OBAA and Sinners are deservedly going to get most of the love this award season, but I want to give my vote to KPop Demon Hunters. This movie has become a cultural sensation in both film and music becoming Netflix's most watched movie of all time and the first Kpop song to top the Billboard Hot 100. It also showed the Sony Pictures Animation is more than just the Spider-verse films as it looks really strong poised to win Grammys and Oscars. On a personal note it brought back a long dormant love of animation for me this year getting me to seek out animation classics new and old, plus the movie is just so much damn fun
Rick - 16 hours ago
Sinners, hands down. I’d only vote One Battle After Another for most overrated movie of the year. PTA fanboys gotta get a grip.
Andrew Hertz - yesterday
I don’t give five stars very often. I have over 5,800 films logged on Letterboxd, and only 16 earned 5 stars. One Battle After Another is the only 2025 film to earn that rating. I only had two 4.5 star films, and they were Sinners and Weapons. All three are far and away the best of 2025.
(Pardon the repost. I misspelled my own last name. ????)
Andrew Hettz - yesterday
I don’t give five stars very often. I have over 5,800 films logged on Letterboxd, and only 16 earned 5 stars. One Battle After Another is the only 2025 film to earn that rating. I only had two 4.5 star films, and they were Sinners and Weapons. All three are far and away the best of 2025.
Qball - yesterday
No Weapons love?
Billy Ray Brewton - yesterday
What do SINNERS and ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER have in common? They were both, at some point, my #2 film of the year. And, as great as they both are, they just couldn't compete with my #1 film for most of 2025, the masterpiece that is EEPHUS.
I know I am in the minority but I was underwhelmed by One Battle. I really liked Sinners but it does nof break inti my very strong top 7 of the year (based on UK release dates):
Black Bag, September 5, Warfare, The Lost Bus, A House of Dynamite, Late Shift and Hard Truths.
Isabel Bishop from Austin, TX - 2 days ago
Right now, Sinners and OBAA are battling for my #2 spot this year, so I went with "Other" and wrote it my #1 movie of the year, It Was Just An Accident. As the credits rolled for this film, I just sat in stunned silence until the lights came on. That last shot had me holding my breath. Jafar Panahi is a master filmmaker and what he does with this film is enthralling and ingenious. I hope it's able to pull a Parasite and be nominated for both Best International Film and Best Picture this year, because it really deserves it.
Daniel - 2 days ago
Of these two it's easily OBAA, but the film that truly cast a spell on me this year was Iceland's Oscar entry 'The Love That Remains'. Strange, bafflingly hilarious, and full of spellbinding surprises. A mesmerising wonder.
Jonathan Anderson, Denver CO - 3 days ago
I'd be lying if I said it didn't come down to these two for me, but man does it feel boring this year. I wish there was a third option that was even close.
Nathalie Carbonne - 4 days ago
Charming as hell! Oui, « charmant en diable » as we say here in Paris. Merci Monsieur Linklater!
Bruce from Portland - 4 days ago
Sometimes no-budget movies that do one thing beautifully, like Listers: A Glimpse Into Extreme Bird Watching, trumps overblown works by accomplished filmmakers with big budgets. A compelling plot with stakes, a road picture filled with interesting encounters, and characters, many moments of unforced beauty and awe, and a simple message that applies to end-of-the-year lists.
Brett (from Newton, Mass.) - 4 days ago
I'm with Stephen in that One Battle got my vote because it is the movie FOR this year, not just the best of the year. But Train Dreams is my number one (so far, at least). A beautiful, lyrical, gut-punch of a film.
Darryl K. Patterson - 5 days ago
*Sigh* SINNERS has been my favorite film since I saw it in May. In spite of the great films I've seen this year since May, including ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, SINNERS for me is still the best film of the year and Ryan Coogler IS the best director. Alas though, I see where this train is going in terms of everyone's choice for best film, including the Oscars and other award committees. Don't get me wrong. For the most part, I love OBAA and I think Director Paul Thomas Anderson did some great work but I would put that one astonishingly directed scene alone from SINNERS (and you know what scene I'm talking about) against anything that PTA did in OBAA. Also, I think there have been better PTA films. SINNERS is Ryan Coogler's greatest achievement thus far.
Gabriel - 5 days ago
I don't usually have my yearly list finalised until February but at the moment Sinners is number 1.
Stephen - 5 days ago
I voted OBAA, not because it's my number 1 (of what I've seen, Train Dreams and Sentimental Value rank higher), but because its rather undeniable that the year of 2025 will be remembered as the year PTA brought such a fervor to cinemas with his adaptation that was both timeless and prescient. I believe it will be a significant touchpoint in history for both the state of the world and the state of cinema we are currently in.
Andy Bukaty (Kansas City) - 5 days ago
Voting One Battle After Another, as I did, shortchanges both Sinners and Other, because, while it's too soon to definitively say at this point, I feel there's a reasonable chance that One Battle, Sinners, and It Was Just an Accident, in that order, would be my top 3 films of the six years that so far make up the 2020s. I feel good right now saying that each of them, had they come out in any of the previous six years, would have topped my annual Best Of list.
Richard - 5 days ago
Both of these films are fine, but wildly overrated
Jeremy Kennis - 5 days ago
I just went back and re-watched Sinners the other day. All it did was reinforce my opinion that it's the best film I've seen this year. And although I did like One Battle, I'll die on the hill that Eddington is the better film to turn the lens on ourselves.
Trent Robb - 5 days ago
I'm not answering. I usually don't know my favorite movies of a particular year until Feb of the following year. So many movies I still need to see. One Battle was really good, but I feel myself pushing against all the praise it's getting. Wish it wasn't so focused on the character of Bob.
Bailey Clark - 5 days ago
One Battle After Another is probably better representative of the year 2025, but Sinners might just be the film of the decade. It’s the most special movie I’ve seen in at least that long. It’s deft but bold portrait of simultaneous joy and desperation is staggeringly powerful. All I can say when I recommend it to people is that they’ve never seen anything like it. It also single-handedly brought Irish folk music into the zeitgeist, and I don’t know if anyone but Ryan Coogler could have managed to pull that off.
Rob Staeger - 5 days ago
My two favorite movies of the year so far. I feel bad that I didn't rewatch Sinners to give it a fighting chance against the more recent OBAA.
Curt Hansman - 5 days ago
Bothe great films as is Hamnet and Jafar Panahi's is an astonishing achieves so much with minimal technical artifice. The last scene will stay with many forever. His finest film to date.
Worried that Marty Supreme is still one of the big films that most of us haven't seen and might be at the table. This was a surprisingly good year of 4-4.5 films with 1 or 2 films I would classify as 5 star.
Once folks see Marty Supreme, it will enter the chat.
Kristen B - 5 days ago
Hamnet is the correct answer. Jessie Buckley was phenomenal. My favorite film of the year by far.
Saurabh - 5 days ago
My two favorite movies of the year. Both incredible experiences in a theater. While I can nitpick both, I don’t want to, because I unabashedly loved each film. While both films reach for moments of transcendence, Sinners is the movie that made me float during and after the “time travel” music scene. Such a gigantic audacious swing that ties together the themes and plot and spirit of the film. That sequence alone has to give it a slight edge. We’re lucky to get either of these movies in any year. To get both in the same year means we all hit the cinematic lottery.
Will - 5 days ago
This is hard. Up until One Battle I expected Sinners to be my movie of the year, no contest. I think I'll come back to this later
OBAA and Sinners are deservedly going to get most of the love this award season, but I want to give my vote to KPop Demon Hunters. This movie has become a cultural sensation in both film and music becoming Netflix's most watched movie of all time and the first Kpop song to top the Billboard Hot 100. It also showed the Sony Pictures Animation is more than just the Spider-verse films as it looks really strong poised to win Grammys and Oscars. On a personal note it brought back a long dormant love of animation for me this year getting me to seek out animation classics new and old, plus the movie is just so much damn fun
Sinners, hands down. I’d only vote One Battle After Another for most overrated movie of the year. PTA fanboys gotta get a grip.
I don’t give five stars very often. I have over 5,800 films logged on Letterboxd, and only 16 earned 5 stars. One Battle After Another is the only 2025 film to earn that rating. I only had two 4.5 star films, and they were Sinners and Weapons. All three are far and away the best of 2025.
(Pardon the repost. I misspelled my own last name. ????)
I don’t give five stars very often. I have over 5,800 films logged on Letterboxd, and only 16 earned 5 stars. One Battle After Another is the only 2025 film to earn that rating. I only had two 4.5 star films, and they were Sinners and Weapons. All three are far and away the best of 2025.
No Weapons love?
What do SINNERS and ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER have in common? They were both, at some point, my #2 film of the year. And, as great as they both are, they just couldn't compete with my #1 film for most of 2025, the masterpiece that is EEPHUS.
I know I am in the minority but I was underwhelmed by One Battle. I really liked Sinners but it does nof break inti my very strong top 7 of the year (based on UK release dates):
Black Bag, September 5, Warfare, The Lost Bus, A House of Dynamite, Late Shift and Hard Truths.
Right now, Sinners and OBAA are battling for my #2 spot this year, so I went with "Other" and wrote it my #1 movie of the year, It Was Just An Accident. As the credits rolled for this film, I just sat in stunned silence until the lights came on. That last shot had me holding my breath. Jafar Panahi is a master filmmaker and what he does with this film is enthralling and ingenious. I hope it's able to pull a Parasite and be nominated for both Best International Film and Best Picture this year, because it really deserves it.
Of these two it's easily OBAA, but the film that truly cast a spell on me this year was Iceland's Oscar entry 'The Love That Remains'. Strange, bafflingly hilarious, and full of spellbinding surprises. A mesmerising wonder.
I'd be lying if I said it didn't come down to these two for me, but man does it feel boring this year. I wish there was a third option that was even close.
Charming as hell! Oui, « charmant en diable » as we say here in Paris. Merci Monsieur Linklater!
Sometimes no-budget movies that do one thing beautifully, like Listers: A Glimpse Into Extreme Bird Watching, trumps overblown works by accomplished filmmakers with big budgets. A compelling plot with stakes, a road picture filled with interesting encounters, and characters, many moments of unforced beauty and awe, and a simple message that applies to end-of-the-year lists.
I'm with Stephen in that One Battle got my vote because it is the movie FOR this year, not just the best of the year. But Train Dreams is my number one (so far, at least). A beautiful, lyrical, gut-punch of a film.
*Sigh* SINNERS has been my favorite film since I saw it in May. In spite of the great films I've seen this year since May, including ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, SINNERS for me is still the best film of the year and Ryan Coogler IS the best director. Alas though, I see where this train is going in terms of everyone's choice for best film, including the Oscars and other award committees. Don't get me wrong. For the most part, I love OBAA and I think Director Paul Thomas Anderson did some great work but I would put that one astonishingly directed scene alone from SINNERS (and you know what scene I'm talking about) against anything that PTA did in OBAA. Also, I think there have been better PTA films. SINNERS is Ryan Coogler's greatest achievement thus far.
I don't usually have my yearly list finalised until February but at the moment Sinners is number 1.
I voted OBAA, not because it's my number 1 (of what I've seen, Train Dreams and Sentimental Value rank higher), but because its rather undeniable that the year of 2025 will be remembered as the year PTA brought such a fervor to cinemas with his adaptation that was both timeless and prescient. I believe it will be a significant touchpoint in history for both the state of the world and the state of cinema we are currently in.
Voting One Battle After Another, as I did, shortchanges both Sinners and Other, because, while it's too soon to definitively say at this point, I feel there's a reasonable chance that One Battle, Sinners, and It Was Just an Accident, in that order, would be my top 3 films of the six years that so far make up the 2020s. I feel good right now saying that each of them, had they come out in any of the previous six years, would have topped my annual Best Of list.
Both of these films are fine, but wildly overrated
I just went back and re-watched Sinners the other day. All it did was reinforce my opinion that it's the best film I've seen this year. And although I did like One Battle, I'll die on the hill that Eddington is the better film to turn the lens on ourselves.
I'm not answering. I usually don't know my favorite movies of a particular year until Feb of the following year. So many movies I still need to see. One Battle was really good, but I feel myself pushing against all the praise it's getting. Wish it wasn't so focused on the character of Bob.
One Battle After Another is probably better representative of the year 2025, but Sinners might just be the film of the decade. It’s the most special movie I’ve seen in at least that long. It’s deft but bold portrait of simultaneous joy and desperation is staggeringly powerful. All I can say when I recommend it to people is that they’ve never seen anything like it. It also single-handedly brought Irish folk music into the zeitgeist, and I don’t know if anyone but Ryan Coogler could have managed to pull that off.
My two favorite movies of the year so far. I feel bad that I didn't rewatch Sinners to give it a fighting chance against the more recent OBAA.
Bothe great films as is Hamnet and Jafar Panahi's is an astonishing achieves so much with minimal technical artifice. The last scene will stay with many forever. His finest film to date.
Worried that Marty Supreme is still one of the big films that most of us haven't seen and might be at the table. This was a surprisingly good year of 4-4.5 films with 1 or 2 films I would classify as 5 star.
Once folks see Marty Supreme, it will enter the chat.
Hamnet is the correct answer. Jessie Buckley was phenomenal. My favorite film of the year by far.
My two favorite movies of the year. Both incredible experiences in a theater. While I can nitpick both, I don’t want to, because I unabashedly loved each film. While both films reach for moments of transcendence, Sinners is the movie that made me float during and after the “time travel” music scene. Such a gigantic audacious swing that ties together the themes and plot and spirit of the film. That sequence alone has to give it a slight edge. We’re lucky to get either of these movies in any year. To get both in the same year means we all hit the cinematic lottery.
This is hard. Up until One Battle I expected Sinners to be my movie of the year, no contest. I think I'll come back to this later