📽️ Brendan Boyle
12 favorite films of the year:
28 YEARS LATER (Boyle)
AFTERNOONS OF SOLITUDE (Serra)
BLUE MOON (Linklater)
CLOUD (Kurosawa)
THE ICE TOWER (Hadžihalilović)
ICK (Kahn)
KONTINENTAL ‘25 (Jude)
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (Anderson)
ROOFMAN (Cianfrance)
THE SHROUDS (Cronenberg)
UN SIMPLE ACCIDENT (Panahi)
WHERE TO LAND (Hartley)
Alternate 12:
CAUGHT BY THE TIDES (Jia)
EDDINGTON (Aster)
EEPHUS (Lund)
INVENTION (Stephens)
THE MASTERMIND (Reichardt)
MIROIRS NO. 3 (Petzold)
ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL (Nyoni)
THE NAKED GUN (Schaffer)
THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (Anderson)
THE SECRET AGENT (Mendonça Filho)
SPLITSVILLE (Covino)
VULCANIZADORA (Potrykus)
Other new-to-me favorites:
AFTER DARK, MY SWEET (Foley)
ASH IS PUREST WHITE (Jia)
BABY IT’S YOU (Sayles)
LA BELLE NOISEUSE (Rivette)
BELFAST, MAINE (Wiseman)
THE BRAVADOS (King)
THE CANDIDATE (Ritchie)
CITY OF PIRATES (Ruiz)
THE FLAVOR OF GREEN TEA OVER RICE (Ozu)
IN THE DARK (Holmes)
IN THE SHADOWS (Arslan)
MY HEART IS THAT ETERNAL ROSE (Tam)
THE OLD SORCERESS & THE VALET (Laou)
LE PETIT SOLDAT (Godard)
LOCAL LEGENDS (Farley)
LOVE AT LARGE (Rudolph)
THE PROWLER (Losey)
LA RÉGION CENTRALE (Snow)
REPAST (Naruse)
REPO MAN (Cox)
S.O.B. (Edwards)
STEAMBOAT ROUND THE BEND (Ford)
TEA AND SYMPATHY (Minnelli)
THE THOUSAND EYES OF DR. MABUSE (Lang)
WHITE DOG (Fuller)
📽️ Rob Christopher
What I Watched in 2025: My 10 Favorite Films
BLACK BAG [2025, directed by Steven Soderbergh]
THE BRUTALIST [2025, directed by Brady Corbet]
HIS THREE DAUGHTERS [2023, directed by Azazel Jacobs]
HOME BEFORE DARK [1958, directed by Mervyn LeRoy]
I'M NO LONGER HERE [2019, directed by Luis Fernando Frías de la Parra]
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT [2025, directed by Jafar Panahi]
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER [2025, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson]
SECRET MALL APARTMENT [2024, directed by Jeremy Workman]
THE TERRITORY [2022, directed by Alex Pritz]
WOMAN OF THE HOUR [2023, directed by Anna Kendrick]
📽️ Maxwell Courtright
A BODY TO LIVE IN (Angelo Madsen)
AFTERNOONS OF SOLITUDE (Albert Serra)
BLKNWS: TERMS AND CONDITIONS (Kahlil Joseph)
DANCE FREAK (Robby Rackleff, Alan Resnick)
DELUGE (Meejin Hong)
EEPHUS (Carson Lund)
ENDLESS COOKIE (Seth Scriver, Peter Scriver)
EVACUATIONS (Lilli Carré)
THE GRAFFITI (Ryo Orikasa)
HOW HE DIED IS NOT CONTROVERSIAL (Gio Lingao)
IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU (Mary Bronstein)
IF UGANDA WAS AMERICA (Nabwanna IGG)
JE NE SAIS PLUS [WHAT IS THIS FEELING] (Kristen Reeves)
LIQUID CACTUS DRAPE (Victoria Fu)
THE MASTERMIND (Kelly Reichardt)
PETER HUJAR’S DAY (Ira Sachs)
ROOFMAN (Derek Cianfrance)
SILENT FRIEND (Ildikó Enyedi)
TULSA (Scott Stark)
ZODIAC KILLER PROJECT (Charlie Shackleton)
📽️ Ray Ebarb
Favorite New Releases (in no particular ranking)
1. MARTY SUPREME dir. Josh Safdie
2. NAKED GUN dir. Akiva Schaffer
3. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
4. PHOENICIAN SCHEME dir. Wes Anderson
5. THE SECRET AGENT dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
6. CLOUD dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa
7. SENTIMENTAL VALUE dir. Joachim Trier
8. HIGHEST 2 LOWEST dir. Spike Lee
9. NOUVEAU VAGUE dir. Richard Linklater
10. THE SHROUDS dir. David Cronenberg
Favorite First Time Watches
25TH HOUR (2002, dir. Spike Lee)
RICHARD JEWELL (2019, dir. Clint Eastwood)
THE HEIRESS (1949, dir. William Wyler)
SCAR FACE (1932, dir. Howard Hawks)
KURONEKO (1968, dir. Kaneto Shindo
DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD (2024, dir. Radu Jude)
WAGES OF FEAR (1953, dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot)
LIMELIGHT (1952, dir. Charlie Chaplin)
GRAPES OF WRATH (1940, dir. John Ford)
THE BAND WAGON (1953, dir. Vincent Minelli)
📽️ Megan Fariello
Favorite first watches of 2025! (in the order in which I watched them)
GREEN SNAKE (Tsui Hark, 1993)
STRAY CAT ROCK: SEX HUNTER (Yasuharu Hasebe, 1970)
THE LIVING DEAD GIRL (Jean Rollin, 1982)
GODZILLA VS. BIOLANTE (Kazuki Ōmori, 1989)
THE UGLY STEPSISTER (Emilie Blichfeldt, 2025)
THE ENCHANTED (Carter Lord,1984)
THE WHITE REINDEER (Erik Blomberg, 1952)
CHILDREN OF THE CORN III: URBAN HARVEST (James D. R. Hickox, 1995)
NIGHT MOVES (Arthur Penn, 1975)
THE WIND RISES (Hayao Miyazaki, 2013)
I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS (Leah Meyerhoff, 2014)
AUGUST IN THE WATER (Gakuryū Ishii, 1995)
THE WITCH’S MIRROR (Chano Urueta, 1960)
RE-WIND (Hisayasu Satô, 1988)
THE BORROWER (John McNaughton, 1991)
SHOCK (Mario Bava, 1977)
WILL (Jessie Maple, 1981)
S.O.B. (Blake Edwards, 1981)
DREADNAUGHT (Yuen Woo-Ping, 1981)
DILDO HEAVEN (Doris Wishman, 2002)
📽️ Shaun Huhn
BEST FILM
1. Clint Bentley's TRAIN DREAMS
2. Mike Flanagan's THE LIFE OF CHUCK
3. Paul Thomas Anderson's ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
4. Park Chan-wook's NO OTHER CHOICE
5. Yorgos Lanthimos' BUGONIA
6. Wes Anderson's PHOENICIAN SCHEME
7. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's CLOUD
8. Alex Russell's LURKER
9. Louise Weard's CASTRATION MOVIE ANTHOLOGY II THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
10. Akiva Schaffer's THE NAKED GUN
BEST HORROR FILM
1. Ryan Coogler's SINNERS
2. Osgood Perkins' THE MONKEY
3. Steven Soderbergh's PRESENCE
4. Michael Philippou and Danny Philippou's BRING HER BACK
5. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke's A USEFUL GHOST
6. Zach Cregger's WEAPONS
7. Mike P. Nelson's SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT
8. Yûta Shimotsu's BEST WISHES TO ALL
9. Emilie Blichfeldt's THE UGLY STEPSISTER
10. John Hsu's DEAD TALENT SOCIETY
FAVORITE FIRST TIME
1. Andrzej Wajda's ASHES AND DIAMONDS (1958)
2. Akira Kurosawa's DRUNKEN ANGEL (1948)
3. Ringo Lam's CITY ON FIRE (1987)
4. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's CURE (1997)
5. Alain Bonnot's BLACK LIST (1984)
6. Juzo Itami's SUPERMARKET WOMAN (1996)
7. Riccardo Freda's HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK (1962)
8. Amando Crispino's CORPSE MANIA (1971)
9. Kiyoshi Nishimura's HAIRPIN CIRCUS (1972)
10. Yugo Sakamoto's BABY ASSASSINS (2021)
FAVORITE THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE
1. Music Box Of Horrors
2. Alamo Drafthouse + Oscarbate's A Night To Dismember
3. The Massacre Horror Movie Marathon at Pickwick Theatre
4. CASTRATION MOVIE ANTHOLOGY V. 1 with Louise Weard and moderated by Will Morris at Music Box Theatre
5. Tone Glow Presents Stan Brakhage’s Pittsburgh Trilogy at the Surgical Museum
6. TrustFall x Cine-File
7. Rated Q's JACKASS: THE MOVIE at Music Box Theatre
8. Akira Kurosawa: Something Like a Retrospective at Music Box Theatre
9. Tone Glow & Employees Only Present "Grin and Bear It: Cinema of the Dark Clown" at Elastic Arts
10. David Lynch: Moving Through Time at Music Box Theatre
📽️ Ben Kaye
This was my first full year of raising a child, which may explain why so many of the films I was drawn to in 2025 concerned the joys and perils of being a parent and/or what it means to try and envision what a better world might look like for us. Alternately, as Dona Sebastiana says in my #1 slot, "life has bad things, but also good things."
Favorite new releases (ranked)
1. THE SECRET AGENT (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
2. IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Jafar Panahi)
3. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. TRAIN DREAMS (Clint Bentley)
5. PAVEMENTS (Alex Ross Perry)
6. RESURRECTION (Bi Gan)
7. ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL (Rungano Nyoni)
8. EEPHUS (Carson Lund)
9. BLUE MOON (Richard Linklater)
10. IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU (Mary Bronstein)
11. PETER HUJAR'S DAY (Ira Sachs)
12. SENTIMENTAL VALUE (Joachim Trier)
13. WEAPONS (Zach Cregger)
14. MARTY SUPREME (Josh Safdie)
15. THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (Wes Anderson)
16. BLACK BAG (Steven Soderbergh)
17. SINNERS (Ryan Coogler)
18. FRIENDSHIP (Andrew DeYoung)
19. VULCANIZADORA (Joel Potrykus)
20. THE MASTERMIND (Kelly Reichardt)
Favorite first-time watches (chronological)
-BELFAST, MAINE (1999, dir. Frederick Wiseman)
-BOUND (1996, dir. Lana & Lilly Waschowski)
-BEING JOHN SMITH (2024, dir. John Smith)
-S.O.B. (1981, dir. Blake Edwards)
-JESUS 2 (2025, dir. Jesse Moynihan)
Honorable Mention: NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE (2026, dir. Matt Johnson). I caught a preview screening of this at the Music Box this year and it was easily my favorite theatergoing experience of the year. If I see a funnier new film in the next 12 months, I'll be shocked.
📽️ Johnathan Leithold-Patt
My top 10 films of 2025:
1. A USEFUL GHOST (dir. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke)
2. DRY LEAF (dir. Alexandre Koberidze)
3. SOUND OF FALLING (dir. Mascha Schilinski)
4. LURKER (dir. Alex Russell)
5. IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU (dir. Mary Bronstein)
6. THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (dir. Wes Anderson)
7. THE MASTERMIND (dir. Kelly Reichardt)
8. THE PLAGUE (dir. Charlie Polinger)
9. STRANGE RIVER (dir. Jaume Claret Muxart)
10. MARTY SUPREME (dir. Josh Safdie)
And because this was such a stellar year for film, some runners-up, in no order:
A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE (dir. Kathryn Bigelow)
EDDINGTON (dir. Ari Aster)
TWINLESS (dir. James Sweeney)
RESURRECTION (dir. Bi Gan)
📽️ Raphael Jose Martinez
This year I got a job managing a movie theater, so the bitter irony is that I wasn’t able to watch as many new releases because I'm now paid to literally stand outside of screenings. At least my other job as a (primarily) repertory programmer put my eyes on a ton of older films. So I still managed to watch the very unhealthy amount of 283 films this year, and I’m all the happier for it. Here are my favorite watches of 2025, in alphabetical order…
FAVORITE NEW FILMS OF 2025:
AMERICAN DENDRITE
(Dir: Adam Marshall Present)
A lush, gorgeous, feature length documentary shot on Super 8 film following the Chicago River from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico and exploring both America and Americans; a Studs Terkel ethnography on celluloid.
DIG XX
(Dir: Ondi Timoner)
The 20th anniversary re-release - re-edited with additional footage and "where are they now" updates - of one of the greatest rock documentaries ever made managed to not still be hilariously harrowing, jaw dropping, and endlessly quotable, but after 20 years has accidentally become amazing documentation of the very end of a music industry that no longer exists in the digital world.
FRIENDSHIP
(Dir: Andrew DeYoung)
Middle class male loneliness and inertia as comedic toxic masculinity; AMERICAN BEAUTY for the post-Boomer generations.
GOODBYE HORSES: THE MANY LIVES OF Q LAZZARUS
(Dir: Eva Aridjis Fuentes)
A documentary that manages to not only solve one of the greatest mysteries of pop music (Who was cult one-hit-wonder Q Lazzarus?) but becomes both musical archeology and racial sociology in telling the story.
IT’S NEVER OVER, JEFF BUCKLEY
(Dir. Amy M. Berg)
This documentary was so well made and fully fleshed that it made me like an artist I couldn’t stand before viewing it.
THE NAKED GUN (2025)
(Dir: Akiva Schaffer)
The rarest of all films: a re-boot/legasequel that manages to transcend being cash-grab IP retread and fully captures both the essence of the original and modernizes it - I haven’t laughed this hard in a theater in years.
NUMBSKULL REVOLUTION
(Dir: Jon Moritsugu)
Underground legend Jon Moritsugu’s 7 years in the making satirical indictment of the art world and artists managed to live up any/all possible mental hype while looking fresher and more now than I could have imagined.
RESURRECTION
(Dir: Bi Gan)
I love a philosophical sci-fi film that feels like neither while you’re watching it; this film is audacious in its scope and astonishing in its execution.
VIDEOHEAVEN
(Dir: Alex Ross Perry)
This documentary cum video essay transcends the often nostalgia tainted recollections of The Days of Video Stores Past and becomes an exploration into not only what the video store as a space served as for the film industry but how it served American culture as a whole as a physical locus for human contact and how the way we see things portrayed on screen affects the way we interact with them in real life.
THE VISITOR
(Dir: Bruce LaBruce)
The punk provocateur of New Queer Cinema, Bruce LaBruce, returned with an art-porn reimagining of Pasolini’s Teorama that places it squarely in our increasingly xenophobic and authoritarian world of late-capitalism.
FAVORITE FILMS NEW TO ME IN 2025:
ANGELO MY LOVE (1983)
(Dir: Robert Duvall)
BLUE COLLAR (1978)
(Dir: Paul Schrader)
CAFE FLESH (1982)
(Dir: Stephen Sayadian)
DIE, MOMMY, DIE! (2003)
(Dir. Mark Rucker)
THE GODS OF TIME SQUARE (1999)
(Dir: Richard Sandler)
IS IT EASY TO BE YOUNG? (1986)
(Dir: Juris Podneiks)
KANAL (1957)
(Dir: Andrzej Wajda)
THE LONG ISLAND FOUR (1980)
(Dir: Anders Grafstrom)
NEW YORK CITY INFERNO (1978)
(Dir: Jacques Scandelari)
PRIME CUT (1972)
(Dir: Michael Ritchie)
SPEEDO (2003)
(Dir: Jesse Moss)
FAVORITE SHORT FILMS I SAW IN 2025 (NEW + OLD):
ALL YOU HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IS EVERYTHING (2025)
(Dir: Alex Guerin)
BLOOD (1975)
(Dir: Alexis Krasilovsky)
DON’T COME HOME BEFORE MIDNIGHT (2025)
(Dir: Allison Torem)
GODDESS OF SPEED (2023)
(Dir. Frederic Moffet)
LETTERS TO DAD (1979)
(Dir: Beth B & Scott B.)
NAUGHTY WORDS (1974)
(Dir: Curt McDowell)
NO NO NOOKY T.V. (1987)
(Dir: Barbara Hammer)
PUNISHER (2025)
(Dir: Chris Noon)
THE TRIANGULAR DOOR (2025)
(Dir: Dylan Mars Greenberg)
WHOREGASM (1988)
(Dir: Nick Zedd)
📽️ Ben Sachs
Favorite new releases (in order of preference):
1. THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (Wes Anderson)
2. CLOUD (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
3. Tie: KONTINENTAL '25 and DRACULA (Radu Jude)
4. THE SECRET AGENT (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
5. BLACK RABBIT, WHITE RABBIT (Shahram Mokri)
6. IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Jafar Panahi)
7. BOGANCLOCH (Ben Rivers)
8. THE MASTERMIND (Kelly Reichardt)
9. THE WOMAN IN THE YARD (Jaume Collet-Serra)
10. Tie: BLUE MOON and NOUVELLE VAGUE (Richard Linklater)
Runners-up (in alphabetical order):
BY THE STREAM (Hong Sang-soo), THE DELLS (Nellie Kluz), DIRECT ACTION (Ben Russell), END OF HISTORY (Jacob Gregor), THE FISHING PLACE (Rob Tregenza), HARD TRUTHS (Mike Leigh), HIGHEST 2 LOWEST (Spike Lee), PETER HUJAR'S DAY (Ira Sachs), PRESENCE (Steven Soderbergh), THE ROOM NEXT DOOR (Pedro Almodóvar)
Favorite new-to-me watches (in chronological order):
MORNING FOR THE OSONE FAMILY (Keisuke Kinoshita, 1946)
THE PORTRAIT (Keisuke Kinoshita, 1948)
HARDLY A CRIMINAL (Hugo Fregonese, 1949)
HERE'S TO THE YOUNG LADY (Keisuke Kinoshita, 1949)
THE LAWLESS (Joseph Losey, 1950)
THE GARDEN OF WOMEN (Keisuke Kinoshita, 1954)
DANGER STALKS NEAR (Keisuke Kinoshita, 1957)
PAPER FLOWERS (Guru Dutt, 1959)
DAISY MILLER (Peter Bogdanovich, 1974)
PILGRIM, FAREWELL (Michael Roemer, 1980)
THE ASTHENIC SYNDROME (Kira Muratova, 1989)
THE BALLAD OF THE SAD CAFE (Simon Callow, 1991)
A MOMENT OF ROMANCE III (Johnnie To, 1996)
A SOLDIER'S DAUGHTER NEVER CRIES (James Ivory, 1998)
LOVE TORN IN A DREAM (Raul Ruiz, 2000)
📽️ Elise Schierbeek
Top first watches, as pairs:
1. THE SWIMMER (Frank Perry, 1968) and THROBS (Fred Worden, 1972)
2. MUSIC (Angela Schanelec, 2023) and THE STRANGE CAT (Ramon Zürcher, 2013)
3. A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (Steven Spielberg, 2001) and THE TURIN HORSE (Béla Tarr, 2011)
4. THE EXQUISITE HOUR (Phil Solomon, 1989) and THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE'S OWN EYES
(Stan Brakhage, 1971)
5. JANE, LOOKING (Amy Halpern, 2020) and FAMILIAR TOUCH (Sarah Friedland, 2024)
6. DIRECT ACTION (Ben Russell, 2024) and AGAINST TIME (Ben Russell, 2022)
7. YES TO LIFE (Louisa Minkin, 2013) and DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA (Cameron Worden, 2023)
8. HARD BOILED (John Woo, 1992) and BABY INVASION (Harmony Korine, 2024)
9. ROSEBUD (James Richards, 2013) and DEBUT, OR, OBJECTS OF THE FIELD OF DEBRIS AS
CURRENTLY CATALOGUED (Julian Castranova, 2025)
10. SIRĀT (Oliver Laxe, 2025) and SORCERER (William Friedkin, 1977)
Favorite viewing experiences:
Two Projectors & A Barrel Full of Monkeys (2025) performed by Bruce McClure at the Church of the Three Crosses, curated by Lucas Herzog.
Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014) on 3D Blu-ray played off PS3 at Letters to Nora, curated by Kevin Weil.
📽️ Michael Glover Smith
My 20 favorite features of 2025:
10 Runners-Up (alphabetical order):
AFTERNOONS OF SOLITUDE (Serra)
BABY INVASION (Korine)
BLUE MOON (Linklater)
BY THE STREAM (Hong)
CLOUD (Kurosawa)
HEDDA (DaCosta)
NO OTHER LAND (Abraham/Adra/Ballal/Szor)
THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (Anderson)
THE SHROUDS (Cronenberg)
WHO BY FIRE (Lesage)
The Top 10 (preferential order):
10. NO OTHER CHOICE (Park)
9. IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU (Bronstein)
8. MISERICORDIA (Guiraudie)
7. IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Panahi)
6. THE SECRET AGENT (Mendonca Filho)
5. NOUVELLE VAGUE (Linklater)
4. CAUGHT BY THE TIDES (Jia)
3. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (Anderson)
2. THE WILD PALMS (Godard)*
1. MARTY SUPREME (Safdie)
*I'm not sure how much sense it makes to consider THE WILD PALMS a Jean-Luc Godard movie. Hell, I'm not sure if it makes sense to consider it a movie. It's basically a three-hour "fan edit" of the two fiction features that Godard shot back-to-back in 1966 (TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER and MADE IN USA), based on a concept that Godard had discussed in a 1967 interview: He claimed that intercutting his two most recent films, by alternating between them one reel at a time, could be a solution to his longstanding desire of "adapting" William Faulkner's The Wild Palms, a novel with a similar structure of intertwined narratives that had also been a major reference point in BREATHLESS (and which is now published under Faulkner's preferred original title, If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem). But regardless of how one chooses to classify or assign authorship to this experiment, the result strikes me as wildly successful: Combining these two disparate Godard works - one a sociological study of a French housewife and mother who takes up part-time sex work, the other a neo-noir in which Anna Karina plays the Bogart-esque hard-boiled detective role - creates a unique and haunting dialogue between them. One can't help but draw parallels between the female protagonists, whose trajectories one half-expects to collide by the film's end. Somehow, these juxtapositions also make both movies feel richer; MADE IN U.S.A., which has always struck me as little more than a fun pastiche of American movie iconography, especially benefits from the treatment. And one has to wonder if Godard's idea, even though he failed to execute it at the time, didn't also lead directly to the dialectical/counterpoint structure of his 1968 masterpiece ONE PLUS ONE, which provocatively juxtaposes documentary footage of the Rolling Stones recording their immortal "Sympathy for the Devil" with scripted scenes of leftist agitprop. The world premiere of THE WILD PALMS took place at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 2025 as part of an ambitious program curated by film historian Michael Witt. Thankfully, some intrepid cinephile-hero who attended this screening took meticulous notes, painstakingly recreated the experiment at home, then uploaded it to torrent sites for the rest of us to enjoy. Such is life, such is happiness.
📽️ Olivia Hunter Willke
Favorite First-time Watches of 2025 (Features):
20. BLIND HUSBANDS (1919, dir. Erich von Stroheim)
19. COLD WATER (1994, dir. Olivier Assayas)
18. BEESWAX (2009, dir. Andrew Bujalski)
17. HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS (2007, dir. Joe Swanberg)
16. SEXY BEAST (2000, dir. Jonathan Glazer)
15. FORT APACHE (1948, dir. John Ford)
14. CURE (1997, dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
13. DESIRE (1936, dir. Frank Borzage)
12. THE ZONE (2011, dir. Joe Swanberg)
11. THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT (2006, dir. Justin Lin)
10. LOVE TORN IN A DREAM (2000, dir. Raúl Ruiz)
9. THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE (1973, dir. Jean Eustache)
8. MCCABE & MRS. MILLER (1971, dir. Robert Altman)
7. ANTIGONE (1992, dir. Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet)
6. ART HISTORY (2011, dir. Joe Swanberg)
5. PETER IBBETSON (1935, dir. Henry Hathaway)
4. FEMME FATALE (2002, dir. Brian De Palma)
3. THE CELEBRATION (1998, dir. Thomas Vinterberg)
2. THREE CROWNS OF THE SAILOR (1983, Raúl Ruiz)
1. LA RÉGION CENTRALE (1971, dir. Michael Snow)
Favorite First-Time Watches of 2025 (Short Avant-garde):
20. DEVOTIO MODERNA (1993, dir. Shellie Fleming)
19. BEIJING 1998 (2011, dir. Rose Lowder)
18. RED CAPRICCIO (2014, dir. Blake Williams)
17. HAPAX LEGOMENA II: POETIC JUSTICE (1972, dir. Hollis Frampton)
16. THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE'S OWN EYES (1972, dir. Stan Brakhage)
15. NIPKOW TV (1998, dir. Christian Hossner)
14. SEXUAL SAGA (1996, dir. Stan Brakhage)
13. FEBRUARY (2014, dir. Nathaniel Dorsky)
12. SEXUAL MEDITATION: ROOM WITH A VIEW (1971, dir. Stan Brakhage)
11. MATTER OF CLARITY (1985, dir. Sandra Davis)
10. APPARENT MOTION (1975, dir. Paul Sharits)
9. LOVESONG 3 (2001, dir. Stan Brakhage)
8. SPRING (2013, dir. Nathaniel Dorsky)
7. MATERNAL FILIGREE (1980, dir. Sandra Davis)
6. LOVESONG (2001, dir. Stan Brakhage)
5. SEXUAL MEDITATION #1: MOTEL (1970, dir. Stan Brakhage)
4. ROUTEMASTER (1999, dir. Ilppo Pohjola)
3. RAINDANCE (1972, dir. Standish Lawder)
2. 2012 (2013, dir. Takashi Makino)
1. CHRISTMAS ON EARTH (1964, dir. Barbara Rubin)