Part 1 the editors January 2026 World Poll Issue 116 ENTRIES IN PART 1: Antti Alanen Hussain Al-Dubaisi Francisco Algarín Navarro Algitya Geoff Andrew Martyn Bamber Jennifer Lynde Barker Kyle Barrett Arta Barzanji Nathaniel BellSean Bell Jonathan Bentovim Malik Berkati Susana Bessa Hannu Björkbacka William “Bill” Blick Nandana Bose Stephen Bowie Rebekah Brammer Antti Alanen Film historian, teacher, critic, blogger, advisor Straume (Flow, Gints Zilbalodis, 2024) Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood, 2024) L’Histoire de Souleymane (Souleymane’s Story, Boris Lojkine, 2024) Ainda Estou Aqui (I’m Still Here, Walter Salles, 2024) A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg, 2024) One to One: John & Yoko (Kevin McDonald, Sam Rice-Edwards, 2024) Shahed (The Witness, Nader Saeivar, 2024) Highway 99 A Double Album (Ethan Hawke, 2025) Zwei Staatsanwälte (Two Prosecutors, Sergei Loznitsa, 2025) Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater, 2025) Hussain Al-Dubaisi Cinephile, Qatif, Saudi Arabia Best films released in 2025: One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025) Affeksjonsverdi (Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier, 2025) Sinners (Ryan Coogler, 2025) Train Dreams (Clint Bentley, 2025) Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor, 2025) Best older films encountered for the first time in 2025: A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1946) Pâfekuto burû (Perfect Blue, Satoshi Kon, 1997) Céline et Julie vont en bateau (Celine and Julie Go Boating, Jacques Rivette, 1974) Tengoku to jigoku (High and Low, Akira Kurosawa, 1963) Mia aioniotita kai mia mera (Eternity and a Day, Theodoros Angelopoulos, 1998) Francisco Algarín Navarro Editor, Film critic and programmer, co-founder of LUMIÈRE Magazine Films discovered in 2025: Windschaduw (Windshade, Frans van de Staak, 1986) Wilmington 10 – USA 10,000 (Haile Gerima, 1979) Capricorn 78 (Narcisa Hirsch, 1978) The Sunshine Sisters (George Kuchar, 1972) Le Mystère de la chambre jaune (The Mystery of the Yellow Room, Marcel L’Herbier, 1930) Untitled (Rudy Burckhardt, 1984) Vida de ángel (Ángeles Necochea, 1982) The Birth of Magellan: Mindfall I & VII (Hollis Frampton, 1977) Tender Fictions (Barbara Hammer, 1996) Devotions (James Broughton, Joel Singer, 1983) Algitya Indonesia – Cinema Projectionist Here are my favourite and memorable viewings in 2025, not ranked in order. Kuangye shidai (Resurrection, Bi Gan, 2025) The film seeps into our subconscious and reshapes our definition of cinema in a hypnotising way. It’s an otherworldly experience. Sinners (Ryan Coogler, 2025) Calling this a horror is an understatement. This movie is a cultural statement. Gekijô-ban Chensô Man Reze-hen (Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc Man, Tatsuya Yoshihara, 2025) Ultimate sakuga technique poured onto a complicated love story, in one of the craziest anime/manga adaptations. Lovable madness. Mogi gsangbi zhabskhra (I, The Song, Dechen Roder, 2024) Bhutanese existentialism. It’s a story about identity, presented in dreamlike aesthetics and infused with a distinctive local mysticism. The film’s magic charms audiences like a mantra, bringing you into the local community. Sore: Istri dari Masa Depan (Sore: A Wife from the Future, Yandy Laurens, 2025) A magically told, time travelling tale of love. It’s about our willingness to accept, or let go of the inevitable. Some extraordinary cinematic sequences feel monumental, which I rarely experience in local Indonesian cinema. 2025 Discoveries Christine (Alan Clarke, 1987) A harrowing depiction of the daily routine of a teenage heroin addict. It’s bright and eerie at the same time. Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (John Maybury, 1998) Come for Daniel Craig, stay for Derek Jacobi’s exhilarating performance as Francis Bacon. Dreamy, sultry, odd and of course memorable. Crisis Jung (Baptiste Gaubert, Jérémie Hoarau, 2018) Unflinching. Over the top. Extreme voyeurism. Describing this as vulgar might be an understatement. The series proves that art is limitless, its themes and real-world ethics know no bounds. Daisatsujin orochi (The Betrayal, Tokuzô Tanaka, 1966) A must-watch from the older Jidaigeki canon. A simple premise with an epic one man army finale should be experienced and explored by more samurai enthusiasts. Chameleon Street (Wendell B. Harris Jr., 1989) A man climbs the social ladder, because he can. Honorable mentions: Grand Theft Hamlet (Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane, 2024), Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor, 2025), Weapons (Zach Cregger, 2025), Segyeui Ju-in (The World Of Love, Yoon Ga-eun, 2025), Kokuhô (Kokuho, Sang-il Lee, 2025), Plainclothes (Carmen Emmi, 2025) Geoff Andrew Critic, programmer and lecturer; more at geoffandrew.com Jeunes Mères (Young Mothers, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, 2025) Miséricorde (Misericordia, Alain Guiraudie, 2024) Kontinental ’25 (Radu Jude, 2025) Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh, 2025) A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg, 2024) Quand vient l’automne (When Fall is Coming, François Ozon, 2024) Orwell: 2+2=5 (Raoul Peck, 2025) Blue Moon (Richard Linklater, 2025) The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt, 2025) Sterben (Dying, Matthias Glasner, 2024) Martyn Bamber Martyn Bamber has written for Senses of Cinema and is a contributor to the book: Are You in the House Alone? A TV Movie Compendium: 1964–1999 10 favourite new release films from 2025 in the UK, listed in alphabetical order: Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh, 2025) Broken Rage (Takeshi Kitano, 2025) Caught Stealing (Darren Aronofsky, 2025) Opt ilustrate din lumea ideala (Eight Postcards from Utopia, Radu Jude, Christian Ferencz-Flatz, 2024) F1 (Joseph Kosinski, 2025) Straume (Flow, Gints Zilbalodis, 2024) The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson, 2025) Reflet dans un diamant mort (Reflection in a Dead Diamond, Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani, 2025) Le deuxième acte (The Second Act, Quentin Dupieux, 2024) The Shrouds (David Cronenberg, 2024) Jennifer Lynde Barker Professor of Animation and Film History at Bellarmine University, Louisville, USA Favorite films viewed in 2025 (new and old), listed alphabetically by title. I. Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2025) No dejes a los niños solos (Don’t Leave the Kids Alone, Emilio Portes, 2025) Drømmer (Dreams, Dag Johan Haugerud 2024) The Outrun (Nora Fingscheidt, 2024) The Testament of Ann Lee (Mona Fastvold, 2025) The Testament of Ann Lee II. The Desk Set (Walter Lang, 1957) Dong fu ren (The Arch, Shu Shen Tang, 1968) Kontakt (Contact, Vladimir Tarasov, 1978) Seisaku no Tsuma (The Wife of Seisaku, Yasuzô Masumura, 1965) Sterne (Stars, Konrad Wolf, 1959) Kyle Barrett Senior Lecturer, University of Canterbury, Aotearoa-New Zealand 2025 was a year of audacity and affect. A$AP Rocky’s unexpected turn as a cinematic presence was a standout moment: an artist crossing mediums with charisma and risk. Yet nothing struck me as deeply as Sirāt, an unbelievably affective work that fused metaphysical longing with raw corporeality, leaving an afterimage impossible to shake. My list gathers films that, in different registers, interrogate intimacy, power, and the fragile architectures of truth. Sirāt (Óliver Laxe, 2025) A desert road-movie odyssey that fuses grief and rave culture in a search for a missing daughter, weaving metaphysical tremors under its sands. Friendship (Andrew DeYoung, 2025) A black-comedy’s agonising intimacy between adult men, which interrogates dependency and social expectation. Dead Mail (Joe DeBoer, Kyle McConaghy, 2024) A Bayesian nightmare at a dead-letter post office, where bureaucracy and obsession implode under synth-laden horror. Sinners (Ryan Coogler, 2025) A folk horror vampire tale set in ‘30s Mississippi, where blues rituals and supernatural darkness amplify social trauma. Hard Truths (Mike Leigh, 2024) A relentless London family drama tracing grief, mental illness, and interpersonal rupture through intimate character work. Pigen med nålen (The Girl with the Needle, Magnus von Horn, 2024) A Gothic psychological thriller set in 1919 Copenhagen, where wet-nursing becomes a conduit for female violence and societal horror. It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley (Amy Berg, 2025) An elegiac music documentary that resurrects Buckley’s voice through archival footage and intimate testimonies. L’empire (The Empire, Bruno Dumont, 2024) A slapstick, apocalyptic space-opera parody in rural northern France, where cosmic forces and existential humour converge. Miséricorde (Misericordia, Alain Guiraudie, 2024) A darkly comic thriller of sin and redemption in rural France, exploring desire, violence, and forbidden bonds. Highest 2 Lowest (Spike Lee, 2025) A moral labyrinth reimagined from Akira Kurosawa’s Tengoku to jigoku (High and Low, 1963) where a music mogul confronts class and paternalism in modern New York. Arta Barzanji London-based Iranian critic, curator and filmmaker The Wild Palms (Jean-Luc Godard, 2025) The Shrouds (David Cronenberg, 2024) Khmeli potoli (Dry Leaf, Alexandre Koberidze, 2025) Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie, 2025) Maʻa Ḥasan fī Ġazzah (With Hasan in Gaza, Kamal Aljafari, 2025) Tardes de soledad (Afternoons of Solitude, Albert Serra, 2024) Dracula (Radu Jude, 2025) Nuestra tierra (Landmarks, Lucrecia Martel, 2025) The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt, 2025) Geu jayeoni nege mworago hani (What Does That Nature Say to You, Hong Sang-soo, 2025) Dracula Nathaniel Bell Teaches film history at Biola University. Writes for LA Weekly, The Village Voice and Film International. The Annihilation of Fish (Charles Burnett, 1999) The UCLA Film & Television Archive’s recent restoration confirms Burnett’s place as the LA Rebellion film movement’s most generously compassionate observer of the human condition. Profondo rosso (Deep Red, Dario Argento, 1975) The high point of Argento’s career: an elegantly patterned and terrifically violent excursion into the horrors of the mind. “Molto sexy,” the director repeated during an October screening at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Deep Red The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 1925) Chaplin’s epic comedy screened at the Egyptian Theatre for its 100th anniversary to a sold-out crowd gone gangbusters. Here, humor and humanism walk hand-in-hand in some of the silent era’s most enduring set-pieces. In the Spirit (Sandra Seacat, 1990) A rarely screened indie comedy, written by Jeannie Berlin and Laurie Jones, plucked out of retirement by Brain Dead Studios to showcase the 35mm reel. While it did not find purchase with audiences at the time, this female buddy caper seems ripe for rediscovery, especially fans of Elaine May’s deadpan delivery. Last Chants for a Slow Dance (Jon Jost, 1977) Jost’s $3 000 feature alternates between rambling, improvised, yet tightly controlled long takes and transitional montages driven by country songs that comment reflexively on the action. Jost finds in the lonely highways and dive bars of Montana the perfect visual correlative for the alienated protagonist’s spiritual desolation. Screened for the American Cinematheque’s Bleak Week. Un homme et une femme (A Man and a Woman, Claude Lelouch, 1966) A brief theatrical re-release ahead of its canonisation by the Criterion Collection gave audiences the opportunity to appreciate anew Lelouch’s loose yet supremely confident camera lingo. Lelouch gives Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimee plenty of room to flirt, while constructing a veritable manual for the art of lovemaking. Never Cry Wolf (Carroll Ballard, 1983) The first “Walt Disney Pictures” release (following the death of “Walt Disney Productions”) remains one of the most rarefied studio films of the 1980s. Charles Martin Smith’s performance looks even better in hindsight, even when he is upstaged by his lupine co-stars. Screened as part of the American Cinematheque’s Carroll Ballard retrospective. North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) Blown up to 70mm, Hitchcock’s grand comedy feels immense. It’s the ultimate refinement of his special brand of cross-country thriller. Screened for the American Cinematheque’s Ultra Cinematheque 70 Fest 2025. Northern Lights (John Hanson, Rob Nilsson, 1978) From the prairies of North Dakota came one of the most fiercely independent examples of regional filmmaking American cinema has ever produced. The new restoration by IndieCollect allows home viewers to appreciate it for what it is: an austere, passionately performed drama about the primal urge to survive when powerful social forces (and even nature itself) seem allied against you. The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Ivan Dixon, 1973) The new 35mm restoration of Dixon’s pioneering indie simmers with anger, but also bubbles with satire. The films’ decades-long suppression merely bolsters its legendary reputation. Sean Bell Pop Culture Blogger at Sex & the Eternal City The Seven Best Films of 2025 and three spooky special mentions. Straume (Flow, Gints Zilbalodis, 2024) Very few films fulfil cinema’s potential for transcendence. This moving animated gem is as lissom and agile as its unforgettable feline protagonist. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025) The most fun I had at the cinema all year, its ingenious desert car chase is a literal rollercoaster. Funny. Visual. Visceral. It is a pleasure to watch a talented filmmaker with his ensemble cast and artistic collaborators behind the camera working at the top of their game. O Agente Secreto (The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2025) A novel political thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat until its gripping, tragic end. Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor, 2025) A film of rare wit and emotional intelligence about how trauma can erode confidence and identity, but healing can come in the form of a reliable friend, kind stranger or stray cat. The History of Sound (Oliver Hermanus, 2025) A heartbreaking film about trying to capture the ephemeral – a sound, a folk song, a fleeting love that shapes a life. Familiar Touch (Sarah Friedland, 2024) Films about dementia often over-egg the drama of the condition, but this assured debut feature (clearly made from empathetic, lived experience) chronicles the simple quotidian tragedy of a smart, elegant woman losing her agency. The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt, 2025) Reichhardt’s shrewd heist movie revels in its ‘70s setting and ends on a cheeky note of poetic justice. A slice of downbeat, real-life. Hip Hip Horror-ray! With their cinematic flair and indelible images, Sinners (Ryan Coogler, 2025), Weapons (Zach Cregger, 2025) and Good Boy (Ben Leonberg, 2025) showed that there was still box office in inventive, original horror that transcended genre. Coogler’s bold, sumptuous and tremendously acted epic weaves in supernatural legend into themes of oppression and cultural appropriation. Metaphor is also at play in Good Boy which features a remarkable canine performance from the director’s dog, Indy. The horrors are largely in the mind of Indy’s human owner as he spirals towards death and ultimately the film is a testament to the unyielding loyalty of our four-legged companions. Weapons, on the other hand might not be much more than its smart, insidious premise told from different points of view, but it hardly matters. From the sinister opening sequence to the hilariously black physical comedy of its climax (via a barnstorming performance from Amy Madigan), Weapons is one hell of a ride. Jonathan Bentovim London-based filmmaker and teacher What’s the point of all these lists? Maybe a personal memorandum of a year of viewing – the most enjoyable events, and also a chance to look up films I missed in other people’s lists. Some of these were first watches, some rewatches; many were seen at venues and events worth mentioning too. Amongst them: the incredible Il Cinema Ritrovato festival, the Institute of Contemporary Arts’ wonderful retrospectives, the London Film Festival and BFI Southbank, Close-Up Cinema, and Le Cinéma Club. Yeohaengjaui pilyo (A Traveler’s Needs, Hong Sang-soo, 2024) Stachka (Strike, Sergei Eisenstein, 1925) O Megalexandros (Alexander the Great, Theo Angelopoulos, 1980) One Hour with You (Ernst Lubitsch, George Cukor, 1932) La memoria de las mariposas (The Memory of Butterflies, Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski, 2025) Monk (Christian Blackwood, Michael Blackwood, 1968) Bogancloch (Ben Rivers, 2024) Welfare (Frederick Wiseman, 1975) Histoire(s) du cinéma (Jean-Luc Godard, 1988–1998) A Fidai Film (Kamal Aljafari, 2024) The Memory of Butterflies Malik Berkati Swiss journalist and film critic Creating “best and worst” lists isn’t usually my cup of tea. Yet, I embrace this annual tradition as an exercise that is both personal and subjective—a freedom that my work as a film critic doesn’t always allow during the rest of the year. Out of the thousand films I watched this year, here are a few that truly stayed with me. Ṣawt Hind Rajab (The Voice of Hind Rajab, Kaouther Ben Hania, 2025) There is a film, already released worldwide and representing Tunisia in the Oscar race, that I still find myself unable to review. I will do it, eventually, because it is a necessity. Almost a duty. It is a film I wish I never had to see, one I wish I never had to speak about, let alone analyse. But the world is what it is, and sometimes we must confront that which tears us apart. Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl, becomes an unwitting spokesperson for an entire people. Kaouther Ben Hania’s film—and above all, the fate of little Hind Rajab—demands our witness. On vous croit (We Believe You, Charlotte Devillers, Arnaud Dufeys, 2025) Charlotte Devillers and Arnaud Dufeys revisit the courtroom drama in We Believe You. Eschewing the grandstanding typical of the genre, the filmmakers opt for a mise-en-scène of almost surgical sobriety and precision. Driven by performances of profound interiority, the film plunges the audience into a state of emotional oppression that mirrors that of its protagonists—a true humanist mechanism. Miroirs No. 3 (Mirrors No. 3, Christian Petzold, 2025) Following Undine (2020) and Roter Himmel (Afire, 2023), Christian Petzold concludes his trilogy with Mirrors No. 3 in a touching and intimate fashion, delicately portraying the fragility of life and the overcoming of despair and loss, despite the pain. The beauty of this film—which takes its title from a piano suite by Maurice Ravel—lies in the imperceptible gentleness that envelops the story. Even after the credits roll, it leaves a sense of solace despite the depth and gravity of its subject. Mirrors No. 3 is a moment of mental respite, a sanctuary one wishes would never end, for as we leave the theater, the brutality of the world is there, waiting for us once again. Heldin (Late Shift, Petra Volpe, 2025) Petra Volpe plunges us into the heart of a hospital during a high-tension shift. The director orchestrates a pressure-cooker environment where the intensity builds crescendo, making tangible the weight that constantly rests on the shoulders of healthcare workers. By the end of this immersion, we emerge from the film as exhausted as the heroine. At a time when the nursing shortage in Switzerland has reached a critical level, Volpe’s film sounds the alarm: her fictional hospital offers a chilling reflection of a system at its breaking point. The film is Switzerland’s official entry for the Oscars. Ernest Cole: Lost and Found (Raoul Peck, 2024) Gouzhen (Black Dog, Guan Hu, 2024) Sorda (Deaf, Eva Libertad, 2025) Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot, 2024) Once Upon a Time in Gaza (Arab Nasser, Tarzan Nasser, 2025) El mensaje (The Message, Iván Fund, 2025) Susana Bessa Editor at À Pala de Walsh, Portuguese film critic and writer Blue Heron (Sophy Romvari, 2025) Las Corrientes (The Currents, Milagros Mumenthaler, 2025) Peter Hujar’s Day (Ira Sachs, 2025) O Riso e a Faca (I Only Rest in the Storm, Pedro Pinho, 2025) Sept promenades avec Mark Brown (7 Walks with Mark Brown, Vincent Barré, Pierre Creton, 2024) Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor, 2025) Familiar Touch (Sarah Friedland, 2024) Fantaisie (Fantasy, Isabel Pagliai, 2025) Tabi to Hibi (Two Seasons, Two Strangers, Shô Miyake, 2025) Ariel (Lois Patiño, 2025) “To imagine how disparate things fit together, to produce coincidence, alignment, parallelism.” – Emily LaBarge(1. Emily LaBarge, Pareidolia, Mousse Magazine, Number 85, October 2023.) Hannu Björkbacka Film critic for Keskipohjanmaa, Kokkola City Paper and Kainuun Sanomat, Finland One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025) Teyana Taylor and Thomas Pynchon together pack a punch in Anderson’s sprawling but tightly bound comedy of 1970s activism gone sour. Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2025) Career best for Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. Maybe even for Yorgos Lanthimos. Doubly intriguing as it is based on the South Korean original Jigureul jikyeora! (Save the Green Planet! Jang Joon-hwan, 2003). Sisu 2 (Sisu: Road to Revenge, Jalmari Helander, 2025) Finnish director Jalmari Helander is the new Renny Harlin. After the promise of Rare Exports (Jalmari Helander, 2010), Helander now delivers a vast improvement on the nice but amateurish first installment of Sisu (2022). Being John Smith (John Smith, 2024) Perfection as a personal short film. Seen at the Kokkolan Kinojuhlat (Finnish Kokkola Film Fest) 2025. Orenda (Pirjo Honkasalo, 2025) Finnish overdose of mythical beauty, both visually and in its insights. By the veteran director Pirjo Honkasalo and world-famous writer Pirkko Saisio (a couple in real life). 100 litraa sahtia (100 Litres of Gold, Teemu Nikki, 2025) Another Finnish gem, and its director’s best. A buddy movie about two sisters who make tasty sahti farmhouse ale but get into trouble selling it. Must auk (The Black Hole, Moonika Siimets, 2024) A surprising, wicked and touching alien sci-fi comedy from Estonia. Veteran actress Liina Tennosaar breaks your heart. Released in 2025 in Finland. Big Boys (Corey Sherman, 2023) Streaming release in 2025 in Finland. What is it like to grow up if you are a big boy and not interested in girls? A warm coming of age comedy with the excellent child actor Isaac Krasner. Ainda Estou Aqui (I’m Still Here, Walter Salles, 2024) A superior real-life story masterfully told and vividly acted. Released in 2025 in Finland. Sønnike (A Love Like No Other, Jesper Quistgaard, 2025) A strong Danish first film about two brothers whose mutual family secret is finally revealed. Morten Agerholm Jensen (Hooligan) is again awesome with his muted but nuanced performance. Strong chemistry with the young Bertram Bisgaard. William “Bill” Blick Associate professor/ librarian at Queensborough Community College (CUNY) and a film/literary critic 52 Pick-up (John Frankenheimer, 1986) I stumbled across this tawdry, neo-noir gem late one evening. One of writer Elmore Leonard’s best adaptations. No Sleep Till (Alexandra Simpson, 2024) One big “pregnant pause” with a rich subtext, ambient music and visuals to lull the viewer. Booger (Mary Dauterman, 2023) Body-horror indie that is a cut above the rest. Day of the Fight (Jack Huston, 2025) Old-school boxing tale of redemption. One of the year’s most underrated films. Bang Bang (Vincent Grashaw, 2024) Another boxing movie. This one is highly unconventional and features a great performance by Tim Blake Nelson. Sovereign (Christian Swegal, 2025) A staggering and disturbing wake-up call for America. Eden (Ron Howard, 2024) Interesting take on an unbelievably true story of Galápagos. More edgy than some of Ron Howard’s other films. J’accuse (An Officer and a Spy, Roman Polanski, 2019) Controversial film of a disturbing period in French history that is meticulous in its storytelling. Sister Midnight (Karan Kandhari, 2024) Dark, gritty, funny, and original. The way new cinema should be. Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink (Rick Goldsmith, 2025) Fascinating documentary on rampant “vulture capitalism” and American Journalism. Dr. Nandana Bose Independent film and digital media scholar, and author of the BFI Star Studies monograph Madhuri Dixit (Bloomsbury 2019) These are the most memorable films I experienced in 2025, in no particular order: Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra (Dominic Arun, 2025) – an exhilarating theatrical experience that surprisingly lived up to its hype. One Battle After the Other (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025) Homebound (Neeraj Ghaywan, 2025) – India’s Oscar entry for Best International Feature. Humans in the Loop (Aranya Sahay, 2024) – so glad Netflix picked this small but hugely inspirational indie film about the unlikely presence of AI technology in rural Adivasi India and how it is empowering marginalized women’s embattled lives. Ainda Estou Aqui (I’m Still Here, Walter Salles, 2024) – a hauntingly painful film that stays with you long after you’ve watched it even on the smallest of screens (in the form of in-flight entertainment which felt inappropriate given the gravity of the film’s subject matter). Pigen med nålen (The Girl with the Needle, Magnus von Horn, 2024) Nosferatu (Robert Eggers, 2024) Hiver à Sokcho (Winter in Sokcho, Koya Kamura, 2024) Shang Hai zhi yen (Shanghai Blues, Hark Tsui, 1984) – thanks to MUBI India, I finally watched this masterpiece. Restored versions of Satyajit Ray’s classics Nayak (The Hero, 1966) and Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest, 1970) – always a rare privilege to see Ray on the big screen! The Girl with the Needle Stephen Bowie Writer and researcher, The Classic TV History Blog Except for a few debatable co-productions, none of the 450 or so films I watched in cinemas or at home in 2025 originated from the United States. This was a gimmick that originated as a consequence of access – the demise of video rentals in shops or by mail finally ended my thirty-year habit of keeping up with new releases in quantity – but may have taken on political meaning, however impotent or corny. For the record, a movie diet without any classic Hollywood is like a salad without lettuce. To put it another way, if only as a structuring absence, the US seems impossible to escape. Some of my favorite discoveries were: Orlac’s Hände (The Hands of Orlac, Robert Wiene, 1924) Magokoro (Sincerity, Mikio Naruse, 1939) Saraband For Dead Lovers (Basil Dearden, 1948) Oh… Rosalinda!! (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1955) Ti ho sposato per allegria (I Married You for Fun, Luciano Salce, 1967) Ned Kelly (Tony Richardson, 1970) Une journée bien remplie (A Full Day’s Work, Jean-Louis Trintignant, 1973) High-Ballin’ (Peter Carter, 1978) Víbora caliente (Hot Snake, Fernando Durán Rojas, 1978) Gorod Zero (Zerograd, Karen Shakhnazarov, 1988) Rebekah Brammer AACTA and AusCritics member, currently completing a PhD in film and television. https://rebekahbrammer.wordpress.com/ Friday Night Frights: my year in horror A friend and I started a regular Friday night horror movie thing this year. Here’s a light-hearted look at some of the flicks we enjoyed. Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) – 50th Anniversary edition This ‘70s blockbuster classic was a treat to experience on the big screen, with impressive sound and visual quality thanks to its 4K restoration. We saw it in a cinema with the gimmicky ‘D-Box’ feature, which involves the seats moving and vibrating. This was kind of fun, with bumps from underneath when the shark was hitting the boat etc. The fear factor still holds up, as do the performances, even if Bruce the shark seems a little hokey now. The classic horror trope of building tension with soundtrack and carefully paced conceal/ reveal of the ‘monster’ is deployed to perfection. Weapons (Zach Cregger, 2025) One of the biggest horror outings of the year, this was a stand-out for me. The episodic structure worked well, and Julia Garner is establishing herself as a nuanced and capable new-gen scream queen. Creepy kids are always fun in horror, but Aunt Gladys inevitably stole the show. She is to 2025 what Monstro Elisasue was to 2024. Keep those unique horror femmes coming, please. Speaking of which, I streamed Cregger’s Barbarian (2022) after seeing Weapons. Hello, Mother! Stephen King Double Feature: The Long Walk (Francis Lawrence, 2025), The Running Man (Edgar Wright, 2025) Well Mr King had quite the year, with these cinematic adaptations sitting alongside some high-profile TV offerings. Within the saturated death games sub-genre (think Battle Royale or The Hunger Games) The Long Walk was still fresh, with a retro-futuristic palate and character-based plot. The film’s horror comes from the inevitability of death for the young men on the walk. There’s nuance in how they choose to experience it, choosing hope and friendship despite the carnage. The Running Man remake is the polar opposite: frenetic, loud, colourful, and not entirely sure what it wants to be. The comedic interventions don’t always gel with the inherent violence of the story, but Edgar Wright certainly knows how to put together a set-piece. My favourite piece of satire was in contrast to today’s overwhelming options, the world of the film only has one TV network. Your options are play-to-the-death game shows or a Kardashian-style reality series. Dystopian indeed! Zombie Double Feature: Queens of the Dead (Tina Romero, 2025), We Bury the Dead (Zak Hilditch, 2025) I saw both of these at the Brisbane International Film Festival. Tina Romero’s drag queens taking on her father George Romero’s favourite genre was big dumb fun. Not necessarily memorable, but it will be interesting to see what she does next. Zak Hilditch’s film was a welcome addition to the Aussie zombie canon. It builds on his own apocalyptic catalogue, including the excellent These Final Hours (2013). It’s a road movie as much as it’s a zombie flick, the film has a terrific cast led by Daisy Ridley, Brenton Thwaites and Mark Coles Smith, whose characters imbue the supernatural horrors they encounter with grounded emotions.
