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Seattle Film Critics announce 10 best films of 2025 and nominees for annual awards

by Josh

This afternoon, the Seattle Film Critics Society (which counts a few of us as members) announced nominations for the 2025 SFCS Awards. Dominating the nominations was Ryan Coogler’s Sinners with fourteen, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another with twelve, and Clint Bentley’s Pacific Northwest-set Train Dreams with eight. 

This year’s nominees for Best Picture included quite few films that we’ve seen, covered, and loved over the past year: 

Somehow we missed officially covering Weapons, but it was one of the most thrilling and enjoyable experiences I had in a theater this summer and it’s always cool to see our local critics shouting out the oft-overlooked horror genre. Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet as a scumbag table tennis prodigy in search of a championship, doesn’t hit theaters until Christmas Day. I got a sneak preview earlier this month, and sometimes overused cliches like “electrifying” are really the only appropriate word for the breakneck pace of what happens on screen over two and a half hours. Stay tuned!

Other films earning multiple nominations include Frankenstein (six nominations) and F1® The Movie (three nominations). Avatar: Fire and Ash [arriving December 19th], The Phoenician Scheme, Predator: Badlands, Wicked: For Good,and Pacific Northwest documentary WTO/99 earned two nominations each.

As previously announced, the Seattle Film Critics Society recognized six films for Best Pacific Northwest Feature Film as well as a new award to recognizing regionally-produced shorts. Those films were screened last month, most with filmmakers in attendance. If you missed them, some of the Q&As are available on SFCS’s website.

I know I have some personal catching up to do before winners of the 2025 Seattle Film Critics Society Awards will be announced Monday, December 15, 2025. The full list of nominees follows; you can make your own scorecard via this Letterboxd List of all nominees.

The 2025 Seattle Film Critics Society Nominations

BEST PICTURE

  • Bugonia – Yorgos Lanthimos
  • Hamnet – Chloé Zhao
  • It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi
  • Marty Supreme – Josh Safdie
  • One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson
  • Sentimental Value – Joachim Trier
  • Sinners – Ryan Coogler
  • Sorry, Baby – Eva Victor
  • Train Dreams – Clint Bentley
  • Weapons – Zach Cregger

BEST DIRECTOR

  • Hamnet – Chloé Zhao
  • Marty Supreme – Josh Safdie
  • One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson
  • Sinners – Ryan Coogler
  • Train Dreams – Clint Bentley

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

  • Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme
  • Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
  • Joel Edgerton – Train Dreams
  • Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
  • Michael B. Jordan – Sinners

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

  • Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another
  • Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
  • David Jonsson – The Long Walk
  • William H. Macy – Train Dreams
  • Sean Penn – One Battle After Another

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

  • Ariana Grande – Wicked: For Good
  • Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value
  • Amy Madigan – Weapons
  • Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners
  • Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST

BEST YOUTH PERFORMANCE

  • Cary Christopher – Weapons
  • Shannon Gorman – Rental Family
  • Jacobi Jupe – Hamnet
  • Jasper Thompson – The Mastermind
  • Alfie Williams – 28 Years Later

BEST SCREENPLAY

  • Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie
  • One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson
  • Sinners – Ryan Coogler
  • Sorry, Baby – Eva Victor
  • Train Dreams – Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar

BEST ANIMATED FILM

  • Arco – Ugo Bienvenu
  • The Colors Within – Naoko Yamada
  • KPop Demon Hunters – Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans
  • Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han 
  • Zootopia 2 – Jared Bush, Byron Howard

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

  • The Alabama Solution – Andrew Jarecki, Charlotte Kaufman
  • Come See Me in the Good Light – Ryan White
  • Pavements – Alex Ross Perry
  • The Perfect Neighbor – Geeta Gandbhir
  • WTO/99 – Ian Bell

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

  • It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi
  • No Other Choice – Park Chan-wook
  • The Secret Agent – Kleber Mendonça Filho
  • Sentimental Value – Joachim Trier
  • The Ugly Stepsister – Emilie Blichfeldt

BEST PACIFIC NORTHWEST FEATURE FILM

  • Not One Drop of Blood – Jackson Devereux, Lachlan Hinton
  • To Kill a Wolf – Kelsey Taylor
  • Train Dreams – Clint Bentley
  • Twinless – James Sweeney
  • Wolf Land (Director’s Cut) – Sarah Hoffman
  • WTO/99 – Ian Bell

BEST PACIFIC NORTHWEST SHORT FILM

  • Charlotte, 1994 – Brian Pittala
  • A Fateful Weekend – Tony Doupe
  • Shelly’s Leg – Wes Hurley
  • Songs of Black Folk – Justin Emeka, Haley Watson
  • Style: A Seattle Basketball Story – Bryan Tucker

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

  • Frankenstein – Dan Laustsen
  • Hamnet – Łukasz Żal
  • One Battle After Another – Michael Bauman
  • Sinners – Autumn Durald Arkapaw
  • Train Dreams – Adolpho Veloso

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

  • Frankenstein – Kate Hawley
  • The Phoenician Scheme – Milena Canonero
  • Sinners – Ruth E. Carter
  • Train Dreams – Malgosia Turzanska
  • Wicked: For Good – Paul Tazewell

BEST FILM EDITING

  • F1® The Movie – Stephen Mirrione, Patrick J. Smith
  • Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie
  • One Battle After Another – Andy Jurgensen
  • Reflection in a Dead Diamond – Bernard Beets
  • Sinners – Michael P. Shawver

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

  • F1® The Movie – Hans Zimmer
  • Frankenstein – Alexandre Desplat
  • One Battle After Another – Jonny Greenwood
  • Sinners – Ludwig Göransson
  • Tron: Ares – Nine Inch Nails

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

  • Fantastic Four: First Steps – Kasra Farahani (Production Design); Jille Azis (Set Decoration)
  • Frankenstein – Tamara Deverell (Production Design); Shane Vieau (Set Decoration)
  • The Phoenician Scheme – Adam Stockhausen (Production Design); Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration)
  • Resurrection – Liu Qiang, Tu Nan
  • Sinners – Hannah Beachler (Production Design); Monique Champagne (Set Decoration)

BEST ACTION CHOREOGRAPHY

  • Avatar: Fire and Ash – Garrett Warren, Steve Brown, Stuart Thorp
  • From the World of John Wick: Ballerina – Stephen Dunlevy, Jackson Spindell
  • Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – Wade Eastwood
  • Predator: Badlands – Jacob Tomuri
  • Sinners – Andy Gill

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

  • Avatar: Fire and Ash – Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, Daniel Barrett
  • F1® The Movie – Ryan Tudhope, Nicolas Chevallier, Robert Harrington
  • Frankenstein – Dennis Berardi, Ayo Burgess, Ivan Busquets, José Granell
  • Predator: Badlands – Olivier Dumont, Alec Gillis, Sheldon Stopsack, Karl Rapley
  • Sinners – Michael Ralla, Espen Nordahl, Guido Wolter, Donnie Dean

VILLAIN OF THE YEAR

  • Aunt Gladys – Weapons (as portrayed by Amy Madigan)
  • Col. Steven J. Lockjaw – One Battle After Another (as portrayed by Sean Penn)
  • Laura – Bring Her Back (as portrayed by Sally Hawkins)
  • Lex Luthor – Superman (as portrayed by Nicholas Hoult)
  • Remmick – Sinners (as portrayed by Jack O’Connell)