To celebrate 2025, I decided to start the first Max-scars looking back at the year in cinema. This is for films that got their Australian theatrical release in 2025. I’ve decided as well to add one new category every year. This year, best breakout performance (for actors under 25).

Actor in a Leading Role

Ethan Hawke

Blue Moon

Hawke is able to bring so much pathos to this character through only dialogue, creating a vivid portrait of an insecure but wildly charismatic musician.

Lee Byung-Hun

No Other Choice

Lee has to bring so much to this role, from drama to action to horror, selling Man-Su’s descent into madness perfectly.

Vahid Mobasseri

It Was Just An Accident

Mobasseri provides the centring for this film, full of moral ambiguity, depicting the trauma and humanity of a victim of the atrocities of the Iranian regime.

Jesse Plemons

Bugonia

Plemons brings a constant sense of danger and insecurity to this film, portraying a simultaneously sympathetic and manipulative figure.

Abou Sangare

Souleymane’s Story

Sangare carries this film from minute one, showing the sacrifices and stress of an immigrant on the streets of Paris, living on the outskirts of such a sprawling city.

WINNER

Abou Sangare

Actor in a Supporting Role

Miles Caton

Sinners

An underappreciated performance from this movie, Caton brings the heart and soul to Sinners with his spectacular musical performances and debut acting performance.

Ralph Fiennes

28 Years Later

Maybe the most versatile actor right now, Fiennes somehow perfectly captures a character as unique as Dr Kelson, showing us the beauty of death.

Sean Penn

One Battle After Another

Penn gives one of the most memorable villain performances of recent memory as Steven Lockjaw, bringing aggression, hatred and fascinating personal contradictions.

Alexander Skarsgård

Pillion

Alex Skarsgård portrays an authentic and subdued complexity in the emotionally distant and dominating (literally) biker Ray, who is never fully able to express his true self.

Stellan Skarsgård

Sentimental Value

Skarsgård is amazing in this movie as a deeply flawed man who clearly wants to reconnect with his daughters but struggles to do so outside of the medium of film.

WINNER

Stellan Skarsgard

Actress in a Leading Role

Jesse Buckley

Hamnet

An emotional tour de force from Buckley, portraying the grief and sorrow of a mother and showcasing the beauty and humanity of art as a mode of connection.

Rose Byrne

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Byrne gives a career defining perfomance, guiding the film through a panic attack of maternal stress.

Renate Reinsve

Sentimental Value

Reinsve aptly portrays the complexities of navigating difficult paternal relationships with a poetic level of humanity, showcasing how our upbringing shapes us.

Emma Stone

Bugonia

Stone does a great job keeping us guessing on the truth behind her character, flipping the girl boss CEO stereotype on its head.

Eva Victor

Sorry, Baby

Victor gives one of the most deeply human performances of the year, showing the vast complexities of dealing with trauma.

WINNER

Eva Victor

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Mariam Afshari

It Was Just An Accident

Afshari adds greatly to the depth and complexity of the movie, showing a different side of grief and revenge against oppressive powers.

Zara Devlin

Small Things Like These

Through minimal dialogue, Devlin is able to depict the impacts of the abuse of the Magdalene laundries.

Sally Hawkins

Bring Her Back

Hawkins flips her previous roles on their head, playing a deeply disturbed mother, making one of my most memorable roles of the year.

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleas

Sentimental Value

Lilleas gives a much quieter and more subtle performance compared to Reinsve, still bringing a tremendous depth of emotion.

Amy Madigan

Weapons

A transformative role for Madigan, she brings the terror to this movie with some of the most memorable moments of the year as Aunt Gladys.

WINNER

Sally Hawkins

Animated Feature Film

Arco

Arco is a sweeping sci-fi story anchored in the story of a friendship between Arco and Iris, depicting a wholly unique view of the future.

K-Pop Demon Hunters

How can you not have fun watching K-Pop Demon Hunters? High energy, great music with tremendous heart behind it.

Little Amelie or the Character in the Rain

A poetic film and truly unique perspective on the experiences and perspectives of a baby and toddler, showing the magic of childhood.

Predator: Killer of Killers

This is what Predator fans have wanted for a long time, showing Yautja throughout different timelines, with the Samurai and Viking settings particularly standing out.

Zootopia 2

A strong follow-up to the original Zootopia, this movie continues the fun while greatly developing its world and characters.

WINNER

Arco

Animated Short Film

Butterfly

One of the most beautifully looking animated films I’ve seen this year, showing the life of French-Jewish swimmer Alfred Nakache.

Forevergreen

Cute vibes but pretty forgettable overall.

Retirement Plan

A very simple film showing the great depths of life, with a man imagining what he’ll do when he retires.

The Girl Who Cried Pearls

Extremely unique animation that can only be described as grimy, emulating the feeling of a Hans Christian Andersen or Brothers Grimm fable.

The Three Sisters

Not particularly funny, and animation that would have looked bad 10 years ago, definitely the weakest of the nominees.

WINNER

Retirement Plan

Breakout Performance

Miles Canton

Sinners

In his first film role, Canton is able to combine his acting and musical talents spectacularly.

Cary Christopher

Weapons

Christopher has a lot to do portraying Alex, excellently showing the fear he lives in with Aunt Gladys.

Chase Infiniti

One Battle After Another

Another first film role, Infiniti as Willa Ferguson, represents the new generation, trying to live up to the revolutionary ideals she grew up with.

Alfie Williams

28 Years Later

At only 14 years old, Williams has to carry this film as Spike, experiencing the horrors of a zombie apocalypse and a coming-of-age story.

Sora Wong

Bring Her Back

Having only been in a school play before this makes Wong’s performance even more mindblowing, playing the terror of a foster child involved in a supernatural nightmare.

WINNER

Miles Canton

Casting

Bring Her Back

Nikki Barrett

This film excels in its casting with both young and relatively unknown actors and casting actors like Sally Hawkins against type.

It Was Just An Accident

Jafar Panahi

Working with mostly unknown Iranian actors and filmed in secret, this film is astounding in the power of its performances.

Marty Supreme

Jennifer Venditti

Like many other Safdie films, this draws its supporting cast from lots of non-actors, including rappers, internet figures, basketball players, TV personalities and cult film directors.

One Battle After Another

Cassandra Kulukundis

An amazing ensemble cast with so many memorable and well-acted roles, including the unknown talent of Chase Infiniti.

Sinners

Francine Maisler

Very similar to One Battle, Sinners combines legendary actors and performances with young talent like Miles Caton.

WINNER

It Was Just An Accident

Cinematography

Hamnet

Lukasz Zal

The visual language of the film is so important to Agnes’ journey of loss, grief, and acceptance, with the camera often telling more of the story than the characters.

One Battle After Another

Michael Bauman

I was lucky enough to see this in 70mm, making this film all the more stunning. From wide shots of the desert to stunning action-packed car chases, Bauman captures this movie brilliantly.

No Other Choice

Woo-hyung Kim

Like all Park Chan-Wook movies, No Other Choice has consistently inventive framing, amazing, meticulously designed wide shots and groundbreaking transitions. Some particular standouts are the greenhouse and Man-Soo holding the flowerpot.

Sinners

Autumn Durald Arkapaw

The premise of this film, being set during one day, makes the cinematography all the more impressive, using every part of the day to create beautiful frames and enhance the story.

Train Dreams

Adolpho Veloso

Highly naturalistic in its filming, the wide shots of the dense forest help us understand the beauty and deep unknowing in Grainier’s life.

WINNER

Hamnet

Costume Design

28 Years Later

Gareth Pugh & Carson McColl

Through the costumes, this movie is able to create a specific and wholly unique depiction of a post-apocalyptic Britain.

Frankenstein

Kate Hawley

In Frankenstein, the costuming provides a distinct sense of place, taking us to Victorian-era England, adding a sense of opulence.

Hamnet

Malgosia Turzanska

There is so much life in all the costumes from Hamnet. Costume designer Malgosia Turzanska doesn’t take an approach of pure historical accuracy, instead focussing on more on costumes as an emotional tool.

Marty Supreme

Miyako Bellizzi

The anachronisms of this film make the accuracy of the 1950s costuming so important to provide grounding. On top of this, Marty’s outfits throughout the film are so important to his character and the image he tries to project to the world.

The Mastermind

Amy Roth

Some of the best suits and sweaters I’ve seen in film. The costume so perfectly captures the 1970s and the suburban middle-class milieu of Josh O’Connor’s character.

WINNER

The Mastermind

Directing

Ryan Coogler

Sinners

Coogler creates a truly unique world of blues, vampires, and the power of black music and culture throughout time.

Jafar Panahi

It Was Just An Accident

Panahi explores the trauma and victimisation of Iran through empathetic and incredibly authentic portrayals of the different reactions and responses to systems of oppression.

Park Chan-Wook

No Other Choice

Park’s scathing and darkly comedic take on capitalism and the Korean social and economic culture succeeds in its commitment to its portrayal of Man-Su’s total unravelling.

Paul Thomas Anderson

One Battle After Another

Going from mainly period pieces and character studies, PTA takes a huge swing directing such a modern and politically potent movie. Like most movies, he anchors his message in deeply complex and layered characters.

Joachim Trier

Sentimental Value

Trier brings a simplicity to this movie that succeeds in the subtleties of the performances, editing, writing, and cinematography. Trier brings out some of the best performances from both Stellan Skarsgaard and Renate Reinsve’s careers, creating a layered look at family dynamics.

WINNER

Park Chan-Wook

Documentary Feature Film

Cutting Through The Rocks

The strength of this movie is really in the power of its focus, female councillor Sara Shahverdi, fighting against a system that doesn’t want her to succeed.

Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk

The emotional weight of this film can’t be overstated, focusing on the horrors and sorrow of the Palestinian genocide through the story of Fatma Hassouna.

Not Only Fred Dagg But Also John Clarke

A fun and genuine look back at one of the best comedians Australia and New Zealand has seen.

The Alabama Solution

A truly groundbreaking and revolutionary approach to exposing the prison industrial complex, showing the human impact from the perspective of the incarcerated.

The Perfect Neighbour

Power through portrayal showing how hate festers and its impact on marginalised people, showing the murder of Ajike Owens primarily through police body cam footage.

WINNER

The Alabama Solution

Documentary Short Film

All The Empty Rooms

While the message is powerful and well portrayed for such a short doc, I feel that too much focus is on the journalist over the victims.

Armed With Only a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud

While the message and the life of Brent Renaud are powerful, the tone and editing leave a lot to be desired.

Children No More: “Were and Gone”

There are some strong ideas and a powerful ethos, but the lack of focus really brings this down.

The Devil Is Busy

The portrayal of the pain and fear of women trying to receive medical care is already powerful; the focus of this film on the deeply empathetic and religious Tracii makes this doc incredibly engaging.

Perfectly a Strangeness

Pretty boring.

WINNER

The Devil Is Busy

Film Editing

28 Years Later

Jon Harris

Definitely the most unique editing of the year, the high octane energy and the mixture of zombie violence and martial footage really works for me.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Lucian Johnston

Truly a 2-hour panic attack, the focus of this movie is through its claustrophobic and stressful editing and the unique decision to not show the daughter, putting us into the mindset of Linda.

No Other Choice

Kim Sang-Beom & Kim Ho-Bin

Park Chan-Wook has always had great editing in his films, and No Other Choice is no exception. Great pacing, transitions and some memorable scenes elevate this film.

One Battle After Another

Andy Jurgensen

At over 2.5 hours, this movie doesn’t feel it with amazingly edited sequences and overall pacing, including one of the most uniquely exhilarting edits of a car chase in cinema history.

Weapons

Joe Murphy

A bold move to have such an unconventional structure ends up being the most memorable part of the movie, creating interesting, funny and complex characters in a wild ride of a movie.

WINNER

One Battle After Another

International Feature Film

Homebound

India

Homebound feels both of the moment and timeless with the powerful story of a friendship fighting through societal classism and the brutality of COVID-19.

It Was Just An Accident

Almost more allegorical than literal It Was Just An Accident thrives in its lack of fear to showcase the complexity and brutality of authoritarianism.

Iran, France, Luxembourg

No Other Choice

South Korea

Maybe the most underappreciated director of all time by the Oscars, Park Chan-Wook’s No Other Choice is a searing, wild and darkly satirical analysis of modern-day capitalism in South Korea.

Sentimental Value

Norway

A powerful and complex family drama delving into the sacrifices made for art and its power to bring us together and put the indescribable into motion.

Souleymane’s Story

France

A singular and unrelenting look at the struggles and humanity of an African immigrant seeking asylum and trying to survive in a country and system built against him.

WINNER

No Other Choice

Live Action Short Film

A Friend of Dorothy

A fun and genuine story about queer friendship and discovery, with an admittedly predictable story.

Butcher’s Stain

While the idea here is admirable, the result feels more like sloganeering, creating unrealistically black and white morals.

Jane Austen’s Period Drama

Feels more like a sketch than a short film, but is still a very funny twist on “period” pieces.

The Singers

A simple story is elevated by a genuine sense of humour, great performances and some amazing lighting and cinematography.

Two People Exchanging Saliva

A unique look at a dystopian society, this film explores a lot of ideas and goes into a lot of depth for such a short runtime.

WINNER

The Singers

Makeup and Hairstyling

28 Years Later

Flora Moody

Amazing zombie makeup matching the brutality of the film, as well as the memorable look of Dr Kelson, creating one of the unique characters in modern horror. This film also creates a unique look at an isolated society through detailed costuming.

Bring Her Back

Bec Buratto

Some really gnarly and gory practical effects, especially the memorable look of Oliver.

Hedda

Sharon Martin

Some great period costuming that is meticulously designed to match the personality and desires of each character. The makeup of the titular Hedda is also perfectly designed to showcase her social and mental downfall.

The Smashing Machine

Kazu Hiro & Mia Neal

Maybe the main draw of this movie is The Rock playing a unique character, which is made all the more realistic by the transformative makeup turning Johnson into Mark Kerr and showing the physical impacts of his commitment to boxing.

The Ugly Stepsister

Anne Catherine Sauerberg & Thomas Foldberg

Some of the most memorable body horror, the titular Stepsister’s desire for conventional beauty has never been grosser.

WINNER

28 Years Later

Music (Original Score)

28 Years Later

Young Fathers

A very original score from Scottish band Young Fathers that takes a much more electronic approach to their usual music, but still keeps their unique and memorable melodies that help propel this movie.

One Battle After Another

Jonny Greenwod

The sparse, jazzy score by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood is so important to the frenetic pace of this film that make it feel so consistently engaging and thrilling.

Marty Supreme

Daniel Lopatin

The anachronistic nature of this film is fuelled by Daniel Lopatin’s electronic score, pairing perfectly with the glitzy 80s soundtrack to contrast the 1950s timeline.

No Other Choice

Cho Young-Wuk

This score pairs classical music with Korean ballads to enhance the allegorical nature of the film.

Sinners

Ludwig Göransoon

Ludwig Göransson does it again with Ryan Coogler, creating a rich world of music celebrating the blues and soul of the American South.

WINNER

One Battle After Another

Music (Original Song)

Golden

K-Pop Demon Hunters

A really well-crafted pop song that does a good job of encapsulating its themes and Rumi’s journey.

Hunger and Thirst

The Testament of Ann Lee

A really powerful hymn that is singular in its recreation of the Shaker movement sound and the struggle of Ann Lee herself.

I Lied To You

Sinners

The true centrepiece of the film, this song is so important to both the storyline of the film and to Sammie’s character as he literally channels black history, culture, and passion.

Raspberry Fair

The Ballad of Wallis Island

Very Beatles-esque, this song and entire soundtrack do a spectacular job of recreating a specific British folk sound and allowing us to buy into this world and characters.

Your Idol

K-Pop Demon Hunters

A really fun track that is able to match the scale of the Saja Boys’ hypnosis of their fanbase.

WINNER

I Lied To You

Best Picture

28 Years Later

One of the most unique zombie films of all time, in its focus on a coming-of-age story, its unique setting of an isolated island community, its complex philosophy on the beauty of death and its sheer brutality.

Bring Her Back

It Was Just An Accident

Almost more allegorical than literal It Was Just An Accident thrives in its lack of fear to showcase the complexity and brutality of authoritarianism.

No Other Choice

Maybe the most underappreciated director of all time by the Oscars, Park Chan-Wook’s No Other Choice is a searing, wild and darkly satirical analysis of modern-day capitalism in South Korea.

One Battle After Another

Paul Thomas Anderson takes a bold swing into modern political filmmaking, succeeding through expert action-packed directing and complex, memorable characters.

Sentimental Value

A powerful and complex family drama delving into the sacrifices made for art and its power to bring us together and put the indescribable into motion.

Sinners

Sinners is able to pull off its bold genre clashes so effectively because it links the ideas so richly. The musical and historical aspects are so crucial to the motivations of the vampires that serve as colonising and exploitative forces to the characters and culture.

Sorry, Baby

An unflinchingly honest and personal look at how someone deals with a traumatic event. This film shows all sides of the process of dealing with this event through grief, comedy, and friendship.

Souleymane’s Story

A singular and unrelenting look at the struggles and humanity of an African immigrant seeking asylum and trying to survive in a country and system built against him.

Train Dreams

Based on the 2011 novella of the same name, this film somehow becomes a sweeping epic through its groundedness, looking at the life of a man in the early 1900s. Train Dreams provides a unique outlook on grief and harrowing events, viewing them as much a part of life as the beautiful.

WINNER

No Other Choice

Production Design

Hament

Fiona Crombie

The spaces and locations of this movie are so crucial to letting us buy into a past world and see the richness of their characters’ internal lives. Hamnet succeeds spectacularly in both the scale of the era and the details of the smaller locations like Agnes and Shakespeare’s home.

No Other Choice

Ryu Seong-Hie

The greenhouse in this film might be the most cinematically and thematically rich location this year, representing Man-Soo’s fanatical desire to maintain his upper-middle-class life.

Sinners

Hannah Beachler

The locations all feel so lived in and authentic to a time and community that is often overlooked in film, showing the depth of culture in the deep South during the Jim Crow period.

The Phoenician Scheme

Adam Stockhausen

Wes Anderson clearly had to make this list. The Phoenician Scheme continues its intense detail on symmetry, design and fantastical use of colour. The opening scene in the bathroom, particularly, is a masterclass in production design and blocking.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

Rick Heinrichs

The Knive Out movies are always so tied to their locations, and this third film may be the most exciting, well-designed location so far. The entire community and the grandeur of the traditional Catholic church all play into the fear and isolation of the characters.

WINNER

Sinners

Sound

28 Years Later

Johnnie Burn

Maybe the most unique element of this film with rich nature sound mixed with intense editing and terrifying sounds of the dead to create a sense of dread and fear in the post-apocalypse.

One Battle After Another

Christopher Scarabosio

The soundscape and use of extreme dynamics are crucial to make this movie so thrilling and create some of the most unique and exciting action sequences in recent cinema.

Sinners

Steven Boeddeker

There are two elements that Sinners excels in regarding their sound: the richness of the location and era, and the crisp and authentic recording of the musical performances.

Sirat

Laia Casanovas

The entire movie is truly based on the richness of its sound, with the sound design allowing the viewer to feel the rhythmic and sonic effects of rave culture.

The Mastermind

Ryan Billia & Dan Timmons

The Mastermind masterfully uses Foley and naturalistic recording to recreate the sounds of 1970s American suburbia.

WINNER

Sirat

Visual Effects

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Richard Baneham & Eric Saindon

Over 3 hours of some of the most groundbreaking visual effects, the Avatar series continues to push forward the technology and art of visual effects.

Predator: Badlands

Olivier Dumont & Kathy Siegel

With a greater focus on the Yautja and their home planet, the visual effects are able to create a rich sci-fi world and showcase the emotions and complexity of the Yautja.

Sinners

Michael Ralla

Sinners uses their visual effects to enhance their practical effects, capturing the horror of the vampires and being able to blend the two performances from Michael B. Jordan.

Superman

Stéphane Ceretti

The visual effects in Superman are perfectly designed to bring back the fun, energy and wonder to the DC universe.

The Lost Bus

Charlie Noble

Some revolutionary work on the dynamics and physics of animating fire helps to create the fear and anxiety present within natural disasters.

WINNER

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Bugonia

Will Tracy (Jang Joon-Hwan)

Adapted from a 2003 Korean sci-fi movie, Bugonia is able to take the structure and strangeness from the original and map it onto the unique American politics of conspiracy and capital.

Hamnet

Chloe Zhao & Maggie O’Farrell (Maggie O’Farrell)

Based on the 2020 Maggie O’Farrell book, who also co-wrote this film, Hamnet is able to show sorrow and the grieving process in intense emotional depth.

One Battle After Another

Paul Thomas Anderson (Thomas Pynchon)

Loosely based on the 1990 post-modern novel Vineland, One Battle After Another finds the humour, bravery, and revolution in the absurdity of modern-day America.

No Other Choice

Park Chan-Wook, Lee Kyoung-Mi, Don McKellar & Lee Ja-Hye (Donald Westlake)

Based on the 1997 American horror-thriller The Ax, No Other Choice transplants this novel onto the absurd, nightmarish reality of capitalism and social class tensions in South Korea.

Small Things Like These

Enda Walsh (Claire Keegan)

Adapted from the 2021 novel by Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These is able to capture the subtlety and depth of emotions and the cruelty of the Magdalene laundries.

WINNER

No Other Choice

Writing (Original Screenplay)

Blue Moon

Mike Blizzard, John Sloss & Richard Linklater

For a movie that relies so heavily on its script, the writing is tight, witty, layered and highly effective in showing the slow unravelling of Lorenz Hart’s life and mind.

It Was Just An Accident

Jafar Panahi

Using mainly inexperienced or non-actors, It Was Just An Accident is able to create a deeply complex and empathetic story through engaging writing.

Sentimental Value

Eskil Vogt & Joachim Trier

Working with regular screenwriting partner, Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier is able to capture the pain and beauty of reconnecting with family and the power of art.

Sinners

Ryan Coogler

Coogler is able to write an exciting and high-paced screenplay, playing with time and sequencing to pack action and drama into a short time period.

Sorry, Baby

Eva Victor

Oozing with pathos and humanity, Eva Victor drew on her life experiences to create a story showing the depth and variety of emotions of experiencing a traumatic event.

WINNER

Blue Moon