‘One Battle After Another’ Tops Sight and Sound Best Films of 2025

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another bested Ryan Coogler’s Sinners to take the top spot on Sight and Sound Best films of 2025 poll.

Michael Koresky wrote, “The admiring critical response has been justified but also conspicuous: here, finally, is something that dares to be satisfying while refusing to paint a rosy picture of where we’re at.”

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners took the number 2 spot, with Alex Ramon writing, “Sinners was spring 2025’s great cinematic surprise: a period horror musical shot through with historical awareness, soul-stirring songs, horny wit and sincere emotion that became a hit with critics and at the box office.”

Other films making the top ten are Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, Oliver Laxe’s Sirât, Kleber Mendonça’s The Secret Agent, Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby, Zach Cregger’s Weapons, Alexandre Koberidze’s Dry Leaf and Bi Gan’s Resurrection.

1 One Battle After Another
Paul Thomas Anderson, USA

2 Sinners
Ryan Coogler, USA

3 The Mastermind
Kelly Reichardt, USA, UK

4 Sirât
Oliver Laxe, Spain, France

5 The Secret Agent
Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil, France, Germany, Netherlands

6 It Was Just an Accident
Jafar Panahi, Iran, France, Luxembourg

7 Sorry, Baby
Eva Victor, USA, Spain, France

8 Weapons
Zach Cregger, USA9

9 Dry Leaf
Alexandre Koberidze, Germany, Georgia

10 Resurrection
Bi Gan, China, France

11 Sentimental Value
Joachim Trier, Norway, France, Germany, Denmark

12 Sound of Falling
Mascha Schilinski, Germany

13 Kontinental ’25
Radu Jude, Romania, Brazil, Switzerland, UK, Luxembourg

14 Misericordia
Alain Guiraudie, France, Spain, Portugal

15 No Other Choice
Park Chan-wook, South Korea

16 Pillion
Harry Lighton, UK

17 Blue Heron
Sophy Romvari, Canada, Hungary

18 The Ice Tower
Lucile Hadzihalilovic, France, Germany

19 The Voice of Hind Rajab
Kaouther Ben Hania, Tunisia, France

20 Blue Moon
Richard Linklater, USA, Ireland

21 A House of Dynamite
Kathryn Bigelow, USA

22 Rose of Nevada
Mark Jenkin, UK

23 Afternoons of Solitude
Albert Serra, Spain, France, Portugal

24 April
Dea Kulumbegashvili, Georgia, Italy, France

25 Eddington
Ari Aster, USA, UK, Finland

26 If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Mary Bronstein, USA

27 The Love That Remains
Hlynur Pálmason, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, France

28 Nouvelle Vague
Richard Linklater, France

29 Black Bag
Steven Soderbergh, USA

30 Cloud
Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan

31 Father Mother Sister Brother
Jim Jarmusch, USA, Ireland, France

32 My Father’s Shadow
Akinola Davies Jr., UK, Nigeria

33 On Falling
Laura Carriera, UK

34 Remake
Ross McElwee, UK

35 The Shrouds
David Cronenberg, Canada, France

36 Silent Friend
Ildikó Enyedi, Germany, Hungary, France

37 Souleymane’s Story
Boris Lojkine, France

38 28 Years Later
Danny Boyle, USA, UK

39 Cover-up
Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus, USA

40 Die My Love
Lynne Ramsay, USA, UK

41 Hamnet
Chloe Zhao, UK

42 Hard Truths
Mike Leigh, UK, Spain

43 Highest 2 Lowest
Spike Lee, USA, Japan

44 Landmarks
Lucrecia Martel, Argentina, USA, Mexico, France, Netherlands

45 Miroirs No. 3
Christian Petzold, Germany

46 Nickel Boys
RaMell Ross, US

47 Oslo Stories Trilogy: Dreams
Dag Johan Haugerud, Norway

48 The Phoenician Scheme
Wes Anderson, USA

49 What Does That Nature Say to You
Hong Sang-soo, South Korea

50 With Hasan in Gaza
Kamal Aljafari, Palestine, Qatar, Germany, France