Unfortunately, I found this to be quite an underwhelming year compared to the legendary lineup of 2024. This did consists of better superhero films than usual, and the blockbusters from the BRICS countries are mastering their stylized directing. However, the hidden gems are lacking. I hope this is a case where they will all appear during 2026 where I could create an updated list as I reach another milestone (perhaps a top 50). As for now, here is my top 25, including shorts, and an honourable mention. There will be cases of the obvious films being omitted; however, there were simply films not available for me yet.

Honourable Mention – Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra – Dominic Arun

This is an interesting case of a superhero film as the setup of the hero is a lot more interesting rather than the action part itself. The lead performances are all charming with great chemistry between each other, and the blend of romance, comedy, and horror are impeccably done. The action, although stylized in a great way, felt a bit empty for me, and it did reach some points where I was simply waiting for the time to go by with no vested interest, but considering its length this was still a great accomplishment. I can’t wait to see what Chapter 2 will bring us.

25. Black Bag – Steven Soderbergh

The clever spy film that doesn’t necessarily delves into the tropes of a spy film themselves. Rather, it incorporates many interesting scenarios of intriguing betrayal for information, or sabotage. Its focus lies into the ensemble of first rate characters that have their own motivations amongst each other, and it is done in a rather entertaining way. This is an original take on the spy genre, and one that I loved.

24. Kontinental ’25 – Radu Jude

The side project of Radu’s fantastic lineup, and this does not disappoint. This deals with the anti-landlord message, an environment that is slowly getting ruined to be replaced by the capitalist monopolies of the era. This showcases the use of class, and ethnicities, through various aspects such as Hungarian vs Romanian people, the working class of the Uber Eats driver who makes sure to show that you’ll get the “authentic experience” due to his race, and the dinosaurs simply showing the earlier aspects of civilization. The landlord employee as an awakening after she indirectly caused a suicide, and has many conversations wither others regarding said crisis, but establishing this grey area is what makes this so intelligent. Should you feel bad for her for causing such a drastic event? Or is this her own fault? This is a film that makes great discussion points, made even better by throwing in some very immature humour.

23. A Useful Ghost – Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke

Episodic with only its content but also the mood and what message its trying to bring. It mostly is a big takedown on the whole radlib corp life ie the girl boss, and the “ethical workplaces” that are never ethical to begin with. It shows that they are never our friends to begin with. The nice touch was how it looks sci-fi, but in a more subtle way. It looks nice on the surface, but this is still a dystopia.

It then goes beyond that into political messaging as a whole, romance, and family acceptance. They managed to make it all flow together so well despite being so different from each other. It was nice to see the whole “token/grifter” plot explored for the political aspect for a film like this.

22. Fatal Exposure – Sam Coyle

A Tubi original may seem like a baffling choice for a best of the year list, especially with as many flaws as this film has. It contains some atrocious acting, and night and day scenes changing concurrently. However, the modern day Lifetime films follow the formula of classical exploitation cinema, and this company, Marvista Entertainment, takes it one step further by incorporating explicit elements into said classical formula.

This film consists of the following movements: The 1960s gothic horror, the 1990s erotic thriller, and 2020s “booktok,” otherwise known as the 50 Shades of Grey style novels. By taking all of these styles, and utilizing the tropes of them, it makes for an experience that is both baffling yet predictable. It hearkens the air of mystery, atmosphere, and setting of the classic gothic horror, with some elements being reminiscent of the Hitchcock’s Rebecca. It utilizes the erotic thriller tropes of the neo-noir elements mixed in with truly disturbing sexual under/overtones to the point that it aims for a psychological focus on its power dynamics. As this deals with the current day Gen Z tropes for its plot in terms of sex, it comes down to the simple concept of “daddy issues.” In the end, this film was truly twisted in its approach, and I believe that having a women director made this even more disturbing as she was able to utilize her being systemically in the minority for power dynamics, making for a more sincere picture of how it can affect them. This film just simply took it to its most disturbing extreme. Add some so bad it’s good elements to this, and it’s a wild ride.

21. Highest 2 Lowest – Spike Lee

Spike Lee is no stranger to remaking classics with his own spin of them, and most of them are lambasted due to said changes. However, I found this to be a successful case of what makes a remake great. It keeps the plot that makes Kurosawa’s film such a success, including the varied needle drops, and he modernizes it to fit the setting in a way that doesn’t feel like low effort. The performances are great, and I enjoyed the clever uses of colour. The only major flaw is the final scene which lasts for a few minutes too long.

20. Toto: The Last Concert – Damon Packard

I do consider AI to be one of the worst introductions to art. Damon Packard tears that thought apart. He utilizes it for his outsider art approach to render AI at its ugliest. This is the story of how a 7/11 played Toto’s Africa for weeks to scare the homeless away, and it turns out to involve Aliens, the US military, and Oprah Winfrey to destroy the world. It comes off as a case of someone breaking their AI by utilizing every conspiracy theory possible, elevated by the, dare I say it, clever use of AI. He uses the earlier versions of AI to make the homeless look uglier, and the more human yet uncanny valley versions of newer AI for the “normal” people. Knowing the fact that Damon experienced homelessness himself, it makes for an intriguing short film.

19. Bambi: The Reckoning – Dan Allen

I understand the Bambi skepticism, and it would only be made for a certain audience. It piqued my interest when I saw that it actually has a fresh rating in rotten tomatoes (I usually don’t follow them, but it felt strange to see this). It is still a b-horror, and it deals with the current horror trend of trauma/grief; however, it’s made better than usual by utilizing that trauma/grief aspect with how Bambi and the lead who is a child work together with the theme. The cinematography is great as well. Most of it admittedly was used to probably hide the low-budget CGI, but the nighttime cinematography contrasted with the really harsh lighting that the hunters use to make shadows were used to its full effect to make Bambi look more like a threat. It’s always nice to see an eco-horror as well.

The only bad part is that they tried to make it the self-aware horror comedy in two scenes. It worked with one scene (a rabbit) as it still fit in with the overall atmosphere with the film. The other one basically felt like something Fulci would do.

18. The Mastermind – Kelly Reichardt

I was incredibly excited for this since it would be similar to how she deconstructed another genre film in Meek’s Cutoff, the western genre. This is for a heist film, and although it does do that aspect of him being in over his head and is placed in hiding for most of the film, there is also the aspect of identity. He is one who is well off. A recent graduate in architecture, a stable family, and rich parents in case something goes wrong. This problem is reminiscent of the many recent University graduates today. He gets loans under false pretenses to help with his non-existent career, and tries to find his identity through his true job which lies in crime. He is one who is not necessarily low class, but one who feels disappointed with the way his current life is. It is a great reminder for the youth that took a STEM major, but are then forced to work retail, and will try to achieve their through, let’s say, social media. Add in a fantastic jazz score, and you have a highlight of the year.

17. Eddington – Ari Aster

A film where its reception is just as important as the film itself. It wasn’t received as well as it was relevant to a fault. Then, the assassination of Charlie Kirk happened. It made this film yet even more relevant, and was received well.

This did seem a bit too “enlightened centrist” for me with its politics. The civil war type of playing it safe; however, it’s obvious later on when you realize that this is seen through the POV of a dumb cop that is slowly losing his mind amongst the chaos. The enlightened centrist part was actually a good way to call out many of those fake leftists and how far they can go. A guy who acts like he’s an expert on Angela Davis with a quick wikipedia search because a woman he finds attractive was holding one of her books. His quote was great when he said that as a white man with privilege he will just stop and listen to what the issues are… AFTER he does his major speech.

It showcases the collective paranoia of the covid era well. From the virus itself down to the internet rabbitholes everyone was going through during quarantine. This actually had a great use of cell phones that doesn’t do the boomer style “Smart phones… dumb people” type of posts.

Joaquin Pheonix is hilarious in this, and although you never feel sorry for him because of how he is as a person, it’s a journey that you never want to stop seeing. He makes you want to revel in its absurdity. This did feel overlong, but they provided just enough major events in the 2nd half of the film to still give some interest to the viewer. Still, I wish there was more of Austin Butler’s character in this. A sort of manic preacher is a great character for this sort of setting, and he would have contributed a lot to the chaos.

16. A Ladder – Scott Barley

Scott Barley’s films are fascinating as they deal with horror solely through the use of nature. He aims for a more visceral reaction as well rather than through the use of a narrative. The apex was with his feature length film Sleep Has Her House, yet this short film still showcases his strengths. Although black and white, it is used as a strength with the use of simple forces of nature, such as fire shooting out of the ground. With its sound design, it makes for an intense and poetic experience. Let the film wash over you, and feel its catharsis shortly after. Don’t worry; it’s only 10 minutes so it won’t be too overwhelming.

15. Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League – Jumpei Mizusaki & Shinji Takagi

I had some reservations to this initially, even with its hilarious title. Fortunately, it led to what may be one of the best multiverse superhero films, thanks to its campy nature. Every character kept a straight face during this film, yet it felt reminiscent of an Adam West-era Batman episode. This utilize the usual Japanese tropes for comedy, but they are more along the lines of the ridiculous game-show style humour, rather than the immature anime style. The stylized animation is simply fantastic as well. There’s a certain rough quality to this that ironically adds more fine detail to the characters and environments. It showcases itself as its best during the action-intensive sequences, showing the sense of speed of the action itself. This is all in all an incredibly entertaining film, and easily one of my favourite Batman films in general.

14. ‘GIVE IT UP!’ – Alexander Bigaliy

An original yet risky idea that paid off extremely well in the end. This is an adaptation of a Kafka short using LEGO. It uses the usual existential crises, and a sort of time loop plot that are familiar for Kafka’s works, and thanks to the use of LEGO it reaches a sort of uncanny feeling to it all. The mixture of this alongside the live action footage used for closeups it jarring, yet in an effective way at establishing an atmosphere. There is that feeling of uneasiness throughout this entire short. The city symphony segment is fantastic as well, thanks to it being complemented by a great jazz track. This seems to have been created by an amateur filmmaker on YouTube. I hope he will gain some traction soon.

13. Trick or Treat with Reed Richmond – Chris LaMartina

This is a gimmick, and one that may feel grating to most people. This is a Halloween special of a host badly narrating the history of Halloween and the origins of various monsters, using the usual gimmicks that these specials would contain such as interviews, movie footage, and “jokes.” There are also the fake commercial breaks sprinkled throughout this. The reason why this is special is that there is this sense of authenticity to this. Despite him being an actor acting badly on purpose, and the people being interviewed are incredibly exaggerated, in the end, this is still a documentary. The historical portions of this are completely accurate. This makes for a compelling experience as there is the contrast between what’s real, and what’s a joke. It’s an original format to the point that even the fake commercials fits into everything. This is simply a must for fans of Halloween.

12. Deathstalker – Steven Kostanski

The neo-exploitation movement is usually quite a failure. Practically all the throwbacks in the late 2000s/early 2010s was a failure, and I’d say that Lifetime films were the true exploitative movement of that, and the current era. I believe this is because it is very tough to strike that balance of self-awareness and sincerity, with many falling into the former, and using surface level aspects which fails in the sincerity aspect (adding film dirt for example). They also try to utilize humour that comes across as way too immature. Humour that falls more into the more boomer sort of method. Basically, one for the cheap beer bros.

This is the first film to succeed in the neo-exploitation movement. For once, it has that sincerity of feeling like the 2nd Deathstalker film. It was one that actually felt like a throwback, and the filmmakers, both cast and crew, were having the time of their life making it. It balances the splatter gore with many cute creatures, done with amazing practical effects, costumes, or even stop motion. It is a film that goes by-the-numbers in terms of fantasy tropes, but because of those aspects I felt invested in the plot and its pathos, thanks to them adding that wonderful sense of charm to it. The backgrounds are great as well. This film didn’t have the biggest budget, but they felt more like a CGI version of matte paintings, and were very effective in giving that old-school feel.

This is definitely one of the best films of the year. As someone who doesn’t mind genre films, this succeeded in every department.

11. Operation Hadal – Dante Lam Chiu-Yin

Overt propaganda elevated by phenomenal directing for action setpieces. The way they utilize a lot of different camera techniques and changing it up frequently makes for very engaging and fast paced combat. The submarine segments are especially impressive with how seriously they take them. Trying to make someone doing mathematical calculations “epic” in how they film it always made me laugh. This can be VERY painful depending on how you feel about tropes for this style of film, because any trope that you can think of is here, but it made for a more entertaining ride for me

10. Nobody – Shui Yu

This takes many aspects of the past – The Journey to the West adaptation and the use of traditional 2D animation – yet modernizes them with tropes for the younger audiences. The use of the two aspects mentioned above alone makes for a great watch. The animation is simply wonderful, and the colourful cast of characters, with them being demons alone, makes for an original yet cute watch that reminds me of the work of Ghibli. This is lightly ruined by it being too action-oriented as the film goes on, but thanks to the animation and character development I still found those segments to be compelling. This is a box office success in China, and I hope the west will find out about this film on top of Ne Zha 2.

9. Corey Feldman vs. the World – Marcie Hume

Definitely the saddest film of the year, yet a fascinating psychological analysis of the cycle of someone who clearly went through a lot of trauma ends up inflicting similar trauma upon others. During the stress his victims have due to him, it also affects his own delusional dreams to the point that I am convinced he went downhill enough to fall into an episode of psychosis. The fact that his wife was supportive of this the entire time and ended up expressing similar psychotic thoughts made this even more interesting to watch. Add in the cinéma vérité of the documentary with a minimal use of talking heads, and you have a documentary that feels more like a film rather than a PowerPoint presentation.

8. Late Shift – Petra Volpe

An impressive film. One that has full control of the editing and camerawork no matter the chaos going on in the film. Always feeling like it’s calm as it follows the lead throughout the corridors, like her trying to keep control during her shift no matter what is being thrown at her.

To call this thrilling is an understatement. Hearing that phone sound, or the assistance sound with the light will give anxiety every time. An “oh god what complication is it this time?” sort of feeling. The big array of patients always makes it fresh as well. The few major assholes, the nice patients, and how complications and crises can affect both of them, while she has to be the support no matter what.

Kind of reminds me of my favourite film of last year called Souleyman’s Story. Both take a job and turn the chaos of it into a psychological, nail-biting thriller. It’s a strange trend, but one that I hope will be expanded.

7. Diés Iraé – Rahul Sadasivan

Almost as good as Bramayugam, this is a film that establishes his style, making him one of the more interesting auteurs, especially in modern day horror. The lead’s casting is practically perfect considering the context of the film, and it has a great use of violence in a few scenes, using it more as a shock factor rather than it being gratuitous. The musical score goes beyond the usual simplistic dissonant strings, and the atmosphere is top notch when that is mixed in its use of darkness. I enjoyed how the second half took a turn in its style yet goes for an approach that is just as interesting. This is definitely one of the highlights of the year.

6. In the Lost Lands – Paul W.S. Anderson

The long lost Pyun film.

CGI landscapes at its ugliest. The same yellow, or sometimes dark grey tints that reach the point that they look more like pre-rendered backdrops you would see in an FMV game. The lighting used around the characters and the establishing shots help immerse you into this very silly, yet formal, fantasy world. One where they don’t explain the lore of everything, and just leave you into figuring it out for yourself.

With this world and its ugly CGI, you have characters that come across as incredibly silly, with some of the funniest names for places and the way they present cliches (the monster living in skull river for example). Jovovich and especially Bautista play it off in a self aware way, and for a world as silly as a bad one-off D&D style campaign, it was perfect. I mean, can you think of a funnier yet entertaining world where the Crusaders wear sunglasses so they wouldn’t fall for a witch’s tricks?

The action scenes were well done in the look of this. Think of it like a worse looking version of Fury Road with its backdrops, but with action just as formally well done and engaging, and you should get a good idea.

5. Ataraxia – Joe Meredith

Honestly feels like a film showing what the rapture would be like in a more body horror sort of world, or perhaps the destruction of Earth by having it mirror the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah with the use of “burning” through rain.

Humanity slowly dies away, before reaching the next step of mankind. The people infected usually end up killing themselves as their last point of sanity, speaking of the prophecy being foretold of the angel of the highest order. The crucifixion of gore, and what may be one of the most effective final acts of the year. The beings of the bible took over the world, making them pay for their sins by utilizing the above methods to sort of cleanse it. It’s a very clever use of allegory because if it is a case of them cleansing the Earth, having them turn into guts for the maggots to eat was an original way of showing it.

In the end, even ignoring all of that, the atmosphere is absolutely top notch in this. It knows to always stay creepy, but to never overwhelm you.

4. Bunny – Ben Jacobson

The anxious cinema of the Safdie Bros, yet giving a Sean Baker-esque style of characters yet they are more likable than usual. Every person here is a mess in their own way, but most of them are ones that at the very least you enjoy watching, making for a chaotic messy thriller on paper, that actually makes you as the viewer embrace and laugh at the thrilling anxiety over the wincing anxiety of something like Uncut Gems. It’s strange how it works, as making them likable should increase the stakes and stress, making it more anxious theoretically, but I think what this does is avoid secondhand embarrassment like Uncut Gems has done. I’m not saying one is better than the other, but if you want that type of spin on anxiety-inducing thrillers, then you may get a lot out of this.

3. Resurrection – Bi Gan

What a strange experience. Not in terms of the film itself, but rather how it affected me emotionally.

At first I felt like this was going to be disappointing, simply because of how well done the opening act was. The way they used simple special effects such as the giant hands in a set, or the long shots with simple sets themselves. That with the characters on top. I was already crying but how well done it was. It was at the point where the rest of the film was an underwhelming experience because of how well done the first sequence was.

Fortunately, when the movie was about to end, everything clicked. The monster is a dream, and cinema is a simple way to dream. The aesthetic especially of how they showed that message at the end was just as emotional, and how I looked at the “anthology” of the dreams throughout the films was even more effective.

2. Dracula – Radu Jude

His most inaccessible, and essayist approach for his late-era films. At the same time, it is also his most juvenile. A collection of 15 “AI prompts” as well as an overarching plot about Dracula being reduced to spectacle for the Romanian tourism industry, this was simply an extremely clever film. Like AI, this has a total disrepect for art, mostly through the use of breaking all the rules of filmmaking, even resorting to very amateurish, guerrilla filmmaking. He even breaks the cardinal sin of using Murnau’s version of Nosferatu for commercials, such as him promoting penis-enlargement pills.

Many of these stories are offensive, low-brow, exhausting, and can even be a pain to sit through. Fortunately, he knows to utilize humour to keep it exciting enough for viewers that enjoy his sense of humour, and its entire purpose is to create bad art on purpose to show the ineffectiveness of AI art. It is a work of subversion, and one that will be despised by most, but will be talked about in years to come.

1. Dry Leaf – Alexandre Koberidze

The fact that this is essentially in 144p was the greatest decision. It comes across as a sort of modernist painting which not only gives it a great look, but fits into the story of one trying to come up with their own environments based off of a “boost” if you will. Trying to come up with your own worlds with the little information you are given. They help emphasize this by having literally invisible characters. Letting you come up with your own way to fill up the gaps.

Like half of this consists of shots of animals or landscapes, but it makes it come across almost like a Kiarostami film in a way. It has that chill road movie vibe to it, and with any road trip, those aspects are the ones that tend to stick out the most during the monotony of the road. It is a very long film but every second felt justified because of this, and I was simply enthralled the entire time.

This leads to the conclusion of my list, as of now. As other films start becoming available I’ll expand upon this list, and will also create at least a top 50, if not larger, list of 2024. I have plenty of goals planned for 2026, including reaching 10,000 films. Hopefully said goals will be accomplished.