Emily Maskell
Five personal favourite films of 2025
Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)
Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor)
April (Dea Kulumbegashvili)
Flow (Gints Zilbalodis)
On Falling (Laura Carreira)
Cinematographer of the year
Darius Khondji (Mickey 17)
Below the line
Léo Silly-Pélissier (Animation director, Flow)
Old guard
Stellan Skarsgård
New school
Chase Infiniti
It’s f***kin’ trash but I loved it
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
Great picture… I hated it!
KPop Demon Hunters
Physical media release of 2025
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Criterion Collection)
A wish for the cinema of 2026…
For women directors behind fantastic debuts to get backing for their second films!
Josh Slater-Williams
Five personal favourite films of 2025
One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Super Happy Forever (Kohei Igarashi)
The Shrouds (David Cronenberg)
Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie)
Cloud (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Cinematographer of the year
Michael Bauman (One Battle After Another)
Below the line
Lloyd and Rose Buck (Hawk trainers for H is for Hawk)
Old guard
Delroy Lindo
New school
Lily Collias (Good One, Roofman)
Best non-fiction
The Encampments
It’s f***kin’ trash but I loved it
I don’t really subscribe to this notion, but… Final Destination: Bloodlines?
Great picture… I hated it!
Anemone is pretty good for the first 25 minutes or so. After that…
Physical media release of 2025
Takashi Ishii: 4 Tales of Nami (Third Window Films)
A wish for the cinema of 2026…
No more studio mergers. Hell, break up some of the existing mergers.
Willow Maclay
Five personal favourite films of 2025
Eephus (Carson Lund)
The Shrouds (David Cronenberg)
Castration Movie Anthology II: The Best of Both Worlds (Louise Weard)
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Mary Bronstein)
One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Cinematography
Autumn Durald Arkapaw (Sinners)
Below the line
Ruth E Carter (Costume designer, Sinners)
Old guard
Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte
New school
Alexandria Walton and Ivy Wolk
Best non-fiction
Mutineer (Scout Tafoya)
It’s f***kin’ trash but I loved it
Die My Love (Lynne Ramsay)
Great picture… I hated it!
Weapons (Zach Cregger)
Physical media release of 2025
A New Leaf 4K (OCN)
A wish for the cinema of 2026…
A total rejection of generative AI.
Tom Huddleston
Five personal favourite films of 2025
One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt)
28 Years Later (Danny Boyle)
Sirat (Oliver Laxe)
It Was Just An Accident (Jafar Panahi)
Cinematographer of the year
Autumn Durald Arkapaw (Sinners)
Below the line
Paul Katte and Nick Nicolaou (Special makeup effects designers, Bring Her Back), that shit was fucking gnarly.
Old guard
Benicio del Toro – just adorable in OBAA.
New school
Harry Melling, inevitably.
Best non-fiction
The Voice of Hind Rajab
It’s f***kin’ trash but I loved it
I reject the premise of the category, but I guess Wake Up Dead Man?
Great picture… I hated it!
The Phoenician Scheme
Physical media release of 2025
The Conversation StudioCanal box set.
A wish for the cinema of 2026…
One decent tentpole blockbuster, for the love of God.
Esmé Holden
Five personal favourite films of 2025
Cloud (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson)
28 Years Later (Danny Boyle)
Youth (Homecoming) (Wang Bing)
Cent mille milliards (Virgil Vernier)
Cinematographer of the year
Nothing from this year comes close to Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985), which got a beautiful new 4K restoration and re-release this year, and so technically counts.
Below the line
Every Union organiser, especially those fighting the slop wave of AI.
Old guard
Ralph Fiennes (28 Years Later)
New school
Despite nepo-baby credentials, Mia Threapleton proves she’s the genuine article in The Phoenician Scheme.
Best non-fiction
Being John Smith (John Smith), a mediation on the avant-garde directors boring name and the imminence of death; very true of the British psyche in its constant self-deprecation and introverted disappointment at life.
It’s f***kin’ trash but I loved it
Baby Invasion (Harmony Korine) embraces the slop world we live in, mostly for the worse, but I couldn’t look away. Like a night lost to Instagram Reels; addictively bleak and pointless.
Great picture… I hated it!
One Battle After Another, for as accomplished and thrilling as it often is, PTA pushes up against the limits of his own ideas and comes out looking comfortably self-defeating and a little petite bourgeois.
A wish for the cinema of 2026…
If movies can look just a little more beautiful next year, and then that trend continues every year, then in a few decades we might be able to get back to the standard we used to be at.
