Sometimes film critics just know what they like. And when you have a consensus fave like the #1 film of the 2025 IndieWire Year-End Critics, they can’t hold back. In fact, the #1 film of the critics survey is the very same as the #1 on IndieWire’s own in-house Best Movies of 2025: “One Battle After Another,” with 101 of the 148 critics who voted in this year’s survey having it somewhere on their Top 10 ballots. Not to mention that 43 of those 101 mentions were #1 picks.
That’s a far higher percentage of overall mentions and #1 placements than even last year’s winner, “Anora,” received. And while there was a split decision last year, with Brady Corbet topping our survey for Best Director for his extraordinary work on “The Brutalist,” this year “One Battle” director Paul Thomas Anderson took Best Director honors as well.
What’s remarkable about such praise for one film is how far-flung the critics who voted in our poll really are: Yes, the majority by far is still from the U.S. or Canada, but six continents are again represented this year — even if the number of voters in this survey continues to decline each year as more and more critics leave the industry.
Participants included writers for IndieWire, The Hollywood Reporter, Filmmaker Magazine, Film Comment, Screen International, Reverse Shot, The Irish Times, Der Spiegel, BBC Culture, The Boston Globe, Vulture, Rolling Stone, The Film Stage, Toronto Star, and many more, as well as freelance and staff journalists for newspapers, magazines, and websites from across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Australia — in addition to all over the U.S. and Canada.
About 76 percent of all the voters hailed from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico (with a full two-thirds from the U.S. itself), but among the other countries represented are Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Germany, India, Japan, Poland, Serbia, South Korea, and Turkey. All participants were required to vote only for films that received theatrical, streaming, or VOD releases in the U.S. over the past calendar year. You can see a full list of the critics who voted on the second page of this article.
‘Resurrection’Courtesy Everett Collection
As always, IndieWire employs a ranked-choice ballot of 10 films from each voter to determine the overall list: First-place votes receive 10 points, second-place votes receive nine, third-place votes eight, and so on. Best Director was determined by a ranked-choice ballot of three directors from each voter, using the same points scale system but awarding three points to first-place votes, and so on.
Read the full results of the 2025 IndieWire Critics Survey below.
Best Film
‘One Battle After Another’©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
1. “One Battle After Another” — 573
2. “It Was Just an Accident” — 501
3. “Sinners” — 479
4. “Sentimental Value” — 391
5. “The Secret Agent” — 336
6. “Marty Supreme” — 259 (7 first place votes)
7. “Train Dreams” — 259 (5 first place votes)
8. “Sirat” — 206
9. “Hamnet” — 183
10. “Sorry, Baby” — 177
Best Director
‘One Battle After Another’©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
1. Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another” — 199
2. Ryan Coogler, “Sinners” — 68
3. Kleber Mendonca Filho, “The Secret Agent” — 58
4. Jafar Panahi, “It Was Just an Accident” — 56
5. Josh Safdie, “Marty Supreme” — 47
6. Oliver Laxe, “Sirat” — 28
7. Joachim Trier, “Sentimental Value” — 25
8. Mascha Schilinski, “The Sound of Falling” — 24 (more first place votes)
9. Clint Bentley, “Train Dreams”
10. Guillermo del Toro, “Frankenstein”
Best Performance
‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’Courtesy Everett Collection
1. Rose Byrne, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
2. Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon”
3. Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent”
4. Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”
5. Timothee Chalamet, “Marty Supreme”
6. Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners”
7. TIE: Benicio Del Toro/Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another”
9. Amanda Seyfried, “The Testament of Ann Lee”
10. Renate Reinsve, “Sentimental Value”
Best Documentary
‘The Perfect Neighbor’©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
1. “The Perfect Neighbor”
2. “Predators”
3. “Orwell 2+2=5”
4. “My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow”
5. “Afternoons of Solitude”
6. “Put Your Soul on My Hand and Walk”
7. “Come See Me in the Good Light”
8. “Cover-Up”
9. “2,000 Meters to Andriivka”
10. “The Tale of Silyan”
Best Cinematography
‘Train Dreams’©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
1. “Train Dreams”
2. “One Battle After Another”
3. “Sinners”
4. “Frankenstein”
5. “Resurrection”
6. “The Secret Agent”
7. “Marty Supreme”
8. “The Sound of Falling”
9. “No Other Choice”
10. “Sirat”
Best Screenplay
‘One Battle After Another’©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
1. “One Battle After Another”
2. “It Was Just an Accident”
3. “Blue Moon”
4. “Sentimental Value”
5. “The Secret Agent”
6. “Sorry, Baby”
7. “Sinners”
8. “Weapons”
9. “Marty Supreme”
10. “Train Dreams”
Best International Film
‘It Was Just an Accident’Courtesy Everett Collection
1. “It Was Just an Accident”
2. “Sentimental Value”
3. “The Secret Agent”
4. “Sirat”
5. “The Sound of Falling”
6. “Misericordia”
7. “No Other Choice”
8. “My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow”
9. “Caught by the Tides”
10. “Resurrection”
Best First Feature
‘Sorry, Baby’Courtesy Everett Collection
1. “Sorry, Baby”
2. “Eephus”
3. “Pillion”
4. “Friendship”
5. “Familiar Touch”
Best Films Opening in 2026
‘Dead Man’s Wire’Courtesy Everett Collection
1. “Dead Man’s Wire”
2. TIE: “Currents”/”Blue Heron”
3. “Miroirs”
4. “Pillion”
5. “The President’s Cake”
Continue Reading: 2025 Critics Poll: The Best Movies of the Year, According to 148 Critics
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