Best Movies of 2025: 16 Must-Sees, and the Cartoon That Made 10x More Than Best Picture

Here’s the strangest number behind the best movies of 2025. One Battle After Another won Best Picture and earned $213.2 million worldwide. Ne Zha 2, an animated fantasy from China, earned $2,270.7 million. That’s more than ten times as much. And if you live in the UK, you can’t stream it on any subscription right now.

So this list is half awards season, half box office: sixteen films, ranked, plus where each one streams in the US, the UK and Canada. Make some popcorn.

Best movies of 2025: 16 films, ranked

How we picked: Oscar and Cannes wins come first, then worldwide box office per Box Office Mojo and Netflix’s own viewing numbers. Our methodology explains how StreamFix gathers its data.

Where to stream the best movies of 2025 in the US, UK and Canada

Status as of October 8, 2026, per TMDB (JustWatch data). Lineups change, so check before movie night.

Spot the pattern? Where you live decides what you can watch. The Palme d’Or winner is on Hulu in the US and on MUBI in the UK and Canada, while in Czechia you can’t even rent it. Ne Zha 2 is on HBO Max in the US and Paramount+ in Canada, yet no UK subscription carries it. With a VPN from our overview, you connect through a server in that country and the service shows you that country’s lineup. You still pay for your own subscription.

How to watch a film from another country’s lineup in 3 steps

1. Find the film in the table above and pick a country where it’s included in a subscription.

2. Open the VPN from our overview and connect to a server in that country.

3. Open the streaming service, sign in with your own account and press play.

The Oscar winners

One Battle After Another

If you watch only one film from this list, make it this one. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Bob, a washed-up revolutionary hiding off the grid in stoned paranoia with his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti). Then his nemesis resurfaces after 16 years and Willa goes missing. Paul Thomas Anderson adapted Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland and won 6 Oscars, including Best Picture, Director and the first Oscar ever handed out for Casting. Sean Penn won Supporting Actor as Colonel Lockjaw.

Stream it: HBO Max or Prime Video in the US.

Sinners

Twin brothers come home to start over, and something far worse than their old troubles is waiting for them. Ryan Coogler’s horror film earned 16 Oscar nominations, the most in Oscar history, and won 4. Michael B. Jordan plays both twins, Smoke and Stack, and became only the second actor to win for a dual role, after Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou. Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman to win for Cinematography.

Stream it: HBO Max in the US.

Frankenstein

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein looks like a gothic painting that learned to breathe. Oscar Isaac plays Victor, a brilliant and vain scientist whose experiment ruins both the creator and his creation. Jacob Elordi is the Creature, and he earned a Supporting Actor nomination for it. The film won 3 of its 9 nominations: makeup and hairstyling, costume design and production design. Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz co-star.

Stream it: Netflix in the US, the UK and Canada.

KPop Demon Hunters

Rumi, Mira and Zoey sell out stadiums as K-pop superstars, then spend their nights protecting fans from demons. Sounds silly? It’s now No. 1 on Netflix’s list of its most popular movies of all time, with 325.1 million views in its first 91 days. Chris Appelhans and Maggie Kang’s film also won 2 Oscars, for Animated Feature and Original Song for “Golden,” an earworm that refuses to leave.

Stream it: Netflix in all three countries.

Sentimental Value

Joachim Trier’s family drama sneaks up on you. Sisters Nora and Agnes reconnect with their estranged father Gustav, a once-celebrated director planning his comeback. He offers Nora, a stage actress, the lead. She turns it down, and he gives the part to an eager young Hollywood star. Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Elle Fanning all got Oscar nominations. The film took the Grand Prix at Cannes and the Oscar for International Feature for Norway.

Stream it: Hulu in the US.

Hamnet

Bring tissues. Chloé Zhao tells the story of love and loss that inspired Shakespeare to write Hamlet. Jessie Buckley plays Agnes and won Best Actress for it, with Paul Mescal as Will and Emily Watson in support. Hamnet won the People’s Choice Award at TIFF, ahead of Frankenstein, and went on to 8 Oscar nominations, including Best Director for Zhao.

Stream it: Netflix in the US.

Weapons

One night, at exactly the same time, every child from one class vanishes. Except one. Zach Cregger squeezes every drop of dread out of it. Julia Garner and Josh Brolin lead, but Amy Madigan steals the film as Aunt Gladys. She won Best Supporting Actress 40 years after her first nomination, for Twice in a Lifetime (1985), the longest gap ever for an actress. Made for $38 million, Weapons earned $270.1 million worldwide.

Stream it: HBO Max or Prime Video in the US.

F1

Brad Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, a racing legend coaxed out of retirement to lead a struggling Formula 1 team and mentor a hotshot young driver (Damson Idris). Joseph Kosinski puts you right in the cockpit, and you feel every corner. Javier Bardem co-stars. F1 won the Oscar for Sound, earned 4 nominations including Best Picture and made $634.1 million worldwide. That makes it the top-grossing film of 2025 based on an original story, not a sequel or adaptation.

Stream it: Apple TV in the US, the UK and Canada.

Festival films and blockbusters

It Was Just an Accident

An unassuming mechanic runs into a man he believes was his sadistic jailer in an Iranian prison. What would you do? Jafar Panahi turns that question into a tense, morally knotty thriller with Vahid Mobasseri in the lead, and it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2025. It also picked up 2 Oscar nominations, for Original Screenplay and International Feature for France.

Stream it: Hulu in the US, MUBI in the UK and Canada.

The Secret Agent

Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a tech expert in his early 40s, is on the run and heads to Recife during Carnival, hoping to reunite with his son. The city turns out to be anything but safe. Kleber Mendonça Filho won Best Director at Cannes and Wagner Moura won Best Actor. The film then landed 4 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor and International Feature for Brazil.

Stream it: Hulu in the US, MUBI in the UK and Canada.

Marty Supreme

Nine Oscar nominations, zero wins. Ouch. Timothée Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream nobody respects, who goes to hell and back chasing greatness. Josh Safdie directs with frantic energy, and Gwyneth Paltrow and Odessa A’zion co-star. Chalamet, 30, became the youngest actor with three acting nominations since Marlon Brando.

Stream it: HBO Max in the US, Prime Video in the UK and Canada.

Train Dreams

The gentlest film on this list. Joel Edgerton plays Robert Grainier, a logger who lives through love and loss while early 20th-century America changes around him. Felicity Jones co-stars as Gladys. Clint Bentley’s film earned 4 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Original Song for Nick Cave’s “Train Dreams.” No wins, but it stays with you longer than some of the winners.

Stream it: Netflix in the US, the UK and Canada.

Bugonia

Two young men obsessed with conspiracy theories kidnap a powerful CEO, convinced she’s an alien out to destroy Earth. It’s Yorgos Lanthimos, so expect it to get weird. Emma Stone earned a Best Actress nomination, one of 4 for the film, alongside Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay (it’s based on the Korean film Save the Green Planet!) and Original Score. Jesse Plemons plays Teddy, the kidnapper you can’t stop watching.

Stream it: Netflix in the US.

Zootopia 2

Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are back. Fresh off the biggest case in Zootopia’s history, the rookie cops chase a new mystery when Gary De’Snake (voiced by Ke Huy Quan) arrives and turns the city upside down. It made $1,870.3 million worldwide, second only to Ne Zha 2 in 2025. It was nominated for Animated Feature and lost to KPop Demon Hunters.

Stream it: Disney+ in the US, the UK and Canada.

Superman

James Gunn puts David Corenswet in the cape, with Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. Superman, a journalist in Metropolis, tries to square his Kryptonian heritage with the human upbringing of Clark Kent. It’s warm, bright fun. And here’s the twist: with $618.7 million it was the highest-grossing superhero film of 2025, yet only No. 10 worldwide.

Stream it: HBO Max or Prime Video in the US.

Ne Zha 2

The biggest film of 2025 came from China. After a catastrophe destroys their bodies, Ne Zha and Ao Bing get a fragile second chance at life, then face a string of deadly trials as tensions rise between the dragon clans and the celestial forces. Jiao Zi’s film earned $2,270.7 million, making it the highest-grossing animated film of all time according to Box Office Mojo.

Stream it: HBO Max in the US, Paramount+ in Canada. No UK subscription has it.

Why Best Picture made less than a tenth of Ne Zha 2’s box office

No superhero film made the 2025 top 5. The first one, Superman, shows up at No. 10. Animation and Asia ran the year instead: Ne Zha 2 and Zootopia 2 together pulled in more than $4.1 billion.

Original stories can still win, though. F1 is the year’s biggest film that isn’t a sequel or adaptation. Sinners cost $90 million and made $370.5 million, Weapons cost $38 million and made $270.1 million (budgets per The Numbers). One Battle After Another cost $140 million and made $213.2 million. Ticket sales aren’t everything, though: many films find their audience on streaming, as our piece on box office flops that became streaming hits shows.

So, what are you watching tonight?

Pick one. If it isn’t on a subscription where you live, find a country in the table where it streams and connect there with the VPN from our overview. You still sign in and pay with your own account.

Want more? Browse our streaming platforms catalog, see every streaming service in the United States, or check what to watch on Netflix, what to watch on HBO Max and what to watch on Disney+. Wondering why countries get different films? Read our guide to the Netflix library by country.