We’re breaking our usual format this week to cover our top picks of the films released in 2025. We’ll each discuss our top ten picks from the 2025 films as well as our favorite things we watched of the older films we watched last year as well. We’ll discuss a handful of short films too!
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Short Films:
2022 Short Film CIMIM
Directed by: Cody Mobley
Written by: Cody Mobley
Stars: Darian Michael Garey, Mike Duff, Daniel Kohl
Run Time: 5 Minutes
Watch it:
What Happens
A group of campers banter about cats vs. dogs. One girl mentions she has edibles in the truck. She goes to grab them, and when she returns, she finds herself still sitting at the campfire. Her doppelgänger opens her eyes and freaks everyone out. One by one, it quickly picks off the campers…
Commentary
This is all filmed at night, but it’s still brightly lit, and you can see everything that’s going on. We don’t get much explanation for any of it, but then, neither do the campers. It’s very short, but also really well done.
And I have no idea what “CIMIM” means.
2025 Short Film The Last Thing She Saw
Directed by: Anthony Cousins, Rebecca Daugherty
Written by: Brady Richards
Stars: Bailey Bolton, Agatha Rae Pokrzywinski, Nathan Tymoshuk
Run Time: 9 Minutes
Watch it:
What Happens
Emmy has ordered a phone charger, and when the doorbell rings, she answers it. Turns out, it’s a home invasion, and now her phone is dead. She’s just the house sitter, so she doesn’t know the combination to the safe.
Emmy has seen the face of one of the intruders, so he plucks out her eyeballs. The rest is all shown through the eyeball’s point of view…
Commentary
Well, that was different. These don’t seem like smart crooks, and this was not a well-planned robbery. Still, the eyeball on a string is something I’ve always wondered about.
This is gross, nasty, and actually pretty funny.
2025 Short Film The Convenience Store
Directed by: Julian Davis
Written by: Julian Davis
Stars: Dominic Collantes, Amia Marisa, Max Ptasznik
Run Time: 10 Minutes
Watch it:
What Happens
Kira’s mother doesn’t like her working alone at the convenience store all night, but she needs the money. Kira hears something strange outside, but there’s nothing there when she looks.
The door opens, and her friend Tommy comes in. He doesn’t like her working alone either. She talks a bit and then gets to work restocking and stuff. The front door opens, and the security camera is no help at all.
She hears something outside again, and this time, it goes differently.
Commentary
It’s well acted, and the set is perfect. It’s the sort of store that’s not at all creepy until it is. It’s another of those shorts where we don’t really know why anything is happening, but we know exactly what’s happening. Nicely done!
2025 Short Film In a Nutshell
Directed by: Ryan Valdez
Written by: Ryan Valdez
Stars: Sarah Palmer, Ivan Djurovic, Chelsea Breeze
Run Time: 8 Minutes
Watch it:
What Happens
We zoom through what looks like a dollhouse, and then zoom out to see a woman assembling and painting it. She’s making a duplicate model of an actual crime scene. Her husband, Owen, thinks it’s not good for her to be looking at crime scenes and autopsy reports all day. She says it’s a one-time job, and it’ll be done soon.
We then see just how accurate Emma’s work really is, as it becomes reality…
Commentary
This is sharp and looks good. At no point are we unclear on what’s happening, but it’s still suspenseful to watch it play out.
2021 Short Film Sleep Talker
Directed by: Carl Firth
Written by: Sarah Emery, Carl Firth
Stars: Jessica Saras, John van Putten, Rhys James
Run Time: 7 Minutes
Watch it:
What Happens
Kelly comes home late after work and finds her husband, Curtis, already asleep. Or is he? There are sounds coming from the bedroom, so she checks it out. He’s in there, asleep, but he’s talking. No wait, is that really Curtis doing the talking?
Commentary
No one’s ever going to believe that actually happened, right?
It’s pretty dark, but we see all that we need to see. The “intruder” is really well done, and what he does is interesting as well. Creepy!
Best of 2025
Link to Last Year’s Ratings (2024)
This time around, we’ll be discussing our favorite films released in 2025. We made a list of everything we watched that was released in 2025, and we each made a top-ten list. There’s some overlap, so we’ll look at our individual picks first, then look at the ones we both chose. Note that these lists are the top ten for each of us, but we didn’t sort them into any special order: the top of the list isn’t necessarily the best of the ten.
At the end, we’ll also discuss some of the best things we watched this year that WEREN’T new releases. Overall, we’ll discuss 27 of our favorite films.
Brian’s Favorites of 2025 Films
Kevin’s Favorites of 2025 Films
Unanimous Favorites
Brian’s Favorite Not-New films
Kevin’s Favorite Not-New films
Both Agree
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