Best Movies of 2025: Best Director

Continuing my look at the best movies of 2025, I am now going to make my pick for the best director of 2025. 2025 saw great efforts from established directors like Paul Thomas Anderson, Ryan Coogler, Wes Anderson, Jafar Panahi, Rian Johnson, and Park Chan-wook. We even got two films each from cinematic icons in Steven Soderbergh (Black Bag and Presence) and Richard Linklater (Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague), respectively. We also saw impressive features from new and up-and-coming directors, like Zach Cregger, Clint Bentley, Eva Victor, Hikari, James Sweeney, and Mona Fastvold. They may not all be household names, but they made some of the best movies of the year and assured us that the future of film is in good hands.

Like the other lists, I am going to pick “nominees” for Best Directoral Debut and Best Director and pick a winner for both, which will be highlighted in bold.  Here are my picks for the best director and best directorial debut of 2025.

Directorial Debut

Emilie Blichfeldt, The Ugly Stepsister

Akinola Davies Jr., My Father’s Shadow

Lawrence Lamont, One of Them Days

Carson Lund, Eephus

Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby

• All five of these directors made impressive debuts, and I will be on the lookout for their follow-ups. I was most impressed by the worst of Akinola Davies Jr.’s work on My Father’s Shadow. The film follows a father (a masterful Sope Dirisu) as his sons navigate the city of Lagos during an election crisis in 1993. I was taken by Davies’ handling of the father-son relationship with the tense political backdrop. It’s a beautiful story about an absent father connecting with his sons, and you’re constantly on edge as Lagos is a ticking time bomb ready to blow at any moment. Davies portrays the beauty and vibrancy of Lagos, which is only matched by the heartfelt story at the film’s core.

Best Director

Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another

Ryan Coogler, Sinners

Zach Cregger, Weapons

Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident

Park Chan-wook, No Other Choice

• Sinners is a towering achievement for Ryan Coogler. His screenplay, my favorite of the year, is complex without being pretentious. On the surface, Sinners is a classic vampire tale. It’s just as much a vampire movie as it is a movie about music and its influence throughout time. It’s also a movie about Black culture, Black history in the 1920s, and cultural appropriation. 

  It might seem like a lot crammed into one movie. Still, Coogler masterfully balances everything to create a breathtaking, terrifying, bloody, passionate film that reinvents the vampire genre and is unlike any movie we’ve seen this decade. It’s also a visual stunner, featuring some of the best cinematography, editing, costumes, and sets of the year. Sinners is a vision come to life. From paper to screen, you see Coogler’s vision and skill in every shot.

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