Editor’s note: Warning: Although we’ve done our best to avoid spoiling anything too major, please note this list does include a few specific references that some might consider spoiler-y.
It’s been a strange year for movies. Most of the big, splashy tentpole projects proved disappointing, while several more modest films either produced or acquired by streaming platforms—and only briefly released in theaters—wound up making our year-end list. This pattern was not intentional. But streaming platforms have been increasingly moving into the film space with small to medium-sized budgets—i.e., the kind of fare that used to be commonplace but has struggled to compete over the last two decades as blockbusters and elaborate superhero franchises dominated the box office.
Add in lingering superhero fatigue—only one superhero saga made our final list this year—plus Netflix’s controversial bid to acquire Warner Bros., and we just might be approaching a sea change in how movies are made and distributed, and by whom. How this all plays out in the coming year is anybody’s guess.
As always, we’re opting for an unranked list, with the exception of our “year’s best” selection at the very end—this year it’s a three-way tie—so you might look over the variety of genres and options and possibly add surprises to your eventual watchlist. We invite you to head to the comments and add your own favorite films released in 2025.
Ballerina
Credit: Lionsgate
Ana de Armas proves herself a fierce and lethal adversary against a cultish syndicate in Ballerina—excuse me, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. Chronologically, Ballerina takes place during the events of John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum. That film gave us a glimpse into John Wick’s (Keanu Reeves) past as he sought aid from the Ruska Roma crime syndicate, led by the Director (Anjelica Huston), where he was trained as an assassin. The Director also trains girls to be ballerina-assassins, one of whom is Eve Macarro (de Armas).
Like Wick, Eve is driven by a personal vendetta: the brutal murder of her father when she was still a child by highly trained and heavily armed assassins. The Director warns Eve that this is a rogue group of lawless cultists and orders her not to pursue the matter. But vengeance will be Eve’s, no matter the cost, as she hunts down the cultists and their enigmatic leader, the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne).