HERE ARE 18 OF THE BEST FILMS WE’RE EXCITED FOR IN 2025

Awards season is right on the horizon once again, and I can’t help but get excited about all the brilliant films we’ve got coming up for the rest of 2025. I’m a regular cinema-goer, and nothing makes me happier than queuing up to buy some salty popcorn and a large Diet Coke, and settling in to watch a new film. Last year, I went to watch Wicked at the cinema three times, and I’m sure I’ll do exactly the same when the second part, Wicked: For Good, hits screens this month.

Including devastating romances, moving biopics and blockbuster action, here are the 18 films I’m looking forward to watching (and rewatching) in 2025.

Hamnet

Starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, and directed by Chloé Zhao, this film has already been tipped to win big during awards season. 

Hamnet imagines the love story of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes, focusing on how their life together was rocked by the loss of their young son, Hamnet, to the plague. While Agnes, Hamnet’s twin Judith and their older daughter Susannah stay in Stratford-upon-Avon, William goes to London, where he writes Hamlet. The story explores the idea that the grief he experienced may have influenced the creation of what became perhaps his most beloved play.

Sentimental Value

Following Joachim Trier’s tender, sharply funny and critically acclaimed The Worst Person In The World, the director is back with another poignant story.

Sisters Nora and Agnes reunite with their estranged father, the charismatic Gustav, a once-renowned director who offers stage actress Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film. When Nora turns it down, she soon discovers he has given her part to an eager young Hollywood star. Suddenly, the two sisters must navigate their complicated relationship with their father — and deal with an American star dropped right into the middle of their complex family dynamics.

KPop Demon Hunters

One of the biggest films of 2025, KPop Demon Hunters is now the most-watched film on Netflix of all time. And for good reason.

When they aren’t selling out stadiums, KPop superstars Rumi, Mira and Zoey use their secret identities as badass demon hunters to protect their fans from an ever-present supernatural threat. Together, they must face their biggest enemy yet: an irresistible rival boy band of demons in disguise.

Bugonia 

The Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos partnership is back for another year with their latest film, Bugonia, in which two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company (played by Stone), convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying Earth.

Frankenstein

The Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro is the latest to adapt Mary Shelley’s classic tale of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his creation. The film stars Oscar Isaac as Victor, Jacob Elordi as the Creature and Mia Goth as Elizabeth.

Jay Kelly

The new film from Noah Baumbach follows famous movie actor Jay Kelly (played by George Clooney) and his devoted manager Ron (Adam Sandler) as they embark on a whirlwind – and unexpectedly profound – journey through Europe. Along the way, both men are forced to confront the choices they’ve made, their relationships with their loved ones and the legacies they’ll leave behind.

The Smashing Machine

A dramatisation of a 2002 HBO documentary, The Smashing Machine follows the true story of Mark Kerr, a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter who was a pioneer of the sport in the years before its champions were rich and famous. The film is directed by Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems) and stars Dwayne Johnson as Mark, and Emily Blunt as his girlfriend, Dawn.

A House Of Dynamite 

Starring Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Anthony Ramos and Greta Lee, A House Of Dynamite is about what happens when a single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States and the subsequent race to determine who is responsible and how to respond.

The Testament Of Ann Lee

This film focuses on religious leader Ann Lee (played by Amanda Seyfried), the founding leader of the Shaker Movement, who was proclaimed by her followers as the female Christ and went on to build one of the largest utopian societies in American history.

Materialists

A lot of the plot details are being kept under wraps, but we do know that Materialists will be a New York-set romantic comedy that follows a professional matchmaker called Lucy, who gets involved with a wealthy man but still harbours feelings for the broke actor-waiter she left behind.

If Celine Song’s Past Lives is anything to go by, we can probably expect another complicated and devastating love triangle at the centre of the story.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

Starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, the film is “an imaginative tale of two strangers and the unbelievable journey that connects them”. Speaking about the film at this year’s CinemaCon, director Kogonada said he “considers it a film about two people reckoning with their pasts to find love in the present”.

One Battle After Another

When their nemesis resurfaces after 16 years, a band of ex-revolutionaries must reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own. 

Leonardo DiCaprio plays former hippie Bob Ferguson, who has to negotiate with rebels about the whereabouts of his missing daughter (Chase Infiniti). The film is written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza) and also stars Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall and Teyana Taylor.

Hot Milk

Set in the scorching heat of a Spanish summer, the film follows Rose (Fiona Shaw) and her daughter Sofia (Emma Mackey) as they travel to the seaside town of Almería to consult Gómez (Vincent Perez), an enigmatic healer who may hold the key to Rose’s mysterious illness. But Sofia, trapped by her mother’s condition, begins to shed her inhibitions as she is drawn to the magnetic charms of a free-spirited traveller, Ingrid (Vicky Krieps).

Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man

Wake Up Dead Man will see Daniel Craig return to the twists and turns of Benoit Blanc in his trickiest case yet, but very little is known about the plot. We do know, however, that Josh O’Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Andrew Scott, Kerry Washington, Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner and Mila Kunis will star.

Mickey 17

Ever since Parasite hit our screens in 2019, I’ve been waiting patiently for director Bong Joon-ho’s next project. A dark sci-fi comedy, the film stars Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes, who has found himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job: to die for a living.

After The Hunt

After the success of Challengers, director Luca Guadagnino is back with another big drama.

After The Hunt is a new psychological drama about a college professor (Julia Roberts) who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when one of her best students (Ayo Edebiri) levels an accusation against one of her colleagues (Andrew Garfield), and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come into the light.

Die, My Love

Set in rural America, Die, My Love is a portrait of a woman (Jennifer Lawrence) engulfed by love and madness. Robert Pattinson plays her husband, and LaKeith Stanfield plays her lover. The thriller is directed by Lynne Ramsay and adapted from the 2017 novel by Ariana Harwicz.

Deliver Me From Nowhere

Jeremy Allen White stars as Bruce Springsteen in this rockstar biopic. The film is based on the making of Springsteen’s 1982 album Nebraska and sees Jeremy Strong star alongside The Bear actor as Springsteen’s manager, Jon Landau. At CinemaCon, White said of the upcoming project: “I feel really lucky we all had Bruce’s blessing on this film. It’s the story of a very particular moment in Bruce’s life when he was trying to reconcile the pressure of success and the ghosts of his past.”

Images: Netflix

2025-09-03T13:48:11Z