Name: Most notable films of 2025, according to The New York Times
Uploaded: 2025-12-24T01:12:49.305Z
Duration: 2 min 36 s
Description: 2025 was another jam-packed year in Hollywood. The New York Times polled 16 of its film experts to see what they thought were the most notable movies of the year.

2025 was another jam-packed year in Hollywood. The New York Times polled 16 of its film experts to see what they thought were the most notable movies of the year.

New York

The New York Times consulted 16 of its film experts to compile a list of the most notable movies of 2025, featuring both high-profile studio releases and a resurgence of original stories for adults. Noteworthy films included 'Bugonia,' 'Hamnet,' 'Sinners,' 'Marty Supreme,' and Paul Thomas Anderson's 'One Battle After Another.'

Culture reporter Reggie Ugui highlighted the strong performance of Disney and family films, as well as the growing presence of international and independent films in awards season. He noted that audience fatigue with franchise films has led studios to take more risks on original content, with about a third of recent Golden Globes Best Picture nominees being international productions.

Most notable films of 2025, according to The New York Times

It was another jam-packed year in Hollywood. The New York Times pulled 16 of its film experts to see what they think were the most notable movies of 2025. And the list includes Bugonia, starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, Hamnet, K-Pop Demon Hunters, Sinners, starring Michael B. Jordan, Marty Supreme with Timothee Chalamet, and Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio Del Toro. For more, let's bring in Reggie Ugui, is a culture reporter for the New York Times. Reggie, good to see you. What was the movie or movies that stood out to you the most? Nice to see you again, Lindsay. Yeah, it was a huge year for Disney films and family films at the box office, no surprise there. You had Zootopia, Lilo & Stitch, the Minecraft movie. But for me, what really stood out were some original stories for adults, which is really nice to see from Hollywood, which we haven't had for a while after so many years of superhero sequels. So yeah, One Battle After Another, Sinners, Jim Crow, vampire movie, Weapons, a kind of off-the-wall horror thriller from Zach Kroeger. All did really well with both audiences and critics this year. A couple weeks ago, I talked to your colleague, Alyssa Wilkinson, who helped compile the Times list of the top 10 films of the year, and we discussed how a lot of her favorite films were independent, foreign, or documentaries rather than the big traditional studio blockbusters. What's your take on this? Yeah, well, I think as people have gotten a little bit fatigued with this sort of IP machine, you're starting to see some of these studios take more bets on some of those films that I just mentioned. And certainly, as we get into awards season, both all these awards bodies have gotten a lot more international, particularly since the Oscar So White controversy about a decade ago. So you have voters representing sort of a global film community, voting from all over the world. So I think looking at the Golden Globes nominations that just came out recently, about a third of those Best Picture nominees are international, including Joaquin Trier's Sentimental Value, which was my favorite movie of the year. And so I think you really are seeing the box office get a lot more international. Gotta be quick with you on this, but anything you're excited for in 2026? What am I excited for in 2026? I'm not sure yet. Yeah, I'm so looking back for 2025, but I'm excited to be surprised and hope this trend of original films continues. Nice, always love talking to you, Reggie Ugoo. Thank you so much. Nice to see you, Lindsay.

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