Our year in cinema. Catch up on the ones that got away. Review your favourites. Check out the most critically-acclaimed films of 2025, and take a chance on one or two smaller films that didn’t get the hype but we’re convinced will stand the test of time.
3-Ticket Pack: $42
This year’s Best of series includes a couple of box office blockbusters, several films tipped for success at the Academy Awards, two quirky comedies from Canada, the big prize winners from Venice and Cannes, two debuts from women directors, and VIFF’s opening night film… It’s 12 months of moviegoing all wrapped up for the holidays.
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
Universal Language
This distinctly odd Canadian movie is a delightful deadpan comedy about the kindness of strangers, and as such a profound film about what constitutes home in a globalized age.
Nouvelle Vague
Linklater's love letter to Paris, 1959, and the difficult birth of Jean-Luc Godard's first feature, Breathless, channels the auteur's blithe self confidence and an era of all-encompassing cinephilia. It's the next best thing to being there.
Endless Cookie
The less you know about Endless Cookie beforehand, the better you will be prepared. Seriously.
One Battle After Another
PT Anderson's breathless satire is the best political action movie of the year, a defiantly anti-MAGA rallying cry featuring a six pack of crackerjack performances. They'll still be talking about this one 50 years from now.
There's Still Tomorrow
A critical and box office sensation in Italy, Paola Cortellesi's triumphant directorial debut is the tale of a Roman housewife in 1946, who stands up against the routine sexist abuse she suffers. Funny, heartbreaking and inspiring.
Sorry, Baby
Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Writer-director-star Eva Victor has made a funny, engaging, honest and ultimately upbeat American indie about living through trauma.
It Was Just an Accident
Having offered some late-night assistance to a stranger in the wake of an auto accident, a mechanic grows convinced that he recognizes the supposed stranger’s voice as that of his torturer during a grueling prison spell.
Sentimental Value
A once-revered director crashes back into his family’s lives, eager to recruit his daughter for a film role. When she declines, he finds a new muse in an eager but unpolished Hollywood star, sending his botched reconciliation spiraling into chaos.