The year 2025 delivered a wealth of exceptional filmmaking, with independent movies securing significant critical and audience acclaim despite not always having the marketing might of blockbusters.
Proving that cinematic triumph doesn’t require massive budgets, numerous films earned accolades across the global festival circuit, often flying just under the public radar.
Among the year’s standout festival darlings were diverse features such as the coming-of-age Sundance premiere dramedy DJ Ahmet, the tense romantic thriller Plainclothes, and the French body-horror feature Else.
Deadline’s recommendations, which also include the likes of Eddington, Reflection in a Dead Diamond, Architecton and others that you may have missed, should be on your end-of-year watch lists.
Scroll down for more on each.
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ATROPIA
Image Credit: Frenesy Film Company Directed by Hailey Gates; starring Alia Shawkat
Sundance Grand Jury winner Atropia is a satirical war dramedy about Fayruz (Alia Shawkat), an aspiring actress who works as a role-player for the U.S. military at a simulated Iraqi war zone in the California desert. While taking her role as an Iraqi civilian seriously, she begins a complex romance with Abu Dice (Callum Turner), an American veteran playing a local insurgent leader. Their unsimulated feelings blur the lines between their staged roles and real lives, threatening to disrupt the military exercise and forcing them to question their true identities and loyalties.
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DJ AHMET
Image Credit: Films Boutique/Lightdox Directed by Georgi M. Unkovski; starring Arif Jaup, Agush Agushev, Dora Akan Zlatanova and Aksel Mehmet
Sundance World Cinema Audience Award and the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision winner DJ Ahmet is a heartwarming coming-of-age dramedy set in a remote Yuruk village in North Macedonia. It follows the life of 15-year-old Ahmet, a shepherd who finds solace and an escape from his strict father and conservative community through electronic dance music. The film’s central conflict arises when Ahmet falls for Aya, a girl who has returned from Germany and is already promised to another man in an arranged marriage. Using his technological savvy and a custom-built tractor sound system, Ahmet helps Aya and her friends secretly rehearse a modern dance routine for the local festival, leading to a burgeoning, forbidden romance that challenges the deep-seated traditions of their village.
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PLAINCLOTHES
Image Credit: Magnolia Pictures Directed by Carmen Emmi; starring Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey.
Set in 1990s New York, Plainclothes is a tense romantic thriller centered on Lucas (Tom Blyth), a closeted young police officer tasked with working undercover to entrap gay men cruising in public restrooms. Lucas is forced to confront his own conflicted identity when he meets Andrew (Russell Tovey), an older, seemingly measured man whom he is meant to arrest. Instead of following procedure, a powerful, forbidden attraction sparks a secretive romance that defies Lucas’ professional duty and deepens his struggle with self-loathing and repression. The film builds toward a dramatic New Year’s Eve reckoning as Lucas attempts to keep his two lives separate, knowing that one mistake could expose the truth and destroy everything.
Read Deadline’s review here.
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ELSE
Image Credit: UFO Distribution Directed by Thibault Emin; starring Matthieu Sampuer, Dan Cohen and Lika Miamoto
Else is a French body-horror romance about Anx (Matthieu Sampeur), an introverted man, and Cass (Édith Proust), a confident, free-spirited woman, who begin a tenuous relationship just as a bizarre global epidemic breaks out. This mysterious virus causes infected individuals to slowly merge with their physical surroundings. As the world locks down, the couple is forced to quarantine together in Anx’s apartment, which gradually becomes a claustrophobic, shapeshifting nightmare as the environment itself begins to coalesce with their neighbors. Trapped within their walls and facing the horrifying prospect of their bodies fusing, their burgeoning romance is tested to its limits as they fight to maintain their individual identities and survival.
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LATIN BLOOD: THE BALLAD OF NEY MATOGROSSO
Image Credit: Netflix Directed by Esmir Filho; starring Jesuíta Barbosa and Romula Braga.
Latin Blood: The Ballad of Ney Matogrosso (originally titled Homem com H) is a Brazilian biographical musical drama chronicling the life and revolutionary career of one of Brazil’s most influential and iconic singers, Ney Matogrosso. The film traces his journey from a childhood under the shadow of a repressive military father to his emergence as an openly queer, androgynous glam rock sensation who defied authority and gender norms, particularly during Brazil’s military dictatorship. Starring Jesuíta Barbosa, the movie highlights Matogrosso’s rise to fame, his unique countertenor voice, his transgressive stage performances, and the intimate personal relationships that defined his decades-long career.
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EDDINGTON
Image Credit: A24 Directed by Ari Aster; starring Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone and Pedro Pascal
Set in May 2020 during the height of the Covid pandemic, Eddington is a darkly comedic neo-Western that follows the explosive rivalry between two men in a small New Mexico town. Joe Cross (Phoenix), the town’s disgruntled and anti-masking sheriff, finds himself at odds with the incumbent liberal mayor Ted Garcia (Pascal).
Read Deadline’s review here.
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HOLY COW
Image Credit: Agat Films – Ex Nihilio Directed by Louise Courvoisier; starring Clément Faveau, Maïwene Barthelemy and Luna Garret
Holy Cow is a French coming-of-age drama set in the Jura region, following 18-year-old Totone (Clément Faveau), a directionless, hard-partying young man. After the tragic death of his farmer father, Totone is abruptly forced to take responsibility for the family’s struggling farm and his young sister, Claire. Seeing a way out of his new financial hardship, he concocts an ambitious, if reckless, plan: to win the region’s prestigious $30,000 cash prize for producing the best Comté cheese. This venture leads him to steal milk from a neighboring dairy farm run by Marie-Lise, a girl he simultaneously pursues romantically, forcing him to navigate the messy transition from reckless youth to a responsible, mature adult.
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ARCHITECTON
Image Credit: A24 Directed by Victor Kossakovsky, the documentary film follows an extraordinary journey through the materials that make up our habitat: concrete and its ancestor, stone. Kossakovsky raises a fundamental question: How do we inhabit the world of tomorrow?
Read Deadline’s review here.
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REFLECTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND
Image Credit: Shudder Directed by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani; starring Fabio Testi, Manon Beuchot, and Yannick Renier
John D, a septuagenarian living in a luxury hotel, is intrigued by his next-door neighbor, who reminds him of his wildest years as a spy on the Riviera during the 1960s. The cinematography is so creative that you will want to watch it again back-to-back.
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TWINLESS
Image Credit: Roadside Attractions Directed by James Sweeney; starring Sweeney Dylan O’Brien.
Twinless is a dark comedy and psychological drama centered on an unlikely and complicated friendship born from loss.
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