The photo finish wasn’t enough: nor was the VAR. In the end, the best film of 2025 for the Gazzetta di Parma jury… are two. And if you think about it, that’s right: in a year in which cinema has struggled (especially Italian cinema), two titles in particular stand out in our area of interest, very different in concept and approach, but both important, urgent, “political”: “One battle after another”, a grotesque, angry and antagonistic manifesto film by Paul Thomas Anderson (who makes it a great film about America) and “A simple accident” by Iranian dissident Jafar Panahi, which features a cast of superstars the former instead opposes a moral direction that leads to the cinema of reality and the theater of the absurd. They are the top films of 2025 according to the 14 jurors who participated in our game, created 30 years ago by the unforgettable Maurizio Schiaretti. Also on the podium are «Bugonia by Lanthimos (last year second with «Poor Creatures») and «I am still here» by the Brazilian Walter Salles, who also celebrates with Fernanda Torres, best actress of the year.
But it is above all Paul Thomas Anderson – who repeats the success of 2021 with «Licorice Pizza» – who dominates our ranking: in addition to bringing his film to the top, he also wins as best director (ahead of Panahi, Lanthimos and Corbet of the beautiful «The Brutalist»), while, always in the spirit of «One battle after another», the villain Sean Penn triumphs among the actors (10 votes, one more than Chalamet: in none category someone received more) and 25-year-old Chase Infiniti, first in the revelations category (beating the female cast of «Young Mothers» by a hair), but also on the podium among the actresses.
Among Italian films, «The Cities of the Plain» beats all the others, highly appreciated, which also gets mentions in other categories, while among the Italian interpreters Valeria Bruni Tedeschi prevails, star performer in «Duse», but also splendid in «L’attachement». However, the best first work also speaks Dante’s language: «La vita da grandi» by Greta Scarano. The most pressing current events instead burst into the ranking of documentaries, where our choices focus on two titles: «No other land», signed by an Israeli-Palestinian collective and «Lirica Ukraine». Finally, the case of Luca Guadagnino is curious: he is among the best directors with «After the hunt», but his previous film, «Queer», is – together with «Fuori» – the great disappointment of the year. Latest, the TV series: it’s ex-aequo here too. «M» and «Adolescence» are the same for us. Waiting for a 2026 that opens as 2025 closes: in the sign of Checco Zalone, patron saint of merchants.
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