As 2025 draws to a close, film critics have cast their votes on the most memorable and impactful scenes that graced the silver screen this year. From high-octane Formula One drama to intimate vampire lore and Shakespearean grief, the selections showcase the diverse power of cinema to thrill, move, and astonish.
High-Octane Drama and Musical Transcendence
The year's blockbusters delivered sequences that left audiences breathless. In F1: The Movie, Brad Pitt's rogue driver Sonny Hayes sees his wingman, played by Damson Idris, make the ultimate sacrifice at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi. This act thwarts a hostile takeover and secures Hayes's first win, a climax that left critic Andrew Lawrence's "disbelief firmly off track."
Meanwhile, Ryan Coogler's 1930s vampire thriller Sinners featured a show-stopping musical interlude. Miles Caton's character Sammie performs 'I Lied to You' in a juke joint, a scene that, through stunning Imax cinematography, summons a vision of Black ancestors and descendants dancing together. Critic Tammy Tarng described it as an "inebriating taste of transcendence," a moment where art feels both sacred and defiant.
Bravura Filmmaking and Emotional Knockouts
Several directors delivered technically audacious and deeply emotional set-pieces. The animated opening credits of Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme, depicting a spermatozoa race, left critic Andrew Pulver with his jaw dropped, signalling the uniquely unusual film to come.
In Chloé Zhao's adaptation of Hamnet, the film's finale, where Agnes (Jessie Buckley) watches the first performance of Hamlet, was hailed as a "bravura ending" by Adrian Horton. The scene masterfully collapses time, connecting a mother's grief with the enduring power of Shakespeare's words to ask how we endure loss.
Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another featured a prescient, slapstick-infused chase sequence where Leonardo DiCaprio's former revolutionary is pursued through a landscape reminiscent of "authoritarian America." Veronica Esposito praised its blend of ballet-like choreography, pathos, and thick chemistry between DiCaprio and Benicio del Toro.
Innovative Storytelling and Subversive Humour
Other highlights included innovative formal choices and darkly comic brilliance. Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest saw Denzel Washington's music mogul enter the New York subway, with Lee switching from digital to gritty 16mm film to capture the city's vibrant energy, a transition Jesse Hassenger found thrilling.
In the "unromantic comedy" Splitsville, a spectacularly violent and well-directed fight between two friends, played by writers Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin, destroyed a beautiful house and laid bare the pettiness beneath a progressive facade. Benjamin Lee called it an "unhinged reminder" of hidden rage.
Finally, Jafar Panahi's secretly made Iranian film It Was Just an Accident offered a potent image of hope. In a scene where former prisoners push a stalled van, passersby—some reportedly not actors—join in to help, creating what Radheyan Simonpillai called an "unassuming image of community" and political resistance.
From the silent comedy of Josh O'Connor in The Mastermind to the haunting opening of Rungano Nyoni's On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, these scenes collectively define a year of bold, emotional, and technically superb filmmaking that will resonate long after the credits roll.
