Every December, we learn which movies are considered the best of the year, and 2025 has been a great one for movies—both French and worldwide. While there is no shortage of compelling films about personal achievement and struggle, what jumps out this year is the avalanche of impassioned films that take on politics.
In Frenchly’s roundup of the best French films of 2025, there are two, It Was Just an Accident and Ghost Trail, about the sinister practices of authoritarian regimes and victims seeking revenge. Souleymane’s Story provides a window into the daily struggles of a Guinean immigrant in Paris. The Covid story Suspended Time poses the kind of existential questions many of us had bouncing around our heads during that time. Women are often center stage in films about the rights many are struggling to hold on. All To Play For profiles a devoted mother fighting a Kafkaesque system of social services for her right to be a mother to her young son; Being Maria follows Last Tango in Paris actress Maria Schneider as she drowns in the fallout of one of the first #MeToo scandals; and Wild Diamond introduces us to a young woman who falls prey to the fame and fortune fantasies offered by social media and reality TV.
There is some fine lighter fare out there, like Richard Linklater’s marvel about French film history, Nouvelle Vague; François Ozon’s sly, twisty morality tale, When Fall is Coming; and Louise Courvoisier’s charming Holy Cow, about a party boy whose journey to adulthood involves a lot of cheese. But amid the proliferation of straight-to-streamer slop (like the markedly saccharine Omar Sy Netflix rom-com French Lover), these movies held their own. No matter what genre you’re looking for, these are some of the best French films of 2025.
The Top 15 French Movies of 2025
1. Nouvelle Vague, directed by Richard Linklater
In a love letter to cinema, the beloved director of Dazed and Confused, School of Rock, and the Before Sunset trilogy lovingly and meticulously recreates the production of legend Jean-Luc Godard’s revered debut, Breathless—entirely in French. With cinéma verité-style black and white cinematography, a cast of actors who look almost exactly like the famous cinéastes they’re playing—Truffaut, Chabrol, the whole New Wave gang—and a focus on Godard’s (Guillaume Marbeck) rebellious refusal to play by the rules, this film is a cinephile’s fantasy. Zooey Deutch and newcomer Aubry Dulin play the film’s leads, American diva Jean Seberg and amateur boxer Jean-Paul Belmondo, both launched to superstardom by Godard’s film. Sending us back to the streets of 1959 Paris feels like the best kind of sorcery, as Linklater pulls us in with nostalgia and keeps us with hilarity, tension, and movie magic.
Stream on Netflix.
2. It Was Just an Accident, directed by Jafar Panahi
In acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winning film (which is also France’s submission for the 2026 Oscars), a motley group of dissidents abducts a man they believe tortured them in prison. Panahi drew from his own experience being imprisoned for criticizing his country’s regime, and shot the film in secret. The tense, enthralling and morally complex tragicomic tale is an example of the oppressed turning the tables on the oppressor. But as the group bickers about what to do with the guy, it becomes clear that these are basically good people. Their nemesis might also be a basically good person—the film starts with a sweet scene with him and his family—but when ordered to commit heinous acts, he enthusiastically obeyed. Driven by vengeance, the victims reckon with the violence of their own impulses, eye-for-an-eye tactics that would make them no better than their torturer. The riveting film illustrates how cycles of violence are perpetuated, and suggests that acknowledging our enemies’ humanity might be the key to stopping them cold.
Preorder on Prime.
3. Who by Fire, directed by Philippe Lesage
This gorgeously layered and unsettling coming-of-age drama takes place in a log cabin deep in the woods of Quebec. When famous director Blake Cadieux (played by 2024 César winner Arieh Worthalter) invites his former collaborator (Paul Ahmarani) to his secluded man pad, along with his kids and his son’s best friend, Jeff (Noah Parker), everyone expects a relaxing good time. But longtime resentments erupt, putting everyone on edge. It doesn’t help that Jeff has fallen hard for his friend’s sister, Aliocha (Aurélia Arandi-Longpré). As tensions mount, the gathering becomes a dick-swinging contest lorded over by Blake, whose insistence on winning pushes the group into increasingly dangerous territory. But the moments of joy are equally affecting, especially an exuberant dance party set to the B-52s’ “Rock Lobster,” and nothing in Who by Fire is as simple as it seems. Despite some alarmingly bad behavior, we learn that people are complicated, and that even bullies are weighted down by their own personal pain.
Rent on Prime.
4. Souleymane’s Story, directed by Boris Lojkine
In a story ripped from the headlines, while Guinean immigrant Souleymane (Abou Sangare) waits for his immigration interview, he finds blood on his crisp, white shirt. We flash back to his life as a delivery guy in Paris. He’s on a bike whizzing through traffic, every second an accident waiting to happen. He picks up a pizza, drops it off, each time requiring someone to scan a link, type in a code. As he swerves, rings a bell, begs someone to dépêchez-vous, SVP!, we learn that he isn’t even using his own delivery account. For a fee, he rents one from an unpleasant guy who often refuses to pay. Souleymane needs the cash to pay another guy who’s getting him the necessary documents for his interview and quizzing him on his story. This guy doesn’t think Souleymane’s is strong enough to get his asylum application approved, and feeds him a sexier one involving prison, torture, and political passions. First-time actor Sangare’s riveting performance won the 2025 César for Best Male Revelation, and the film also won for Editing and Original Screenplay. The chaos all leads to the moment when Souleymane tells his story—to an immigration worker (Best Supporting Actress winner, Nina Meurisse), who actually seems to care. All we can do is pray for this sympathetic and determined man, whose story couldn’t matter more.
Stream on Kino. Rent on YouTube or Google Play.
5. Ghost Trail, directed by Jonathan Millet
When we meet Syrian refugee Hamid (Adam Bessa), he’s being dumped in the desert to die. Two years later he’s in Strasbourg working in construction. Hamid is part of an anonymous group that hunts escaped Syrian war criminals, and he is obsessed with finding the man who tortured him in prison—as if nailing his nemesis will relieve the loss and pain that haunts him. Hamid becomes convinced that his tormentor is posing as Sami Hamma (Tawfeek Barhom), a chemistry postgrad at the local university. The genius of the tense, gripping thriller, the opening night film at Cannes’ Critics’ Week, is that no one trusts anyone. Everyone is suspicious, everyone lies. We know Hamid isn’t who he says he is, but is he a seeker of truth and justice—or a vigilante driven by vengeance alone? Bessa’s electric, immensely moving performance, which earned him a nomination for Best Male Revelation at the 2025 César Awards, reveals complex layers of trauma: the sadness that comes in waves, the need to know, the desire to rip this guy’s head off. It’s the story that pulls us in, and Bessa’s performance that keeps us there, praying for redemption.
Stream on Mubi. Rent on YouTube or Fandango at Home.
6. When Fall is Coming, directed by François Ozon
With its fairy tale backdrop and exquisite depictions of everyday life, the latest from provocateur adoré François Ozon might remind you of a Mike Leigh film—until the main character inadvertently poisons her bitchy daughter with the wild mushrooms she foraged that morning. That’s when we know we’re in Ozon territory. In a César-nominated role, Hélène Vincent plays Michelle, an upbeat, generous retiree who spends her languid days with her longtime best friend Marie-Claude (Josiane Balasko). When the film opens, Michelle is eagerly awaiting a weeklong visit with her beloved grandson, Lucas (Garlan Erlos). Once her daughter (Ludivine Sagnier) has her stomach pumped, though, she announces that her son can’t stay—Michelle is clearly dangerous. From there, this preternaturally happy woman turns dark and wistful, until fate intervenes. It’s a story about the sins of mothers visited upon their children—but what if they’re only perceived as sinful by ungrateful children? It’s a queer fairy tale where the witch goes up in a poof of smoke, and it’s as charming as it is twisted, just as we expect from Ozon.
Stream on Prime, Tubi or Plex. Rent on YouTube or Fandango at Home.
7. Suspended Time, directed by Olivier Assayas
In a barely fictionalized version of his own Covid lockdown at his family’s country home in Chevreuse, Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep, Personal Shopper) gives audiences a peek into a moment when life stood still. Interspersed with segments in which Assayas himself narrates memories of childhood summers at the house, his stand-in, Paul Berger (Vincent Macaigne) shelters in place with his rock journalist brother Etienne (Micha Lescot) and their respective partners. Much of the humor comes from the brothers’ clashing lockdown styles. Neurotic Paul obsesses about masks and hand sanitizer, while Etienne makes fun of him. Etienne indulges a serious crêpe habit and keeps his emotions bottled up until they come out screaming like steam from a kettle. He is itchy to get out, while Paul appreciates the time playing tennis and sharing elaborate meals in the garden. Diehard fans will appreciate this glimpse into the private life of a beloved filmmaker, while others might find the film slight or even masturbatory. I love, love, loved it, but I live for stories of navel-gazing artists, especially smart, insightful, hilarious ones like this. I’ll take boredom, pettiness, and exposition by Oliver Assayas over just about anyone else’s high-speed car chase any day.
8. Holy Cow, directed by Louise Courvoisier
When we meet 18-year-old party boy Totone (Clément Faveau), he’s wasted and doing an impromptu striptease at the town fair, his buddies cheering him on. Then his father dies, and the reckless slacker is forced to step up and take care of his little sister and figure out how to save the family farm. After a stint working at a neighboring dairy farm, where he picks a fight with the farmer’s sons and falls for his daughter (Maïwene Barthelemy), Totone is inspired to make cheese himself to win a €30,000 prize for best Comté in the Jura region, where he lives. While he specializes in screwing up and pissing people off, it turns out Totone is also a hard worker who does whatever it takes to achieve his goals—even lying, cheating, and stealing from the people he cares about. There’s humor in watching Totone make a mess of things, but a deeper satisfaction in witnessing him learn from his mistakes and take baby steps toward adulthood, the selfishness of childhood evolving into a moral code. Director Courvoisier’s first film, with its cast of non-actors, won the Youth Award in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes and Best Debut Film at the 2025 César Awards, as well as Best Female Revelation for Barthelemy.
Stream on Kino or Roku. Rent on YouTube or Fandango at Home.
9. All to Play For, directed by Delphine Deloget
In director Deloget’s riveting debut, a film that might make you shout obscenities at the screen, Virginie Efira plays Sylvie, a fun-loving single mother of two. One night while she is working late at the sweaty club where she tends bar, her younger son, Sofiane (Alexis Tonetti), sets the stove on fire trying to make French fries. His older brother Jean-Jacques (Félix Lefebvre), who usually babysits, arrives home late, just in time to rush his brother to the hospital in a shopping cart. Soon enough, child protective services show up and place the terrified Sofiane in a foster home. Sylvie tries to behave, believing this is all a big mistake, but she is uniquely terrible at controlling her emotions. There is never any doubt that Sylvie is a good mother, a fiercely loving and devoted mama bear ready to do anything to protect her kids. The villain here is a rigid system that punishes unconventionality and the inability to follow some vaguely defined parenting handbook in the sky. Watching her desperate attempts to get her son back is an exercise in frustration, but her refusal to back down is exhilarating, driven as it is by a love stronger than any faceless bureaucracy could imagine. Watch out, world, for Deloget, a bold and important new voice in French cinema.
Rent on Prime or Fandango at Home.
10. Little Amelie and the Character of Rain, directed by Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han
Amélie (Loïse Charpentier) thinks she’s God for the first two years of her life. Based on the novel by Belgian author Amélie Nothomb, this enchanting animated film is generating Oscar buzz with its portrait of a three-year-old Belgian girl living with her family in Japan. Life through the eyes of this unique, precocious child is a dreamscape of floating soap bubbles, ravenous carp, and magical powers that allow a toddler to part the ocean waves and make flowers bloom. After being unable to speak for years and declared “a vegetable” by her doctor, Amélie is ripped from her silence by an earthquake and says her first word: aspirateur—vacuum cleaner. From there she’s off and running, exhausting her parents, annoying her siblings, getting lost and almost drowning—twice. Along the way, she follows the family housekeeper Nishio-san (Victoria Grosbois) around like a puppy and learns profound lessons about family, friendship, mortality, and life’s many disappointments. While some might call it twee or sentimental, it’s worth putting judgement aside and watching this delightful film with the eyes of a child.
11. Misericordia, directed by Alain Guiraudie
When Jérémie (Félix Kysyl) returns to his hometown for the funeral of his beloved former boss at the local bakery, everyone pays attention. He asks his mentor’s widow (Catherine Frot) if he can stay a while, inciting big emotions. Her son, for one, is pissed, convinced his childhood rival has the hots for his mom. Other neighbors, especially the busybody local priest (Jacques Develay), are intrigued. When a local goes missing, the strangely paced and surprisingly funny story shifts seamlessly into thriller mode, with oddball local cops showing up at all hours and lots of suspicious trips into the woods—for truffle hunting and more nefarious activities. Director Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake) is known for LGBTQ themes, and this one blends carnality, intrigue, and violence in ways that continually upend audience expectations, often provoking huge laughs. This twisty, sly thriller is unlike any other you’ve seen.
12. Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, directed by Laura Piani
In the romcom you didn’t know you needed, Camille Rutherford plays Agathe, a French Jane Austen-obsessed would-be writer who works at Shakespeare and Company, the famous English language bookstore on Paris’s Left Bank. When Agathe hastily scribbles the opening chapters of a novel, her womanizing bestie Félix (Pablo Pauly) submits them to a writing residency at Austen’s estate in England. While Agathe lists all the reasons she can’t go, Félix drives her to the ferry… and kisses her seconds before she boards. Arriving in England, Agathe meets Austen’s grumpy great-great-great-grandnephew Oliver (Charlie Anson), et voilà—a love triangle. French screenwriter Piani’s directorial debut, which plays out in French and English, poses the question, “What’s a Jane Austen heroine supposed to do in the 21st century?” Agathe doesn’t need a man the way Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters do, but true love—and a sex life—would be nice. Agathe also wants to write, wrestle her personal demons… and avoid getting spit in the face by a llama. She is a modern woman with the standard dose of quirks, imperfections, and baggage. While Jane Austen doesn’t wreck her life, her books—with their marriage schemes and glowering love interests—create unrealistic expectations. What if Agathe’s own bold choices became the force pushing her toward a life that exceeds all of them? Liberated from fear and self-doubt, lovely, awkward Agathe might just become the heroine of her own story of self-acceptance, fulfillment, and yes, even love.
Stream on Netflix.
13. Wild Diamond, directed by Agathe Riedinger
In this tense, emotional Cannes favorite, surly, fame-obsessed 19-year-old, Liane (Malou Khebizi), lives for the likes and love she gets for dancing on TikTok, and dreams of becoming a nightclub dancer or influencer. An audition for reality show Miracle Island promises a ticket out of the crappy apartment she shares with her uninterested mom and energetic little sister in Fréjus in the south of France. In real life, no one believes she will get the gig, but Liane—religious and virginal, despite her short shorts and fake breasts—has faith that the world will present her with more than this ordinary small-town life. A young man she knows from her foster home days offers love and security, but she’s wary of being strapped to her hometown. The audience, on the other hand, can’t help but worry about a universe where this young woman with no real experience with men is expected to sex it up with a houseful of reality TV stars. It’s like throwing a fawn, albeit a feisty one, to the wolves.
Stream on Prime. Rent on YouTube or Google Play.
14. Being Maria, directed by Jessica Palud
Director Palud’s buzzy biopic about Last Tango in Paris star Maria Schneider could be pulled from today’s headlines about consent and post-#MeToo cancel culture. Following her breakthrough role as a college student seeking an illegal abortion in Audrey Diwan’s stunning film Happening, Anamaria Vartolomei here portrays another young woman whose innocence is shattered, provoking anger and resistance as she bucks up against a misogynistic system unwilling to shield a woman from abuse at the hands powerful men. In 1972, Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci (Giuseppe Maggio) plucked Schneider from obscurity to star in his controversial film alongside Marlon Brando (Matt Dillon). All goes well until the notorious butter scene, which Schneider claimed she never consented to. The film was banned for obscenity, and Schneider’s reputation tarnished. Speaking openly to the press about feeling violated turned her into film biz poison, and her life spiraled. Being Maria bravely explores the public and private fallout of Schneider’s trauma, and gives voice to an early victim of sexual violence in the film industry.
Stream on Kino. Rent on YouTube or Fandango at Home.
15. The President’s Wife, directed by Léa Domenach
Jacques Chirac was the president of France from 1995-2007. In this fictionalized version of his presidency, Chirac (played by Michel Vuillermoz as a bit of a dope) arrives at the Élysée Palace with his faithful wife, Bernadette, at his side. But the woman who ignored his infidelities to help him become president is pushed aside by her husband—and everyone else. Chirac can’t even be bothered to invite her to stand with him as he addresses the public. Feeling snubbed and determined to get the respect she deserves, Bernadette tells her chief of staff, Bernard (Denis Podalydès), that it’s time for a makeover. Who better to play the smart, savvy first lady than French cinematic royalty Catherine Deneuve? Still striking, Deneuve injects feminist fire and spunk into her performance as a woman who refuses to be ignored. While Madame Chirac’s whirlwind rebranding tour—complete with a chic new wardrobe, a flirtation with a boy band singer, and confrontations with her hubby’s political rivals—doesn’t offer much narrative tension or political insight, the film is very funny—and it’s a blast to see Deneuve having such a good time.
Rent on YouTube or Google Play.
Also recommended: Auction, A Private Life, Les Balconettes, The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, Meeting with Pol Pot, and Honeymoon Crasher. We’re also waiting breathlessly for buzzy Spanish-French co-production Sirât and Roman Polanski’s An Officer and a Spy to become available on streaming channels.
Andrea Meyer has written creative treatments for commercial directors, a sex & the movies column for IFC, and a horror screenplay for MGM. Her first novel, Room for Love (St. Martin’s Press) is a romantic comedy based on an article she wrote for the New York Post, for which she pretended to look for a roommate as a ploy to meet men. A long-time film and entertainment journalist and former indieWIRE editor, Andrea has interviewed more actors and directors than she can remember. Her articles and essays have appeared in such publications as Elle, Glamour, Variety, Time Out NY, and the Boston Globe.irectors than she can remember. Her articles and essays have appeared in such publications as Elle, Glamour, Variety, Time Out NY, and the Boston Globe.
