{"id":351188,"date":"2026-01-04T05:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/351188\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T05:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:53:08","slug":"directors-from-paul-thomas-anderson-to-michael-mann-celine-song-more-reveal-their-favorite-films-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/351188\/","title":{"rendered":"Directors from Paul Thomas Anderson to Michael Mann, Celine Song, & more reveal their favorite films of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inspiration comes in many forms. For some, a desire to create stems from watching others perform cinematic feats of excellence. For others, creativity comes from the pages of a good book. For me, my imagination soars when I listen to music, with bands like Daughter, HEALTH, Iress, and Puscifer fueling my workdays and scriptwriting sessions. Still, because filmmakers inspire on a grand scale, their work being available to millions across the globe, it\u2019s fun for people to know what hit them the hardest throughout the year. Thankfully, Variety<\/a> spoke to several of the film industry\u2019s magic makers and discovered what impressed them the most throughout 2025.<\/p>\n

Michael Mann books a trip to Pandora<\/p>\n

For Michael Mann, James Cameron\u2019s Avatar: Fire and Ash is the stuff dreams are made of. Speaking about the film, Mann said Fire and Ash \u201cis a massive achievement.\u201d He continues, \u201cJim\u2019s artistry, intellect and heavy lifting creates diverse alien biology, anthropology, mechanical engineering, politics, visualization and taut storytelling. It\u2019s extraordinary. Jim began with a blank piece of paper. No writer-director I can think of has invented as large a three-dimensional world of his own imagining as has Jim. Fire and Ash on its own is an incredible achievement. There are two more installments to come. From some point in the future, when regarded historically, the whole of Avatar will be seen as the magnum opus it truly is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Problemista director Julio Torres went to bat for Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019s Bugonia<\/a>, an English-language remake of the South Korean film Save the Green Planet! In Torres\u2019s piece, he praises the film\u2019s performances and bold themes, saying the film\u2019s immersion goes above and beyond to draw audiences into a complex thriller.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s in the dizzying, meticulous sparring between the protagonists \u2014 each working relentlessly to assert their version of the truth \u2014 that the heart of the movie lies. Yorgos\u2019 emphasis and restraint in these scenes make us feel like another person in the room trying to make sense of things, going mad in the process. That unnerving synthesizer score which follows the characters takes this sense of immersion even further. The result feels like scrolling online reading vastly different takes on the same issues. At a certain point, one begins to question \u2026 is he right? Could she be an alien?\u201d<\/p>\n

Celine Song surprisingly celebrates Ella McCay<\/p>\n

In what could be seen as a shocking entry in the series, Past Lives director Celine Song goes to bat for James L. Brooks\u2019s critically panned political comedy Ella McCay. In a larger explanation for her curious pick, Song praises Ella McCay by saying, \u201cWhy does Ella, who knows how to make her city a better place to live \u2014 bylaw-by-bylaw, policy-by-policy, detail-by-detail \u2014 find herself to be so completely stumped when it comes to making her life a better place to be? Why does this magnificent grown woman feel like just a lost little girl in front of her husband and her father? Through her aunt\u2019s love, will she ever learn that she deserves to be happy too, the same way she feels the citizens of her city deserve to be happy? In James\u2019s impeccably written and joyfully directed \u201cElla McCay,\u201d I feel as always with his movies that he knows me as a girl and a woman, both in my work and my personal life.\u201d<\/p>\n

PTA has big feelings about Sentimental Value<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Paul Thomas Anderson crowns Joachim Trier\u2019s Sentimental Value as his standout film of the year, being quick to note Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve as a gifted actor who delivers one of the year\u2019s best performances in the inspired showbiz drama.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hit the jackpot with \u201cSentimental Value.\u201d It\u2019s like being gently grabbed by the most tender filmmaker working today; you don\u2019t know he\u2019s got you by the throat \u2014 he\u2019s just creating people and images you cannot look away from for fear of missing a single frame. Joachim and his film family (Kasper Tuxen, Anders Danielsen Lie and Olivier Bugge Coutt\u00e9, to name a few) have created a story about real families and cinematic families, memories, mothers, sons, sisters and fathers. And if that isn\u2019t enough to get excited about, the cast includes Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd and Elle Fanning, who have a scene at a dinner table that will make any filmmaker ask themselves, \u201cAm I really satisfied?\u201d<\/p>\n

J.J. Abrams is off to see the Wizard<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, J.J. Abrams takes a trip to Oz for his pick, saying Jon M. Chu\u2019s Wicked: For Good<\/a> was a feat of effortless-seeming joy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFans are embracing the film\u2019s heightened drama, its richer psychological shading and the deepened complexity between Glinda and Elphaba. The narrative and visual ambition, and the film\u2019s commitment to emotional scale, are undeniable, as is Chu\u2019s operatic sweep, his ability to move from stillness and simplicity to muscular, thrilling action,\u201d Abrams wrote in his piece.<\/p>\n

Make sure you check out Variety<\/a>\u2018s complete presentation, with testimonies from filmmakers like Janicza Bravo, Taylor Hackford, Barry Levinson, Kenneth Lonergan, Berry Jenkins, Ramin Bahrani, Embeth Davidtz, James L. Brooks, Mike White, Dan Gilroy, Paul Schrader, William Oldroyd, David Lowery, Michael Shannon, Allison Anders, Lee Daniels, Jesse Eisenberg, James Mangold, and Karen Kusama.<\/p>\n

\"JoBlo<\/p>\n

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