2025 as told by Claire Vaughan our Cinema Programme Manager
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We asked our Cinema Programme Manager, Claire to reflect on 2025 and share her top 10 films of the year…
"2025 in Chapter was marked for me with the loss of David Lynch at the start of the year. Lynch made more of a mark on me than any other artist and so it was moving to find solace with other cinephiles as we paid homage to him throughout the year with our screenings of his films, and I finally got to achieve my decades-long dream of screening Twin Peaks in its entirety in the cinema. As the world feels increasingly out of sorts, the warmth of the community of film lovers in Cardiff makes me feel sane.
I have to note with this round-up of the year that the film year does not fit with the Gregorian calendar, we tend to mark it with the Awards calendar. Like a school year that begins and ends in March, the spring brings new festivals and Cannes properly kicks off awards fever all over again. However, seeing lots of Films of the Year lists dominated with films not released in the UK till 2026 feels a bit maddening.
This is a personal list, chosen based on UK release dates. To choose ten films within hundreds I’ve seen is very difficult!
Those of us who love film know that there are wonders to be found peppered throughout the year and this was no exception. There have been delightful surprises and films that have provoked the senses and moved me.
How does this list compare with what you’ve seen in Chapter this year? Are there films that should’ve made this list? Films you disagree with me on? Get in touch!"
Sinners
Directed and written by Ryan Coogler
Twin brothers try to start a Black community-led venue in the 1930s Mississippi, but are preyed on by an evil force.
"I saw this when it was first released back in April and haven’t stopped thinking about it, I think it’s an extraordinary achievement: entertaining, thought-provoking and beautifully made. A musical, a period thriller with elements of horror, unlike anything else. It deserves all the awards – Michael B. Jordan’s performance as both twins is incredible, but everyone here is doing wonderful work and Miles Caton is an exciting new find. A powerful film playing with history and myth."
It Was Just An Accident
Directed and written by Jafar Panahi
A moral thriller about a group of Iranian citizens who were once political prisoners who have a chance to avenge themselves.
"Iranian cinema has been under attack for decades and Panahi keeps making wonderful films skewering the repressive regime. This year there was also The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof, a paranoid thriller which talks about young women fighting against the family patriarch as he becomes increasingly unhinged. Panahi’s pipped this because I have not stopped thinking about the ending since seeing it a few months ago. Panahi is able to make metaphors intensely relatable and his films get under your skin."
The Mastermind
Directed and written by Kelly Reichardt
A man leaves his family to go on the run after an art theft rather than face the consequences of his actions.
"I have loved Kelly Reichardt since seeing Old Joy in Chapter in 2006. I love her quietly devastating filmmaking. These little stories about fallible, ordinary humans that don’t seem dramatic on the surface but over the course of the film the weight of their stories penetrate you. This one, with the wonderful Josh O’Connor, is set in the 1970s but says a lot about how life feels today."
28 Years Later
Directed by Danny Boyle, written by Alex Garland
A community of survivors of the rage virus discover buried secrets about what has happened on the mainland after a generation of apocalypse. A zombie thriller about Brexit Britain.
"This film was a wonderful surprise. The original 28 Days Later was part of Danny Boyle’s imperial period, where he was deftly moving from film to film, reinventing how we thought British film existed within genre films. Since then he’s diversified into so many other projects (Olympics, reinventing Frankenstein for the National Theatre). The expectation was that this would just be another sequel, but the evocative reading of a Kipling poem on the trailer signalled that this would be something else. A deeply meditative, moving film with the thrills of a horror film and the deep surreality of Weird Britain (including Teletubbies, Jimmy Saville) and a comment on the increased isolation of Britain from our European neighbours."
Sorry, Baby
Directed and written by Eva Victor
A university lecturer dealing struggles to deal with life moving forward after a traumatic incident.
"A delicate, moving drama, told unconventionally. Eva Victor as Agnes and Naomie Ackie as her best friend Lydie play the relationship so perfectly, it feels completely authentic. A terrible thing happens to Agnes which shifts her in time to her peers and you feel that pain of things changing in your twenties when you’re not ready for them to change. Eva Victor who wrote, directed and stars in the film, is an exciting new talent."
A Real Pain
Directed and written by Jesse Eisenberg
Cousins reunite for a holocaust tour but tensions arise regarding their family history. A comedy about generational trauma.
"Back at the start of the year, amongst the bombast of biopics and epic dramas, came a 90 minute film that picked at family relationships and big ideas about how we deal with the haunting of the wrongs of the 20th century in our everyday lives in a way that was so deft, its comedy so light, that you didn’t notice how moving it was. A magic trick of a film with incredible performances from Kieran Culkin, Jesse Eisenberg and Will Sharpe."
Memoir of a Snail
Directed and written by Adam Elliott
A bittersweet animated story of a snail-obsessed young loner who is dealt a series of misfortunes but finds her friends.
"An idiosyncratic, gorgeously detailed stop-motion animation about an outsider, this is a weird and wonderful film. In Chapter we have worked with the animation community for many years and it was joy to host Adam Elliott here, meeting a man who seemed like a character from his films made into a real boy. The frankly funny Australian sensibilities oozes off the screen, but it’s the film’s compassion and heart that sits with you long after you’ve seen it."
One Battle After Another
Directed and written by Paul Thomas Anderson
An underground revolutionary movement is resurrected after the next generation decide to fight again.
"Adapted from a novel about the breakdown of the 1970s counter-culture movement, this thrilling drama is like Paul Thomas Anderson sticking a pin in 2025 and putting it on screen. A film full of angry energy and multiple storylines climaxing with one of the most exciting car chases ever seen on screen."
Nickel Boys
Directed and written by RaMell Ross
A friendship develops between two young Black men navigating a harrowing reform school experience.
"Anyone who saw RaMell Ross’ beautiful documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening was excited about whatever he would choose to do next. I was apprehensive as his deep work with the community in Alabama that made that film such an achievement is difficult to follow up, especially in narrative film. But Ross took a sidestep, using a non-fiction book as a jumping off point to putting us in the literal point of view of these children in a reform school during a time of racial segregation, pulling us tightly into their world. This conceptual leap is unconventional storytelling but never feels like a gimmick, it creates a profoundly moving and powerful drama with moments of joy and hope."
Pavements
Directed by Alex Ross-Perry
Playful part-mockumentary, part documentary about the 90s rock band Pavement.
"One of the first things I bought in a record shop was a Pavement album. They are my favourite band of all time, so I was naturally excited and nervous about a film about them. I’d heard that there was a biopic coming out starring one of the lads from Stranger Things and Jason Schwartzman, I’d also heard that there was some sort of jukebox musical and friends in LA had visited an exhibition… all of these were true and not true. If you’re going to make a film about one of most inventive, smart, mischievous and heartfelt bands of all time, this is the way to do it. Alex Ross-Perry found a way to film a dance about architecture."