This is it. 2025 comes to a close, and what a year for cinema it’s been – with breathtaking original experiences, ground-up reinventions of familiar franchises, long-awaited passion projects, deeply touching dramas, and unforgettable rides. To mark the end of the year, Team Empire gathered to decide on the Best Movies Of 2025 – totting up the big-screen highlights that proved unmissable over the last 12 months.
The below list of 20 films was voted on by Empire’s expert staff, who have been hoovering up movies all year. Each member of the team submitted a personal top 10 list, which were then assigned weighted votes, before being tallied up to get the full top 20. The below list consists of films released between January 1 2025 and the end of December in UK cinemas (and streaming services). There’s something here for everyone, from horror hits, to gut-busting comedies, mythical epics, to taut thrillers – and each one comes highly recommended by Team Empire. Happy viewing.
20) Warfare
After imagining a brutal US conflict in last year’s Civil War, Alex Garland continues in military mode – this time seeking the truth, or as close to the truth as subjective recollection can provide. Warfare is an exercise in memory-as-movie, aiming to recreate a real-life battle fought by Ray Mendoza (who co-directs with Garland, portrayed in the drama by D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai) and his platoon in the Iraq War. There’s a stripping back of narrative beats and movie-movie theatrics, then, in favour of hard, bloody, painful reality – every moment drawn from the memories of the real events that Mendoza and his men experienced. With a stellar ensemble – Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Michael Gandolfini and Joseph Quinn among them – and deeply immersive filmmaking, Garland and Mendoza deliver an unforgettable 95 minutes that’s hard to shake.
Read the Empire review of Warfare
19) The Brutalist
In his attempt to make a movie monolith (itself about the making of a monolithic structure), filmmaker Brady Corbet intentionally went… well, monolithic. Captured in big, beautiful, blocky VistaVision, a three-hour behemoth with an in-built intermission and a multi-year-spanning narrative sprawl, The Brutalist is evocative of the structure whose creation it depicts. The story of Adrien Brody’s renowned architect László Tóth – fleeing the Holocaust and attempting to build a gigantic brutalist structure for a wealthy American client (Guy Pearce) – appears to be cold, imposing, sometimes inscrutable. And yet it’s also breathtaking in its construction, its concrete walls revealed to contain a major emotional punch come the final reel. Impeccably performed, laudable in its grand ambition, engrossing across its extended runtime, it’s a major work – entirely by design.
Read the Empire review of The Brutalist
18) Frankenstein
It might’ve taken Guillermo del Toro almost two decades’ work and a lifetime of dreaming to bring his vision of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to cinematic life, but boy was it worth the wait. Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi lead a starry ensemble here as Victor Frankenstein and his pitiable Creature, brought together — and torn apart — by their wildly divergent attempts to decode the mysteries of life. Gloriously Gothic, loaded with pathos, and deft in its handling of the themes of Shelley’s book, del Toro’s film is in many ways the culmination of all the Mexican fabulist’s work to date. And yes, Jacob Elordi really is extraordinary as Frankenstein’s accursed creation, a transformative physical performance even before you apply all the dead-guy makeup.
Read the Empire review of Frankenstein
17) A House Of Dynamite
Kathryn Bigelow made her long-awaited return this year with a razor sharp, race-against-the-clock real-time thriller that boldly imagines the desperate final minutes before a nuclear strike. Split into a triptych of interweaving perspectives, each climaxing moments before disaster strikes, Bigelow’s movie — penned by Noah Oppenheim (Jackie, Zero Day) — is a breathless, almost unbearably intense affair driven by a constellation of heavyweight stars (Rebecca Ferguson! Jared Harris! Tracy Letts! Greta Lee!). It’s a remarkable line-up, who all excel themselves playing out the minute-to-minute decisions and deliberations of a nation under unknown hostile attack right before our eyes. As explosive as The Hurt Locker without ever actually dropping its literal ticking time-bomb, A House Of Dynamite is a Bigelow banger.
Read the Empire review of A House Of Dynamite
16) Black Bag
Remember when films were sexy and cool? Steven Soderbergh does. The director responsible for some of the sexiest and coolest films of the ‘90s and ‘00s (Out Of Sight, the Ocean’s trilogy) returns to the kind of sharply written, glossily watchable fare that made his name, bolstered by the nuclear weaponisation of Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as a married couple who happen to be super-spies for the British National Cyber Security Centre. Tasked to find a leak in his team, Fassbender’s George is given a list of suspects, including – wouldn’t you know it – his good lady wife. David Koepp’s script luxuriates in fun espionage clichés (truth serums, spy satellites, world-ending MacGuffins) as well as spicy dialogue and scintillating sexual tension. Everyone looks impeccable and the ending is as satisfying as a murder mystery — like if Agatha Christie had a steamy affair with Ian Fleming. Sexy and cool: it can be done!
Read the Empire review of Black Bag
15) The Naked Gun
Easily the funniest — and, arguably, the riskiest — film of 2025, Akiva Schaffer’s legacy spoof sequel/reboot lives or dies on Liam Neeson’s ability to channel his inner Leslie Nielsen and play the straight man while delivering gag after gag at a rate of knots. Fortunately for us, Neeson is a bit of a deadpan comedy don (see also; Life’s Too Short, Derry Girls) and, as Detective Frank Drebin Jr., he sets an exceptional standard of po-faced silliness that his co-stars handily match. Schaffer, too, shows he has a never-ending supply of so-dumb-it’s-smart and so-smart-it’s-dumb jokes on tap. At a moment where comedy’s place in cinemas is being questioned, The Naked Gun — armed with infinite coffee cups, silly bits, and one mad snowman montage — makes one hell of a case for the communal chuckle’s future.
Read the Empire review of The Naked Gun
14) Bugonia
The partnership between filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and star Emma Stone continues to bear bonkers fruit – their remake of Korean satire Save The Green Planet! is as odd a concoction as you’d expect from the team behind The Favourite and Poor Things, laced with dark deadpan humour, bursts of gore, and an aching sadness underneath it all. Stone lopped off all her hair – on camera and all – as kidnapped CEO Michelle Fuller, whose captors (an excellent Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis) are convinced she’s an alien intent on destroying the world. The whole thing vibrates on an unusual frequency, as the power between Michelle and the conspiracy theorists shifts back and forth – all culminating in one of the most hilariously divisive finales of the year. Pure cinematic nectar.
Read the Empire review of Bugonia
13) F1
It may not reinvent the wheel (sorry), but this nitro-boosted blockbuster is an old-school thrill-ride which successfully ports across much of Top Gun: Maverick’s vibes and style. One wonders if it was originally intended as a Maverick-style sequel to Days Of Thunder (’Days Of Thunder: Trickle?’), to star Tom Cruise. Instead, we get a laconic Brad Pitt as a 200mph underdog, vying against the cream of F1’s drivers — plus his own teammate, an excellent Damon Idris — and deploying all sorts of cunning tricks to out-velocity superior hardware. Bolting cameras onto 16 different parts of a car, Joseph Kosinski again delivers visceral spectacle, making you feel like you’re genuinely inside a modified Dallara F2 2018. But unlike Days Of Thunder, the off-track drama delivers too, with a bunch of likeable characters, and a hissable villain courtesy of Tobias Menzies. Plus, you get Martin Brundle and David Croft commentating, explaining what the hell’s going on and why those tyres are important. Cheers, chaps!
Read the Empire review of F1
12) Hard Truths
Mike Leigh’s reunion with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, the actor who led his 1996 Palme d’Or winning drama Secrets & Lies, was always going to be something special. What makes Hard Truths such a must-see however is how extraordinarily ordinary it actually is. Jean-Baptiste is on firebrand form as Pansy, a reclusive middle-aged woman whose world-weariness scorches all around her (to often hilarious effect — her babies-and-pockets rant is an all-timer), but whose pain and bone-deep misery is plain for all — especially sister Chantelle (Michele Austin) — to see. Not always the easiest of watches, especially as Leigh has no interest in curing Pansy’s bitterness with a syrupy Hollywood ending, Hard Truths is nevertheless an essential watch. It’s human, raw, real: pure Mike Leigh.
Read the Empire review of Hard Truths
11) Nickel Boys
The 2019 book The Nickel Boys, from The Underground Railroad author Colson Whitehead, was already an acclaimed, accomplished, searing piece of storytelling: a fictionalised account of the real-life Dozier School in Florida which was exposed as an abusive and in some cases deadly institution for young African-American men. Filmmaker RaMell Ross — responsible for the hugely underrated 2018 documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening — somehow found a way to elevate the text even further, expanding on the interiority of the book by placing the camera inside the head of his two leads as they navigate the hellish Nickel Academy. The film is a technical and artistic feat, a genuinely innovative use of cinematography for character-based storytelling, but it is the tender, delicate way it approaches the harrowing story — and the humane performances, (sometimes off-screen) from the likes of Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Daveed Diggs, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor — that makes it a truly special film. One to be savoured.
Read the Empire review of Nickel Boys
10) Pillion
Yes, Pillion is a kinky dom-com in which Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling wrestle in assless lycra, get frisky at a Picturehouse (the sadly now-closed one in Bromley, film location fans), and don their fair share of leathers and chains. But Harry Lighton’s remarkably assured directorial debut is also a brilliantly observed study in consent and connection, in the discovery of community and the path that creates to the actualisation of the self, and in not only how hard it can be to set boundaries but also how hard it can be to stick to them. Finding pathos amid all the PVC, Lighton’s unconventional love story is as much about baring souls as baring butts, and all the more glorious for it.
Read the Empire review of Pillion
9) I Swear
Easily the most heartwarming film to prominently feature the phrase “Spunk for milk” you’ll see this – or indeed any – other year. Kirk Jones’ I Swear tells the true story of Scotsman John Davidson and his experiences both growing up with and advocating for those living with Tourette’s syndrome – and for all the hardship he experiences, the film is, in a word, lovely. Robert Aramayo is on extraordinary form here as Davidson, managing not only to nail the physical and vocal characteristics of the real John, but also the emotional depths and impish humour of the man. It’s an inspired performance, perfectly befitting of a truly inspirational person and, ultimately, a truly inspirational film.
Read the Empire review of I Swear
8) 28 Years Later
It’s fitting that, 23 years after Danny Boyle and Alex Garland adrenalised the zombie genre anew in 28 Days Later, their return sees them hit the ground running. This long-awaited threequel, itself the beginning of a new trilogy, is a wild work from two of Britain’s best, creatively energised as they synthesise decades of national tumult into a pulse-pounding survival story. Or at least, the first half of 28 Years Later is that film, depicting youngster Spike’s (outstanding newcomer Alfie Williams) first trip to the infected UK mainland with his sharp-shooting dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). But it’s the unexpectedly soulful second half that proves to be Years’ secret weapon, delivering depths of emotion as Spike and his mum Isla (Jodie Comer) embark on their own odyssey. Energetic filmmaking, narrative daring, and intriguing world-building make for a stellar return to 28. Bring on next chapter, The Bone Temple.
Read the Empire review of 28 Years Later
7) Predator: Badlands
Badlands isn’t just another great Dan Trachtenberg Predator movie – it’s the second great Dan Trachtenberg Predator movie of 2025. Arriving on the heels of blood-spattered animated anthology Predator: Killer Of Killers, Badlands sees the Prey filmmaker overhaul the hunter-and-hunted formula once again – delivering us a Yautja hero in runt-of-the-litter Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), and dispatching him to the ‘Death Planet’ of Genna on an epic monster hunt, all aided by the top half of a Weyland-Yutani synthetic (an effervescent Elle Fanning). The result is giddily entertaining ‘80s dark fantasy, with a dash of Star Wars, a surprisingly emotional chosen-family narrative, and a constant supply of inventive action beats. It’s a Predator movie like no other, still delivering thrills, spills and brutal moments (there’s a lot of non-red blood, despite its family-friendly rating) while taking the saga somewhere totally new. Greatlands, more like.
Read the Empire review of Predator: Badlands
6) Bring Her Back
With their second feature, the Philippou brothers proved that Talk To Me was no fluke. While the party vibe of their debut is toned down in their follow-up – another bone-rattling A24 possession horror – they dug even deeper emotionally this time, delivering an invigoratingly brutal and breathtakingly dark tale of dead kids and adults driven out of their mind by grief, all propelled by the terrible things you might do out of irreplaceable love and loss. Sally Hawkins is fearsomely brilliant as Laura, the foster parent who takes in brother and sister Andy and Piper (Billy Barratt and Sora Wong, both outstanding) with nefarious intent – inflicting them with psychological warfare, lovebombing, and a sinister supernatural plot. The filmmaking here is precise and powerful, the performances gut-wrenching, the energy and tension undeniable – cementing the Philippous as new horror greats.
Read the Empire review of Bring Her Back
5) Flow
Already, Flow has seemed to live nine lives. The second film from Latvian animator Gilts Zilbalodis was created by a remarkably small team, on free 3D software Blender; from there, it went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars, reaching audiences all around the world along the way. And it’s clear why – the gently post-apocalyptic tale of a cat traversing a flooded landscape, encountering several other animals along the way (some dogs, a lemur, a capybara, and a secretary bird among them), is a meditative and mesmerisingly beautiful odyssey, its lucid, dialogue-free storytelling accessible to… well, everybody, of any age, of any language. Part adventure movie, part survival drama, part fable, Flow is undeniably original, a great film in its own right – and one that proves anything is possible in an age where filmmaking tools are available at the click of a button. Those nine lives are set to live on for a long, long time to come.
Read the Empire review of Flow
4) The Ballad Of Wallis Island
The tide ebbs and flows around Wallis Island, but there’s a bigger force of nature making waves here: Tim Key, who, for the entirety of this absolute gem of a film, makes us cry with laughter and, well, just cry. Adapted by him and his comedy partner Tom Basden from their 2007 short The One And Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island, and again directed by James Griffiths, this follows Key’s wealthy widower Charles as he attempts to reunite his favourite folk duo, the estranged McGwyer Mortimer (Basden and Carey Mulligan). Key has always been a truly singular human, his absurdist comedy as sharp as it is silly. Here, though, as the misty-eyed Charles, desperate for company – for friendship, for love – he tugs at the heartstrings as much as he hits the funny bone, in a film that heralds harmony in all its forms. As warm as blankets get.
Read the Empire review of The Ballad Of Wallis Island
3) Weapons
Images of sheer dread. Unexpected moments of laugh-out-loud comedy. Major narrative swerves. Weapons took everything that made Zach Cregger’s Barbarian such a horror hoot and amped it all up, in a perspective-hopping, head-smashing, spell-casting blast. It all begins with Justine (Julia Garner), a school teacher who finds one day that all her students ran out into the darkness overnight and didn’t return. From there, Cregger paints a portrait of the entire town of Maybrook as it deals with the disappearance – and other occulty occurrences – from Josh Brolin’s grieving father Archer, to unravelling cop Paul (Alden Ehrenreich, borrowing John C. Reilly’s Magnolia ‘tache), junkie James (Austin Abrams) and headteacher Marcus (Benedict Wong). There are heart-stopping scares here, brilliantly executed, and Aunt Gladys is an instant horror icon – but Weapons’ greatest weapon is its funny bone, proving rictus terror and raucous laughter can be perfect bedfellows.
Read the Empire review of Weapons
2) One Battle After Another
Paul Thomas Anderson has mastered so many genres and tones over the years, you’d think he’d done it all. And yet, in comes One Battle After Another, an entirely singular cinematic experience – part kidnap thriller, part revolutionary drama, part shambling shaggy-dog comedy – in the form of a dad-and-daughter love-letter. Leonardo DiCaprio is hilariously addled as Bob, the former revolutionary who’s been raising his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) and numbing his brain ever since his activist group went down. But when the past resurfaces, he has to dredge up his former life to chase Willa down, while pursued by Sean Penn’s bone-chilling Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw. Like the best of PTA’s work, there’s a pace and energy to One Battle that sees its significant runtime fly by – perfectly calibrated to make every gag, every emotional beat, every gut-punch land just right. This is revolutionary cinema, delivered with no fear. Just like Tom Cruise.
Read the Empire review of One Battle After Another
1) Sinners
Sinners
Untethered from an existing story for the first time in his career, writer-director Ryan Coogler swings for the fences with a true original – and knocks it out of the park. Ostensibly, Sinners is a vampire siege movie, with night-fiends descending upon twin gangsters Smoke and Stack (an outstanding Michael B. Jordan in what you’ll forget is a dual performance) as they open their juke joint. But any genre familiarity is offset by Coogler’s singular approach, mashing up the bloodsucking action with a music-fuelled blues explosion – propelled by excellent newcomer Miles Caton – all steeped in the cultural context of 1930s Mississippi. Ludwig Göransson’s twanging score is in total lockstep with Coogler’s vision, the pair unspooling a treatise on cultural appropriation, the mystical qualities of art, and the scourge of colonialism through the cinematic fundamentals of sound and vision. And as a vampire movie, it rips – Jack O’Connell’s menacing Remmick is a sharp-toothed treat. Sinners is everything you could want from a big, new, original genre film.
Read the Empire review of Sinners
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