Lead
Film Comment has published the results of its 2025 contributors’ poll listing the 20 best films released in the United States either theatrically or virtually during 2025. The announcement compiles critics’ original appreciations and links to reviews, features, and interviews produced across the year. The site also highlights a separate list of the year’s Best Undistributed Films and previews additional ranked coverage to appear in the coming days. Voters’ individual ballots and a Best of 2025 Countdown Podcast are slated to be posted imminently.
Key Takeaways
- The poll identifies the 20 best films released in the U.S. in 2025, drawing on Film Comment’s contributors nationwide.
- Each listed film is accompanied by original appreciations from the magazine’s critics and links to related coverage.
- Film Comment also published a Best Undistributed Films list, spotlighting titles without U.S. distribution.
- Individual ballots from participating contributors will be made available online the day after the announcement.
- A Best of 2025 Countdown Podcast featuring Amy Taubin and Bilge Ebiri will go live tomorrow.
- Additional specialized lists—Best Short Films, Best Restorations, Best Repertory Releases, Best Scenes, and Best Performances—are scheduled for release next week by named critics and programmers.
- Readers are encouraged to subscribe to the Film Comment Letter to follow full Best of 2025 coverage.
Background
Film Comment’s year-end poll is a long-running feature that aggregates the judgments of its contributing critics to produce an annual canon of notable films. Such contributor polls are common among film journals and serve both as a critical record and as a navigation tool for readers deciding which films to see or revisit. The magazine routinely pairs its ranked lists with essays, interviews, and archival context to give readers a fuller sense of each film’s critical reception.
In recent years, Film Comment and peer outlets have adapted their selection practices to include titles that premiered on streaming platforms or in hybrid release windows, reflecting changes in distribution since the pandemic era. The 2025 list explicitly includes films released either theatrically or virtually in the United States, signaling an inclusive approach to format. The publication also separates films without U.S. distribution into an Undistributed list, preserving visibility for festival and international titles that U.S. audiences may not yet access.
Main Event
The announcement presents a ranked Top 20 drawn from the magazine’s contributors, with each entry accompanied by a short appreciation written by a Film Comment critic. Those appreciations summarize critical responses and link to reviews, interviews, and other features produced throughout 2025. The list is framed as the collective judgment of the magazine’s community of writers rather than a single editorial voice.
Film Comment posted that voters’ Individual Ballots will appear online the next day, offering transparency about how contributors ranked films and which titles received support across ballots. The site also released details of an accompanying Best of 2025 Countdown Podcast that features guest critics Amy Taubin and Bilge Ebiri in discussion about the year’s highlights and selection choices.
Looking ahead, the magazine outlined a schedule of follow-up pieces: Inney Prakash will publish a list of Best Short Films; Gina Telaroli will present the year’s Best Restorations; Gavin Smith will compile Best Repertory Releases; Devika Girish will write on the Best Scenes; and Michael Koresky will curate the Best Performances. These complementary features expand the single Top 20 into a wider ecosystem of year-end criticism.
Analysis & Implications
Film Comment’s Top 20 functions as both a critical barometer and a curation tool for cinephiles, programmers, and scholars. By collating contributor opinions, the list highlights convergence and divergence within the critical community—which films attracted broad support, and which emerged as passionate choices for a smaller number of voters. That pattern informs festival programmers and repertory houses deciding what to book for retrospectives and revival runs.
Including virtual releases alongside theatrical runs acknowledges ongoing shifts in how U.S. audiences encounter new cinema. Critics’ endorsement of streaming or hybrid releases can raise a film’s profile and influence distributors’ decisions about wider rollouts. At the same time, the separate Undistributed Films list draws attention to international and festival work that might otherwise be overlooked by domestic gatekeepers.
The planned release of individual ballots and the podcast increases transparency and invites further debate. Publishing ballots allows researchers and readers to examine voting patterns—such as whether a handful of titles dominated first-place votes or whether consensus built around a wide slate. The podcast, featuring established critics, functions as a public forum to contextualize selections and discuss broader aesthetic trends in 2025 cinema.
Comparison & Data
| Upcoming Feature | Contributor |
|---|---|
| Best Short Films | Inney Prakash |
| Best Restorations | Gina Telaroli |
| Best Repertory Releases | Gavin Smith |
| Best Scenes | Devika Girish |
| Best Performances | Michael Koresky |
The table summarizes the additional year-end features scheduled to appear after the Top 20 announcement. Together, these pieces broaden the magazine’s assessment of 2025 cinema beyond a single ranked list, covering shorts, restorations, repertory releases, scenes, and performances.
Reactions & Quotes
The results are now in for our 2025 poll of Film Comment’s contributors.
Film Comment (editorial announcement)
This line accompanied the Top 20 release and frames the list as the product of the magazine’s contributor community rather than an editorial decree. The announcement directs readers to linked appreciations and related coverage for each listed title.
Subscribe today to the Film Comment Letter—the best way to stay on top of all our Best of 2025 coverage.
Film Comment (subscription call)
The subscription prompt underscores the publication’s intent to build continuity across pieces and to retain readers for the cascading rollout of follow-up lists and the podcast.
Unconfirmed
- The specific publication time for the individual ballots and the podcast is described as “tomorrow” but an exact timestamp was not provided in the announcement.
- Details on the number of contributors who participated in the poll were not included in the announcement and remain unreported here.
Bottom Line
Film Comment’s Best Films of 2025 list serves as a curated snapshot of the year’s most-discussed and critically endorsed films in the United States, encompassing both theatrical and virtual releases. The magazine’s approach—pairing a ranked Top 20 with appreciations, a forthcoming podcast, and additional critic-led lists—turns a single list into a broader archive of critical response for 2025.
For readers and industry observers, the release offers several practical outcomes: a short menu of essential titles to seek out, a road map for programming and teaching, and a set of source documents (appreciations and ballots) that will enable closer study of contemporary critical tastes. Subscribing to Film Comment’s mailing list is the quickest way to receive the subsequent ballots, podcast, and the suite of related year-end pieces.