Rev up the chainsaws, dust off the ping-pong paddles and break out the feather pens. You’ve logged, reviewed and watchlisted your way through everything 2025 had to offer, and we’ve done the tallying to put together a Year in Review that’ll make you dance with the devil, then crack open a few small beers to cool down. Or maybe just rock out with your favorite band HUNTR/X. However you choose to celebrate, you’re welcome here on Letterboxd.

“I love Letterboxd so much, so thank you for sharing all the love,” star Chase Infiniti expressed to our Brian Formo at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, when he shared that her film One Battle After Another is the fourth highest-rated feature of the year from the Letterboxd community, and the single highest-rated in the action category. “Getting to actually do those action sequences was really exciting for me because I’m somebody who enjoys the physicality of anything in life; dancing, and mixed martial arts that I got to learn [for this]. I would go to work, do the entire day and be so sore. I was so excited to be even more exhausted and even more worn out the next day because I was like, ‘This is everything I’ve ever wanted.’”

“Thank you for supporting original films and going to see [Sinners] multiple times,” Michael B. Jordan said of the enthusiasm the community has shown for Ryan Coogler’s vampire phenomenon, which, along with its game-changing $368 million worldwide gross and copious amounts of award nominations and wins, is also now officially the most popular film of 2025 on Letterboxd. “I really appreciate how you get out of your home, get dressed, get in the car, drive to a movie theater, pay for your ticket, get some popcorn and have that movie theater experience. That really makes us happy and makes us full. I know that’s why Ryan [Coogler] loves making films. That’s why I love making movies and I want to continue to. So, thank you all for celebrating our work.”

“I’m genuinely grateful to see Sinners take on a real life on Letterboxd,” echoes the film’s producer, and Founder of Proximity Media, Sev Ohanian. “The thoughtful analysis, the sharp takes and especially the hilarious comments have all been really meaningful for our whole team to see.”

Let’s celebrate more of what you loved in 2025.

While the previous two years saw the Letterboxd community’s number one highest-rated feature locked in from relatively early on, with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Dune: Part Two planting their flags and never surrendering, 2025 proved to be quite the jockeying for position, with top-level placements shifting until the last possible moment. A late surge from December releases for Marty Supreme and The Voice of Hind Rajab put up a vigorous fight, but ultimately no one could top the almighty Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, which continues the story of Denji and the Public Safety Devil Hunters led by (famous cinephile) Makima after the beloved first season of the popular anime.

“Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc was created through the immense love and passion poured into it by every member of the production staff,” Yoshihara told us over email. “For some, that devotion was given to Chainsaw Man as a whole. For others, it was a sincere offering of the soul to a single woman named Reze. That immense motivation allowed elements such as violence, action and romance to merge seamlessly, shaping the film into an outstanding visual experience. I’m truly honored that Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc has become the highest-rated film of the year on Letterboxd.”

The fusion of several elements into a cohesive whole is core to the approach director Kaouther Ben Hania took with her docudrama The Voice of Hind Rajab, which uses the real audio of slain five-year-old girl Hind Rajab as she spoke with Red Crescent volunteers trying to save her life, whose efforts are dramatized on-screen via actors. Ben Hania’s film was the second highest-rated of the year, and the highest-rated by a woman director. “Reading Letterboxd reviews of my film feels like overhearing the audience from all over the world chatting after a screening, without them realizing I’m standing nearby,” the director told us over email. “I learn so much, and I love it. I am deeply grateful for the conversation around the film, as it amplifies Hind’s voice even more.” Read more from Ben Hania in Mia Lee Vicino’s interview with the filmmaker for Journal.

The Voice of Hind Rajab is one of twelve films directed by women in the overall top 50 this year, up from eight in 2024. Others include Petra Volp’s German picture Late Shift, a recommended watch for members stoked about the new season of The Pitt, as it follows a nurse through an increasingly tense day on the beds ward of a surgical department; Left-Handed Girl, from Sean Baker’s longtime producing partner, Shih-Ching Tsou, her first directing credit since they co-directed 2004’s Take Out; and Hamnet, Chloé Zhao’s Oscar contender starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal.

Hamnet also topped the charts as the highest-rated romance, with Zhao telling Formo on the Palm Springs carpet, “That’s great! Here’s to love. The thing with romance is that it’s not as simple as it sounds, right? You can’t feel the depths of love if you refuse to feel the depths of grief. To love someone is to know that you could lose love one day. If your hearts are closed from pain, then it’s also closed from love.” Time to cue up ‘On the Nature of Daylight’.

But what’s life without a little optimism? James Gunn rebooted Superman with a brand new DCEU flavor, and it proved a soaring success, as the film became the most obsessively rewatched of the year by Letterboxd members (that’s a film logged five or more times by the same member). Unsurprisingly, Gunn was also the most watched director of the year, followed by perennial top-placer Christopher Nolan and Oscar contenders Ryan Coogler and Paul Thomas Anderson. Our most watched woman director of the year was KPop Demon Hunters creator Maggie Kang, and our most watched debut director went to Companion’s Drew Hancock.

For the fourth year, Willem Dafoe topped our list as the most watched actor, riding high on Nosferatu’s popularity surging at the beginning of 2025, alongside a slew of smaller releases throughout the year including The Legend of Ochi, The Man in My Basement and the not-so-small The Phoenician Scheme from eternal fave director Wes Anderson. That Scheme also helped Scarlett Johansson secure the top spot for most watched actress, aided by her starring role in the dino-sized smash hit Jurassic World Rebirth.

Not every film sees its popularity hit globally all at once, and the beauty of Year in Review is getting to put attention on titles from around the world to keep an eye on. In Europe, award heavyweights Sentimental Value and Hamnet were beaten out for highest-rated of the territory by underdog biopic I Swear, which nabbed the fifth spot in highest-rated overall. US audiences will get the chance to see the film later this year.

Chainsaw Man took the top spot for Asia, with that territory’s runner-up prize belonging to Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice. Director Park’s reunion with star Lee Byung-hun also earned the number one spot overall in our thriller category. “Letterboxd is for cinephiles just like myself and it is a deep honor for them to embrace No Other Choice,” the filmmaker told us over email. Park lovers can hear more from him in Mia Lee Vicino’s interview for Journal, and Brandon Streussnig’s career breakdown with the director on YouTube.

Although it just missed the overall top 50 due to falling short of the minimum ratings threshold required (which increased this year to reflect our growth in overall members), Mariana Brennand Fortes’ Manas is the highest-rated South American film in a list dominated by Brazil, alongside Latin Blood and The Secret Agent. Argentina and Colombia appeared in the form of Belén and A Poet, with Colombia popping up again in our Flashback to 2015, updating the top ten from a decade ago, as Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent beats original 2015 winner Mad Max: Fury Road to the finish line. Our highest-rated Oceanian feature was Tinā, from director Miki Magasiva.

Park Chan-wook’s home country of South Korea showed up again in Year In Review with the K-drama weepy When Life Gives You Tangerines notching a spot as the highest-rated narrative miniseries. The most popular limited series was the British smash Adolescence, renowned for its unique one-continuous-take approach across four episodes. Netflix also appeared with the most popular documentary film in Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, which is the most watched documentary on Letterboxd period—outside of a couple Jackass pictures.

Sensitive legends and cultural superstars dominated our documentary categories this year. Environmental plea Ocean with David Attenborough is the highest-rated documentary overall and the late great Dr. Jane Goodall’s debut installment of Netflix’s Famous Last Words series is the highest-rated TV special, while Amy Berg’s Jeff Buckley, It’s Never Over is the highest-rated documentary by a woman director.

Meanwhile, the music films category has been expanded to include visual albums alongside music documentaries, paving the way for Turnstile: Never Enough to win out (read Ella Kemp’s conversation with the band on their cinematic influences here). Taylor Swift’s The End of an Era, giving an inside look into her monolithic tour, is the highest-rated documentary miniseries, but her companion concert film was thwarted by Lady Gaga’s record-breaking event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with Mayhem on the Beach as the highest-rated professionally shot concert of the year.

Speaking of proshots… theatre kids, your moment has come. We’ve introduced a special category this year for Proshot Theater, given the surging popularity and accessibility of the form, with Next to Normal taking the top prize. We also gave a special shoutout to Indonesia and the particularly robust slate from that territory, with one of Letterboxd Video Store’s launch titles, Sore: A Wife from the Future, taking the top placement there. “I just want to say thank you so much to everyone who watched, reviewed and supported our film,” star Sheila Dara Aisha said. Sore also earned the top prize for highest-rated sci-fi feature, with director Yandy Laurens expressing, “It means a lot to us, and seeing it being fully embraced by the global Letterboxd community, it’s everything.”

To keep up with Letterboxd’s growth, the raising of the ratings threshold does mean that some gems have slipped below the radar. Therefore, we have expanded our annual ‘Ones to Watch’ list to a top 25 highest-rated ‘underseen films’ list, topped by Louise Weard’s four-and-a-half-hour saga Castration Movie Anthology i. Traps, with the five-hour follow-up also in the top ten and part three soon on its way. Other highlights to add to your watchlist include All That’s Left of You from Jordan, My Father’s Shadow from Nigeria and U Are the Universe from Ukraine.

The Letterboxd Year in Review is calculated from the Letterboxd community’s combined ratings as of January 5, 2026. Eligible films are those that had a first national release in any country between January 1 and December 31, 2025, and received a minimum of 15,000 ratings following release (minimum ratings requirements differ in some categories with lower overall viewership numbers).

Films that had direct-to-streaming releases, TV movies and films with limited theatrical releases are included, while we exclude short films, TV shows and specials, filmed concerts, visual albums and stage shows from the main narrative and documentary categories; where appropriate, we give those their own categories.

As on the platform, Letterboxd differentiates between popular films (a measure of the activity a film receives regardless of rating) and highly rated films (computed from a weighted average of all ratings cast by members during the period).

You can see the full lists for all of our 2025 Year in Review categories, curated by Jack Moulton and Mihir Nanda, on our Official Lists HQ.

What’s on tap for 2026? Y’all thinking about taking a boat trip? Our members are most excited for The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s first film since his Academy Award winner Oppenheimer, followed by the next Dune, hot on the heels of 2024’s Year in Review winner Dune: Part Two, directed by Denis Villeneuve. That sci-fi epic is still set to release the same day as Avengers: Doomsday, fourth on the most-anticipated list, with both looking to make a late-year splash on December 18. Dream Scenario director Kristoffer Borgli is whetting appetites by pairing up Robert Pattinson and Zendaya for The Drama, while Emerald Fennell looks to stir up discourse again with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in “Wuthering Heights”.

Want some more 2026 titles for your watchlist? Our crew picks list for most anticipated is toplined by Isabel Sandoval’s Moonglow, making its world premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam very soon, and hopefully coming to more audiences later in the year. Another of our favorites, I Saw the TV Glow’s Jane Schoenbrun, is back with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring Hannah Einbender and Gillian Anderson. Gregg Araki’s first film in twelve years, I Want Your Sex, premieres this month at Sundance. Tom Cruise makes his first non-franchise effort in nearly a decade with Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger. Hirokazu Kore-eda and Pedro Almodóvar are dropping Look Back and Bitter Christmas, respectively, and so much more.

For now, as is our yearly tradition, we’ll leave you with some tunes in the form of our 2025 Cinematic Needle Drops playlist (and the Letterboxd list of films they feature in). And let us all hope that 2026 is a ‘Fergalicious’ one, indeed.