no more!!!
7. Bugonia
Yorgos Lanthimos is kind of a weird guy. Bugonia is kind of a weird film. Good news: we like weird! The performances from Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone are top-notch in Bugonia, and the way Lanthimos raises the stakes more and more as this thing continues is pretty remarkable. Whatever Lanthimos decides to make next, we’ll be there for it. But, for now, we’re just glad that he gave us this.
6. No Other Choice
You never totally know what you’re going to get when you walk into the theater to see a Park Chan-wook movie. Some of them are moving. Others are disturbing. Sometimes they’re funny. With No Other Choice, we get a little of everything. And the end result we get is one of the legendary director’s best movies to date.
5. Train Dreams
Perhaps the quietest movie on this list, Train Dreams is a delight. It’s a simple story about a man, played by Joel Edgerton, and his relatively tranquil life. It also serves as something of a meditation on how this country was made. It’s beautiful, really. Train Dreams is a beautiful and moving experience.
4. Weapons
The Aunt Gladys Halloween costumes. That running pose that the kids do. A tray full of hot dogs (seven, to be exact). Weapons had an influence on pop culture almost immediately after it was released. It’s just a wild, wild time; like, you’re never going to figure out where this is going the first time you’re watching it, then you get to the ending and you’ll just sit there wondering how they managed to pull it off. How did they pull this off? Don’t know. But it rocks.
3. Sinners
We were all excited for Sinners to come out. I don’t think anyone knew, beforehand, just how good or how big this movie was going to be. And then it came out, and it was all anyone could talk about for months and months and months. We wouldn’t have it any other way. There’s just so much to enjoy — the dual performances from Michael B. Jordan, Sammy!!!, *the* scene that just immediately takes your breath away. We could go on. But it’s Sinners. You know it, you love it, of course it was going to rank high on this list.
2. Marty Supreme
Ping-pong. It doesn’t necessarily sound cinematic. But then you get someone like Josh Safdie to direct a ping-pong movie and get Timothée Chalamet to star in it and, suddenly, we’ve got a movie. And, really, this isn’t even really about ping-pong — we see some table tennis action in the first and third acts, but much of this movie is just Safdie taking us for a chaotic, anxiety-inducing ride that works on just about every level. Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, which was also released this year, is fine. Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme is incredible.
1. One Battle After Another
The year belongs to Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio. One Battle After Another is a fierce political thriller that demands your attention; you’re being taken for a journey with this one, so you’d best buckle up. We love it for the performances, we love it for confidently calling out injustice without backing down, and we love it for that hilly desert road. We just love it. So much.
