If you’re getting your Oscars ballot prepared or just catching up on viewings before this year’s ceremony, maybe this listing- in order of quality- will help with in your selection. Culture Vulture contributor, Paula Farmer gives favorites of 2025 regardless of how they fared for awards nominations.
1. It Was Just an Accident by Jafar Panahi– It Was Just an Accident (Paula’s Pick) – Here’s a great example of a perfectly imperfect film imbued with cleverness, uniqueness, charm and poignancy delivered in an unexpected way. This the latest from renowned and brave Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi who several years ago was banned from making movies by the government. As a result and ever since the ban, he has taken personal and political risk in forging ahead creating art and telling relevant stories. “It Was Just an Accident” is no exception to he and his cast and crew’s artistic stance and putting out this relevant story of moral dilemma and revenge.
Randomly in the middle of one fateful nigh, mechanic, Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) believes he has reencountered his torturer, Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), from years ago while he was under government detainment. Until he can get confirmation of the alleged tortuer’s identity, Vahid decides to kidnap and gag Eghbal, stuffing him into a box in the back of his van. He then seeks out and is referred to a few individuals who too had been in the same prison and may be able to successfully tell him whether or not this is the monster from their past and whose actions continue to haunt their dreams. It is in the enlisting of their help, with Eghbal in tow, that weird and wacky series of events are unleashed. Thought this dark comedy thriller, all involved, including a bride and groom and their photographer, feel an unquenchable thirst for answers and for revenge. Along the way, they are challenged with moral complexities of revenge murder and the risks involved for themselves if they let their captive go.
There are times through the film, where the pacing is uneven and a couple scenes are repetitive and over-written, but never to the point of losing the audience or detracting from it’s overall creative brilliance. Throughout, Panama deftly balances an intriguing sense of danger, with unexpected and welcome humor, and the cherry on top is the uproarious cast of characters in the hands of a bodacious ensemble of actors.
2. The Voice of Hind Rajab by Kaouther Ben Hania– Some films entertain, some engage and even enthrall you. But there are those rare gems that deeply impact you and haunt you way beyond the first viewing. “The Voice of Hind Rajab” is a great example of the latter. A stunning blend of dramatization and reality, it takes place at the Red Crescent emergency call center in Ramallah, West Bank, 52 miles from Gaza. Omar, one of the center’s volunteers, takes a call a six-year-old girl who is trapped in a car and under the watchful gaze and gunshots of the IDF in Gaza. Hind is terrified and alone as her aunt, uncle and young cousins have been shot and killed, with their dead bodies surrounding her in the car. She is pleading for help while Omar and a few of his colleagues work desperately to keep Hind on the phone.
Their hopes are to keep her calm and alive while they wait to be able to dispatch an ambulance to rescue her. Under normal circumstances that would be a simple procedure, but not in Gaza and not with the murderous IDF. For Oma it is a negotiation that takes almost two hours, navigating tensions within the call center’s management as well as time needed for the Red Cross to convince the IDF to stand down and permit the child’s rescue. Based on real-life events and incorporating the actual voice recording from Hind on that day, Hania’s docu-drama is beyond important and timely. It is essential filmmaking layered in humanity while encapsulating injustices of our time. To say that “The Voice of Hind Rajab” is a must-see is an understatement.
3. Sentimental Value by Joachim Triers– This is a rare example of the best of independent filmmaking- a Neon Film- and everything a small film should be, a pitch perfect, intimate and a richly layered story of family, loss and how creativity can heal and bond people. In the same way that “Past Lives” took us by surprise and captured hearts, garnering bigger than expected word-of-mouth viewers and across-the-board critical acclaim, so too will “Sentimental Value.” This is Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s follow-up to his beloved and acclaimed “The Worst Person in the World” (2021). For this, he recasts Renate Reinsve in the lead. She goes seamlessly from her role as an indecisive, easily love struck 20-something year old single in “Worst Person” to a very different role in “Sentimental.” For the latter she portrays Nora Borg, an acclaimed stage actress on the verge of personal/mental crisis after the death of her mother.
The wonderful and wildly funny opening scene portraying Nora’s last minute stage fright, literally minutes before taking the stage, are the first signs of her mental state as well as of things to come. Not long after, she and her therapist sister, Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), are forced to confront pinned up emotions between each other and within themselves when their estranged movie-director father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), returns home. Gustav, is unable to grapple with his own feelings of loss of his ex-wife, their mother, and residual guilt from being the perpetual absent artist father. Instead he pens and presents a script he has written expressly with Nora in mind. She rejects it out of hand, refusing even to read it, and dismisses the notion of working with her father. Devastated but undeterred, Gustav pivots and offers the role to Rachel Kemp, a popular American movie star who is on a European press tour (Elle Fanning). The recasting pivot to Kemp unfurls its own unexpected sequence of emotional complications, most notably dashing Gustav’s hopes of reconciliation with Nora.
All the actors involved in “Sentimental Value” step up to the beauty of the Tier’s script, most notably by Reinsve who makes a complex performance seem effortless and authentic. For Skarsgard, who has had a long career of outstanding roles, this is may be his best and hopefully the one that gives him a well-deserved Oscar. Tier is clearly an actor’s director whose personal obsession over relationships, questions of life and memory translate to nuanced storytelling. That combined with unconventional techniques compared to the French New Wave masters, make his films one to watch and rewatch. “Sentimental Value” is a testament to his career maturation.
4. No Other Choice by Park Chan-Wook- It’s no surprise that this film was favored by festival critics and goers, getting early buzz before its global release and South Korea’s selection for Best International film to the Academy Awards (2026). This unique thriller/dark comedy by director Park Chan-wook (“Decision to Leave”) makes a statement on corporate executive detachment, tech intrusion on work culture, and the fragility of employment. When Man-soo (Lee Byung-hun), a middle-aged husband and father of two kids is loses his career-long job as a manager at a factory, he goes to extreme lengths to secure a similar position with a different company. Though most of his twisted behavior is hidden from his family, his wife eventually suspect the worst. Lee deftly imbues the role with horror, humor and likability, and Park delivers a brilliant film that is absurdity at its best.
5. One Battle After Another- From renowned and beloved director, Paul Thomas Anderson, comes his most highly charged drama imbued with complex themes, dark humor and thrilling sequences. The story focuses on a group of political/social rebels intent on getting their messaging out by almost any means necessary, including capturing and tying up military personnel, bank robberies and setting off explosives. Core members of the group end up on the run. As such, the focus turns on washed up and coke addicted Bob (Leonardo di Caprio), now a single dad in hiding with his teen daughter and once again in the cross hairs of his former nemesis who has tracked him down.
“One Battle” boasts a dynamic and diverse ensemble cast- diversity, a first for Anderson- that drove this movie to box office gold and critical acclaim. Expect this to sweep in major categories at the 2026 Oscars, including Best Film.
