10 passion projects that stood out at the movies this year

By Bob Mondello

Published December 30, 2025 at 3:00 PM CST

Wagner Moura in The Secret Agent. — Wagner Moura in *The Secret Agent.*

When filmmakers are cranking out blockbusters, Tinseltown can seem like any other business 鈥� customer satisfaction measured in popcorn sales and audience smiles. But when filmmakers are passionate, movies can make audiences vibrate 鈥� with grief, with excitement, with rage. And that happened a lot this year.

These 10 films connected when they took really big swings. They hail from gratifyingly divergent perspectives, grapple differently with history and art, aim for diverse audiences, and are 鈥� without exception 鈥� passion projects worth seeking out on the biggest possible screen.

Ten best films of 2025

Among the other movies I admired, and urge you to see 鈥� ideally with an audience, when possible: , , , , , , , , , , , , , and .

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Bob Mondello

Bob Mondello, who jokes that he was a jinx at the beginning of his critical career 鈥� hired to write for every small paper that ever folded in Washington, just as it was about to collapse 鈥� saw that jinx broken in 1984 when he came to NPR.

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