This years’ traditional (and strictly personal!) list of best movies is particularly rich: I believe this year offered the best average quality in recent times, and I had the chance to watch a substantial amount of films both in theaters and at Festivals. I hope this will enable to catch up on many valuable titles you might have missed! Enjoy!

Notes: This list includes only films released (in theaters as well as online) in Italy, or shown as a premiere in a prominent international film competition, during 2025.
The films are divided into different categories, within which they are sorted in mere alphabetical order. Click on a title to get full info and watch the film trailer; a link to my review is attached when available. Films are listed with their english title (bold), original title (italics), and/or italian title (if any).

– TOP 6 –

• Homo Argentum (Homo sapiens) by Gastón Duprat & Mariano Cohn [review]

• It Was Just an Accident (Yek tasadef sadeh — Un semplice incidente) by Jafar Panahi [review]

• No Other Choice (Eojjeol suga eopda — No Other Choice – Non c’è altra scelta) by Park Chan-wook

• One Battle After Another (Una battaglia dopo l’altra) by Paul Thomas Anderson

• The Secret Agent (O agente secreto — L’agente segreto) by Kleber Mendonça Filho [review]

• The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Dane-ye anjir-e ma’abed — Il seme del fico sacro) by Mohammad Rasoulof

– HIGHLIGHTS –

• 100 Liters of Gold (100 litraa sahtia — 100 litri di birra) by Teemu Nikki
• 40 secondi by Vincenzo Alfieri [review]
• Becoming Human by Polen Ly
• Broken Rage (Burōkun reiji) by Takeshi Kitano
• Eddington by Ari Aster [review]
• Frankenstein by Guillermo Del Toro
• Here by Robert Zemeckis
• Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting (Leibniz – Chronik eines verschollenen Bildes) by Edgar Reitz [review]
• Misericordia (Miséricorde — L’uomo nel bosco) by Alain Guiraudie
• The Blunder (L’abbaglio) by Roberto Andò
• The New Year that Never Came (Anul Nou care n-a fost — L’anno nuovo che non arriva) by Bogdan Mureșanu
• The Piano Accident (L’accident de piano) by Quentin Dupieux [review]
• Two Pianos (Deux pianos) by Arnaud Desplechin [review]

– HONORABLE MENTIONS –

• At Work (À pied d’oeuvre) by Valérie Donzelli
• Bearcave (Arkoudotrypa) by Stergios Dinopoulos & Krysianna Papadaki
• Bravo Bene! (Un film fatto per Bene) by Franco Maresco
• Bugonia by Yorgos Lanthimos
• Colours of Time (La venue de l’avenir — I colori del tempo) by Cédric Klapisch
• Handsome Guys (Haenseomgaijeu) by Nam Dong-hyup
• Heads or Tails? (Testa o croce?) by Alessio Rigo de Righi & Matteo Zoppis
• Hen (Κότα) by György Pálfi [review]
• Hidden Face (The Hidden Face) by Kim Dae-woo
• I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui — Io sono ancora qui) by Walter Salles
• Left-Handed Girl (Zuopiezi nuhai — La mia famiglia a Taipei) by Shih-Ching Tsou [review]
• Orfeo by Virgilio Villoresi
• Queen of Coal (Miss Carbón) by Agustina Macri [review]
• Strange Darling by JT Mollner
• The Forbidden City (La città proibita) by Gabriele Mainetti
• The Holy Boy (La valle dei sorrisi) by Paolo Strippoli
• The Last One for the Road (Le città di pianura) by Francesco Sossai
• The Return (Itaca – Il ritorno) by Uberto Pasolini
• Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mistery (Wake Up Dead Man) by Rian Johnson
• Weapons by Zach Cregger

– ANIMATION –

• Elio by Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi
• Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Wallace e Gromit: Le piume della vendetta) by Merlin Crossingham & Nick Park
• Zootopia 2 (Zootropolis 2) by Jared Bush & Byron Howard

– DOCUMENTARIES –

• Afternoons of Solitude (Tardes de soledad — Pomeriggi di solitudine) by Albert Serra
• Attitudini: nessuna by Sophie Chiarello
• I fratelli Segreto by Federico Ferrone & Michele Manzolini [review]
• Memory by Vladlena Sandu
• No Other Land by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal
• Roberto Rossellini – Più di una vita by Ilaria De Laurentiis, Andrea Paolo Massara, Raffaele Brunetti [review]

– SOUNDTRACKS –

(click on the title to browse and listen to the soundtrack)

• Frankenstein by Alexandre Desplat
• Here by Jo Yeong-wook
• No Other Choice by Jo Yeong-wook
• One Battle After Another by Johnny Greenwood
• Sinners by Ludwig Göransson & VV.AA.
• The Blunder (L’abbaglio) by Michele Braga & Emanuele Bossi

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Past years’ lists:
2024 List | 2023 List | 2022 List | 2021 List | 2020 List | 2019 List | 2018 List | 2017 List | 2016 List | 2015 List
Rome Film Fest 2025 (Report)