Rolling Stone’s Top 20 Films Of 2025
A yearly snapshot of cinema curated by Rolling Stone. 20 titles that define where filmmaking is headed in 2025: The visionaries driving films like Hamnet, Black Bag, Train Dreams, and the quietly devastating One Battle After Another.
Items in this hypelist
Films
Weapons
Zach Cregger · 2025
When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.
Frankenstein
Guillermo del Toro · 2025
Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist, brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.
Caught by the Tides
Jia Zhangke · 2025
Years after her boyfriend left her for the big city and promised to bring her there after he’s settled down, a Chinese woman sets out on a journey to be reunited with him.
The Phoenician Scheme
Wes Anderson · 2025
Wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda appoints his only daughter, a nun, as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists, and determined assassins.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Rungano Nyoni · 2024
On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family.
Orwell: 2+2=5
Raoul Peck · 2025
George Orwell was one of the most visionary authors of the 20th Century, whose novels, 1984 and Animal Farm, foretold a chilling, authoritarian future. Acclaimed director Raoul Peck interweaves clips, readings from Orwell's diary, cinematic references, and modern-day footage to craft not only a portrait of the writer, but a fresh take on how prophetic his work has become.
Best Wishes to All
Yuta Shimotsu · 2025
A young woman's visit to her grandparents' home leads to the discovery of what's brought them happiness, a revelation that will lead her to question her choices, sanity and reality itself.
Universal Language
Matthew Rankin · 2024
Winter. Somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg. Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen deep within the sidewalk ice and try to find a way to get it out. Massoud leads a group of befuddled tourists upon an increasingly-strange walking tour of Winnipeg historic sites. Matthew leaves his job at the Québec government and embarks upon a mysterious journey to visit his estranged mother.
Eddington
Ari Aster · 2025
In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.
Peter Hujar's Day
Ira Sachs · 2025
A recently discovered conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz in 1974 reveals a glimpse into New York City’s downtown art scene and the personal struggles and epiphanies that define an artist’s life.
Sentimental Value
Joachim Trier · 2025
Sisters Nora and Agnes reunite with their estranged father, the charismatic Gustav, a once-renowned director who offers stage actress Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film. When Nora turns it down, she soon discovers he has given her part to an eager young Hollywood star.
Marty Supreme
Josh Safdie · 2025
A ping pong drama set in New York City during the 1950s where up-and-coming table tennis star Marty Mauser goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.
Sorry, Baby
Eva Victor · 2025
Agnes feels stuck. Unlike her best friend, Lydie, who’s moved to New York and is now expecting a baby, Agnes still lives in the New England house they once shared as graduate students, now working as a professor at her alma mater. A ‘bad thing’ happened to Agnes a few years ago and, since then, despite her best efforts, life hasn’t gotten back on track.
No Other Choice
Park Chan-wook · 2025
It Was Just an Accident
Jafar Panahi · 2025
Vahid, an Azerbaijani auto mechanic, was once imprisoned by Iranian authorities. During his sentence, he was interrogated blindfolded. One day, a man named Eqbal enters his workshop. His prosthetic leg creaks, and Vahid thinks he recognizes one of his former torturers.
Nouvelle Vague
Richard Linklater · 2025
This is the story of Godard making ”Breathless”, told in the style and spirit in which Godard made “Breathless”.
Train Dreams
Clint Bentley · 2025
Entre histoire d'amour et deuil, un bûcheron vit un paisible état de grâce dans le monde en pleine mutation du début du 20e siècle en Amérique.
Black Bag
Steven Soderbergh · 2025
When intelligence agent Kathryn Woodhouse is suspected of betraying the nation, her husband – also a legendary agent – faces the ultimate test of whether to be loyal to his marriage, or his country.
Hamnet
Chloé Zhao · 2025
The powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare's timeless masterpiece, Hamlet.
One Battle After Another
Paul Thomas Anderson · 2025
Cuando su principal enemigo resurge después de 16 años, una banda de ex revolucionarios se pone de nuevo en contacto para rescatar a la hija de uno de los suyos, encarnado por Leonardo DiCaprio. Adaptación de la novela 'Vineland', de Thomas Pynchon (1990), sobre los movimientos radicales de los años sesenta.
