These 10 terrific movies emerged from a tumultuous year for the film industry

"Anyone will tell you that these are tumultuous, borderline-apocalyptic times for the film industry. Box office is down. The threat of AI looms. Billionaires and tech giants are laying waste to what remains of the major Hollywood studios. I'm not entirely sure how to square all this bad news with my own good news, which is that I saw more terrific new movies this year than I have any year since before the pandemic."

"Sirat The best new movie I saw this year is a breakthrough work from a gifted Spanish filmmaker named Oliver Laxe. It's a nail-biting survival thriller, set in the desert of southern Morocco during what feels like the end-times. It's a little Mad Max, a little Wages of Fear, and all in all, the most exhilarating and devastating two hours I experienced in a theater this year. Sirat also features the year's best original score, composed by the electronic musician Kangding Ray."

"One Battle After Another Paul Thomas Anderson's much-loved, much-debated reimagining of Thomas Pynchon's novel Vineland is an exuberant mash-up of action-thriller and political satire. One Battle After Another stars Leonardo DiCaprio in one of his best and funniest performances as an aging revolutionary drawn back into the field. He leads an ensemble that includes Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, Regina Hall and the terrific discovery, Chase Infiniti."

The film industry faces box-office decline, AI threats, and major-studio upheaval driven by billionaires and tech companies. Despite these pressures, 2025 U.S. theatrical releases included numerous outstanding international films that delivered powerful cinematic experiences. Sirat is a Spanish survival thriller set in southern Morocco with intense, end-of-world atmosphere and an acclaimed electronic score by Kangding Ray. One Battle After Another is Paul Thomas Anderson's exuberant, genre-mashing reimagining of Vineland, blending action-thriller and political satire and led by Leonardo DiCaprio. Caught by the Tides fuses archival and new footage to portray China's transformations over two decades. Resurrection presents a structurally bold, cinephile-oriented experience.

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