Part 6 the editors January 2026 World Poll Issue 116 ENTRIES IN PART 6: Duncan McLean Jason Mehlhorn Adrian D. Mendizabal Hind Mezaina Stefano Miraglia Jessica Moraza Marcel Müller Abel Muñoz-Hénonin Peter Nagels James NaremoreLuc Neacy Virat Nehru Boris Nelepo Andy Norton/a> Gabrielle O’Brien Emilio Occhialini Darragh O’Donoghue Wilfred Okiche Lalo Ortega Andréa Picard Duncan McLean Discipline Lead in Screen Studies (BA) at the Australian Film Television and Radio School and general film lover My list ten best of 2025, arranged alphabetically: Conclave (Edward Berger, 2024) – A compelling, intrigue-filled, almost pulpy political thriller with sharp writing and strong performances. The political intrigue is complicated by the additional, ineffable layer of faith that should, in theory, make this election different to any other. F1 (Joseph Kosinski, 2025) – Perhaps not one of the ten best films of the year, but definitely the most exhilarating theatrical blockbuster experience for me. Kosinski’s approach to authentic action spectacle is raising the bar for this type of movie. Materialists (Celine Song, 2025) – A divisive film, but as a hopeless romantic I found the cynical, transactional worldview articulated by the characters simultaneously fascinating, amusing, rational and deflating. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025) – Sets up a sizzling exploration of violent revolution and radicalised politics, before jumping forward in time and introducing an element of absurd satire that manages not to break the tension or thematic seriousness. Genuine menace coexists with some pretty goofy comedy. O Agente Secreto (The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2025) – A thrilling, intriguing and exhilarating genre piece that retains a real historical groundedness. Features possibly the most surprising scene of the year. The way former-film-critic Mendonça Filho’s cinephilia shows up in his recreation of 1977 is quite enjoyable. Sing Sing (Greg Kwedar, 2023) – One of the most extraordinarily compassionate films I have seen. Wonderfully captures the capacity of the arts to help us access our humanity and empathy, to open ourselves up, connect with other people and heal in even the most trying of circumstances. Sinners (Ryan Coogler, 2025) – An original, well-made, high-production value genre movie that is actually about something, from a filmmaker with a distinct worldview. A real marker of what still can be possible in commercial cinema. Coogler’s rights deal with WB was also one of the more interesting industrial stories of the year. Straume (Flow, Gints Zilbalodis, 2024) – Possibly the most curious and fascinating post-apocalyptic film you will see. It has a mythic quality to it. There is no dialogue. Its cast of animals aren’t anthropomorphised. They just get to be animals. Yet there is an incredible humanity to the film. Weapons (Zach Cregger, 2025) – A tremendous premise and an impactful narrative structure. The way it switches you between perspectives not only gives you the jigsaw pieces to put together, but brilliantly controls the rhythm of the film and the audience experience. Yek tasādof-e sāde (It Was Just an Accident, Jafar Panahi, 2025) – A film about anger and grief, the pull of revenge and the strength needed to retain your humanity and not let violence beget more violence. One of Panahi’s more conventional films, the most fascinating aspect of this political drama/thriller is how much humour he imbues it with. The last half hour of this film is the most engrossing thing I saw on screen this year. Jason Mehlhorn Relapsed cinephile, writer, and filmmaker from Ireland Ten memorable films from 2025 roughly ordered by decreasing obscurity Little Boy (James Benning, 2025) Christy (Brendan Canty, 2025) Dry Leaf (Alexandre Koberidze, 2025) Steve (Tim Mielants, 2025) Miséricorde (Misericordia, Alain Guiraudie, 2025) Caught by the Tides (Jia Zhangke, 2025) 2000 metriv do Andriivky (2000 Meters to Andriivka, Mstyslav Chernov, 2025) Yek tasādof-e sāde (It Was Just an Accident, Jafar Panahi, 2025) No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook, 2025) The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt, 2025) Dry Leaf Adrian D. Mendizabal Audiovisual Archives Researcher, UPFI Film Archives and Library; Film Critic, Temporal Imprints (Blog) Bloom Where You Are Planted (Noni Abao, 2025) Gekijō-ban Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Jō-hen (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle, 2025) Nosferatu (Robert Eggers, 2024) One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025) 28 Years Later (Danny Boyle, 2025) Straume (Flow, Gints Zilbalodis, 2024) Hollywood Pandemonium (Cosmotropia de Xam, 2025) Monkey (Aries Ferrer, 2025) 2551.03 – The End (Norbert Pfaffenbichler, 2025) A Ladder (Scott Barley, 2025) Hind Mezaina Film critic, contributing writer and member of the Film curator, writer, artist and founder of the blog/film club The Culturist, Dubai, United Arab Emirates My highlights of 2025, old and new films, listed by year: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra, 1936) The Talk of the Town (George Stevens, 1942) On Approval (Clive Brook, 1944) El-Bab el-Maftooh (The Open Door, Henry Barakat, 1963) Khally Ballak Min Zouzou (Watch Out for Zouzou, Hassan El-Imam, 1972) A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1989) Devdas (Sanjay Leela Bhansali, 2002) One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025) Kontinental ‘25 (Radu Jude, 2025) Silent Friend (Ildikó Enyedi, 2025) Stefano Miraglia Artist, independent curator, programmer at Pesaro Film Festival, founder of Movimcat. Afternoon Hearsay (Peng Zuqiang, 2025) Evidence (Lee Anne Schmitt, 2025) Generationen von Bildern (Generations of Images, Johannes Gierlinger, 2025) Study for Structure/Dialogues, Surnames (Micah H. Weber, 2024) Careless Passage (Jerome Hiler, 2024) Afto pou zitame apo ena agalma einai na min kineitai (What We Ask of a Statue Is That It Doesn’t Move, Daphné Hérétakis, 2024) Eurydice in the Underworld (Felicity E. Palma, 2025) du soleil, que ça existe (of the sun, that it exists, Charlotte Clermont, 2025) Daccapo (Liam Baldini, 2025) Grounds, Premises (Bram Ruiter, 2025) Jessica Moraza Programmer at Sydney Film Festival. Tardes de soledad (Afternoons of Solitude, Albert Serra, 2024) Invention (Courtney Stephens, 2024) Pee-Wee as Himself (Matt Wolf, 2025) Magalhães (Magellan, Lav Diaz, 2025) My Father’s Shadow (Akinola Davies Jr., 2025) Miroirs No. 3 (Christian Petzold, 2025) One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025) Sirāt (Oliver Laxe, 2025) O Agente Secreto (The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2025) Videoheaven (Alex Ross Perry, 2025) Marcel Müller Film consultant Sinners (Ryan Coogler, 2025) My Father’s Shadow (Akinola Davies Jr., 2025) Affeksjonsverdi (Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier, 2025) Reedland (Sven Bresser, 2025) Un Cabo Suelto (A Loose End, Daniel Hendler, 2025) The Brutalist (Brady Corbet, 2024) Comme le Feu (Who by Fire, Philippe Lesage, 2024) Ghostlight (Kelly O’Sullivan, Alex Thompson, 2024) Vermiglio (Maura Delpero, 2025) The Life of Chuck (Mike Flanagan, 2025) Sinners Abel Muñoz-Hénonin An editor at Senses of Cinema and Film History professor at Escuela Superior de Cine (ESCINE) in Mexico City. This year my most outstanding cinematic experience was watching slowly, two per week, during more than a month, the ten pieces produced till the moment of Tsai Ming-liang’s Walker series (2012 to present) while, coincidently, eventfully, reading Wang Anshi’s late poems. The relation made sense in one of the five Q&A sessions I moderated after the projections of the five programs in which Cineteca Nacional programmers gathered the films during August 2025, where Tsai declared this is his late cinema, the one that expresses his maturity. Then a delicate thread was revealed to me: Wang and Tsai shared a practice of contemplation, a fascination with the beauty of the word, even if the first was seeking peace, aching with age and despair, after his reformist policies were cut short by the conservatives who exiled him, even if the second is enjoying world-wide recognition, even with a distance of more than 1,100 years, even with the innumerable distances from Song dynasty to present day Taiwan. Yet the thread is so thin that it can only suggest a diffuse sense of awe, shared by Wang’s words and Tsai’s poetic images, where a Buddhist monk (his constant contributor, actor Lee Kang-sheng) crosses, delaying every step to the verge of equilibrium, avenues and subway stations, plazas and forests, museums and sands, now in Taipei, now in Hong Kong, in Tokyo, Kuching, Venice, Marseilles, Paris or Washington. He is absolutely concentrated on his path; we cannot do that – our sight cannot follow him that long, thus we can’t avoid paying attention to the people surrounding him, to the sound of birds or airplanes, to the landscape… And that might be the point of the whole experience, swinging from the Walker’s concentrated Buddhist meditation to a spectatorial Taoist paradox: learning how not to fix attention into one single object so that attention can also get directed to other objects worth noticing. Peter Nagels Cinephile, dream researcher, librarian (retired), Ballarat, Victoria. Four films stand out: Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh, 2025) La grazia (The Pardon, Paolo Sorrentino, 2025) The Shrouds (David Cronenberg, 2025) Grand Tour (Miguel Gomes, 2024) The rest are fairly lightweight: Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson, 2025) The Thursday Murder Club (Chris Columbus, 2025) Heads of State (Ilya Naishuller, 2025) The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson, 2025) James Naremore Author of More than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025) Ainda Estou Aqui (I’m Still Here, Walter Salles, 2025) O Agente Secreto (The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2025) Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro, 2025) Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater, 2025) Crimewave (John Paizs, 1985) The Assassin (Hsiao-Hsien Hou, 2015) Sinners (Ryan Coogler, 2025) Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson, 2025) The Mastermind (Kelly Reichart, 2025) One Battle After Another Luc Neacy Film directing student at Washington University in St. Louis and FAMU Newer: Une langue universelle (Universal Language, Matthew Rankin, 2024) A perfectly-composed and tender exploration of what it looks like to forge a home across cultures–and one that makes itself, as a film, a unique and unforgettable home. Kuángyě Shídài (Resurrection, Bi Gan, 2025) Monumental. In the sense of, monument to cinema, monument to image, monument to humanity. Resurrection plays with not so much what it means to be alive, but what it is to be alive, and it does so with such an utterly assured formalism that you get swept under the shadow of the monument almost instantly. The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt, 2025) A downright pessimistic film that trades in mid-century New England nostalgia for a bitter construction of a selfish, hapless protagonist’s downfall–Reichardt operates on the scale of a large tragedy while shooting this wonderful story in the most minute, intimate way. Yet it’s impossible to leave this with a bad taste in your mouth, and it’s probably the funniest movie of 2025. Eephus (Carson Lund, 2024) Hard to overstate how influential this film has been on my year. A baseball movie so genuine, spiritual, and endearing that it made me a baseball fan–and so perfectly situated in its setting and its soul that you can almost miss its novelty. Boys Go to Jupiter (Julian Glander, 2024) A joyful, heartfelt, laugh-filled film that feels like you dropped into an indie video game dreamscape. What more can you want? Older: The Reflecting Skin (Philip Ridley, 1990) Deeply disturbing and riveting vision of the American subconscious. Roger Ebert compared it to Blue Velvet which is well-deserved praise but the film also has an O’Connorian bite to it that sets it apart. The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes (Stan Brakhage, 1972) A 32-minute, up-close collage of autopsy work–bodies being cut open, examined, manipulated. It becomes a meditation on mortality and on the cinematic impetus to look, and is, I think, essential viewing in grappling with the body as a filmic object. So much joy in diving more into experimental film this year and particularly Brakhage, as my best friend is writing his thesis on him. Sero Hiki no Gōshu (Gauche the Cellist, Isao Takahata, 1982) It’s about a cellist who heals animals, his orchestra, and himself with the power of music and love–basically made for me. Underseen Ghibli-adjacent gem. Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire, Wim Wenders, 1987) Watched with friends for our short-lived “Wim Wednesday” series and again at the Gene Siskel Film Center for their wonderful morning screening program, where it was selected for its enduring, life-affirming beauty. Quickly secured its spot as my current all-time favorite film, and I was lucky enough to make a trip to Berlin’s Victory Column myself. My Dinner with Andre (Louis Malle, 1981) Richness, depth, breadth: Wally and Andre cover just about everything. And they’re both wrong, and they’re both right, and it’s wonderful. Not just conversation cinema–it’s the cinema of speaking directly with the nature of things. Virat Nehru Programmer at Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival and freelance film critic The personal has always been political, but this adage was even more obvious in the films that stood out for me over the past year. From tackling the human and psychological cost of living under oppressive regimes and genocide to the fault lines of caste division and an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble predicated on invisible labour, filmmakers are engaging with some of our most pressing and urgent moral questions with remarkable sensitivity, nuance and a command over their craft. One of the year’s highlights was meeting the great Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi in person when he visited Sydney. I cannot overstate the impact Panahi’s films have had on my life, including how I perceive cinema and the world. Rewatching his filmography, thanks to a full retrospective via the Sydney Film Festival at the Art Gallery of NSW—Jafar Panahi: Cinema in Rebellion—curated by Anke Leweke, where the master himself introduced and engaged in Q&A sessions for most of his films, was an unexpected gift I will cherish till the day I die. At the time of writing this, Panahi is set to be tried by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court. Another significant milestone was the opportunity to revisit the works of filmmakers that have formed the bedrock of what we know to be Indian cinema today, with centenary tributes to masters such as Ritwik Ghatak, Guru Dutt, and Raj Khosla at the 31st Kolkata International Film Festival. Films encountered for the first time in 2025 through festivals, cinemas, streaming services, or otherwise (in alphabetical order): Chhora Jastai (Shape of Momo, Tribeny Rai, 2025) Drømmer (Dreams, Dag Johan Haugerud, 2025) Ha Lyngkha Bneng (The Elysian Field, Pradip Kurbah, 2025) Humans in the Loop (Aranya Sahay, 2024) I, Poppy (Vivek Chaudhary, 2025) Ken (Yes, Nadav Lapid, 2025) Nujum al’amal w al’alam (A Sad and Beautiful World, Cyril Aris, 2025) Pee Chai Dai Ka (A Useful Ghost, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, 2025) Un Poeta (A Poet, Simón Mesa Soto, 2025) Yek tasādof-e sāde (It Was Just an Accident, Jafar Panahi, 2025) The Secret Agent Boris Nelepo Programmer (doclisboa) and film critic 10. Where to Land (Hal Hartley, 2025) 9. Justa (Teresa Villaverde, 2025) 8. Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2025) 7. Lagūna (Šarūnas Bartas, 2025) 6. Um minuto é uma eternidade para quem está sofrendo (One Minute Is an Eternity for Those Who Are Suffering, Fábio Rogério, Wesley Pereira de Castro, 2025) 5. When Lightning Flashes Over the Sea (Eva Neymann, 2025) 4. Vers la lumière (Towards the Light, Vadim Kostrov, 2025) 3. Cartas a mis padres muertos (Letters to My Dead Parents, Ignacio Agüero, 2025) 2. Zapisnaja knižka režisëra (Director’s Diary, Aleksandr Sokurov, 2025) 1. Leibniz – Chronik eines verschollenen Bildes (Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting, Edgar Reitz, 2025) Andy Norton Actor/Graphic Designer (Python Light Studios; Living in a Dark World); Actor (RGS Productions, Beavers) The cinematic landscape of 2025 highlights the power of storytelling that crosses cultural and stylistic boundaries. This year’s standout films explore universal themes such as desire, belonging, identity, and escapism through innovative visuals and distinctive narrative voices. From animated shorts to high-profile streaming releases, these works prove how filmmakers continue to push creative boundaries while engaging global audiences. La jeune fille qui pleurait des perles (The Girl Who Cried Pearls, Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski, 2025) is a visually striking animated short that examines greed and desire through meticulous stop-motion puppetry. The repeated encounters with the titular character heighten the drama and reinforce the film’s meditation on insatiable longing. Its craftsmanship and emotional clarity make it another memorable production from the National Film Board of Canada. A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow, 2025), released on Netflix, delivers a tense political thriller driven by strong performances from Rebecca Ferguson and Idris Elba. Bigelow devises a fine balance between complex themes without sacrificing pacing or engagement. While the ending may divide viewers, the film’s sharp editing and confident direction ensure it is still compelling throughout. The Irish animated short Éiru (Giovanna Ferrari, 2025) explores family and belonging through the journey of a character descending into a dry well within a warrior camp. Its distinctive character designs, folk-inspired music, and thoughtful direction contribute to a unique visual identity that strengthens Cartoon Saloon’s reputation for emotionally resonant storytelling. The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson, 2025) offers another polished period comedy filled with quirky dialogue and memorable performances, particularly from Benicio Del Toro and Michael Cera. While fans will appreciate Anderson’s signature symmetry and pastel palettes, the film raises questions about thematic repetition. Though expertly crafted, it may feel overly familiar to viewers well-versed in Anderson’s earlier work. For pure escapism, Heads of State (Ilya Naishuller, 2025) combines action and comedy with Idris Elba and John Cena. Despite less convincing visual effects, the film’s fast pacing, witty script, and exaggerated style make it an enjoyable distraction for action fans. The stop-motion short Zwermen (Murmuration, Tim Frijsinger, Janneke Swinkels, 2025) offers a gentle reflection on death and acceptance. Through the metaphor of a character gradually becoming a bird, the film captures the fragility of life with warmth and humour, particularly in its care home setting. Netflix’s animated hit KPop Demon Hunters (Chris Appelhan, Maggie Kang, 2025) blends pop music, fantasy, and Korean cultural themes. Its catchy songs and vibrant visuals celebrate K-pop while thoughtfully addressing issues of cultural commodification, giving the film depth beyond its entertainment value. Finally, Oh Yeah! (Nick Canfield, 2025) and Trials for Miles (Patrik Kancsár, 2025) highlight the enduring appeal of short-form storytelling—one through music documentary about the cult group Yello, and the other through classic slapstick-inspired animation in a fantasy quest setting—proving concise narratives can still leave an impression. Gabrielle O’Brien Melbourne based film writer. An unrepentant cinephile, she likes it best in the dark. Sirāt (Óliver Laxe, 2025) Familiar Touch (Sarah Friedland, 2024) Hard Truths (Mike Leigh, 2024) Jeunes mères (Young Mothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2025) Sinners (Ryan Coogler, 2025) One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025) Miséricorde (Misericordia, Alain Guiraudie, 2024) Enzo (Robin Campillo, 2025) Dragonfly (Paul Andrew Williams, 2025) Mond (Moon, Kurdwin Ayub, 2024) Emilio Occhialini Film critic, Film Programmer. Top Ten World Premieres Avatar: Fire and Ash (James Cameron, 2025) Miroirs No. 3 (Christian Petzold, 2025) Un anno di scuola (A Year of School, Laura Samani, 2025) Drømmer (Dreams, Dag Johan Haugerud, 2025) Ghost Elephants (Werner Herzog, 2025) After the Hunt (Luca Guadagnino, 2025) Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie, 2025) Kontinental ’25 (Radu Jude, 2025) Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater, 2025) One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025) Darragh O’Donoghue Archivist at Tate in London and a contributing writer for Cineaste. He completed a PhD on the Stephen Dwoskin Archive at the University of Reading. On Approval (Clive Brook, 1944) This glorious and under-appreciated supernatural farce was my highlight from the British Film Institute’s second Film on Film festival in June. Ap’rili (April, Dea Kulumbegashvili, 2024) The End (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2024) I hated the Oppenheimer documentaries that everyone loved but loved this musical that everyone apparently hated Straume (Flow, Gints Zilbalodis, 2024) Usually I agree with Sam Goldwyn on message movies, but this cat-centred marvel meant a lot to me in the year our dear old Jhoom died, and we took in rubber-boned acrobat Pinky Gunvald. A film as aesthetically weightless as the emotions it provokes are weighty. Exhibition – Ed Atkins, Tate Britain, London (2 April-25 August 2025) There were some gorgeously nostalgic film-related exhibitions in London this year relating to Tim Burton and the Brothers Quay, and remarkable shows by artist-filmmakers Michelle Williams Gamaker (about Anglo-Indian actress Merle Oberon) at Matt’s Gallery and Arthur Jafa at Sadie Coles HQ (that Prince loop!). But this was something else altogether. If Atkins hasn’t quite reconciled the immateriality of new media to the bricks-and-mortar reality of imperialist institutions, there is still no one as adventurous, intelligent, terrifying, or – despite his best efforts – emotive working in any audio-visual medium today. Człowiek do wszystkiego (The Assistant, Wilhelm Sasnal, Anka Sasnal, 2025) Polish filmmakers produced two astonishing fantasias on early-20th century literary modernism this year. This just pips Agnieszka Holland’s Brechtian Kafka film Franz (2025) by virtue of its absolute, audience-be-damned commitment to the termite ironies of Robert Walser. In die Sonne schauen (Sound of Falling, Mascha Schilinski, 2025) Heimat rescripted by Virginia Woolf. Kaj ti je deklica (Little Trouble Girls, Urška Djukić, 2025) One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025) Nothing much to add to the general fanfare except to note PTA as, with Tarantino, one of the few directors to locate Leo’s comic genius; and as a lesson to his namesake Wes in actual filmmaking, and the proper use of an actor like Benicio del Toro. Urchin (Harris Dickinson, 2025) Wilfred Okiche Film Critic, Nigeria Best New Films of 2025. The Ballad of Wallis Island (James Griffiths, 2025) O Último Azul (The Blue Trail, Gabriel Mascaro, 2025) One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025) The Perfect Neighbor (Geeta Gandbhir, 2025) O Agente Secreto (The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2025) Affeksjonsverdi (Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier, 2025) Sinners (Ryan Coogler, 2025) Sirāt (Óliver Laxe, 2025) Ṣawt Hind Rajab (The Voice of Hind Rajab, Kaouther Ben Hania, 2025) The Wolf, the Fox and the Leopard (David Verbeek, 2025) Lalo Ortega Mexican film critic and journalist, regular contributor for La Estatuilla and Cine PREMIERE, and blog editor for Film Club Café. During 2025, two stories set right in the intersection between film and streaming revealed a crucial contradiction in contemporary cinema as both art and business. First: the financing fiasco of a certain distribution and streaming company, whose new partner now ties it to the perpetuation of a genocide (although it is far from the only case of such a company in the world of cinema). And second: the ongoing acquisition of a major studio by a streaming corporation that actively participates in the monopolization and enshittification (what an accurate term!) of cinematic culture. Therein lies the contradiction: many films that make the injustices of the world visible or outright confront them, are mostly brought to us by such corporations. In the necessary act of watching and reflecting on these works, we end up contributing our time and money to these companies and, in turn, perpetuating the system. On either side of the audience and critics divide we might try to look for the right answer, even though there may not be one within the legal confines of an unjust system. However, none of this diminishes the importance of the films themselves. They still play a vital role in creating a collective and historical conscience that should transcend any commercial interest or algorithmic trivialization in their open challenges to racism, genocidal supremacism, self-exploitative consumerism, colonialism and many other “isms” engendered in the darkest depths of human civilization. That’s what makes these films the most relevant of 2025 in my eyes, and I would advocate for getting your hands on them however possible. They were all released in Mexico during 2025, either commercially in theaters or streaming, or in festivals but with commercial distribution confirmed for 2026 in the country. They are listed alphabetically, with no order of preference: Pee Chai Dai Ka (A Useful Ghost, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, 2025) Gou Zhen (Black Dog, Guan Hu, 2024) Dead Talents Society (John Hsu, 2024) Yek tasādof-e sāde (It Was Just an Accident, Jafar Panahi, 2025) Lā arḍ ukhrá (No Other Land, Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, 2024) O Agente Secreto (The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2025) Sinners (Ryan Coogler, 2025) The Ugly Stepsister (Emilie Kristine Blichfeldt, 2025) Ṣawt Hind Rajab (The Voice of Hind Rajab, Kaouther Ben Hania, 2025) Una película de amor y guerra (A History of Love and War, Santiago Mohar Volkow, 2024) It Was Just an Accident Andréa Picard Andréa Picard is a film curator and writer. Presently, she is the Senior Curator at TIFF & TIFF Cinematheque. It’s So Beautiful Here (Basma al-Sharif, 2025) Dry Leaf (Alexandre Koberidze, 2025) O agente secreto (The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2025) Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2025) Peter Hujar’s Day (Ira Sachs, 2025) Miroirs No. 3 (Christian Petzold, 2025) The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt, 2025) Sirāt (Oliver Laxe, 2025) Maʻa Ḥasan fī Ġazzah (With Hasan in Gaza, Kamal Aljafari, 2025) Magalhães (Magellan, Lav Diaz, 2025) BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (Kahlil Joseph, 2025) What Does That Nature Say to You (Hong Sang-soo, 2025) Sotto le nuvole (Beneath the Clouds, Gianfranco Rosi, 2025) Zwei Staatsanwälte (Two Prosecutors, Sergei Loznitsa, 2025) Kontinental ‘25 (Radu Jude, 2025) Classics: Araṇyēra Dinarātri (Days and Nights in the Forest, Satyajit Ray, 1970) Ghazl el-banat (The Razor’s Edge, Jocelyne Saab, 1985) Aniki-Bóbó (Manoel de Oliveira, 1942)
