It’s that time of year again! The best film critics organization in the country, if you ask me, has announced its winners for 2025. You can find the full list below, including a quote from a very brilliant and good-looking individual, but here’s a few additional thoughts:
- One Battle After Another dominated. Zero surprise there. It’s the year’s best film and the best American film since No Country For Old Men. Movies like that don’t come along often. They deserve celebrating, especially when you’re a filmmaker as overdue for awards love as Paul Thomas Anderson. Give that man the Oscar, or lose all credibility! Also, between us and New York, will this be the beginning of a bigger push for Benicio? One can hope so!
- I was delighted to see the love for Weapons from our group. It’s the best small-town horror story that Stephen King didn’t write, and it’s better than a number of those as well. That it made it to number three in our overall Top Ten says a lot. With Wicked For Good flaming out, Madigan is probably in the pole position now to win Best Supporting Actress. She’s got that veteran support that might be tough to beat.
- Best International Feature was by far the tightest race of them all, with at least four films that could have taken that prize. A tremendous year for International cinema and an especially great slate for Neon.
- I’m a little iffier on Sinners winning Best Original Screenplay. I think that script’s lumpiness (an overlong first act, almost no third act to speak of) is one of its weaknesses. But I get the appeal, and if Coogler is going to be awarded somewhere, this makes sense. I still think Weapons is better.
- The Alabama Solution should have won for Best Doc, a towering feat of journalism…but I understand why The Perfect Neighbor did.
- I was pretty cold on Sorry, Baby for Best First Feature, a film I found resoundingly uneven. But Friendship, the film it was in closest competition with has a very specific audience, and not everyone latches on to that Tim Robinson/Andrew DeYoung humor.
Anyway, enough of my analysis, here’s the full list!
Now in its ninth year, the Atlanta Film Critics Circle has announced its awards for top cinematic achievements in 2025.
The 39 voting members of the AFCC chose director Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another as its top film of the year. The big-budget thriller swept seven major categories, also winning Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Ensemble, Best Supporting Actor (Benicio del Toro), and Best Breakthrough Performance for Chase Infiniti.
Leonardo DiCaprio earned Best Actor honors for his performance in the film, narrowly edging out Michael B. Jordan in Ryan Coogler’s horror sensation Sinners, which captured Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score. Amy Madigan took Best Supporting Actress for Weapons in another close race. Other top winners included Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby for Best First Feature, The Perfect Neighbor for Best Documentary, and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning for Best Stunt Work.
This year’s voting was notably competitive, with several races coming down to just a few points. Best International Feature Film saw the closest margin in AFCC history, with only four points separating the top three films. Four of the group’s top 10 films hail from international filmmakers, underscoring the strength of global cinema in 2025.
“2025 was another stellar year for film, including two horror sensations in Sinners and Weapons, Chloé Zhao’s heartbreaking excavation of the grief process in Hamnet, and one of the strongest crops of international films in recent memory,” said AFCC advisory board member Kyle Pinion. “But it was Paul Thomas Anderson’s crafting of a generational masterpiece in One Battle After Another that ruled the day in AFCC voters’ ballots, and rightfully so. It’s the kind of film that will last.”
Complete AFCC Award List
BEST FILM: One Battle After Another
TOP 10 FILMS (ranked):
- One Battle After Another
- Sinners
- Weapons
- Hamnet
- Marty Supreme
- It Was Just an Accident
- No Other Choice
- Sentimental Value
- Train Dreams
- The Secret Agent
BEST LEAD ACTOR: Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
Runner-up: Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
BEST LEAD ACTRESS: Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Runner-up: Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another
Runner-up: Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Amy Madigan, Weapons
Runner-up: Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST: One Battle After Another
Runner-up: Sinners
BEST DIRECTOR: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Runner-up: Ryan Coogler, Sinners
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Sinners
Runner-up: Weapons
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: One Battle After Another
Runner-up: Hamnet
BEST DOCUMENTARY: The Perfect Neighbor
Runner-up: The Alabama Solution
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE: It Was Just an Accident
Runner-up: No Other Choice
BEST ANIMATED FILM: KPop Demon Hunters
Runner-up: Arco
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: One Battle After Another
Runner-up: Sinners
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Sinners
Runner-up: One Battle After Another
BEST STUNT WORK: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Runner-up: F1
BEST VOICE PERFORMANCE: Arden Cho, KPop Demon Hunters
Runner-up: Jason Bateman, Zootopia 2
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE: Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another
BEST FIRST FEATURE: Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby
About the AFCC
Founded in 2017, the Atlanta Film Critics Circle is a dynamic mix of 39 Atlanta-based critics working in newspaper, magazine, and online journalism. The AFCC’s mission establishes a national presence for a film critics group in Atlanta and fosters a vibrant film culture in Atlanta, already home to a robust film industry production presence.