The Best of 2025: 45th Shadows Awards

As usual, here's a brief summary of my top 10 lists for the year, with much, much more on the 45th Shadows Awards page on the website. These are my favourites - and as usual, I always like to be surprised...

BEST FILMS: 

1. Sirāt (Oliver Laxe)
2. Sinners (Ryan Coogler)
3. Is This Thing On? (Bradley Cooper)
4. Hamnet (Chloé Zhao)
5. Cactus Pears (Rohan Parashuram Kanawade)
6. Good One (India Donaldson)
7. Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)
8. Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor)
9. 2000 Meters to Andriivka (Mstyslav Chernov)
10. Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson)

DIRECTOR:

1. Chloé Zhao - Hamnet
2. Ray Mendoza & Alex Garland - Warfare
3. Lynne Ramsay - Die My Love
4. Ryan Coogler - Sinners
5. India Donaldson - Good One
6. Oliver Laxe - Sirāt
7. Paul Thomas Anderson - One Battle After Another
8. Kelly Reichardt - The Mastermind
9. Mary Bronstein - If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
10. Celine Song - Materialists

SCREENWRITER:

1. Ryan Coogler - Sinners
2. Eva Victor - Sorry, Baby
3. Rian Johnson - Wake Up Dead Man
4. Jafar Panahi - It Was Just an Accident
5. Harry Lighton - Pillion
6. India Donaldson - Good One
7. Rohan Parashuram Kanawade - Cactus Pears
8. Chloé Zhao & Maggie O'Farrell - Hamnet
9. Eskil Vogt & Joachim Trier - Sentimental Value
10. Kleber Mendonca Filho - The Secret Agent

ACTRESS: 

1. Jessie Buckley - Hamnet
2. Renate Reinsve - Sentimental Value
3. Camila Plaate - Belén
4. Leonie Benesch - Late Shift
5. Jennifer Lawrence - Die My Love
6. Tessa Van den Broeck - Julie Keeps Quiet
7. Yasmine Al Massri - Palestine 36
8. Kate Hudson - Song Sung Blue
9. Laura Dern - Is This Thing On, Jay Kelly
10. Rose Byrne - If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

ACTOR: 

1. Théodore Pellerin - Lurker, Nino
2. Michael B Jordan - Sinners
3. Paul Mescal - The History of Sound, Hamnet
4. Stellan Skarsgard - Sentimental Value
5. Mahmood Bakri - To a Land Unknown
6. Josh O'Connor - The Mastermind, Wake Up Dead Man, The History of Sound, Rebuilding
7. Ryo Yoshizawa - Kokuhō
8. Wagner Moura - The Secret Agent
9. Will Poulter - Warfare, On Swift Horses
10. Sergi Lopez - Sirāt

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: 

1. Nina Hoss - Hedda
2. Glenn Close - Wake Up Dead Man
3. Amy Madigan - Weapons, Rebuilding
4. Youn Yuh-jung - The Wedding Banquet
5. Wunmi Mosaku - Sinners
6. Fiona Shaw - Hot Milk, Park Avenue
7. Mariam Afshari - It Was Just an Accident
8. Naomi Ackie - Mickey 17, Sorry Baby, The Thursday Murder Club
9. Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas - Sentimental Value
10. Maxine Peake - I Swear

SUPPORTING ACTOR: 

1. Miles Caton - Sinners
2. Kit Connor - Warfare
3. Tonatiuh - Kiss of the Spider Woman
4. Alexander Skarsgard - Pillion
5. Min Tanaka - Kokuhō
6. Noah Jupe - Hamnet, The Carpenter's Son
7. Jay Lycurgo - Steve
8. Ken Watanabe - Kokuhō
9. Jack O'Connell - Sinners, 28 Years Later
10. Archie Madekwe - Lurker

WORST FILM: 

1. A Working Man (David Ayer)
2. The Home (James DeMonaco)
3. Star Trek: Section 31 (Olatunde Osunsanmi)
4. Him (Justin Tipping)
5. Night of Violence (Illya Konstantin)
6. The Electric State (Joe & Anthony Russo)
7. Bull Run (Alfredo Barrios Jr)
8. The Pickup (Tim Story)
9. The Ice Tower (Lucile Hadzihalilovic)
10. Harvest (Athina Rachel Tsangari)

TV SERIES: 

1. Adolescence (Netflix)
2. Hacks 4 (Max)
3. The White Lotus 3 (HBO)
4. Chief of War (Apple)
5. Boots (Netflix)
6. Juice 2 (BBC)
7. Only Murders in the Building 5 (Hulu)
8. Too Much (Netflix)
9. Andor 2 (Disney)
10. Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (BBC)

SINGLE: 

1. Golden - Huntr/x
2. DtMF - Bad Bunny
3. Where Is My Husband - Raye
4. Undressed - Sombr
5. Manchild - Sabrina Carpenter
6. Daisy, When the Wine Runs Out - Role Model
7. The Giver - Chappell Roan
8. Rubber Band Man - Mumford and Sons & Hozier
9. I Lied to You - Miles Caton
10. Show Me Love - WizTheMc, Bees & Honey

Critical Week: Have a laugh

The 69th London Film Fest continues this week, which means I am watching rather a lot of big awards-season titles, often with the filmmakers and actors in attendance.  Sometimes this even includes a chance to chat with them at a reception, which is always nice. One of these was Bradley Cooper's new movie Is This Thing On?, a romantic comedy-drama starring Will Arnett (above) and Laura Dern, based on the life of British stand-up comedian John Bishop. It's a terrific story, and the film is strikingly well shot and acted, without a single false note, which is like a miracle in this genre.

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
Souleymane's Story
Roofman • Frankenstein
Some Nights I Feel Like Walking
ALL REVIEWS >

Elsewhere, Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons were on hand for the premiere of Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugonia, a surprisingly punchy black comedy. Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri came along for Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt, an abrasive, challenging drama about morality. Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth turned up for Guillermo del Toro's superbly epic new version of Frankenstein. Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal were on-stage for Chloe Zhao's utterly gorgeous Hamnet, one of the most emotional resonant movies in recent memory. 

And there's more! Colin Farrell showed up for Edward Berger's colourful, involving Macau odyssey Ballad of a Small Player. Tessa Thompson, Imogen Poots and Nina Hoss were resplendent at the screening of Nia DaCosta's inventive, spiky new adaptation of Hedda. Brendan Fraser was on hand for Hikari's beautiful comedy-drama Rental Family, which skilfully explores modern-day isolation through a strongly engaging story set in Tokyo. Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones attended for Clint Bentley's sumptuous lifelong saga Train Dreams. And Kaouther Ben Hania's harrowing The Voice of Hind Rajab mixes documentary elements with emotive dramatics in a true story from the Israel-Palestine war. I also attended a live performance of Hofesh Schechter's mesmerising Theatre of Dreams at Sadler's Wells.

Coming this next week are a few more London Film Fest movies, including Jafar Panahi's Palme d'Or winner It Was Just an Accident, Paolo Sorrentino's La Grazia, Annemarie Jacir's Palestine 36, Emirati horror thriller The Vile and the photography doc Love+War, plus the Navy Seal doc In Waves and War.