December 25, 2025
Here are the best foreign films I had seen and written about in the year 2025. Thanks to QCinema for bringing in Oscar hopefuls "Hamnet," "Sirat" and "The Things You Kill." However, too bad I had to miss other gems like "The Voice of Hind Rajab" or "Rental Family."
Not included in this countdown were the 2024 films only shown locally in 2025, like "A Complete Unknown" or "Flow." Also not included here were outstanding Oscar-primed 2025 films, but have not yet been released in the country, either in cinemas or streaming sites (no VPN), like "Sentimental Value," "It Was Only an Accident," or "The Secret Agent."
Like previous years, I divided my yearend best-of-films list into two: foreign films (both in English and other foreign languages) in this post, and Filipino films in a separate post (LINK).
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
30. THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS by Matt Shakman (My Full Review)
29. GOOD BOY by Ben Leonberg (My Full Review)
28. THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Chris Columbus (My Full Review)
27. ELIO by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, and Adrian Molina (My Full Review)
26. BRING HER BACK by Danny and Michael Philippou (My Full Review)
25. THE LONG WALK by Francis Lawrence (My Full Review)
24. BLACK BAG by Stephen Soderbergh (My Full Review)
23. WAKE UP DEAD MAN by Rian Johnson (My Full Review)
22. NO OTHER CHOICE by Park Chan-wook (My Full Review)
21. HOUSE OF DYNAMITE by Kathryn Bigelow (My Full Review)
20. CAUGHT STEALING by Darren Aronofsky (My Full Review)
19. JAY KELLY by Noah Baumbach (My Full Review)
18. MICKEY 17 by Bong Joon-ho (My Full Review)
17. CELLS AT WORK by Hideki Takeuchi (My Full Review)
16. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON by Dean DeBlois (My Full Review)
15. F1 by Joseph Kosinski (My Full Review)
14. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FINAL RECKONING by Christopher McQuarrie (My Full Review)
13. BUGONIA by Yorgos Lanthimos (My Full Review)
12. WICKED: FOR GOOD by Jon Chu (My Full Review)
11. ZOOTOPIA 2 by Jared Bush, Byron Howard (My Full Review)
MY TOP TEN ARE:
The overall mood was sad and dark, but writers Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo incorporate much wit and humor in the lines to balance things out. This is director Jack Schreier's first MCU project (and third film overall), but he felt like a seasoned veteran the way he handled the delicate subject matter of mental health and integrated this into the action-packed superhero genre. There were fun energetic CGI-heavy sequences, but the emotional connection with broken characters remain felt and potent.
Instead of the typical linear style, Cregger told his story from the points of view of different people -- from Justine, Archer, police officer Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), drug junkie James (Austin Abrams), Marcus, and finally Alex. Therefore, we get the finer details of the story served in small installments, allowing the audience to just piece and solve the whole mystery together in our heads, leading up to one ultra-violent, yet very satisfying, climax.
Joel Edgerton gave a sensitive performance here, as Robert lived up to 80, An Oscar nom is not unlikely. He spoke very little in the film, but his sad weathered face said it all. Director Clint Bentley evoked Terence Mallick here. With his cinematographer Adolfo Veloso, editor Patrick Laramie and narrator Will Patton, he had created a poetic portrait of a man and the difficult life he went through. We are moved.
K-pop is so ubiquitous nowadays, every song in the film is so catchy. Huntr/x had songs like "How It's Done," "Golden" and "What It Sounds Like." They even had a song Rumi did not like called "Takedown," but it wasn't any less poppy. The Saja Boys were winsomeright off the bat with the irresistibly sing-along-able fiest hit, "Soda Pop." Their second song "Your Idol" could be a metaphor of how the public can easily be brainwashed by their hypnotically powerful music.
The pace of the storytelling may be slow (in true Chloe Zhao style), and things do get quite overwrought at one point, which may make some wonder where the critical acclaim was coming from. It did feel like a typical family melodrama about a housewife dealing with three kids, spousal abandonment and an insidious plague. However, the real magic began in the last 15 minutes at the premiere staging of "Hamlet" (Noah Jupe in the title role). It was here that we feel the true heart of this film and finally get what the buzz was all about.
Anderson was able to mix character study, social commentary, political satire, family drama, crime action all together in in perfect harmony. The comedic elements were more prominent, while the dramatic elements were decidedly more subtle. After giving us so much chaos in the first two hours, Anderson saved the best sequence in the closing minutes, executing what could be one of the best shot, most heart-stopping car chases that I've seen.
The most amazing part of this 2-1/2 hour epic was its spectacular animation style. Everything in the first film was given a major glow up -- from the action, to the funny, to the magical. Every character, major or minor or even background extras, were all given meticulous attention to detail in their face, bodies and costumes. The last three winners of the Oscar Best Animated Feature had not been Disney films, looks like this one may follow suit next year.
Those familiar with Del Toro's work knows his penchant for all things macabre and monstrous. While the whole film dripped with these dark and disturbing elements, the highlight will have to be that sequence of scenes of Victor carving out various body parts from different dead soldiers, then connecting them together to build his 3-D jigsaw puzzle of a Creature. It would take a strong stomach to sit through this fascinating process of anatomical construction.
Overall, Gunn's vision of Superman was old-fashioned and sentimental, but updated with complex science fiction with innovative technology. How Lois Lane can pilot a new-fangled air craft or how Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) could be an irresistible ladies' man may seem silly, but chalk those up to Gunn's campy sense of comedy. I have high hopes this film could give the struggling DC film universe the boost it needs to reach new heights it deserves.
Writer-director Ryan Coogler certainly took his time in telling his story. The entire first hour was spent on building this world of the Moore twins Smoke and Stack, introducing them and all the characters around them, so that we will care about what happens to them in the second half of the film. At first, we needed clues to distinguish the twins -- Smoke wore a blue beret, while Stack wore a red fedora. Later, Jordan made sure we could tell which twin was who.
From the very beginning, we already knew that music was going to play an important role in this movie. The narrator tells us how cultures all over the world all believed that music could have supernatural powers. When Sammie told his pastor father that he was going to play blues music, he was warned how this music could bring him towards danger. Blues music is laden with sensual melancholy as derived from Afro-American work songs and spirituals.
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My list for 2024 is posted HERE.
My list for 2023 is posted HERE.
My list for 2022 is posted HERE.
My list for 2021 is posted HERE.
My list for 2020 is posted HERE.
My list for 2019 is posted HERE.
My list for 2018 is posted HERE.
My list for 2017 is posted HERE.
My list for 2016 is posted HERE.
My list for 2015 is posted HERE.
My list for 2014 is posted HERE.
My list for 2013 is posted HERE.
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