The best movie and streaming releases of 2025 From the best film to the worst horror movie on the big and small screen

The end of the year coincides with two traditions: on the one hand, the real start of the award season; on the other, the ranking of the best films and TV series released over the three hundred and sixty-five days of entertainment we’ve just experienced. This year, to shake things up a bit and bring these two aspects together, we decided to hand out the most coveted awards of the season ourselves, ranging from the classic best film to the awarding of best sequel or, to add a touch of the Razzie Awards, recognition for the worst film and even the worst horror. A ceremony that aims to trace a path to revisiting together what the cinematic and serial landscape gave us in 2025, between unmissable titles and a few small oddities.

Here, then, are the best cinematic releases of 2025.

Best film - Una battaglia dopo l’altra by Paul Thomas Anderson

The best film of the year is Una battaglia dopo l’altra by a landslide. There’s no competing with the clear-eyed, analytical gaze of Paul Thomas Anderson, who writes and directs a subversive work that tells a story of failed ideals and future generations to whom they might be entrusted. He carefully sketches, first through writing and then through the direction of his actors, a lineup of characters more iconic than the last, from Benicio Del Toro’s sensei to Colonel Lockjaw played by Sean Penn, all the way to the Perfidious Beverly Hills portrayed by Teyana Taylor, while also discovering a new face like Chase Infiniti, whom we hope to see on screen more and more often. The film is a snapshot of an America that speaks directly to the present and proves that the long-desired movie by PTA - one that took him years to make - arrived at exactly the moment it was most needed.

Best film (if it had been released in 2025) - L’agente segreto by Kleber Mendonça Filho

Despite our love for Una battaglia dopo l’altra by Paul Thomas Anderson, had it been released in 2025 there would have been a film capable of knocking it off the throne. That film is L’agente segreto by Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil’s contender in the Oscar race, and one of the most cinematic works produced in recent years. It shows how, even when telling dramatic stories in real-life contexts (the Brazilian military dictatorship of the 1970s), there is always room for unbridled imagination. The same imagination alternates with the film’s more strictly historical and serious narrative, featuring a magnetic Wagner Moura, who won at the Cannes Film Festival for his performance. It will be released in Italian theaters starting January 29, 2026.

Worst film - Un film Minecraft by Jared Hess

Even while being fully aware of the amount of money it made (and therefore the number of people who went to see it), it’s impossible not to consider Un film Minecraft the lowest point of 2025. In fact, precisely because it was able to draw audiences thanks to the popularity of the video game it’s based on, the blockbuster directed by Jared Hess should at least have had the decency to be something more than a jumble of idiotic sequences with no narrative structure, relying on the crudest jokes for laughs. It’s no surprise that, influenced by the film’s silly anarchy, audiences had reckless reactions in some U.S. theaters, dirtying the cinemas or even bringing in live chickens. Unpredictable behavior, sure, but perfectly in line with the blockbuster’s offering - which, unfortunately, we can expect to see followed by a sequel.

Best performances - After the Hunt by Luca Guadagnino

The ensemble cast of After the Hunt by Luca Guadagnino sets the monumental stature of rock-solid Hollywood against an untouchable Julia Roberts, perfectly matched by a young confirmation (more than a mere promise) of the international scene like Ayo Edebiri. It’s in her gaze that lies the power with which the actress challenges her mentor and friend, played by the American diva. But we shouldn’t forget the natural ease of Andrew Garfield, who disappears into the spontaneity of his ambiguous Hank, slipping fully into the role and letting the character do the rest. Performances that rise to meet the dense screenplay written by Nora Garrett and subtly sustain the mystery at the heart of the film.

Best costumes - After the Hunt by Luca Guadagnino

Not the lace of Frankenstein, nor the eccentric fantasies of Yorgos Lanthimos. The most stylish film of 2025 is the same one that boasts the best performances: once again After the Hunt by Luca Guadagnino. A film that not only turns Yale taste - the university that serves as the setting for the story - into the guiding principle behind how its characters are dressed, but also ensures that the clothes speak about them, describe their inner lives and sensitivities, and even become an expression of duality when it comes to the characters played by Julia Roberts and Ayo Edebiri. A story that is not told through words, but through shapes, colors, and fabrics.

Best series - The Studio and Pluribus

We don’t split the award between best comedy series and best drama series, but instead allow ourselves an ex aequo. On one side, the frenetic pace of Hollywood corridors in The Studio, created by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. On the other, the arrival of aliens on Earth with the electrifying Pluribus. After all, both come with their joys and sorrows. But the question one might ask is: is it a coincidence that the two best shows of the year are both on AppleTV+? We don’t think so at all.

Best Italian film - Le città di pianura by Francesco Sossai

A small gem that managed to climb the heights of success not only with critics, but also with audiences. Le città di pianura by Francesco Sossai remained in the Italian box office top 10 after its theatrical release, carving out a space for itself in the Italian landscape and, above all, in the hearts of all the viewers who once hoped to meet Doriano and Carlobianchi along their own path. A road movie in which one is already too old to grow up any further, and so one simply keeps going - until the next drink. We therefore hope there will be more to come, always with the touch of an auteur like Sossai.

Best documentary - Tardes de Soledad by Albert Serra

Cahiers du cinéma placed it at the top of their annual ranking. Tardes de Soledad, the documentary by Albert Serra, is the author’s ode to bullfighting, following the young matador Andrés Roca Rey during his afternoons of solitude, a hero of the corrida whose moments of spectacle unfold with deliberate monotony. A single cape separating life and death, where - through no words but many images, often similar - so much becomes clear: the myth of the bullfighter, the kind of existence one leads, why one does it, and how high the stakes really are. Grueling scenes, exhausting like the moments Andrés Roca Rey lives through, unbearable when the camera lingers on the animals. A documentary in which the image becomes a direct experience for the viewer.

Best debut - Diciannove by Giovanni Tortorici

Choosing to stage a nearly autobiographical story doesn’t necessarily guarantee good results. But it worked out incredibly well for Giovanni Tortorici, who with his debut Diciannove drew from his years living away from home and from the search for a sense of purpose during his university days, translating them into forms and images that are innovative in their simplicity. A blend of ideas that seem unrelated to one another yet, by perfectly fragmenting the still-unformed nature of the protagonist, ultimately provide a clear portrait marked by an irreverent signature that makes the film neurotic and exhilarating. Undoubtedly entertaining. Promising for what we can expect next from Tortorici.

Best trilogy - Sex, Love, Dreams by Dag Johan Haugerud

Sex. Love. Dreams. Three cornerstones of human relationships and, as of 2025, also a complete trilogy by Norwegian director and screenwriter Dag Johan Haugerud. Aspects of human connections turned into films and treated with a delicacy the author never neglects in any of the titles. In the background, Oslo serves as the faithful reservoir for his characters as they grapple with sex, love, and dreams.

Best sequel - 28 Years Later by Denny Boyle

Danny Boyle has shown that it’s possible to make experimental cinema by retracing the steps of one of his now-cult films from 2002. In revisiting the events of 28 Days Later, with 28 Weeks Later directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo in between, the British director uses smartphones, plays with editing, and constantly changes the texture of the images. 28 Years Later is a pioneering return to the malleability of film matter and to the practices and uses of cinematic production. Within it, a coming of age story is inserted, one that confronts life, death, and the path in between, written by one of Boyle’s longtime collaborators, Alex Garland.

Best horror - Black Phone 2 by Scott Derrickson

What if we said that the best horror film of the year isn’t Weapons? Nor is it Bring Her Back? Quietly, almost stealthily, Black Phone 2 by Scott Derrickson sheds some of the commercial aura of the first film based on Joe Hill’s novel and gains depth through an interpenetration of analog and digital, almost taking the director back to the days of Sinister. A bold choice that allows fear to act more through the unknown than through the villain himself, the Grabber, and for this reason leads with terror into uncanny territory. An admirable return, a horror film in which one can lose oneself in the liminal boundary between the unconscious and reality.

Worst horror - Five Nights at Freddy’s by Emma Tammi

It wasn’t enough to make Five Nights at Freddy’s - they also had to make Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. And in the near future, Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 is also expected to arrive. Stopping the killer animatronics seems impossible. Just as impossible is the poverty of writing and spirit in this horror saga based on the video game of the same name.

Best intermission - The Brutalist by Brady Corbet

This award doesn’t require much explanation: the best intermission goes to The Brutalist. Because we never would have expected, in a three-and-a-half-hour film, a fifteen-minute intermission imprinted on the film itself, accompanied by an Oscar-worthy score by Daniel Blumberg.

Best blockbuster - Thunderbolts* by Jake Schreier

It sounds like an absurd sentence we never thought we’d say, yet Marvel needs help - so desperate that it even announced the return of Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, in Avengers: Doomsday. The universe built by Kevin Feige seems to be on the verge of collapse, and for this reason, with a small gesture of solidarity, we award Thunderbolts* the prize for best blockbuster of 2025 - an underdog (worth millions of dollars) of the cinematic year and a surprise within the world of cinecomics. Exactly what the MCU needed at this moment, albeit with an audience that has now lost interest and trust, leaving behind a story of teamwork and overcoming depression that one wouldn’t have expected from a film that’s less about superheroes and more about toy-like Marvel spectacle.

Best miniseries - Adolescence

Four episodes, one long take per episode that is not mannered but fully integrated into the narrative, and the promise of a future talent like Owen Cooper. Adolescence has become a Netflix phenomenon destined not to be forgotten, but to set an example when it comes to combining formal refinement with content, style with the quality of the story. The story of a young boy accused of killing a classmate that doesn’t dwell on the morbid, but instead focuses on the search for answers - answers that will take time to be found. The same time that presses in on the characters in the single shot reserved for each episode, making for a commendable work that fully deserved all the acclaim it received.

Best soundtrack (or also: best vampire film) - Sinners by Ryan Coogler

Even though the year began with Nosferatu by Robert Eggers, it is Sinners that holds the title of best vampire film - which we can also extend to best patchwork film, bringing together many different souls and yet, despite the risk of overflowing, managing to contain them all. It moves from horror to American and African American culture, passing through music as a gateway between worlds and finally into the gangster movie. Standing out above all, inevitably, is the soundtrack by Ludwig Göransson, Ryan Coogler’s trusted composer, here in a gritty, blues-infused guise.

Best ending - Un semplice incidente by Jafar Panahi

Seconds, not minutes. That’s all it takes to send a chill down your spine. That’s what happens in the closing scene of Un semplice incidente by master filmmaker Jafar Panahi, Palme d’Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival and a work that once again tackles the injustices of the Iranian regime. Throughout the film, the protagonists grapple with moral questions when faced with the possibility of encountering the torturer who abused them while they were imprisoned, having to determine whether the person before them truly is that man and, if so, how to act. A past that never detaches itself from the characters, and that final scene is proof of it. What is happening, the sound we are hearing - will it be real? Will it be fake? Was it all real? That is where the film ends, and where the viewers’ torment begins.

Best animated film (but also best song and best phenomenon of 2025): KPop Demon Hunters by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans

As much as the enthusiasm we feel around KPop Demon Hunters is more restrained than what has happened in the rest - one might say - of the world, it’s impossible not to give a place to the animated film with the most views in Netflix history. The film became a popular phenomenon that confirmed how K-pop culture is not only increasingly dominant in the market, but now capable of speaking to a broad audience. With music becoming a universal language in a story about demon hunting and self-acceptance. And so, “we're goin' up, up, up, it's our moment,” with Golden in our ears and the power of pop as a weapon to defeat evil.