Sight and Sound reveal the Best Films of the Year poll 2025

Sight and Sound, the BFI’s international film magazine, announces the results of their Best Films of the Year poll 2025 which sees Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed action comedy ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER take the number one spot. 

One of the most distinctive storytellers working in film today, Anderson combines singular artistry with technical brilliance in this fiery satire which is a funny, searing and timely portrayal of a broken America. Loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, and featuring an all-star cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, the film opened on the UK’s largest screen at BFI IMAX in September playing on the only IMAX 70mm print outside of North America. 

Paul Thomas Anderson said: “F**k yeah! It takes my breath away a bit, honestly. I remember reading Sight and Sound, as we all do, from when I was so young, and now to have a film that they called the best film of the year… it’s amazing. I can’t wait to see what it looks like in print. My first response was “F**k yeah!”, and I stand by that!” 

Anderson’s previous appearances on Sight and Sound’s end of year poll since it began in 2005 include his first time atop the list with THE MASTER in 2012, along with PHANTOM THREAD which took second place in 2018 and INHERENT VICE which landed tenth in 2015. Meanwhile, Ryan Coogler’s SINNERS, an electrifying musical exploration of history and culture, comes in second place. Fusing blues, hip-hop and soul into a breathtaking and audacious celebration of Black creativity, this is writer-director-producer Coogler’s most personal piece of filmmaking yet. Returning to BFI IMAX from 12 December, both ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER and SINNERS play the UK’s largest screen on pristine IMAX 70mm prints which are exclusive to BFI IMAX outside of North America. 

The full Top 10 in Sight and Sound’s Best Films of 2025 poll are: 

1. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (Paul Thomas Anderson) 

2. SINNERS (Ryan Coogler) 

3. THE MASTERMIND (Kelly Reichardt) 

4. SIRĀT (Oliver Laxe) 

5. THE SECRET AGENT (Kleber Mendonça Filho) 

6. IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Jafar Panahi) 

7. SORRY, BABY (Eva Victor) 

8. WEAPONS (Zach Cregger) 

9. DRY LEAF (Alexandre Koberidze) 

10. RESURRECTION (Bi Gan) 

Sight and Sound Editor-in-Chief Mike Williams commented: “Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the greatest American filmmakers of his generation, and One Battle After Another is his most prescient, urgent film yet. Having topped the poll in 2012 with The Master, he returns with a searing portrait of America that lays its contradictions, its violence and its hopeful idealism bare. One Battle burrows deep into the fractures in society that we can see all around us, while delivering the sheer exhilaration of pure, absolute cinema. It’s a worthy winner in a strong year for film.” 

Kelly Reichardt’s smartly crafted drama THE MASTERMIND lands at number three, following its UK premiere at the 69th BFI London Film Festival. Josh O’Connor is superb as a rudderless everyman who fumbles a small-time art robbery in Reichardt’s ingenious evocation of 1970s suburban Massachusetts. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, Oliver Laxe’s SIRĀT follows in fourth place. The Spanish director’s teeth-rattling sensorial experiment, which had its UK premiere at the 69th BFI London Film Festival, sees a father search for his lost daughter by entering the world of illegal Moroccan desert raves. Rounding out the top five is Kleber Mendonça Filho’s THE SECRET AGENT, winner of the FIPRESCI prize at the 78th Cannes Film Festival before its UK premiere at the 69th BFI London Film Festival. The Brazilian director’s stellar filmmaking and sharp storytelling make this portrait of life under dictatorship as politically incisive as it is entertaining. 

The Best Films of the Year poll is voted for by the magazine’s international pool of more than 100 critics, who each choose their top ten films of the year. The full results of the Top 50 are online now. Sight and Sound’s Winter 25/26 Issue will be available digitally on 8 December and on newsstands from 11 December.  

The Top 50 in the Best Films of the Year poll features ten British films including four supported by the BFI Filmmaking Fund awarding National Lottery Funding – PILLION (Harry Lighton) at 16, ROSE OF NEVADA (Mark Jenkin) at 22, MY FATHER’S SHADOW (Akinola Davies Jr.) at 32 and ON FALLING (Laura Carreira) at 33. The remaining UK films are BLACK BAG (Steven Soderbergh) at 29, 28 YEARS LATER (Danny Boyle) at 38, DIE MY LOVE (Lynne Ramsay) at 40, HAMNET (Chloe Zhao) at 41, HARD TRUTHS (Mike Leigh) at 42 and THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (Wes Anderson) at 48. The list also features three films released by BFI Distribution, with THE ICE TOWER (Lucile Hadžihalilović) at 18, the upcoming ROSE OF NEVADA (Mark Jenkin) at 22 ahead of its UK theatrical release in 2026, and APRIL (Dea Kulumbegashvili) at 24. 

Fifteen films by female and non binary filmmakers are included on this year’s list – 3: THE MASTERMIND (Kelly Reichardt), 7: SORRY, BABY (Eva Victor), 12: SOUND OF FALLING (Mascha Schilinski), 17: BLUE HERON (Sophy Romvari), 18: THE ICE TOWER (Lucile Hadžihalilović), 19: THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB (Kaouther Ben Hania), 21: A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE (Kathryn Bigelow), 24: APRIL (Dea Kulumbegashvili), 26: IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU (Mary Bronstein), 33: ON FALLING (Laura Carreira), 36: SILENT FRIEND (Ildikó Enyedi), 39: COVER-UP (Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus), 40: DIE MY LOVE (Lynne Ramsay), 41: HAMNET (Chloe Zhao) and 44: LANDMARKS (Lucrecia Martel).  

Meanwhile, the list celebrates a wealth of international talent with twenty-eight films featured primarily not in the English language – 4: SIRĀT (Oliver Laxe), 5: THE SECRET AGENT (Kleber Mendonça Filho), 6: IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Jafar Panahi), 9: DRY LEAF (Alexandre Koberidze), 10: RESURRECTION (Bi Gan), 11: SENTIMENTAL VALUE (Joachim Trier), 12: SOUND OF FALLING (Mascha Schilinski), 13: KONTINENTAL ‘25 (Radu Jude), 14: MISERICORDIA (Alain Guiraudie), 15: NO OTHER CHOICE (Park Chan-wook), 17: BLUE HERON (Sophy Romvari), 18: THE ICE TOWER (Lucile Hadzihalilovic), 19: THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB (Kaouther Ben Hania), 23: AFTERNOONS OF SOLITUDE (Albert Serra), 24: APRIL (Dea Kulumbegashvili), 27: THE LOVE THAT REMAINS (Hlynur Pálmason), 28: NOUVELLE VAGUE (Richard Linklater), 30: CLOUD (Kiyoshi Kurosawa), 32: MY FATHER’S SHADOW (Akinola Davies Jr.), 33: ON FALLING (Laura Carreira), 36: SILENT FRIEND (Ildikó Enyedi), 37: SOULEYMANE’S STORY (Boris Lojkine), 39: COVER-UP (Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus), 44: LANDMARKS (Lucrecia Martel), 45: MIROIRS NO.3 (Christian Petzold), 47: DREAMS (SEX LOVE) (Dag Johan Haugerud), 49: WHAT DOES THAT NATURE SAY TO YOU (Hong Sang-soo) and 50: WITH HASAN IN GAZA (Kamal Aljafari). 

Recurring themes that appear on the list include acts of resistance and rebellion, with ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (Paul Thomas Anderson), SINNERS (Ryan Coogler), SIRĀT (Oliver Laxe), THE SECRET AGENT (Kleber Mendonça Filho) and IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Jafar Panahi) all appearing in the top ten. Elsewhere, comedy is well represented through films including ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (Paul Thomas Anderson), IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Jafar Panahi), SORRY, BABY (Eva Victor), WEAPONS (Zach Cregger), NO OTHER CHOICE (Park Chan-wook), BLUE MOON (Richard Linklater), IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU (Mary Bronstein), BLACK BAG (Steven Soderbergh) and DIE MY LOVE (Lynne Ramsay), while action also has a strong showing with ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (Paul Thomas Anderson), SINNERS (Ryan Coogler), SIRĀT (Oliver Laxe), A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE (Kathryn Bigelow) and 28 YEARS LATER (Danny Boyle).