Film opinion: ‘Sinners’, ‘Weapons’ & more - the best of 2025 in cinema
There was a lot to like about going to the cinema and watching films last year.
As the industry continued to recover from COVID and strikes, some absolute gems graced the big screen.
So, before looking at the year ahead, Film News Blitz wants to look back on our top five films of 2025.
5 - ‘Bugonia’
Director Yorgos Lanthimos always ensures his films are worth the price of admission, and Bugonia, with a screenplay written by Will Tracy, is no different.
When two cousins (played impeccably by generational talent Jesse Plemons and talented newcomer Aidan Delbis) kidnap a rich CEO (Emma Stone) who they suspect is an alien intent on destroying humankind, you know you’re in for something spectacular.
Lanthimos delivers a gripping watch, with three actors producing incredible performances, so every twist, turn and shocking beat is a visceral thrill for the audience.
4 - ‘The Ugly Stepsister’
Equal parts disgusting, heartbreaking, and riveting, this streaming sensation from debut writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt retold the classic Cinderella story from the perspective of Elvira, one of the ugly stepsisters.
While The Ugly Stepsister is set in the Regency era, this Norwegian sleeper hit has a lot to say about modern gender politics, and it does so with subtlety (and with a meat cleaver).
A fantastic watch, but not for the queasy. Best actor nomination for the tape worm, anyone?
3 - ‘Weapons’
Following on from his much-lauded Barbarian, Zach Cregger treated audiences to a bewitching time in the form of Weapons.
As terrifying as it is funny (in Cregger's now signature off-kilter way), and with a suitably stacked cast to boot, Weapons represented a commercial and critical success for New Line Cinema (beating out Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions to the rights, which some speculate caused Peele to fire his management team).
Weapons has further cemented its creator as the new leading voice of horror (or as he describes it: "elevated horror").
2 - ‘One Battle After Another’
Every film by writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson is met with frenzied anticipation, and One Battle After Another, his biggest production to date in terms of budget, was no different.
Teaming up with acting superstar Leonardo DiCaprio for the first time, who is in sparkling form as revolutionary-turned-stoner Bob, Anderson created a modern masterpiece.
Superbly shot on VistaVision, One Battle After Another is a visually tapestry, featuring Sean Penn as a crazed military man hellbent on capturing DiCaprio’s on-screen daughter, Willa, played by a scene-stealing Chase Inifinti.
Teana Taylor and Benicio Del Toro throw in brilliant performances in a film that is witty, tense and beautiful in equal measure.
This one is a major awards contender.
1 - ‘Sinners’
When a film captures cultural significance, with an original story and masterful craft, the world takes notice.
That is what happened with Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, a stunningly shot, brilliantly written and impactful story of a black-American community terrorised by vampires at a juke joint on one night in 1932 in Mississippi.
Michael B. Jordan gives two career-defining performances as the Stack twins, perfectly capturing two distinct characters with a subtle verve.
The ensemble cast is running on all cylinders in a film that is brimming with soul, musicality, culture and violence.
Films like Sinners don’t come around too often.
