The best films and TV series of 2025

Paul Thomas Anderson said that this was a great year for cinema: we may or may not agree, what is certain is that there have been several films that have been much talked about, the films that we are seeing and seeing again appear in all the lists of films of the year. To propose something a little different we decided to organize ours in another way, and that is by simply listing our favourites. What you will read are our personal and subjective opinions: a free and even somewhat emotional list that is absolutely not intended to be exhaustive.

Christian of Majo
My Letterboxd profile offers no help, I would like to be able to maintain it better. So, from memory, I saw a lot but I also missed many unmissable things. It seemed like a year with several good Italian releases: above all Hello babymaking its first appearance at the Rome Film Festival in October 2024, but actually released in 2025; the film by Ludovica Rampoldi Short love storywhich surprised me, while I found it a bit overrated The cities of the plain. I have to say though that I didn’t like anything as much as I did Paul Thomas Anderson’s film.
One battle after another
More than loosely based on Pynchon, it is the perfect film for this historical moment in which rebellions seem possible again.
Dept. Q – Unsolved cases section
A small jewel of English TV, it is a detective story that is quite classic in structure, but with memorable characters.
Hello baby
First work but of great formal beauty and not the usual film on the Neapolitan suburbs despite being a film set in the Neapolitan suburbs.
A House of Dynamite
Because no one tells the war from all points of view like Bigelow and for the courage to shoot a film in three parts in which exactly the same story repeats in each part.

Davide Coppo
Year after year I realize that if in literature I look for precise analyzes of the contemporary world closest to me (In the fleshSzalay; AnthropologistsOwn; RejectionTulathimutte), in the audiovisual sector, on the contrary, I want escape. For this reason, three of my favorite “products” of the year speak of dimensions very far from my daily life, and one is so powerful that I couldn’t exclude it.
My family in Taipei
Realistic and lyrical dramedy in a beautiful and enormous metropolis, always poised between the West and China. It has a strong indie aesthetic: it was entirely shot on an iPhone.
To many
A distressing and fun dystopia, different from many others: better a lobotomized but happy world or a dramatic but sincere one?
Queer
Guadagnino translates Burroughs freely, leaving much to substance as well as form. It is his most intense and desperate film.
Adolescence
It is probably the most discussed and appreciated series of the year. Young men who kill, lie to themselves and others. Monsters that didn’t seem like one. Nothing more current.

Francesco Gerardi
At this moment in my life I’m only interested in two things: belonging and rebellion. For this reason, in this very small list I have only put stories of people who want to return home or stay there or build it or save it or take it back, at any cost, in any way.
The cities of the plain
Few lines touched me like the one uttered by the Count played by Dennis Fasolo: «Nothing will remain of this region. Just a huge infrastructure and ways to get around, but nowhere to go.”
A simple accident
I hope that one day Iran will become a Republic free from the adjective “Islamic” and I hope that the first President of this Republic will be Jafar Panahi.
Chainsw Man – The film: Rezo Istoria
Sometimes I feel like one of those men Alfred Pennyworth talked about in Batmanthose who just want to watch the world burn. Or torn to pieces by a demon-man with a chainsaw sticking out of his forehead.
South Park27th season
You can be ugly, vulgar, smelly, embarrassing, unpresentable and still be on the right side. All leftists should watch the latest season of South Park to understand, God willing, that if politics has become a burping contest, the only way to win is to burp louder than those others.
Andor
Star Wars has lost all its cultural relevance, and rightly so. If you were a fan and are no longer a fan but are still looking for a way to say goodbye, take a look Andor. If of Star Wars nothing ever mattered to you, look Andorit is not Star Warsit’s not the story that happened a long time ago in a distant galaxy, it’s what’s happening here and now.

Clara Mazzoleni
Never in my life have I watched as few films as I have this year: now my curiosity towards a cultural product is inversely proportional to the intensity with which the world around me tries to arouse it. My favorite films were almost all directorial debuts and all by women (I still have to catch up on the various big films by the various directors): Toxic by Lithuanian director Saulė Bliuvaitė (it’s actually from 2024 but arrived on Mubi this year), The tree by Sara Petraglia (one of the protagonists of our issue on new Italian cinema) and The Assessment by Fleur Fortuné are in fact first works, to which I add The Mastermind by Kelly Reichardt. Another common denominator is Tecla Insolia: protagonist of both Petraglia’s film and Adorable The art of joymy favorite series of the year. (Clara Mazzoleni)
Toxic
Two thirteen-year-olds attend a modeling school in an unnamed Lithuanian industrial town, sort of Thirteen but beautiful (because Thirteenif I remember correctly, it was quite disgusting).
The tree
A story of friendship, love and cocaine with two magnetic protagonists (Tecla Insolia and Carlotta Gamba) and the extraordinary participation of Giacomo Leopardi.
The Assessment
Aesthetically very satisfying but not only that: I usually don’t let myself be fooled by this kind of sentimental sci-fi, but this one devastated me, perhaps also thanks to the skill of Elizabeth Olsen.
The Mastermind
Jazz soundtrack, Josh O’Connor son of a failed dad and clumsy thief, abstract paintings by Arthur Dove. Do we need to add anything else? (if you think so, you can find our review here)

Elisa Giudici
Paul Thomas Anderson is wrong: 2025 was actually a cinematic year very poor in surprises and overwhelming films. The difficulty of US cinema is undeniable, even if it has also struggled in Europe, in the authorial and festival fields. Films and TV are unable to exorcise a distressing present, at least in the imagination. Or perhaps the cinema of 2025 reflects our confusion.

The art of joy
Valeria Golino’s series was ignored by the public and censored internationally. Instead he plays with it M – The son of the Century for beauty and audacity.
The Pitt
The lane procedural television of yesteryear made for today’s audience, with crystalline social intent and enormous humanity.
Dreams
The winner of Berlin is almost one of the most beautiful novels of 2025, so clear and lyrical is the writing of this film in describing love and how we feel it, when we grow up, get older and write books about it.
The Mastermind
The revenge of silence and boredom elevated to art: very little happens in the film which, more than any other in 2025, recounted the anguish of existing in a tormented historical period.
Babygirl
Halina Reijn’s attempt to normalize erotic domination has been so systematically misunderstood that it should have alerted us to the return of the conservatism seen in the romance comedies of 2025.