Favorite Films of 2025: A Year of Feeling, Friction, and Returning to the Cinema
Lists are often treated as conclusions, but for us, they function more like invitations. This Top 10 compilation, gathered from our guest editors, is not meant to crown a definitive canon for 2025. It is a snapshot of curiosity, anxiety, pleasure, and attention at a particular moment in time. Each selection reflects where cinema is tugging at its audience right now, whether through political unease, intimate storytelling, or formal experimentation.
If 2025 proved anything, it is that cinema still works best when it slows us down. This year was not defined by spectacle alone, but by films that lingered, unsettled, and stayed in conversation long after the credits rolled. Across genres and countries, there was a clear pull toward stories shaped by memory, fracture, political unease, and intimate emotional weight.
For Jakarta Cinema Club, this was also a year of rediscovery. French New Wave found new audiences. Indonesian cinema showed confidence and range. Political cinema returned with urgency. Genre films bent their own rules. And perhaps most importantly, watching films remained a communal act, shaped by discussions, screenings, and long conversations in a city that never really pauses.
What follows is a collective snapshot of 2025 through the eyes of our editors and guest editors. Each list is personal, shaped by lived experience, taste, and curiosity. Taken together, they form a map of how cinema felt this year.
Nadina Habsjah (The Page podcast)
Why We Always Return to the Theater
Amid a demanding year, Nadina found cinema to be grounding. Her selections reflect films that remind her why theaters still matter as spaces of reflection.
Top 10 Films of 2025
- One Battle After Another
- Nouvelle Vague
- Sinners
- Girl
- Materialists
- Superman
- The Voice of Hind Rajab
- Dia Bukan Ibu
- Pangku
- Train Dreams
Many of these films deal with identity and moral tension, from the political weight of The Voice of Hind Rajab to the quieter emotional terrain of Train Dreams. There is a sense of learning here, about the world and about oneself, that can only happen through sustained attention.
Hugo Vojetta (Guest Editor)
Finding Roots, Finding Community
For Hugo, 2025 was about reconnection. Through Jakarta Cinema Club, he found his way back to French cinema, especially the French New Wave, and finally understood why these films had once felt distant. Context matters, and so does community.
His list reflects that balance between heritage and discovery.
Top 10 Films of 2025
- The Brutalist
- Bergers
- Nouvelle Vague
- It Was Just an Accident
- A Real Pain
- Mickey 17
- Colours of Time
- Pet Shop Days
- Dog 51
- The Piano Accident
Films like Nouvelle Vague and Colours of Time sit alongside contemporary works such as Mickey 17 and The Brutalist, creating a dialogue between cinematic history and modern ambition. There is a curiosity here about form and authorship, but also about how films are experienced collectively. For Hugo, Jakarta itself becomes part of the watching experience, chaotic, alive, and full of people who care deeply about cinema.
Salman Reza (The Tech Guy – Jakarta Cinema Club)
Relatability Above All
Salman approaches cinema from a place of recognition. Films resonate with him when they echo real-life emotions, family dynamics, and personal struggle. Plot matters, but feeling matters more.
Top 10 Films of 2025
- Sentimental Value
- A Poet
- No Other Choice
- Resurrection
- It Was Just an Accident
- Sore: Istri dari Masa Depan
- Jumbo
- The Voice of Hind Rajab
- Sound of Falling
- Weapons
Sentimental Value stands out for its portrayal of family tension, especially from the perspective of the firstborn, a role heavy with expectation and responsibility. Many of his picks deal with moral consequence and quiet suffering, from The Voice of Hind Rajab to It Was Just an Accident. These films sit with the themes.
Amanda Winona (Guest Editor)
Experimentation and Women at the Center
Amanda’s list reflects a year shaped by risk. Narrative experimentation and women-centered stories dominate her selections.
Top 10 Films of 2025
- Weapons
- Like a Rolling Stone
- The Great Ambition
- The Ugly Stepsister
- Conclave
- Frankenstein
- Amoeba
- Mothernet
- I, the Song
- Köln 75
Weapons signals her interest in multi-perspective storytelling, especially within horror. Many of these films question power, agency, and authorship, particularly through female perspectives. They align with her broader engagement with social critique across film and literature.
Muhammad Feisal Thamrin Hakim (Guest Editor)
Optimism from Indonesian Cinema
Feisal’s biggest takeaway from 2025 is optimism. Indonesian cinema, in particular, showed confidence and thematic range.
Top 10 Films of 2025
- The Voice of Hind Rajab
- Samsara
- Sore: Istri dari Masa Depan
- Kontinental ’25
- Universal Language
- Nouvelle Vague
- Manas
- 1 Kakak 7 Ponakan
- Pangku
- A Distorted Individual
Local titles sit alongside international works, suggesting a cinema landscape that is increasingly porous. Films like Sore and Pangku show how personal stories can hold broader cultural meaning without losing intimacy.
Salman Alfarezi
Sitting with the Feeling
For Salman Alfarezi, cinema is about staying. Staying with guilt, grief, memory, and the choices that do not fade quickly.
Top 10 Films of 2025
- Sentimental Value
- Sinners
- Bugonia
- It Was Just an Accident
- Train Dreams
- One Battle After Another
- Nouvelle Vague
- Superman
- Sore: Istri dari Masa Depan
- Die My Love
No matter how large the production, he searches for emotional closeness. These films speak to identity and legacy, often through restrained storytelling that trusts the audience to meet them halfway.
Cindy Hapsari (Guest Editor)
Communal Trauma, Fragile Survival
Cindy’s list leans toward stories shaped by collective pain. Survival here is rarely heroic. It is fragile and shared.
Top 10 Films of 2025
- Sinners
- Resurrection
- It Was Just an Accident
- 28 Years Later
- I’m Still Here
- Sorry, Baby
- We Believe You
- Frankenstein
- Eternity
- Train Dreams
Aside from her top pick, the order matters less than the emotional landscape. These films explore what happens when communities face trauma together, and when resolution remains uncertain.
Gilang Qidra (Guest Editor)
Staying Grounded in an Over-Informed Age
Gilang’s reflection is a reminder. With so much information and opinion available, cinema can easily turn into performance rather than experience. His list resists that impulse.
Top 10 Films of 2025
- Now You See Me. Now You Don’t.
- Sore: Istri dari Masa Depan
- Nouvelle Vague
- Pengepungan di Bukit Duri
- Superman
- Thunderbolts
- A Distorted Individual
- Frankenstein
- The Fantastic Four: The First Steps
- The Thursday Murder Club
This list moves between local cinema, franchise films, and personal works without hierarchy. Pengepungan di Bukit Duri and Sore sit comfortably beside Superman and The Fantastic Four. The throughline is humility. Films are not puzzles to solve, but experiences to meet honestly.
Across these lists, patterns emerge without feeling forced. Nouvelle Vague appears again and again, suggesting a renewed interest in cinematic history. Indonesian films like Sore: Istri dari Masa Depan signal growing confidence. Political cinema refuses to soften its edges. Genre films stretch outward rather than inward.
But more than trends, what stands out is attention. These are films watched carefully, discussed openly, and carried into daily life. In a year filled with noise, cinema remained a place to pause, reflect, and reconnect.
That, more than anything, is why we keep coming back.
Also read: Growing Up in the Silence of Waiting: Reflections on Nobody Knows
