Marie begins The Movie Isle’s 2026 with a look back at her Top Ten Films of 2025.
2025 has, for many reasons, been one which I will be glad to see the back of. My film-viewing (and reviewing) has not been as consistent as I would have liked, but I have been buoyed by the fact that my EIC Adam has been the most supportive throughout. The year has been so topsy-turvy that, as I was going through my Letterboxd list, I’d even forgotten that some films from earlier in the year even existed. Not sure whether that’s a reflection on me or films such as Mickey 17 or even Captain America: Brave New World – I’ll leave that to you to decide.
As is customary, my list is made up of films with 2025 UK releases (which may or may not align with worldwide release dates) and a handful of festival views. Unusually for me there are a couple of documentaries in the mix this year, and not unusually, my favourites lean heavily towards films in languages other than English. If I’ve reviewed the film for The Movie Isle, there’ll be a link in the title to the relevant page.
If you’re wondering how my ongoing quest to watch all the films on the Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time list (the top 100, 2022 version) is progressing, then I have watched precisely one (1) film on the list in 2025. It was a good one though – Killer of Sheep has brought me up to 89%. I begin again in 2026 with renewed resolve. Check back in 12 months!
And so, without further ado …
10. Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (dir Sepideh Farsi)
Not usual for my end of year list to include a documentary, but this one was so amazingly involving that I couldn’t not. Consisting almost entirely of video calls over the course of a year between Fatma Hassona, a 24-year-old photojournalist trapped in Gaza, and director Sepideh Farsi, the film tracks conversations between the two and we learn what Fatma’s daily life is like as she shields from the bombings around her.
Each time Farsi dials Fatma and waits for her to pick up, the tension is obvious. Will she have any internet today? Have the bombs reached her home? Is she even still there? The anxiety is felt by everyone watching. Then when Fatma answers the call, the joy at seeing her face and that beautiful smile again is such a relief.
9. Souleymane’s Story / L’Histoire de Souleymane (dir Boris Lojkine)
48 hours in the life of just one of the hundreds of food delivery cyclists who speed past us each day, featuring an outstanding performance from newcomer Abou Sangare in the eponymous lead role. Perhaps the next time we order takeaway, we might think differently about the person bringing it to us.
8. Calle Málaga (dir Maryam Touzani)
A glorious Carmen Maura stars as an older woman who refuses to be dictated to by her daughter when money becomes an issue. Set in the well-established Spanish community of Tangiers, Morocco, Calle Málaga is touching, funny and sad, and gives an older woman agency at the centre of her own story.
7. A Sad and Beautiful World (dir Cyril Aris)
This love story, encompassing a relationship over decades in Beirut, is at times funnier than you would expect – but also very touching and grounded in reality.
Two childhood sweethearts reconnect as adults, and immediately fall head over heels for each other again. There are blissful on-screen sequences that capture those heady moments when you’re actually falling in love with someone – I was reminded of the staircase run in The Cranes are Flying, and some moments of Wong Kar Wai.
But as the film’s title suggests, the world is not all beautiful, and the sadness that each of them experienced as children has a longer-lasting effect on both of their lives than they would ever imagine.
In fact, A Sad and Beautiful World may be the most appropriate film title ever.
6. Mortician (dir Abdolreza Kahani)
A very quiet piece focussing on two Iranian exiles living in snowy Canada; one a younger dissident Iranian singer, and the other a solitary mortician. The quiet, strange relationship between the two becomes the centrepiece of Mortician, as – despite their fundamental differences – the two learn about each other and what they want their lives to mean.
The narrative’s final, unexpected, sting – while still remaining in tune with the sedate pace of the rest of the film – took my breath away, and made me rethink everything I had just seen.
A kind of a heist movie, but where the heist isn’t the climax of the film – in fact, it’s the opening. Instead of building up to how the hold-up unfolds, the story explores – in reverse chronology – events which answer the question ‘why is this happening?’ rather than ‘how did we get here?’. Tragedy rather than mystery.
It’s refreshing to see a film featuring a trio of female actors in the three lead roles, with two of them being in their sixties – and also to hear the Irish language in a cinema.
4. It Was Just an Accident (dir Jafar Panahi)
It’s impossible to deny Panahi’s creativity and resilience, and I have always found his films full of humour and revelation in equal measure. Although I wish it had got there a little bit sooner, the last 20 minutes are mesmerising. And possibly the best final scene in a film this year.
3. I’m Still Here (dir Walter Salles)
Intense and oppressive throughout. Fernanda Torres is outstanding, gaining some kind of inner strength to keep going at the same time as things just keep getting worse and worse.
2. No Other Land (dir Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra)
Rightful Oscar winner. Crimes against humanity right there on your screen. I don’t wish to say any more here, I would just urge people to seek it out.
1. Grand Theft Hamlet (dir Sam Crane, Pinny Grylls)
What’s this? A film in English has topped Marie’s list this year? And it’s kind of a documentary?
I have absolutely no interest in playing online games, and as far as I remember, have never even tried. And so Grand Theft Hamlet caught me completely by surprise. Yes, for the creativity and inspiration to put on a full blown Shakespeare play within a video game, but mostly for the personal and human moments.