Best of 2025

A moving moment in Sinners

A bit late this year but finally got round to it…

Film:

Jay Kelly

Runners-up: Frankenstein, Sinners, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

Last year: The Brutalist

Foreign-Language Film:

It Was Just An Accident

Last year: Emilia Pérez

Documentary:

Becoming Led Zeppelin

Runnesr-up: Motherboard, Broken English, The Powerstation, Facing War

Last year: The Commandant’s Shadow

Male Lead:

Jeremy Allen White – Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere 

Runners-up: Michael B. Jordan – Sinners, Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another, George Clooney – Jay Kelly, Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein, Daniel Day-Lewis – Anemone

Last year: Timothée Chalomet – A Complete Unknown

Female Lead:

Jessie Buckley – Hamnet

Runners-up: Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another

Last year: Marisa Abela – Back to Black

Male Support:

Adam Sandler – Jay Kelly

Runners-up: Jack O’Connell – Sinners, Jason Isaacs – Heavyweight, Russell Crowe – Nuremberg, Paul Mescal – Hamnet

Last year: Jeremy Strong – The Apprentice

Female Support:

Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners

Runner-up: –

Last year: Selena Gomez  – Emilia Pérez

Director:

Ryan Coogler – Sinners

Runners-up: Noah Baumbach – Jay Kelly, Guillermo del Toro – Frankenstein, Richard LInklater – Nouvelle Vague, Chloe Zhao – Hamnet

Last year:Brady Corbet – The Brutalist

Scriptwriter:

Ryan Coogler – Sinners

Runners-up: Noah Baumbach – Jay Kelly, Guillermo del Toro – Frankenstein

Last year: Kneecap – Rich Peppiatt

Editing:

Michael Shawver – Sinners

Last year: Emilia Pérez – Juliette Welfling

Cinematography:

Autumn Durald – Sinners

Runner-up: Dan Laustsen – Frankenstein

Last year: The Brutalist – Lol Crawley

Sound:

Chris Weckler – Sinners

Last year: –

Film Music:

 Ludwig Göransson – Sinners

Last year: –

Single/Song:

Azizam – Ed Sheeran

Last year: Wild God – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Album:

Van Morrison – Remembering Now
Robert Plant with Suzi Dian – Saving Grace

Last year: Wild God – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Gig:

Bitches Brew 55th anniversary – Jazz Cafe

Public Service Broadcasting & She Drew the Gun – Bexhill, De La Warr

Neil Young & the Chrome Hearts – Hyde Park

Robert Plant & Saving Grace – Eastbourne

John Grant – Brighton, Dome

The Ruts DC – Brighton, Chalk

Level 42 – Brighton, Dome

Last year: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (O2) & Elbow (Brighton Centre Audio Vertigo tour)

Play:

The Wier (Harold Pinter Theatre)

Runners-up: Entertaining Mr Sloane (Young Vic), Lord of the Flies (Chichester FT)

Last year: Jesus Christ Superstar – Towner, Eastbourne

Art Exhibition:

Leigh Bowery! (Tate Modern)

Jenny Saville (NPG)

Sussex Modernism (Towner, Eastbourne), Secrets of the Thames (London Museum Docklands)

Last year: Philip Guston (Tate Modern)

Book:

The Parade – Dave Eggers

The Long Island Compromise – Taffy B-Ackner

Tender is the Night – FSF

Last year: What will survive of us? – Howard Jacobson

TV:

SAS Rogue Heroes S2

White Lotus S3

Runner-up: The Last Frontier

Last year: This Town

Podcast:

Re:Joyce

Last Year: A Muslim and A Jew Go There

Sport:

England v Canada – Women’s Rugby World Cup Final, and the performances of Elie Kildunne throughout the competition

Last Year: various moments I happened to catch at the Paris Olympics

Dance:

The Red Shoes (Sadlers Wells)

Last Year: –

Comedy:

–

Last Year: Simon Brodkin – Hammersmith Odeon

Event:

One night at the NED

Chris Martin of Coldplay identifying the couple in the crowd for what they were ““Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy’.”

Dearly departed:

Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Diane Keaton, Terence Stamp, Val Kilmer, Michael Madsen, Rob Reiner, David Lodge, Tom Stoppard, Tom Lehrer, Martin Parr, Marianne Faithfull, Roberta Flack, Sly Stone, Brian Wilson, Lalo Schifrin, George Foreman

Best of 2024 and links to earlier Bests Of 

Brendan Gleeson in Conor McPherson’s The Weir