Luke Hicks’ Best 10 Movies of 2025

      After The Film Stage’s collective ranking of the top 50 films of 2025, our contributors are sharing their individual top 10 lists as part of our year-end coverage.

      To illustrate my year with a notably unfortunate yet comical occurrence: I fractured my hand in a moped accident on my final day at the Cannes Film Festival. The following day, a little-known power grid hack rendered the city, internet, and cell service useless, preventing me from accessing a hospital until I returned to New York after enduring two uncomfortable budget flights and an exhausting overnight layover. Interestingly, I fractured the only bone in my hand that does not heal on its own, necessitating my first surgery and the insertion of screws that will remain with me indefinitely. Even more bizarrely, it was a banana that caused the accident—no joke, that Mario Kart item is serious business. I drove directly over it, and before I knew it, I was skidding across the pavement while my moped rental scraped past me in the intersection. I wouldn’t have known what had happened if not for an Italian man who approached me, holding the banana peel and unable to stop laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

      But the most absurd part? The banana that defeated me was the same one I had left on the floor of the moped for nearly two weeks—first unintentionally, and later due to sheer disbelief that it hadn’t fallen off (or, perhaps, that it had become a sort of good luck charm). I can only ponder the precarious position I might have been in had it finally dislodged on the highway stretch of my otherwise pleasant daily commute between Antibes and Cannes. When I consider it in that light, I count myself lucky. Here I am, typing away, right?

      This incident doesn’t rank among the top five worst moments of my year (at least I can find humor in it), but reflecting further on my self-inflicted misfortunes feels like tempting fate—an open invitation for an even worse curse than the one I've already brought upon myself. So, let's move on to cinema, a reliable beacon in the shadows of 2025 and a yearly reminder of the greatest, perhaps only, existential truth: all things must pass.

      This marks my fifth year writing my top ten feature for The Film Stage, and I remain grateful for Jordan's enthusiasm in hosting his contributors’ year-end reflections. Regarding The Film Stage’s coverage of the year's best cinematography and performances, as well as the most anticipated films of 2026, I contributed a variety of pieces found through the links provided. Many of my reviews, interviews, capsules, and essays are linked below to their respective films or quoted. Personal highlights include: an interview with Ronan Day-Lewis about his debut feature, an exploration of the 28 [Units] Later series, an overview of Darren Aronofsky’s career, a discussion with Oscar-winner Daniel Blumberg about his score for The Brutalist, an essay on the avant-garde representation of modern music documentaries, and six color theory analyses for Paste on Brokeback Mountain, Punch-Drunk Love, The Lobster, Midsommar, Barbarian, and The Royal Tenenbaums.

      **Honorable Mentions**

      The length of a best-of list is ultimately determined by how many films deserve recognition in a given year. Whether it’s 10, 20, 27, 39, or 50, it doesn’t matter. What counts is shining a light on the films that made an impact, for various reasons, and amidst the current influx of good to great films globally, I have identified 32 movies that, while not making my top ten, still warrant attention. I’ve organized them into three honorable mention tiers, ranked among themselves but not sequentially within their respective categories.

      **Last 12 out:** (#31-42): The Actor, Die My Love, Megadoc, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, Hamnet, Splitsville, A Poet, The Testament of Ann Lee, Anemone, The Naked Gun, Dead Man’s Wire, Caught Stealing

      **Middle 10 out:** (#21-30): Cover-Up, Familiar Touch, Black Bag, Bugonia, Eddington, Train Dreams, It Was Just an Accident, Sentimental Value, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Sorry, Baby

      **First 10 out:** (#11-20): BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, Pavements, Caught by the Tides, The Ice Tower, One to One: John & Yoko, Sound of Falling, Apocalypse in the Tropics, The Plague, Peter Hujar’s Day (see: review in print via Little White Lies), Below the Clouds

      This year, I’m moving away from the traditional countdown format in favor of a two-tiered alphabetical ranking (or five, if you include the three