This is the seventh year of me writing my top 20(/18/30 depending on the year, but usually 20). For those whom have found this because AI scours my cheap London cinema tickets page, welcome. For those who found it because it’s the only thing I talked about, welcome back. As always, the rules are movies with general release in the UK between Boxing Day 2024-Christmas 2025. This means Sentimental Value and Marty Supreme aren’t eligible. If your favourite film of the year isn’t hear, it means I haven’t watched it or your film taste is rubbish. Full 2025 ranking is available here if you want to check which of the two it is.

As always, I’m pretty happy with the variety of films here, and would recommend if you were to watch one, read what I write and base it on what you think is the most interesting instead of picking just #1 which is admittedly pretty good. This is a pretty cool list with multiple genres including horror, animation, drama, world cinema, thriller, documentaries. Some great films didn’t make it in, but these twenty are the ones I believe to have been head and shoulders above. Most are available on streaming services, so no excuses.

20) Steve

George from work always has a slightly wild but never uninteresting film of the year. Following Ama Gloria last year, his pick was the not undeserving Steve. The titular Steve is played brilliantly by sad man Cillian Murphy who runs a school for children with complex behavioural needs. One of the kids, Shy, is spiralling, the future of the school is uncertain, an MP is coming to visit and Steve is pretty well addicted to drugs. Constantly tense, with phenomenal performances, script and cinematography, Steve is a phenomenal piece of film making.

Steve is available on Netflix

19) Dying

Yeah, I promise there are some happy movies on here, but a three hour German epic about a father with dementia, a mother sturggling, a depressed son conducting and a daughter on the booze every night isn’t a relaxing three hours, but my word it’s certainly engrossing. Split into three parts, the daughter’s part is especially phenomenal, as is the mother’s, while the son’s parts, not quite as high, never feel condescending. A brilliant piece of German cinema.

Dying is streaming on BFI Player and is available to rent online

18) La Cocina

Kind of similar to The Bear, La Cocina is about an undocumented chef in a rubbish New York restaurant and everything going wrong throughout the day in his job and relationships. Very stage play-esque, the lead performance from Raul Briones and some great editing really bring this movie to life, as the tension ramps up throughout.

La Cocina is streaming on MUBI and is available to rent online

17) Hallow Road

The first (but not only) “Horror” on this list, but far more psychological thriller with exactly zero jump scares (and I’m a guy who jump scares easily). Two parents get a call from their daughter who has apparently ran someone over in their car. They then rush into their car to get over there, and that’s the whole film. It involves discussion of the family, their relationships as well as tension over this victim who was hit and whether they can save her, and save the daughter before anyone shows up. Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys both bring top performances in this small setting, as 90% of the movie takes place while they’re driving. A different, exciting small scale movie.

Hallow Road is streaming on Now/Sky Cinema or available to rent digitally

16) A House of Dynamite

Kathryn Bigelow loves a war film, and brings nuclear war back into fashion with this story where an unknown country has launched a nuclear weapon at the United States. We see the story from three different perspectives, starting in the war room. Again, providing a tension as each time we get closer to imminent disaster, the first third is the strongest. While the other two don’t quite catch up to it, the first part is some of the most riveting scenes of the year.

House of Dynamite is streaming on Netflix

15) Friendship

Finally, a happy film, it has to be, right? RIGHT? Well, if you’re familiar with Tim Robinson (hotdog/zipline guy) and his work on “I Think You Should Leave”, then you know where this is going. He plays a lovable loser who doesn’t have many friends and is content watching the new Marvel movie (It’s supposed to be nuts). When he meets his neighbour played by Paul Rudd, they hit it off immediately, with Rudd’s character being this cool guy who plays in a band. After some things go wrong however, Rudd wants the friendship to end, but Robinson’s character doesn’t take that well, wanting to recover the friendship. Naturally this leads his life to go wrong in increasingly zany ways as he obsesses over his former friend. Cleverly written and showing Tim Robinson in one of the best performances of the year, if you’re going to watch one dark comedy, make it this one.

Friendship is available to rent digitally.

14) Flow

Actually a nice film finally. The winner of the best animated feature Oscar (and former ASBO winner for the same category), Gints Zibalodis provided one of the best animated movies of 2025 with Flow, a dialogue free movie about a cat who finds itself in a boat following an unexplained flood with other animals. They all need to learn to work well together. A phenomenally smart piece where each animal feels realistic (the cat moves likes a cat), this quiet, meditative effort is phenomenal to behold, and is a huge step forward in independent animation.

Flow is streaming on MUBI or available to rent digitally

13) Sinners

Probably the most famous movie on this list, and only on here as need to appease the masses, Sinners is a very good vampire blues movie. Brilliantly acted, with a great sstoryline to boot, it shows a different time in history and how Black communities came together. The one reason to watch this is the music. There is one scene about halfway through this movie which is the best scene of any film this year. You’ll know it when you see it. I couldn’t stop smiling throughout. Absolute cinema.

Sinners is streaming on Now/Sky Cinema

12) Ocean with David Attenborough

Look, DA is cool alright. He fights for nature, but I find his gentle messaging and lack of viewer accountability ultimately underwhelming. It’s the one complaint I have about this documentary. The movie is so cool and I learnt so much about the sea. There is a scene where they show the impact of deep sea trawling, and that’s scarier than the two horror movies I’ve listed so far. The ocean is cool and comes across as this snazzy organism, as Attenborough shows the problem and solution, even if the latter is done gently.

Ocean with David Attenborough is streaming on Disney+

11) Lollipop

Something I didn’t notice about Lollipop when I watched it is that almost all characters are women. Mainly because I was busy enjoying the plot and don’t see gender. A British independent movie, Lollipop is about a mother being released from prison and trying to regain custody of her kids. However, she ends up in a frustrating cycle of not being able to get housing because she’s not living with her kids, and not being able to get her kids until she has her housing sorted. A film with a big heart and plenty of empathy, it’s a really sweet movie and one of the best British movies of the year.

10) Train Dreams

Into the top 10 and we begin with probably the best looking movie of the year, so of course you’re stuck watching it on Netflix. Based on a short story, Robert spends his life cutting down trees in the early 20th century (Why not concrete, I don’t know). The movie is about love and loss and change as he meets characters throughout the whole film and sees his life change, as well as the earth throughout the years. It’s a beautifully shot movie with a phenomenal Joel Edgerton performance to boot in what feels like an epic fight between man and earth.

Train Dreams is streaming on Netflix.

9) The Brutalist

A four hour epic about the life of a Jewish immigrant architect after world war 2, where the whole plot is about him building a community centre? Sign me up. Stunning to watch with a brilliant script, score and lead performance from Oscars narcissist Adrien Brody, I know you won’t watch this film because it’s too long, but the greatest compliment I can give it is that I wanted it to carry on for another hour. The only thing I didn’t get was his love of Brutalist architecture and concrete (Who is he, Mike Graham?).

8) Urchin

Harris Dickinson has been acting well on the British indy scene for years. Turns out he might actually be an even better director. A homeless drug addict is sent to jail in the first 10 minutes of the movie. The rest is a sobering portrayal of him coming out, trying to secure a job and accommodation and stay off drugs. A deeply humanist and empathetic movie which is full of hope and heartbreak, Urchin strikes the balance between narrative and symbolism beautifully.

Urchin is streaming on BFI player from December 31st 2025 or to download digitally.

7) I’m Still Here

The winner of the best international movie at the Oscars, I’m Still Here is such an interesting movie based on a true story set in 1970’s Brazil under a dictatorship. When her husband is taken by the army, Eunice looks to balance looking after her family with finding out what happened to her husband. It’s not a film about getting a tidy conclusion, but celebrating Eunice’s steely determination. Not a laugh a minute, I’m Still Here has plenty of warmth and characters you really want to support, particularly with a strong performance from Fernanda Torres.

I’m Still Here is streaming on BFI Player or available to rent digitally.

6) It Was Just An Accident

Farsi cinema has had a phenomenal year, and when Iranian dissident Jafar Panahi won the top award at Cannes for this movie, it was a perfect celebration of all his work so far. Vahid discovers his torturer based on the sound of his prosthetic. He abducts him in his van and plans to bury him alive, but when he has doubts, he then finds more people tortured by peg-leg to check if this is him (He was blindfolded when tortured so the doubt lingers). We have a dark comedy where this group have their torturer in the van for a day and are going around trying to work out what to do and deal with various obstacles. Very bleak, very engrossing, It Was Just An Accident is a brilliant movie with the single best conclusion to a movie of this year.

It Was Just An Accident is finishing its cinema run

5) Sorry, Baby

Sorry Baby is written, directed by and starred in by Eva Victor, and is the sort of movie to leave you wondering what she’ll make next. A very personal movie with a small scope, this time jumping movie starts with the lead character Agnes having friends around, but something being off. We then see her before her trauma and in the days and years afterwards. It’s a biting comedy, with an anger similar to that of Promising Young Women a few years ago, but far more grounded and realistic instead of pushing for a shock value. Full of hurt and full of heart, it’s a tender movie which is undeniably one of the best of the year.

Sorry, Baby is streaming on MUBI or available to rent digitally.

4) Seed of the Sacred Fig

The second of the Iranian films on this list, SotSF is a tense psychological thriller about a family in which the father works for the regime, stamping people to die regardless of evidence. His daughters are involved in protests, causing a generational divide between parents and kids. When the father’s gun goes missing, the family turn on one another, and following a threat towards them, everything really goes awry. A smart metaphor for Iran which is brilliantly made and acted.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig is streaming on BFI player and available to download digitally

3) I Swear

The British film of the year, I swear is the true story of John Davidson, a young boy, then a man who spent his life dealing with, then spreading awareness of Tourette’s syndrome. While I feared this would be a generic easy laugh brit-flick, it was very tender and honest. Of course some muggles may laugh in the wrong places, but the director and actors knew which moments were amusing and which weren’t. This lead to a heartfelt drama which never felt lazy. It also never felt a need to resolve things where they weren’t resolved in reality. This created an honest movie which moved me far more than I thought it would.

I Swear is available to rent digitally

2) Little Trouble Girls

For the best foreign language movie of the year we go to Slovenia where we get Black Swan meeting an Alice Rohrwacher movie (La Chimera or Happy as Lazzaro). Lucija is part of a choir who hates to sing loudly and is generally shielded from the outside world. Her choir master is pretty mean, however she finds a budding friendship with Ana-Marija, the slovakian choir girl equivalent of Mila Kunis’ Black Swan (Yeah, the films are similar). When they go to a choir retreat in Italy, Lucija also gets the hots for a local construction worker causing quite the tension. Magical moments of fantasy balance with realism to create an effective dreamy movie which totally caught me off guard. One of the rare occassions I agree with my film writing rival boring Peter Bradshaw in happily giving it 5 stars.

Little Trouble Girls is streaming on BFI player and available to rent digitally.

and the film of the year is…

When I choose a film of the year, it has to be one that’s interested me and made me feel something. There are very few films which have made me cry this year. Goodbye June, Bridget Jones 4 and maybe a couple of others? And the best films aren’t all melodrama. They need something good about them and the way they’re made. They need to have a vision behind them.

This year’s film of the year didn’t cause much of a splash on its release, however it received a quiet respect from most who liked it, as well as the top film at the London Film Festival (The second time this award has overlapped with my film of the year). The exciting first on this blog this year is that it’s an animated movie.

With a claymation rough and ready aesthetic and a sweet story about breaking down your own cages, my film of the year is Memoir of a Snail.

Memoir of a Snail focuses on the life of Grace Puddle, an Australian child who lives with her brother Gilbert and her father. Following the fathers death, they are sent to foster homes on different sides of the country and we see the following years of Gracie’s life as she struggles into adulthood. An animated film, Memoir of a Snail isn’t made for children though. While it is sad, it also puts you back together and is a wonderful story of self-empowerment Stylish and sleek, Memoir of a Snail is the film ramble’s film of the year.

Memoir of a Snail is available to stream on BFI player and rent digitally

And that’s a wrap. With about 5 blog posts, I definitely haven’t kept up with this blog as much as I’d like. But who cares, happy new year to everyone except the deep sea trawlers.