Rolling Stone has published its annual rundown of the year’s standout films, highlighting how 2025 delivered one of the strongest and most diverse lineups in recent memory. The list spans festival favorites, studio releases, streaming debuts and international titles, reflecting a year defined by creative risks and a wave of new and returning talent.
A Year of Big Questions — and Stronger Movies
Hollywood spent much of the year debating the future of theaters, the slowdown of franchises, and the arrival of AI-generated performers. But the films that broke through often came from the opposite direction: personal stories, wild genre swings, and directors working at full force. Rolling Stone narrowed the field to 20 movies that it says will “stick around for years.”
Highlights From the Top 20
Below is a concise breakdown of the films that made the cut.
20. Weapons
Zach Cregger follows Barbarian with a tense, multi-perspective thriller about the disappearance of 17 children. Even once the twist is revealed, the film keeps its grip through sharp character work and a brutal finale.
19. Frankenstein
Guillermo del Toro finally delivers his long-promised interpretation of Mary Shelley’s tale. Oscar Isaac plays a swaggering Victor Frankenstein, while Jacob Elordi brings surprising vulnerability to the creature.
18. Caught by the Tides
Built from unused footage shot over years, Jia Zhangke constructs a quietly devastating look at China’s rapid change — and the personal lives caught inside that transformation.
17. The Phoenician Scheme
Wes Anderson returns with a hybrid of corporate intrigue, slapstick and family drama. Benicio Del Toro leads, but newcomer Mia Threapleton is the discovery of the film.
16. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Rungano Nyoni mixes humor and fury in a story that begins with a surreal discovery on a village road and evolves into a critique of how communities protect predators.
15. Orwell: 2+2=5
Raoul Peck examines George Orwell’s radicalization and connects the dots between his warnings on authoritarianism and the political climate of today.
14. Best Wishes for All
A standout J-horror entry featuring a nursing student visiting her grandparents — and realizing the house hides a disturbing secret. Yûta Shimotsu’s debut has already earned cult status.
13. Universal Language
Matthew Rankin blends Winnipeg suburbia with the stylings of 1970s Iranian children’s cinema, turning what begins as a parody into a sincere love letter to global film culture.
12. Eddington
Ari Aster delivers a divisive, paranoia-drenched Western set at the start of the pandemic, unraveling American politics through a showdown between Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal.
11. Peter Hujar’s Day
Ira Sachs recreates a single 1974 conversation between writer Linda Rosenkrantz and photographer Peter Hujar, capturing a vanished New York art world through quiet, intimate detail.
10. Sentimental Value
Joachim Trier explores creative betrayal and family fallout as a once-famous director casts his daughter in a comeback project — only to replace her with an American star.
9. Marty Supreme
Josh Safdie turns table tennis into a manic 1950s sports saga, anchored by one of Timothée Chalamet’s most ferocious performances.
8. Sorry, Baby
Eva Victor’s debut balances comedy and trauma with sharp precision, following a professor confronting long-buried wounds.
7. No Other Choice
Park Chan-wook adapts a novel about an unemployed man pushed toward murder by desperation, mixing pitch-black humor with economic commentary.
6. It Was Just an Accident
Jafar Panahi crafts a tense parable about mistaken identity, revenge and moral reckoning, unfolding like both a thriller and a stage rehearsal.
5. Nouvelle Vague
Richard Linklater reconstructs the behind-the-scenes birth of Godard’s Breathless, turning the French New Wave into an unexpectedly warm hangout movie.
4. Train Dreams
Clint Bentley adapts Denis Johnson’s novella into a quiet character study about a working man in early-20th-century America, led by a career-best Joel Edgerton.
3. Black Bag
Steven Soderbergh blends marital drama and classic spy intrigue as two agents — played by Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender — become each other’s biggest threat.
2. Hamnet
Chloé Zhao tells the story of Shakespeare’s grief after the death of his son, powered by a moving lead performance from Jessie Buckley.
1. One Battle After Another
Paul Thomas Anderson tops the list with a sprawling, chaotic political epic involving revolutionaries, covert networks and a deeply fractured America. With Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and breakout actor Chase Infiniti in the ensemble, the film is described as a blend of conspiracy, comedy and emotional reckoning. Rolling Stone calls it the defining film of 2025.