Awards season has a way of diminishing the movie year into a handful of films that are talked about ad nauseam for months. But as good as some of this year’s Oscar nominees are, you have to go outside the consensus — and the same old categories — to remember the best of 2025.
So ahead of Sunday’s Oscars, Associated Press Film Writers Lindsey Bahr and Jake Coyle have selected their own awards, because while a movie year might be celebrated for its best film or best performances, dishing out honors for the best cat or funniest prop is just as important.
Most pure display of movie-star charisma: Keke Palmer, ‘One of Them Days’
Keke Palmer has been good in many things (especially Jordan Peele’s “Nope”), but she’s a sensational dynamo in “One of Them Days.” The movie, in the spirit of “Friday,” takes place across a desperate day in Los Angeles, and Palmer carries it throughout. Theatrical studio comedies are practically extinct but Palmer in “One of Them Days” reminds you what we’ve been missing. —J.C.
Best cat: ‘Sorry, Baby’
There must be something wrong with us as a society that Eva Victor felt the need to clarify that nothing bad happens to the tiny gray tabby on the poster for “Sorry, Baby.” Olga, played by Noochie, is just there for cuddles, coffee and to give Agnes, and the audience, a smile. —L.B.
Most ecstatic religious ceremony: ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’
In Mona Fastvold’s richly earthy drama about Shaker founder Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried), nothing is more glorious than the Protestant sect’s ritual dances. In secret gatherings, bodies sway and heave — and, yes, shake — in spiritual communion, sinuously moving to Shaker hymns rearranged by Daniel Blumberg. “Step it Up” and “Bring it On” have nothing on “The Testament of Ann Lee.” —J.C.
Funniest prop: The goldfish in ‘Splitsville’
In the scope of the broad relationship comedy “Splitsville,” the goldfish are rather minor players. And yet their existence in a kids bedroom that gets torn apart by two men (Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino) fighting over a woman (Dakota Johnson) sets into motion one of the funniest movie scenes of the year, in which Marvin’s character makes the ill-advised decision to go on a roller coaster holding a half-dozen water-filled bags of (fake) goldfish. It is silly. It is dumb. It was not an easy sequence to film. And it works. —L.B.
Best opening: ‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl’
In Rungano Nyoni’s arresting second feature, a woman named Shula (Susan Chardy) is driving down an empty Zambian road at night while dressed as Missy Elliott — specifically the garbage-bag Missy Elliott of the “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” music video. In the middle of the road she sees a man lying down dead, and realizes it’s her uncle. “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” goes from there, digging into a dark family past. But you’d be hard pressed to find a more beguiling start to a movie. —J.C.
Best use of a star, as a star: Gwyneth Paltrow in ‘Marty Supreme’
Really this should be about all the extraordinary “Marty Supreme” supporting cast who didn’t get their due, but let’s just appreciate the great Gwyneth Paltrow for a moment and her perfect casting as a silent-era star now in her 50s. I refuse to say “fading” because Kay is luminous other among mortals, the perfect use of a movie star as movie star. Also, she’s a witheringly wise counterpart to Marty’s delusions. Let’s hope it’s not another seven years before her next significant role. —L.B.
Best location find: ‘One Battle After Another’
It’s rare that a scene is so good that it gives you goose bumps as it’s happening. But the roller-coaster car-chase finale of Paul Thomas Anderson’s film will stand as an all-timer. Essential to that is the so-called “River of Hills” road near Borrego Springs, California, a spot stumbled upon by location manager Michael Glaser. —J.C.
Most devastating costume: Nina Hoss in ‘Hedda’
The best kind of costumes tell a story and there was scarcely a more heartbreaking turn than Eileen Lovborg’s (Nina Hoss) in Nia DaCosta’s “Hedda.” Eileen — a brilliant, proudly queer academic in a world dominated by men — is making her triumphant and sober return at a party, dressed to kill in a bust-hugging gown that will eventually be cruelly manipulated and used against her. Bravo to costume designer Lindsay Pugh. —L.B.
Best psychedelic experience: Tim Robinson in ‘Friendship’
Think of on-screen hallucinatory trips and you probably imagine something wild and colorful, something like “Alice in Wonderland.” But in Andrew DeYoung’s “Friendship,” a quest for enlightenment takes the most hysterically mundane turn you’ve ever seen. When Tim Robinson’s suburban schlub Craig Waterman is handed an exotic frog to lick, he’s promised a mind-altering experience. What he gets, I won’t ruin, but it involves the sandwich franchise Subway. —J.C.
Best performance by a child: Lexi Venter in ‘Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight’
A wise critic once told me that he never criticizes a child’s performance — fault lies only with the director. Does the same logic apply to a great one? Perhaps. Embeth Davidtz found magic in the non-professional star of her directorial debut. Lexi Venter was 7 when Davidtz entrusted her with the role of Bobo, smartly knowing that the best thing she could do was help create scenarios where she didn’t have to act. —L.B.
Best elevator pitch: ‘No Other Choice’
After 25 years at a paper mill, a man is laid off. Fretful of losing his house and his family, he analyzes his closest competition for a new job, and decides to bump off each one. Who wouldn’t want to see that movie? The source of Park Chan-wook’s latest thriller is Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 novel “The Ax” (already adapted into a 2005 film by Costa-Gavras). In the hands of Park, it’s a perfect movie concept that plays out in elegant derangement. —J.C.
Most beautifully tone-shifting scene: Bridget Everett and Josh O’Connor in ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’
In the middle of a hurried chase for clues, the detective trail of Rian Johnson’s third “Knives Out” mystery suddenly goes off the rails. When O’Connor’s Father Jud Duplenticy calls a construction company to track something down, his conversation with a woman named Louise (Everett) turns acutely personal. Her mother is in hospice, she says, and she’s struggling. Father Jud shifts from private eye to spiritual guide, and “Wake Up Dead Man” transforms from murder mystery into something more deeply empathetic. —J.C.
