With the 2025 film awards season wrapping up, it’s important to look back on all of the achievements and milestones filmmakers accomplished through their work this past year.
From vampire horror to gut-wrenching Shakespearean dramas to classic superhero remakes, 2025 marks one of the most successful years in film of the decade so far and with AI slowly creeping its way into the film industry, fans are at risk of not getting authentic human-made films created by passionate storytellers.
Here is The Wingspan’s top 5 films of 2025:
Honorable Mention: K-Pop Demon Hunters
“The world will know you as pop stars. But you will be so much more than that.”
It seems unfair to make this list without mentioning this generation’s Frozen. K-Pop Demon Hunters quickly stole the hearts of millions, becoming the most watched Netflix film within 4 months after its release. With over 325 million views, the unique style of animation is breathtakingly vibrant, and its soundtrack, with 10 billion global streams, is just as memorable. The film offers a heartfelt girl-power narrative about friendship and embracing your true self. Whether you are a dedicated K-pop fan or just looking for a fun animated movie, this Netflix hit is a must watch. K-Pop Demon Hunters won two Academy awards: Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song (“Golden”).
5. Superman
“Your choices, Clark. Your actions… that’s what makes you who you are. I’ll tell you something, son… I couldn’t be more proud of you.”
Marking a return to the silver screen after more than a decade, the first comic superhero, Superman (2025) revived the DC movie franchise. Superman was also the most successful superhero movie of 2025, earning over $616 million worldwide–more than any outing from Marvel Studios. Director James Gunn’s bright and hopeful imagery sets it apart from the gritty and more realistic Superman movies of the last two decades. The film reminds the audience to do the right thing, because it’s the right thing to do.
4. Frankenstein
“The hunter did not hate the wolf. The wolf did not hate the sheep. But violence felt inevitable between them.”
Director Guillermo Del Toro adapts Mary Shelley’s classic tale of Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Issac), exposing audiences to his vision of the story. The set production captures huge motifs accordingly and in the finest melodramatic fashion. The cavernous basement channels below an 18th century tower, the large stone arches almost overrun by nature and the cracks and fissures in the walls all depict the themes of mankind attempting to control itself. You’re left with the ultimate Shakespearean drama of a man that endured with his neverending tragedy of life. The most notable performance was Jacob Elordi as the monster, completely captiving audiences with his interpretation of the character. Frankenstein won three Academy awards: Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling and Best Production Design.
3. Hamnet
“Will you be brave?”
By director Chloe Zhao and producer Steven Spielberg, Hamnet is based on a true, historical account of the death of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and Agnes’ (Jessie Buckley) son and the events following it. When the inevitability of his death comes, you’re immediately consumed by Buckley’s utter devastation and embodiment of loss and sadness. When I saw this in theaters, people were leaving because of how much they were crying. That’s how intense and raw the emotions were. When the music goes away and all you see is Buckley breaking down and leaning over her dead son, even the toughest of moviegoers can’t help but feel overwhelmed and violently taken aback with emotion. Alongside this Academy Award winning performance, Mescal thrives in the role of Shakespeare and his journey to London away from his mourning wife where he creates one of his most emotional and grief-driven plays, Hamlet, likely influenced by Hamnet’s death. With the breathtaking cinematography from Łukasz Żal and Zhao’s creative direction complementing the raw acting performances, the film is both beautiful and devastating in its nature and is bound for discussion and dissection for years to come.
2. Bugonia
“99.9% of what’s called activism is really personal exhibitionism and brand maintenance in disguise.”
Director Yorgos Lanthimos has made a career out of making audiences deeply uncomfortable while they laugh, and Bugonia is perhaps his most efficient delivery yet. Two conspiracy-obsessed men (Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis) kidnap a biotech CEO (Emma Stone), convinced she’s an Andromedan alien intent on destroying humanity. Their evidence? Podcasts. The wide and grainy cinematography of this film has an almost hallucinatory texture and feels unlike anything else released in 2025. The color grading alone is stunning. Scene by scene, you find yourself genuinely unsure who to believe, which, given that one of them is a chronically online conspiracy theorist kidnapper, says something uncomfortable about the rest of us. The film says so much about life, religion, capitalism, and mankind’s failures. The closing montage, scored to 20s entertainment icon Marlene Dietrich, is devastating, beautiful, and hilarious in its audacity. The punchline of the joke is humanity, and unfortunately, it lands.
1. Sinners
“Last time I seen my brother, last time I seen the sun.”
Winning four Academy Awards (Best Actor, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Score) on March 15, Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler, is the most impressive movie of the year. This genre-defying spectacle intertwines Southern gothic horror, period drama, action and musical to create a story about identical twin brothers (Michael B. Jordan) who return from Chicago to open a juke joint in their Mississippi hometown. The twins’ younger cousin Sammie Moore’s (Miles Caton) surreal blues guitar playing and singing attracts evil to the joint causing havoc to everyone there. The movie explores themes of racism, oppression and religion all through the power of blues music and the sense of community it brought to those in the Jim Crow era. The musical numbers in this movie are some of the greatest of all time and the set design and cinematography make the viewing experience feel like you’re there. The score by composer Ludwig Goransson uses beautiful slide and resonator guitar pieces that make you feel fully immersed in the world surrounding the characters. Making almost $280 million domestically and $365 million worldwide, Sinners is the highest grossing original horror movie of all time. Other notable performances include Wunmi Mosaku in the role of Annie, a spiritual leader for the group and Delroy Lindo playing Delta Slim, a prominent blues musician who helped the twins open the joint. Everyone who watched this masterpiece knows about THAT scene and how much it elevated the movie to instant classic status in a matter of minutes.
