Another year has been and gone and, as usual, it’s been filled with a vast array of new film releases in cinemas and at home. We’ve been treated to an astounding number of first-rate Blu-ray and UHD discs in particular, with the boutique labels making it very difficult for collectors to stay solvent.
To celebrate some of the best of the batch of 2025’s cinematic treats, I’ve compiled a list of my favourite new films, physical media releases and first-time watches of 2025, and I’ve asked my fellow writers to do the same.
If you’re interested in what else I saw in 2025 and beyond, I try to keep tabs of everything I watch, new or otherwise, at Letterboxd.
Below are the top 10s and other lists of the year from a handful of our contributors. As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section and feel free to include your own lists.
I’ve included links to reviews when available.
David Brook
Top 10 New Releases
(going by widespread UK release dates, though I caught a couple of these early at festivals and such)
10. The Naked Gun – Yes, it’s very, very silly, slight in narrative and doesn’t quite reach the heights of the original films, but this reboot nailed the tone, and Liam Neeson made a fine substitute for Leslie Nielsen. It’s been a long time since I’ve laughed so hard in a cinema too, which helped push the film into my top ten.
9. A Real Pain – This came out very early in 2025 and has remained in my top 10 ever since. The story of two mismatched cousins on tour in Poland really spoke to me, and I loved its understated tone and biting humour, which never got in the way of its genuine poignancy.
8. Good One – This is actually a 2024 film, but it didn’t get a proper UK release until 2025 and, even then, it fell under the radar. It’s a quietly effective drama about gender dynamics that had me under its spell from start to finish.
7. Avatar: Fire and Ash – I know a lot of people mock the Avatar series, and I get it. The dialogue is often cringeworthy, the story generic and soapy, and the message simplistic. However, James Cameron knows how to press my buttons when it comes to the big-screen blockbuster experience. Once again, he crafts an immersive film with gobsmackingly exciting setpieces. Plus, I got totally caught up in the story and characters, despite any weaknesses in the script. Haters be damned. I love the Avatar movies.
6. Sisu: Road to Revenge – The first Sisu came out of nowhere to deliver a gleefully brutal action classic. The second film takes that idea and turns the amp up to 11. Road to Revenge is absolutely ridiculous, but all the better for it. Who needs physics when you’ve got this level of gleeful carnage.
5. The Voice of Hind Rajab – This film had the biggest impact on me out of anything I saw all year. It’s an incredibly difficult watch, due to real audio clips being used to tell the horrifying true story of emergency phone line operators trying to get aid through Gaza to a young girl trapped in a car full of her dead relatives. It’s hard to recommend, due to how troubling it is, but the film is a shocking and vital reminder of the true cost of conflicts such as these.
4. Sinners – My top four are popular choices among many film review outlets and awards bodies, but I can’t deny that I loved all of them, so here goes. First up is Ryan Coogler’s stylish reimagining of the vampire myth, Sinners. With superb use of music and some first-class performances, it’s a seductive treat.
3. Marty Supreme – A late entry to my list (I watched it last night!) I was thrilled by Josh Safdie’s wild drama about a selfish and manipulative ping-pong player who will stop at nothing to achieve his dreams. Directed with vigour and boasting an intensely captivating lead performance by Timothée Chalamet, it’s a riot, albeit a dark and occassionally troubling one.
2. Weapons – I wasn’t a massive fan of Zach Cregger’s breakout hit, Barbarian, but I fell in love with his follow-up, Weapons. Primarily, I was impressed with how deeply I was drawn to its storytelling. It’s a rare case where I truly didn’t know what would happen next, and I couldn’t tear my eyes from the screen. With a wonderful balance of shocks and black comedy, it made for a wonderful night out at the cinema.
1. One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest is another critical darling of the year that lived up to the praise for me. It’s a film that fires on all cylinders to deliver a breathtaking ride that hits on hot topics without getting on a soapbox. Like with Weapons, it has a wonderfully compelling story and a wide range of memorable characters. I couldn’t fault it, so it had to be my number one.
Honourable mentions: I’m Still Here, The Secret Agent, September 5, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Black Bag, The President’s Cake, Twinless
Notable films missed or not released in the UK yet – Train Dreams, The Mastermind, Sorry, Baby, The Phoenician Scheme, Bugonia, Warfare, Wake Up Dead Man, It Was Just an Accident, I Swear
Top 20 Older First Time Watches
20. It (1927)
19. Altered States
18. I Know Where I’m Going!
17. King Rat
16. Wings (1927)
15. Choice of Arms
14. Angels With Dirty Faces
13. Who Wants to Kill Jessie?
12. Serie Noire
11. The Naked Spur
10. Paris Pick-Up
9. Seven Men From Now
8. The Ogre of Athens
7. Pocket Money
6. Girl With Hyacinths
5. Boy (1969)
4. The Freshman
3. Who Can Kill a Child?
2. Il Posto
1. Finis Terrae
Honourable mentions – …And Justice For All, Illustrious Corpses, Girl Shy, Tammy and the T-Rex, The Wind Will Carry Us, The Inquisitor, Benny’s Bathtub, Stray Dog, Pumpkinhead
Favourite Blu-Rays of the Year
Top 20 Single Title Releases
20. Mermaid Legend – Third Window
19. The Night of the Juggler – Transmission
18. The Peacock King – 88 Films
17. Final Impact – Fokus Media
16. The Man in the White Suit – Studiocanal
15. The Shootist – Arrow
14. Enemy Territory – Arrow
13. Godzilla vs. Biollante – Criterion
12. Masters of the Universe – 88 Films
11. The Wind Will Carry Us – Criterion
10. Who Wants to Kill Jessie? – Second Run
9. City on Fire – Arrow
8. River of Grass – Radiance
7. Sunset Warriors – 88 Films
6. …And Justice For All – Indicator
5. Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould – Criterion
4. Witness – Arrow
3. Prince of Broadway – Criterion
2. Rampo Noir – Arrow
1. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three – Arrow
It was tough to decide on a winner this year, but I went with Arrow’s release of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three due to the quality of the transfer, extras and the film itself. All discs in my top 20 are first-rate releases though, and all worth buying. I must also add that, until this Christmas, I didn’t have a UHD player, so I’ve missed out on a lot of the great UHD releases that have arrived in 2025.
Honourable mentions – Jakoman & Tetsu – 88 Films, Night of the Felines – 88 Films, The Rapacious Jailbreaker – Radiance, Who Can Kill a Child? – Fokus Media, Riot – Fokus Media, Spawn of the North – Indicator, I Know Where I’m Going – Criterion, The Cat – Radiance, Sahara – Indicator
Top 10 Multi-film Boxsets
10. Two Films by Edward Yang: A Confucian Confusion & Mahjong – Criterion
9. Il Posto + I Fidanzati – Radiance
8. The Inquisitor + Deadly Circuit – Radiance
7. The Maiku Hama Trilogy – Third Window
6. Takashi Ishi: 4 Tales of Nami – Third Window
5. Essential Polish Animation – Radiance
4. Nomad + My Heart is That Eternal Rose – Radiance
3. World Noir Vol. 3 – Radiance
2. World Noir Vol. 4 – Radiance
1. Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers by Alain Corneau – Radiance
Radiance dominated my list this year, with a range of superb releases, often containing films I had little knowledge of but which completely won me over. It was their Hardboiled set that I chose to top the list though. The three films contained within it are all excellent, and there’s a wealth of valuable extras to complement the release.
Honourable mentions – Shinobi Vol. 2 – Radiance, Triple Threat – Eureka, Exact Revenge – Eureka, Tales of Adventure 6 – Imprint
I’d like to add that I’m only one man, so can’t watch every disc or boxset released each year. I’ve skipped over most of the bigger collections this time around due to time constraints. Notable sets I’d like to mention that look amazing but I haven’t got around to watching yet are Radical Japan: Cinema and State – Radiance, Wicked Games: Three Films By Robert Hossein – Radiance, Chantal Akerman Volumes 1 & 2, Shawscope: Volume 4 – Arrow, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy – Arrow, Directed By… John Huston (1979 – 1987) – Imprint, Hitchcock: The Early Years – Volume One (1931 – 1935) – Imprint, The Hitchcock Nine (1925 – 1929) – Imprint, Directed By… David Lean – Volume One (1942 – 1948) – Imprint, Columbia Noir #7 – Indicator, Columbia Horror – Indicator, Strange New Worlds: Science Fiction at DEFA – Eureka, Terror in the Fog – Eureka, Mabuse Lives! – Eureka, Wrack and Ruin – Eureka etc.
Andy Goulding
FILMS OF THE YEAR 2025
Before we get to the main event of, as always there are some big films that I’ve not yet managed to see, including: One Battle After Another, It Was Just an Accident, I Swear, I’m Still Here, Marty Supreme, Blue Moon, Nouvelle Vague, Superman, Materialists, Bugonia, The Naked Gun, Zootropolis 2, The Seed of the Sacred Fig.
Given how it will likely show up on most other people’s lists, I feel I should also mention that I am one of the few people who didn’t really like Sinners, which is why it’s missing from mine. I won’t go into my reasons for not being a fan as, given the overwhelmingly positive reaction Sinners has received, I feel my issues are insignificant enough to not trouble you with! Go see it, you’ll probably enjoy it.
RUNNERS-UP
I thought I’d also including my usual list of runners-up for best films of the year:
On Falling: fantastic social realist drama from first-time feature director Laura Carreira, examining the emotional strain of wage slavery and isolation on a Portuguese immigrant working in a large Scottish warehouse.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery: third of Rian Johnson’s Benoit Blanc mysteries and a significant improvement on predecessor Glass Onion. Darker and more politically astute than previous entries but also the perfect Christmas viewing for fans of the mystery genre.
Sew Torn: ingenious and quirky crime thriller by first-time feature director Freddy MacDonald, expanding on his previous short film of the same name. The story of a struggling seamstress who stumbles on the aftermath of a botched drug deal, Sew Torn presents the viewer with three different outcomes depending on three different choices she can make in the moment. Ambitious and mostly successful.
The Surfer: I’m not usually on board with the whole cult of Nicolas Cage but Lorcan Finnegan’s pastiche of 70s B-movie’s proved to be irresistibly bizarre and delightfully lurid, providing Cage with a suitable backdrop for his patented brand of scenery-snacking.
DEVO: although not as stylistically unusual as you might hope for from a documentary about Devo, Chris Smith’s film nevertheless provides plenty of insight into a band whose unique personality is enough alone to make this an entertaining watch.
Cover-Up: another documentary that makes the most of a fascinating central figure and access to plenty of archival footage to supplement its excellent new interviews, Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’s Cover-Up digs deep into the disturbing story of journalist Seymour Hersh’s various battles to expose the truth behind historical cover-ups. Hersh is a compelling and engaging presence throughout, which is crucial given that he is rarely off screen.
A Real Pain: just squeezing into the UK’s 2025 release schedule, Jesse Eisenberg’s astute, delicate comedy/drama about a couple of polar opposite cousins who take a Jewish heritage tour through Poland in honour of their deceased grandmother, A Real Pain benefits greatly from Eisenberg’s strong, restrained screenplay and Kieran Culkin’s Oscar-winning supporting performance.
KPop Demon Hunters: Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans’ animated musical was released on Netflix with no fanfare whatsoever and gradually built into the year’s greatest phenomenon. Boasting an infectious KPop soundtrack, a screenplay that is both exciting and hilarious, and a great trio of voice performances by Arden Cho, May Hong and Ji-young Yoo, KPop Demon Hunters also fully justifies its use of the Spider-Verse style animation techniques that have so often been grafted onto films for which they were unsuited.
Steve: despite having the most boring title of the year, Tim Mielants’ Steve is an excellent film of Max Porter’s adaptation of his own novel Shy (a better title. Why did they change it?). Following a period of time in the life of headteacher Steve (an excellent Cillian Murphy), who strives to make like better for the boys with societal and behavioural difficulties that are in his care. Funny, moving and intense, Steve’s 90 minutes breeze by with the energy of a vintage social realist TV play.
Elio: although it quickly became a notorious commercial flop, Pixar’s Elio has all the heart and magic of the studio’s bigger successes. This felt like the sort of unusual gem like Luca that I will appreciate even more on a second viewing. Destined for a place on many future “underrated films” lists.
TOP TEN FILMS OF 2025
10. Dreamworks: La Tete Dans La Lune – One of my big projects this year was an article ranking and reviewing every film by DreamWorks Animation. In a hugely serendipitous twist, just before I began that rewatch, this independently produced, two and a half hour documentary on DreamWorks was released for free online. Unlike the average retrospective that takes the more fawning and barely informative approach of slapping a few clips together and spotlighting the studio’s successes, DreamWorks: La Tete dans la Lune instead presents the whole DreamWorks story from the point of view of the artists behind the films. It’s an absolute pleasure to see the often-sidelined creatives being given the chance to tell their side of the story, and while fans of the films will get plenty of opportunity to relive moments from them, the focus here is on the creative process and the various peaks and troughs in the studio’s history. The interviews are terrifically casual and candid, and there are opportunities to glimpse rarely seen material such as snippets from several tantalisingly promising films that were axed well into production. For fans of this frequently underrated studio, DreamWorks: La Tete dans la Lune is a dream come true.
9. Black Bag – Steven Soderbergh had two films on the UK release schedules this year and they were a reflection of this director’s impressive diversity and my erratic relationship with his work. I really disliked the gimmicky horror Presence but I absolutely loved the spy thriller Black Bag. Interestingly, both films were written by Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp. While Presence felt like a tentative experiment, Black Bag was a full-blooded genre piece, thriving on a retro-60s British vibe smoothly transferred to a present day setting. Koepp’s screenplay is funny, slick, fast-moving and tremendously satisfying, and Soderbergh directs with the same panache he brought to the Oceans franchise. In keeping with my all-over-the-map opinions on Soderbergh, I never really liked the Oceans films but Black Bag is a surprise late-game approximation of what I hoped they might be. One of the best straight-up good times I’ve had with a film this year.
8. Night Call – This Belgian action film seemed to go under the radar in the UK, perhaps because its tale of a young locksmith drawn into a world of violence across the course of one night didn’t attempt to rewrite the rules. What it offers, however, is about as great and thrilling an example of the genre as you could hope for. With its backdrop of a Black Lives Matter protest, Night Call also includes a smartly incorporated political angle which underscores the action. Crammed with suspenseful set pieces and thoughtfully addressed moral ambiguities, director Michiel Blanchart’s impressive debut is a credit to the genre and a new, upcoming talent.
7. Sorry, Baby – Eva Victor made their superb feature directorial debut with Sorry, Baby, which they also starred in and wrote. Finding a new way to tackle themes of sexual assault and trauma, Sorry, Baby refuses to relinquish its barbed but warm humour even when the worst happens to its characters. Smart, funny and moving, Sorry, Baby is a phenomenal showcase for Victor but it also features excellent performances by Naomi Ackie, a major contributor to one of the screen’s most convincing female friendships of recent years, and a great cameo by John Carroll Lynch as a kindly sandwich-shop owner.
6. Deaf President Now! – In a year with many great documentaries, Deaf President Now! stood out to me as a gripping story that is known to very few but which has an incredible resonance for contemporary audiences. Examining eight tumultuous days in 1988 at Gallaudet University for the deaf and hard of hearing, the film charts the response of outraged students to the Board of Trustees decision to appoint a hearing candidate as president, ignoring two deaf candidates in the process. The subsequent protest forced the shut down of the campus as students tried to force the trustees to hear their voices and the trustees did their damnedest to ignore and trivialise their concerns. Interviews with all the key players and great archive footage make this important story riveting and a strong riposte to those ill-informed modern commentators who continually insist that the notion of representation was never an issue in their day.
5. Memoir of a Snail – One of the problems with being a devotee of that most intricate and painstaking of mediums, animation, is that you often have a very long wait between projects by your favourite creatives. So is the case with Adam Elliot, whose brilliant tragicomedies are always worth the considerable wait. Memoir of a Snail, Elliot’s second feature following 2009’s cult classic Mary and Max, is another stop motion masterpiece using the director’s distinctive clay puppets to tell a tale that is disturbing, grimly amusing and ultimately uplifting in a way that refuses to betray the overall tone of the piece.
4. The Son of a Thousand Men – Heartwarming and progressive with an edgy humanism, The Son of a Thousand Men is a hidden gem I found buried on Netflix. A Brazilian film based on a Portuguese bestseller, it has a novelistic style which examines the lives of its various interconnected characters using a chapter-based structure. This helps to bring a stronger degree of depth to each story and writer/director Daniel Rezende is able to draw each strand together convincingly for an uplifting and satisfying finale that made my heart feel like it was glowing! Bleak in places but delivered with a quirky edge of humour that makes the sometimes disturbing journey palatable, The Son of a Thousand Men deserves a wider audience.
3. Left-Handed Girl – The debut solo feature by longtime Sean Baker collaborator Shih-Ching Tsou, Left-Handed Girl was co-written and produced by Baker and, while it is informed by certain stylistic traits that characterise previous Baker/Tsou collaborations, the latter brings her own unique touches to distinguish it as a solo directorial work. Shot using an iPhone, the film has glowing, beautifully bright cinematography that gives its social realism a fairy tale edge. Following the story of single mother Shu-Fen and her attempts to run a night market noodle stand while raising a rebellious teenager and an inquisitive five year old, Left- Handed Girl creates an incredible sense of time and place, drawing the viewer close to its characters using the smallest of gestures and details. Amidst the minutiae of everyday life, Tsou and Baker introduce a beguilingly odd plot strand about the 5 year old I-Jing, a budding southpaw, being forbidden by her traditional grandfather from using her “devil hand.” This phrase piques her curiosity and causes her to begin testing the powers of her supposedly evil extremity. An absolutely wonderful film that does so much with a minimal setting, Left-Handed Girl came very close to being my film of the year.
2. Weapons – I wasn’t quite as taken as everyone else seemed to be with Zach Cregger’s 2022 horror film Barbarian but it was sufficiently intriguing and original for me to look forward to Cregger’s next release. As it turned out, that release exceeded expectations. The brilliant Weapons is complex, intricate, funny, disturbing, intriguing and intelligent, unfurling with the intrigue of a mystery but laden with the consistent dread of a horror. It’s multi-layered story of a class of children who suddenly disappear is told through a series of interconnected episodes in the lives of characters connected with the children. Cregger’s screenplay is constantly gripping and works to stimulate so many different responses, often simultaneously. Some scenes, in particular one involving Benedict Wong’s head, left me agog and choking on my own nauseated laughter. The performances are great across the board, with Amy Madigan currently receiving strong Oscar buzz for her excellent performance as the menacing Aunt Gladys. As someone who likes horror films but rarely goes looking for them, it’s refreshing to be able to name one as my number 2 film of the year. I’d go as far as to say Weapons is now one of my favourite horror films.
1. Flow – I was a big fan of Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis’s single-handedly produced 2019 animated feature Away so it was of especial interest to me when his follow-up Flow began to pick up significant acclaim, becoming a surprise hit and snatching the Oscar from under the noses of Pixar, DreamWorks and Aardman. Five and a half years in the making and animated using the free open-source software Blender, Flow is a visually stunning film but it matches its aesthetic with superb dialogue-free storytelling. Given that its central characters are all animals navigating a flood together, it’s refreshing to not see anthropomorphism forced onto them and they are all the more engaging for not being voiced by wisecracking celebrities. Flow has already achieved legendary status in Latvia, with a statue of its feline protagonist being installed in the capital city of Riga. It’s fantastic to see that acclaim transfer to other countries, where Flow has rightfully taken its place on the list of greatest animated features ever made. It also tops my list of best films of 2025.
TOP 25 FIRST TIME WATCHES OF 2025
Finally, here is the list of my favourite first time watches of 2025:
25. Wichita (1955, Jacques Tourneur)
24. Mädchen In Uniform (1931, Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich)
23. Looking On The Bright Side (1932, Basil Dean, Graham Cutts)
22. Addams Family Values (1993, Barry Sonnenfeld)
21. The Family Way (1966, Roy Boulting, John Boulting)
20. Anora (2024, Sean Baker)
19. After Life (1998, Hirokazu Kore-Eda)
18. The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968, William Friedkin)
17. The Epic Of Everest (1924, J.B.L. Noel)
16. Stranger On Horseback (1955, Jacques Tourneur)
15. Lonely Are The Brave (1962, David Miller)
14. Stars In My Crown (1950, Jacques Tourneur)
13. The Bells Go Down (1943, Basil Dearden)
12. 10 Rillington Place (1971, Richard Fleischer)
11. Pursued (1947, Raoul Walsh)
10. The Long Haul (1957, Ken Hughes)
9. Bagdad Cafe (1987, Percy Adlon)
8. Over The Edge (1979, Jonathan Kaplan)
7. One Potato, Two Potato (1964, Larry Peerce)
6. The Wild Robot (2024, Chris Sanders)
5. The Teachers’ Lounge (2023, Ilker Çatak)
4. Canyon Passage (1946, Jacques Tourneur)
3. Night Moves (1975, Arthur Penn)
2. The Railway Children (1970, Lionel Jeffries)
1. There’s Always Tomorrow (1956, Douglas Sirk)
John Kirk
Favourite Blu-rays of the Year
It’s been another magnificent year in the world of boutique Blu-ray and my lists are just related to UK releases – that’s not to mention the phenomenal work done by labels and their contributors in the rest of the world too.
Five things have really stood out for me and shine through in the releases I’ve picked this year.
Firstly, the sheer breadth of the types of films released. I think in 2025, more than any other year, I’ve been introduced to more first-time watches, new directors and sheer joyous discoveries than in many years.
Secondly, it’s been the year when 4K has really taken hold. Numerous films on my single title releases list were either released in 4K or were rereleases of discs that have previously been Blu-ray only. The quality of the restoration work and sheer magnificence of the audio/ visual experience was first rate.
Thirdly, the quality of the overall sets seemed to improve. Second Sight’s books got bigger, Arrow increasingly released sets with ephemera like trading cards or other items that feel like props from the films they released, Hammer accompanied their releases that books that could be released in their own rights, and other labels put their own stamp on their discs to give a reason to buy their limited editions or double dip on films that have been released before.
Fourthly, whilst there have been lots of first-time UK boutique Blu-ray releases, I increasingly noticed that we’ve reached an era where films that have received the boutique Blu-ray treatment have been re-released. 88 Films re-released films Indicator have previously given special treatment to and vice versa, 101 Films brought us films that other labels like 88 have released, and the likes of StudioCanal and Criterion mined their archives to reissue films they’ve previously given the Blu-ray treatment to.
Fifth and finally, a really high quality of special features with a growing list of marvellous interviewees, directors and others involved in curating extras providing a rich amount of detail to take us beyond the film, behind the scenes and contextualising the works. There are too many to list, but a few who I felt had an excellent year were Jonathan Zaurin, producer of so many extras – you’ll likely have come across his work – and Eugenio Ercolani, who is so passionate and knowledgeable about Italian cinema and has curated some fantastic discs for the likes of 88 Films and Indicator, including The Perfume of the Lady in Black, which is on my best of list. Zaurin is a director in his own right and his excellent film Derelict is on my list both for the quality of the film, but also the quality of the extras provided on the 101 Films release of his film. One other name to mention is Daniel Bird, whose name will be familiar to boutique Blu-ray fans – he produced an outstanding release of Possession for Second Sight, which was a standout set for the year.
In short, it was another great year in the world of boutique Blu-rays. My lists are not meant to be comprehensive or in any order, they’re just some of the releases I most enjoyed.
Best single title releases
Cronos – BFI
Ms. 45 – Arrow
Golem – Second Run
Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me – Criterion
Sergio Leone’s Man With No Name Trilogy (individual releases of A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) – Arrow
Dead of Night – StudioCanal
Night of the Juggler – Radiance/ Transmission
Cobra – Arrow
Martyrs – Eureka
Wild Style – Arrow
The Iron Rose – Indicator
Daughters of Darkness – Radiance
Malpertuis – Radiance
The Brood – Second Sight
Scanners – Second Sight
Godzilla vs Biollante – Criterion
Zombie Flesh Eaters – Arrow
Slade in Flames – BFI
Possession – Second Sight
Short Night of Glass Dolls – 88 Films
His Girl Friday – Criterion
Girl With a Suitcase – Radiance
Mikey – Treasured Films
Roadhouse – Arrow
The Curse of Frankenstein – Hammer
Through and Through – Radiance
Finis Terrae – Eureka
Pocket Money – Radiance
The Florida Project – Second Sight
The Perfume of the Lady in Black – Indicator
Derelict – 101 Films
The films of Lam Nai-Choi (separate release of The Cat, Peacock King, Saga of the Phoenix, and Her Vengeance) – 88 Films
Hitch-Hike – Indicator
Rosa la rose, fille publique – Radiance
Akira Kurosawa’s Samurai Films (separate releases of Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo and Sanjuro) – BFI
Re-Animator – Second Sight
My single releases of the year cover a range of labels and releases. I won’t cover all of them, just a couple of trends and the releases I’d put in my top three if I had to choose.
First and foremost this was a year in which we were spoiled for choice with releases. In particular, fans of certain directors were well served. Sergio Leone’s Man With No Name Trilogy received superlative 4K editions from Arrow, packed with a wealth of physical and on-disc extras and, most importantly, sporting excellent audio-visual presentations.
Harry Kumel was given a fresh appraisal with outstanding editions of his masterpieces Daughters of Darkness and Malpertuis from Radiance, whilst Indicator continued their superlative and marvellously curated Jean Rollin series, with The Iron Rose being my personal favourite.
David Cronenberg’s fantastic films The Brood and Scanners were given the outstanding 4K treatment from Second Sight, who had a brilliant year, bringing us the likes of Possession and Re-Animator as well in definitive editions.
Quality restorations was a theme with the likes of Abel Ferrara’s Ms. 45 from Arrow, His Girl Friday, the classic Howard Hawks screwball comedy starring Cary Grant, and the first-rate releases of some of Akira Kurosawa’s best works, like Seven Samurai, from the BFI, looking brilliant.
Whilst all of those on my list are special in their own way, my top three releases of the year are:
Hammer’s release of The Curse of Frankenstein. Hammer only started releasing 4K/ Blu-ray sets at the start of the year with an excellent release of Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter and have had a marvellous first year, with excellent 4K restorations that they’ve commissioned themselves and lavish releases with beautiful packaging, excellent and extensive books that could be sold in their own right and a wealth of new and archival extras, not to mention multiple versions of the films. The Curse of Frankenstein was the icing on the cake for me, one of my favourite Hammer films lovingly restored and with hours and hours of new and archival extras.
One of my favourite directors working today is Sean Baker, who struck gold with Oscars for his excellent Anora in 2025 – which itself got a great 4K release from Criterion. But it’s Second Sight’s phenomenal release of one of his masterpieces, The Florida Project, that I’ve chosen as one of my top three single releases of the year, though Possession was vying for this spot too (the Second Sight release is magnificent).
The Florida Project is probably the best release of one of the director’s films yet. Second Sight provided their usual limited edition dual-format 4K and Blu ray and separate 4K and Blu-ray releases. The limited edition dual-format version came in lavish packaging with a 160-page book and eight collector’s postcards of on-set photography, plus over 4.5 hours of new on-disc extras, including two new audio commentaries, one with Sean Baker, writer Chris Bergoch and director of photography Alexis Zabe, and the other with Kat Ellinger and Martyn Conterio. Also included were 13 new interviews including, amongst others, ones with Baker and actor Willem Defoe and more. Definitive!
Finally, a rerelease I didn’t expect to end up as being among my best of the year was Arrow’s 4K edition of Lucio Fulci’s Zombie Flesh Eaters. The controversial video nasty surely needs no introduction so I’ll focus on the extras. We got a wonderful 4K restoration from the original 2-perf negative, a new audio commentary by critics Eugenio Ercolani, Troy Howarth and Nathanial Thompson, two archival commentaries, a new visual essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, a new video essay by author and critic Chris Alexander and loads of archival extras. If that’s not all, Arrow also provided a perfect bound collector’s booklet, double sided poster and six double-sided collector’s postcards. It was just one of Arrow’s excellent releases from 2025.
Best multi-film boxsets
Chantal Akerman collection volume 1, 1967-1978 – BFI
Strange New Worlds: Science Fiction at DEFA – Eureka
Wrack and Ruin: The Rubble Film at DEFA – Eureka
World Noir Volume 3 – Radiance
World Noir Volume 4 – Radiance
The Pusher Trilogy – Second Sight
Kaizo Hayashi’s Maiku Hama Trilogy – Third Window
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy – Arrow
Radical Japan: Cinema and State – 9 films by Nagisa Oshima – Radiance
Shawscope Volume 4 – Arrow
Takashi Ishii: 4 Tales of Nami – Third Window
Istvan Szabo: Mephisto/Colonel Redl/Hanussen Hungary 1981-1988 – Second Run
Jean Vigo Collection – Curzon
Columbia Noir 7, Made in Britain – Indicator
Fewer boxsets are included in my roundup because there are understandably many more single-film releases issued, but also due to time constraints: I have a growing number of boxsets on my ‘to watch’ pile.
Radiance had a fantastic year all round but their boxsets were next level. Their end-of-year release of Radical Japan: Cinema and State – nine films by Nagisa Oshima, was outstanding as a focus on a single director, and was packed with thought-provoking films, contextual extras and an outstanding booklet. I look forward with eagerness to future Radical Japan releases from the label.
Radiance also continued their first-class World Noir series with some real gems, in Volumes 3 and 4. Volume 3 packed in French genre director Henri Decoin’s Not Guilty in a 4K restoration, the German film The Lost One starring Peter Lorre in a high-definition digital transfer on Blu-ray for the first time with English subtitles, and Hasse Ekman’s Girl With Hyacinths, described by Ingmar Bergman as one of the greatest Swedish films of all times and released in a 2K restoration and on Blu-ray for the first time outside of Sweden.
World Noir Volume 4 featured three French noirs, Henri Decoin’s Chnouf from 1955, Edouard Molinaro’s Back to the Wall from 1958 and Marcel Bluwal’s Paris Pick-up from 1962. Each of the films got 2K restorations by Gaumont, and we also get three commentaries, two of which were new, archival interviews, a new video essay and an episode of 1962 TV crime serial Inspector Leclerc Investigates: The Grey Jackets. I have enjoyed all the films in this ongoing World Noir series and these, particularly those in the French set, were some of the best Radiance have released yet.
The BFI released two marvellous boxsets of some of the best works by the great Chantal Akerman. At the time of writing, I’m enjoying working my way through volume 2, but it’s volume 1 that makes my list. The five-disc set contained Akerman’s masterpiece Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, which in 2022 topped the Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll, as well as a range of other works, including Les Rendez-vous d’Anna, which I really enjoyed
The limited-edition set contained an excellent perfect-bound book of essays, a 68-minute documentary, three audio commentaries, three interviews and an essay by Sarah Wood looking at Akerman’s early films.
If I had to pick three best boxsets of the year, that Radical Japan set would probably be there, alongside two releases from Arrow. Firstly, Shawscope Volume 4, which contained 16 films from the Shaw Bros studio, mostly on the more horror end of the scale. Whilst the quality of the films is variable, there are some excellent examples of the Shaw Bros oeuvre included, the restorations by Arrow are outstanding and there’s a disc of hours of bonus features, and a typically strong booklet.
One of my most anticipated releases of the year was The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy from Arrow, and this also makes my top three, mostly for personal nostalgia reasons. I was a big fan of the turtles growing up, and the first film has a very special place in my heart, although admittedly the sequels are an acquired taste (the second has a soft spot in my heart as I watched my VHS repeatedly but I’m not a fan of the third instalment). The set showed the quality of Arrow from beautiful restorations to gorgeous packaging, excellent extras – new and archival – and some really great added physical extras, like trading cards, and a typically strong booklet.
Best label of the year
I’ll continue my trend of giving a bit of an overview of some of the labels from my perspective, as quite a few labels are vying for label of the year from me.
Starting with Radiance, which, if I had to choose a label of the year, would probably win. They had another really strong year with some outstanding releases of films, beautifully curated, including single releases and boxsets, and concluded the year with the launch of what looks to be a magnificent sub-strand with Transmission and its brilliant first release Night of the Juggler.
Arrow also had a really strong year with the likes of the Dollars Trilogy, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy and Shawscope Volume 4. Cobra and Road House releases were also great, and one of my favourite releases of the year came from the label in Zombie Flesh Eaters. Their 4K restorations are excellent and they keep upping their game for on-disc and physical extras.
Second Sight also had a quite wonderful 2025 with the likes of the Pusher Trilogy, fabulous releases of Ti West films The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers, Pearl, Maxxxine, even stronger releases of David Cronenberg’s Scanners and The Brood, Sean Baker’s The Florida Project and the year-ending double whammy of 80s goodness in Possession and Re-Animator.
The BFI are consistently one of my favourite labels and they had also had a strong 2025 with their Kurosawa Samurai releases, a gem in the classic In Flames starring Slade, their Chantal Akerman boxsets, more wonderful Flipside treasures with the likes of Eclipse and Short Sharp Shocks Volume 4, and excellent 4K reissues of the likes of Eyes Without a Face and La Haine.
Indicator continued to bring us some excellent releases with their Jean Rollin sets, their continued Ozploitation range, the launch of what I hope will be an ongoing line of Italian films, and a really strong Columbia Noir boxset of British films, which featured some entertaining watches.
Second Run continue to provide my most anticipated releases of the month, albeit they only tend to release one a month, with special mention for Golem, which I adored and followed Radiance’s boxset of the films of Piotr Szulkin last year, and their outstanding boxset of a trio of Istvan Szabo films.
Eureka were also among my favourites with their Asian releases, ongoing Masters of Cinema series and, in particular, for introducing me to DEFA films with two boxsets and some single disc releases of the films the German studio released after the end of the Second World War.
88 Films reinvigorated their Slasher Classics, Asia and Italian Collections with some real treasures, including some they hadn’t released before and re-releases, and get extra props from me for bringing us another of my childhood favourites in the 1980s big screen Masters of the Universe.
Criterion brought some of my favourite 4K releases of the year in His Girl Friday and Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me, StudioCanal did the same with reissues of the likes of the Ealing Classics Dead of Night and The Man in the White Suit, Curzon Collection introduced me to the sadly all too brief career of Jean Vigo, and Third Window brought us some brilliant boxsets, in particular, two of which feature on my list.
Special mention, in closing, to two labels: Treasured Films, who put so much love into their releases of more obscure or lesser praised films; this year alone bringing us some great releases of films like Mikey and The Last Shark, with first-class extras that mean the releases are worth seeking out even if you’re not a fan of the film.
And, finally, Hammer Films, who have had a stellar first year, mixing the real classic Hammers like the first two Quatermass films, Captain Kronos and The Curse of Frankenstein, in lavish sets, with less lavish (but still very special) releases of some of the B movies and other films the studio released.
In closing, what a year 2025 has been, and there’s already some great releases announced to kick off 2026. I can’t wait to see what else the next 12 months bring us!
Round-up
I’m going to skip the group consensus this year as I didn’t get many new release lists and a lot of the home entertainment lists weren’t ranked. I think it’s safe to say we were all happy with the wealth of discs we watched over the year though.
I’d like to thank all the writers who’ve helped fill Blueprint: Review with countless reviews and features over the year and beyond.
So that’s it for 2025. Keep visiting the site for our thoughts on the latest home entertainment releases (and the rare cinematic releases that we get around to). Let us know your thoughts about the best and worst of the year below or on social media.
Happy belated New Year!