Paul Thomas Anderson's action comedy 'One Battle After Another', starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn, has been voted the best film of 2025 by the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound magazine. The film topped a list that included Ryan Coogler's 'Sinners' and Kelly Reichardt's 'The Mastermind'.
Based on Thomas Pynchon's novel 'Vineland', the film follows former revolutionary Bob Ferguson as he protects his daughter from his old nemesis, a white supremacist named Colonel Lockjaw. Anderson, 55, described the accolade as 'amazing', adding: 'It takes my breath away a bit, honestly.'
Sight and Sound editor-in-chief Mike Williams praised Anderson as 'one of the greatest American filmmakers of his generation' and called the film 'his most prescient, urgent film yet'. The list also featured 10 British films in the top 50, including four supported by the BFI Filmmaking Fund.
The top 10 included 'Sinners' at number two, 'The Mastermind' at three, 'Sirat' at four, and 'The Secret Agent' at five. The full list appears in Sight and Sound's Winter 25/26 issue, available digitally from December 8 and on newsstands from December 11.
