One Criterion Forum Award After Another (2025)

[Murdoch]

Seconded for Oscar Micheaux

[Murdoch]

Seconded for Oscar Micheaux

[Therewolf]

Nominations

best release:
Laurel & Hardy Year Three (Flicker Alley)
Laurel & Hardy The Restored Features Vol. 1 (Classic Flix)
Laurel & Hardy The Definitive Restorations Vol. 2

Yeah, I do love L&H.

Winchester ‘73
The Big Heat
A History of Violence
Altered States
Ms. 45 (Arrow)

best cover:
Altered States

worst cover:
A History of Violence
The Wiz

most disappointing:
Peking Opera Blues (for the inaccurate subtitles)

Seconds

best release: Deep Crimson
best cover: Baby It’s You, Wages of Fear, The Beast to Die, Short Films of Yuri Norstein
worst cover: both versions of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

[Finch]

I'd like to NOMINATE the Short Night of the Glass Dolls 4K by Celluloid Dreams for BEST RELEASE.

[swo17]

NOMINATE for BEST OVERALL RELEASE:

Dirty Work (VS)

Seconded. The reconstruction of the original "dirtier" cut makes this a huge upgrade

[TechnicolorAcid]

I’d Like to Nominate for Best Discovery:
Paris Pick-Up

Best Label:
Deaf Crocodile

And I’ll Second the Nomination of Best Artwork for the Alraune and The Student of Prague Double Feature

[colinr0380]

CRITERION
Best release (1-5)
1. The Mother and the Whore
2. Eclipse Series 47: Kiarostami Early Shorts and Features
3. A Confucian Confusion / Mahjong: Two Films by Edward Yang
4. This Is Spinal Tap
5. Hell's Angels

Honourable mentions though to: Nightmare Alley (2021), Godzilla vs Biolante, Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources and getting Godard's King Lear out there!

Best Boxed Set or Multi-Film Collection
Eclipse Series 47: Kiarostami Early Shorts and Features

Best Modern/New Film
Nightmare Alley (2021)

Best Commentary
After decades of making do with the 'in character' commentary track on the MGM DVD edition of This Is Spinal Tap, it was great to finally get to hear the 'normal' Criterion commentary for the first time!

Best “Bonus” film
Regrouping on Born in Flames

Best Booklet
Flow, since it came with stickers!

Best On-Disc Non-Commentary Extra
That has to be David Cairns' massive documentary on the Three Musketeers / Four Musketeers set

Best UHD Release
As much as the Wes Anderson box set probably had a lot to prove this year, I stuck with the standard releases, so it was great to see Isle of Dogs and The French Dispatch turn up on UHD.

Best Reissue
This Is Spinal Tap, for the upgrade in general and to also finally add one of the missing early spine numbers to my collection!

Best Upgrade
For Criterion edition to Criterion edition, I would go for This Is Spinal Tap, but I was also very happy to upgrade from my barebone UK DVD editions of the Read My Lips and The Beat That My Heart Skipped. Nice to see Criterion going back to the old school method of paired dual releases as well!)

Best Cover
Lots to choose from this year. I liked all of those in my top five but Altered States was particularly striking. Isle of Dogs of course, for not messing too much (and in a complimentary way!) with the original poster. A Confucian Confusion / Mahjong's slice of life vignette cover was also beautiful (and makes for an amusing contrasting pair with Arrow's similar collection of vignettes just with horrible activites occurring instead cover to The Sadness!). Also the paired Sean Baker releases of Anora and Prince of Broadway.

Worst Cover
Nothing particularly stuck out to me this year, so I guess it will just be that Criterion's cover for Carnal Knowledge was a little bit tame in comparison to Indicator's edition. Although I must also admit that I was not too taken with the rather arch 'three pairs of glasses' cover for The Grifters either.

Best Packaging – Non-Boxed Set Individual Release
Criterion really went all out on Flow with its reflective metallic sheen box. Otherwise I did love the livery of the individual Wes Anderson releases of Isle of Dogs and The French Dispatch. But I also loved that the paired Audiard releases did red text on a black background, and black text on a red background, which when placing them together may have resulted in the most striking back covers of Criterion's year.

Best Packaging – Boxed Set
Well, there was only one this year, so despite not picking it up, The Wes Anderson Archive has to take that by default!

Best Discovery
The Mother and the Whore - for a Criterion year (Radiance of course kept that side of things going!) that proved to be quite light on classic mid-20th century French cinema (aside from the Antoine Doinel upgrade), this stands out all the more. Hell's Angels though is perhaps the other exciting and unexpected release for Criterion's year. Maybe 2026 will bring us more classic films from the 1920s and 1930s! Or even more Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, etc!
____
2025 GENERAL RELEASES

So much great stuff this year that I was entirely unable to keep up, but I did love that the releases of this year seem to be becoming a little bit more 'niche', in the sense that they are really delving into previously unexplored territory now perhaps by necessity rather than relying on mining already proven areas. There were a lot of things released this year that I never imagined that I would have had the opportunity to see.

1. Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend [Collection 1: Movie 1 & OVAs 1-3] & Urotsukidoji: The Sequels of the Overfiend [Collection 2: Movies 2-5 and OVA Series 2-5] (Discotek Media) - In an extremely strong year, these two releases of the entire Urotsukidoji series stand out as an astonishing project. Whilst only the theatrical version of the first film exists in HD quality, the producers used the Blu-ray discs to include branching versions of that with the SD quality OVA series; and then topped that with the "Sequels of the Overfiend" set which pack in both theatrical and OVA episode forms of everything else (including Part V which had never been released in the West at all). Everything released with subs and dubs where/if they exist. Whilst not for everyone and with strong NSFW content warnings abounding (including the note that the fourth entry, Inferno Road, is still officially banned in the UK by the BBFC), that may stand as both a labour of love and most complex disc authoring project of the year.
2. Takashi Ishii: 4 Tales of Nami (Third Window) - I had wanted to see more of what happened post-the Angel Guts series since picking up the Artsmagic set back in the mid-2000s, but never imagined that any of these films would either appear in the US or ever get through the BBFC in the UK due to concerns about sexualised violence material. In retrospect Third Window appeared to be slowly building up to this with their releases of Ishii related Scent of a Spell (plus non-Ishii Mermaid Legend and Bumpkin Soup) discs at the beginning of the year, but to see this set announced was another highlight of the year, and then for it to turn out to be a four film set with commentaries on three of the four films was amazing. Then of course at the end of the year we received the news that Third Window are releasing the official Nikkatsu run of the earlier Angel Guts films (albeit without the very first) in 2026!
3. V Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal (Arrow) - Another astonishing release, this set may be one of the more important of the year for laying the groundwork for audiences to even begin to explore these films.
4. Radical Japan: Cinema and State - Nine Films by Nagisha Oshima (Radiance)
5. Essential Polish Animation (Radiance)
6. Va Savoir (Radiance)
7. Bloody Legend: The Complete Cliff Twemlow Collection (Severin) - another out of nowhere release of a previously obscure area of British film history, with all of Cliff Twemlow's films (including his one that got close to the UK's video nasties list in the 1980s G.B.H., which is probably the hook for the entire collection)
8. Chantal Akerman Volume 1: 1967-1978 / Volume 2: 1982-2015 (BFI) - something which could probably have only been made possible by Akerman topping the Sight & Sound poll, although sadly without Akerman's 1996 film A Couch In New York - if they had been able to include that, it would have added to the William Hurt-related theme of the year!
9. Masters of Cinema went all out on the boxsets this year with no less than five separate giant sets: Sirk In Germany 1934-1935, Mabuse Lives! Dr Mabuse at CCC 1960-1964, Terror in the Fog: The Wallace Krimi At CCC, Strange New Worlds: Science Fiction at DEFA, Wrack and Ruin: The Rubble Film at DEFA. Plus that follow up to the Fantomas set, which unfortunately I have not laid my hands upon at this point. An extremely strong year for rather obscure films.
10. Wild Style (Arrow) - collaborating with Drafthouse and Mr Bongo (for the vinyl edition), which in its UHD+CD+Vinyl edition may stand as the ultimate word on the street about that film!
11. Hammer: An amazing year for Hammer directly entering into the physical media area with weighty box sets of Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter, The Quatermass Xperiment, Quatermass 2 and The Curse of Frankenstein complementing slimmer but no less comprehensive editions of more niche titles Shatter (the Hong Kong crime thriller), Blood Orange (murder mystery), The Man in Black (thriller), Four-Sided Triangle (sci-fi) and The Men of Sherwood Forest (which was particularly nice to see released, as it finally completes Hammer's Robin Hood series with the previously released by Indicator Sword of Sherwood Forest and A Challenge For Robin Hood set)
12. Zoltán Huszárik: Szindbád & Csontváry + Short Films and István Szabó: Mephisto, Colonel Redl (Redl ezredes), Hanussen + short films - Second Run produced two major sets for Hungarian filmmakers this year. I was particularly glad to see Szabó's trilogy getting a release, meaning I can retire my recorded from television copies of them now! Although I still need to hang on to Szabó's Meeting Venus, featuring Glenn Close as a Maria Callas-like opera diva, for now!
13. Feeding Frenzy: The Italian Sharksploitation Collection (The Shark Hunter, Monster Shark and Night of the Sharks) (Severin) - the 50th anniversary of Jaws in 2025 inspired Severin to release this set of three of the wave of Italian exploitation films that (as with Nazisploitation in the wake of The Damned and The Night Porter; and zombie films post Dawn of the Dead) jumped on a major cinematic trend with their own twists on the action. In addition to this set I also went back and picked up Severin's previous Blu-ray releases of Bruno Mattei's Cruel Jaws (aka the notoriously naughtily titled "Jaws 5"!) and Joe D'Amato's Deep Blood, along with the UK Blu-ray release by Treasured Films this year of the Enzo G. Castellari (aka the director of the original Inglorious Bastards! And 1979's The Shark Hunter above) release of The Last Shark, which both Cruel Jaws and Deep Blood ruthlessly culled stock footage from for their own films!
14. Severin also went on a Lamberto Bava kick this year as, along with the release of Monster Shark (aka Devil Fish) in the above Sharkspolitation set, they put out a set of his four made for Italian TV horror films High Tension: Four Films by Lamberto Bava
15. Indicator's 'stealth Henry Hathaway series' with the individual releases of Spawn of the North, Now and Forever, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, Peter Ibbetson and The Shepherd of the Hills
16. Eureka and Masters of Cinema continued to cover the work of director Kinji Fukasaku with Legend of the 8 Samurai and Shogun's Samurai : The Yagyu Conspiracy at either end of the year. 88 Films also added to this by releasing Fukasaku's 1964 film Jakoman & Tetsu in their "Japanarchy" line.
17. Speaking of 88 Films' "Japanarchy" line, they also put out an excellent Blu-ray edition of Shozin Fukui's vomit-and-screaming infused 'cyberpunk' film Pinocchio √964 at the beginning of the year, which is another film that I would never have imagined would have received a UK release! In including both of the two short films Gerorisuto and Caterpillar that were split across Unearthed Films' US DVD editions of Pinocchio √964 and Rubber's Lover in the mid 2000s that upgrades everything but the 1996 sequel-prequel of Rubber's Lover itself.
18. Other 88 Films "Japanarchy" releases included two films by Hideo Gosha (1986's Yazuka Wives and the 1988 remake of Gate of Flesh), another film by Teruo Ishii, Detonation! Violent Riders; and three films by Takashi Miike with his two Zebraman films and Over Her Dead Body.
19. Themroc. The announcement of that and finally getting to see Malpertuis (along with upgrading Daughters of Darkness) were really nice surprises from Radiance
20. The Terminal Man (Arrow) - a great edition of one of the most neglected of the Michael Crichton related films. Looking forward to Arrow's edition of Westworld next year! (Maybe an Arrow edition of The 13th Warrior next, perhaps?).
21. Outland (Arrow) - a sci-fi upgrade of the plot of High Noon, it was great to revisit this again, and I hope we get a lot more Peter Hyams films in the future! That may be the best cover of all of the year too.
22. William Hurt was extremely well represented on disc this year with UHD editions of Dark City and Lost In Space from Arrow, plus Altered States and A History of Violence through Criterion
23. Arrow did some great forays into Asian horror this year with the release of Rampo Noir early in the year bookended by the Three / Three... Extremes set at the end. Plus of course putting out a physical media edition of the Taiwanese zombie horror The Sadness.
24. One of the biggest surprises of the year was Discotek releasing all four of the films in the "Terrifying Girls' High School" series in individual editions. Two decades ago the US label Panik House (who coincidentally also put out the first edition of Rampo Noir on DVD in the US back in the day) released a four DVD set (with a squashy plastic cover!) called the "Pinky Violence Collection", which chose a random title from four completely separate series of films in this early 1970s "Pinky Violence" genre. For that collection Panik House chose to release the second entry in the series "Lynch Law Classroom", which has been the only title from the series available in the US or UK until Discotek got to them in 2025, releasing the first in the series "Women's Violent Classroom", upgrading "Lynch Law Classroom" from its 20 year old DVD up to a Blu-ray edition, and continuing on to the third film, the wonderfully titled "Delinquent Convulsion Group" and the fourth, "Animal Classmates"
25. A Fistful of Dollars / For A Few Dollars More / The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Arrow UHD) - one of the most notable releases of the year. I much prefer Yojimbo over A Fistful of Dollars (though I would not object at an Arrow UHD edition of 1996's Last Man Standing, if such a thing was possible!), but the upgrade was excellent and I love the other two films. In a year of strong packaging design all round, these may have been the best.
26. The Keep and Looking For Mr Goodbar from Vinegar Syndrome were wonderful rescues of surprisingly hard to see for the longest time films. Looking For Mr Goodbar in particular was great to revisit for its central performance by Diane Keaton
27. Wacky Races: The Complete Series, Looney Tunes Collector's Edition Volume 1 and Tom & Jerry (Warners) - I particularly loved Wacky Races as a kid (along with the Road Runner cartoons!) so out of all of the various Hanna-Barbera classic animation sets released in 2025 I had to get that anarchic cartoon take on Blake Edwards' The Great Race. I was a bit annoyed at the reset of Looney Tunes back to yet another "Volume 1", but they still released new to disc cartoons, so I will let that go! And whilst I know there has been some complaining on the Tom & Jerry thread, I was glad that we got a set of all of the cartoons rather than just a selection of them. If Warners had just tested the waters with a "Volume 1" of this, based on the feedback they may never have continued!
28. Laurel & Hardy: The Silent Years - 1927 (Masters of Cinema)
29. The Nightwatch Collection (Arrow)
30. Second Run added a nice complement to Radiance's Piotr Szulkin set of 2024 with their edition of his 1979 film Golem
31. 88 Films did a great Blu-ray edition of Nicolas Roeg's Castaway. I already have the Unearthed Films US edition of Roeg's Full Body Massage, but it was great to see 88 Films releasing that in the UK as well this year (making 2025 a Bryan Brown year as well with the release of this and Arrow's F/X & F/X2 set)
32. Speaking of Unearthed Films, they put out an interesting edition of the rather obscure true crime Russian serial killer film Evilenko this year, with Malcolm McDowell in the main role, Frances Barber in the supporting cast and a score by Angelo Badalamenti. Very interesting to get a chance to compare this take to the other film that tackled the Andrei Chikatilo killings, the 1995 TV movie Citizen X starring Stephen Rea, Donald Sutherland and Max von Sydow
33. Talking of intense Russian films, Arrow's release of Steppenwolf along with the director's previous feature Goliath was one of their more interesting leftfield choices of the year
34. ... and keeping the intensity up, Masters of Cinema's UHD release of the best of the New French Extremity wave of the 2000s, Martyrs
35. The BFI corner: Short Sharp Shocks Volume 4 and Eclipse in their Flipside line, and Object Z holding the fort for rediscovered television
36. Shawscope Volume 4 (Arrow)
37. Days / Afternoon and Park Lanes (Second Run) - two excellent examples of 'slow cinema'
38. Indicator continued their Jean Rollin retrospective with editions of The Iron Rose and Girls Without Shame
39. And 88 Films added another entry to their Tigon Films strand with Neither The Sea Nor The Sand this year (and whilst it is not a Tigon Film, I appreciated that they put out an edition of The Black Torment in complimentary livery to line up well on the shelf with their other UK horror films!)
40. Radiance made its foray into UHD with a great edition of Palindromes
41. Kaizo Hayashi's Maiku Hama Trilogy (Third Window) - it was great to see this get a much needed upgrade from the non-anamorphic US Kino DVD edition from the mid-2000s
42. In further Japanese cinema, we should not forget Third Window's releases of Tokyo Pop and The Box Man
43. Plus Radiance's edition of Imamura's The Eel
44. ... and BFI bringing out an excellent edition of Takeshi Kitano's US-set Brother
45. and Arrow's edition of the really obscure The Invisible Swordsman, as well as Play It Cool, Poof of the Man and A Certain Killer / A Killer's Key
46. Plus Mondo Macabro's editions of Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight (another Teruo Ishii film) and Tokugawa Sex Ban
47. ... and 88 Films releasing a line of Nikkatsu Roman Porno films with Night of the Felines / Sex Rider: Wet Highway / Assault: Jack The Ripper / Girl Hell / Tokyo Emmanuelle (apparently Tokyo Emmanuelle, probably due to its tie-in title was the only one of these films to have received a UK release at the time!)
48. Finis Terrae (Masters of Cinema)
49. The female diected films corner with River of Grass (Radiance), In My Skin (Radiance) and Trouble Every Day (Masters of Cinema)
50. Some more notable anime releases from Discotek over the year: the entire 1973 series of Cutie Honey; Angel Heart (the City Hunter spin-off series); Series 2 of Chie the Brat (albeit only extant in SD); and the series of Higurashi: When They Cry by writer Ryukishi07 (who also wrote the video game Silent Hill: f); and we cannot forget Golden Boy!
51. City On Fire (Arrow)
52. Treasured Films released excellent editions of Stuart Gordon's King of the Ants (which I had not realised before now was written by The Fast Show's Charlie Higson, based on his novel!), which worked as a nice tribute to the late George Wendt; and the Pierce Brosnan film Nomads
53. The King of Kings (Flicker Alley)
54. Felidae (Severin) - taking my "Watership Down" position of the year!
55. Delicatessen (Severin)
56. In addition to Dark City Arrow brought a lot of late 90s and early 2000s films up to date in great new editions throughout the year: The Cell, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Deep Blue Sea, Red Planet. Even, um, Spawn!
57. A24 had a great physical media year with editions of The Brutalist, Eddington, Warfare, Babygirl, I Saw The TV Glow, The Zone of Interest, Darren Aronofsky's π and the follow up film to the Anti-Worlds released Chained For Life, A Different Man all getting disc releases through the year
58. Cafe Flesh (Vinegar Syndrome) and the Emmanuelle collection from Severin added to the naughtiness of the year.
59. Fulci upgrades with UHD editions of Murder-Rock: Dancing Death (88 Films) and Zombie Flesh-Eaters (Arrow)
60. Severin Films did a big tribute to Peter Medak with editions of The Odd Job, The Ghost of Peter Sellers, Negatives (and Sparrows Can't Sing) - Negatives is of course about to come out in the UK through the BFI Flipside label in the next couple of months
61. Does anyone else remember back in the late 1990s when Warner Video were releasing their "Maverick Directors" line of films on VHS in the UK? That was about releasing films in their widescreen formats and sometimes with a booklet. Some very interesting films came out through that line, such as The Right Stuff, Big Wednesday, Blade Runner, Bullitt, Amadeus and even Luc Besson's interesting wordless, Godfrey Reggio documentary style companion piece to The Big Blue, Atlantis! The "Maverick Directors" line even released Ken Russell's The Devils on VHS for the first time (albeit in a compromised 1.85:1 aspect ratio that was the same at the BBC had shown in their television premiere of the film a couple of years earlier in 1995) without too much fuss. But they ran into controversy over two films in particular: Ms. 45 (released in that "Maverick Directors" series as Angel of Venegance) was accidentally released uncut and had to be withdrawn to have the almost two minutes of BBFC cuts added; and Cruising, which after its VHS release was found to contain the sublminal flashframes of hardcore footage also had to be withdrawn and have cuts applied. So ironically releasing The Devils in that line was relatively uncontroversial! Anyway, I mention this because in 2025 Arrow brought both Cruising and Ms. 45 out in the UK on UHD completely uncut. How times change!
62. Ferat Vampire (Severin) - nicely complimenting the Juraj Herz releases from Criterion and Second Run
63. Raw Meat (Blue Underground) - which is the US UHD edition of the film better known as Death Line, aka the London Underground cannibal film with Christopher Lee
64. Michele Soavi got great treatment from Severin this year, with UHD editions of The Church, The Sect (featuring Manson Family stuff and Herbert Lom getting smothered to death by a Turin Shroud-esque piece of cloth!) and Dellamorte Dellamore (one of Rupert Everett's earliest roles)
65. ... and Hal Hartley's Where To Land Kickstarter backed film arrived on disc this year too!

There are so many more things released over the year that I want to mention (e.g. Film Movement's release of The Oldest Profession; Nomad + My Heart Is That Eternal Rose from Radiance; Antiviral (Severin); Sliver (Vinegar Syndrome); the upgrade of Il Posto and I Fidanzati by Radiance from the Criterion editions; Incubus (Arrow), 88 Films' Sexy French film line; All the Anime releasing the Devilman: Crybaby series on physical media after years of it only being available on streaming through Netflix (and then doing a similar job with the two seasons of the Netflix produced Ghost In The Shell: SAC_2045 show); the Russ Meyer Severin releases; Harlequin and Thirst from Indicator, filling an Australian horror niche alongside Patrick; World Noir Volume 4; Shinobi Volume 2; F/X & F/X 2 from Arrow; Senso and La Terra Trema, etc, but that is a broad look of how 2025 appeared from my perspective!

[Yakushima]

Nominating:

BEST OVERALL RELEASE

In the Mouth of Madness 4K (Arrow)
The Mask 4K (Arrow)
Where to land (Possible Films)
Treasures of Soviet Animation Vol 1 (Deaf Crocodile)
Let's Scare Jessica to Death 4K (Vinegar Syndrome)
The Dark Half 4K (Vinegar Syndrome)

BEST UPGRADE

The Innkeepers 4K Blu-ray (Second Sight)

Seconding:

Deaf Crocodile for BEST LABEL.

[Yakushima]

Nominating

BEST OVERALL RELEASE:
Malpertuis (Radiance)
Daughters of Darkness (Radiance)

Seconding

BEST UPGRADE:
The Science of Sleep (Umbrella).

BEST COVER:
Malpertuis (Radiance)

[swo17]

BEST COVER:
Malpertuis (Radiance)

Seconded

I also nominate Anna the Maid from Daughters of Darkness for Best Bonus Film

[domino harvey]

First post updated, if I missed anything let me know

[swo17]

I nominate these for Best Release (both from Second Run):

Zoltán Huszárik: Szindbád & Csontváry + Short Films
The Barnabáš Kos Case

[Matt]

I'll second The Barnabáš Kos Case. One of the highlights of my movie watching last year was watching Kos enter the orchestra rehearsal hall, set up his triangle, play it for one measure, and then pack it up again. Sublime Tati-esque moment.

[MichaelB]

If that film had been, say, French rather than Slovak, it would undoubtedly be far, far better known than it is. But I'd never even heard of it until the Slovak Film Institute brought it out a few years ago, and I really should have done!

[domino harvey]

First post updated with eligible titles and instructions for voting. I will edit in the covers next time I’m on my laptop. Best release by X Label were created for any label with at least five seconded titles in the combined top lists (it’s possible I missed a label, in which case please let me know… but keep in mind some titles appear on both lists and shouldn’t be counted twice)

[Maltic]

BEST OVERALL RELEASE
1. 7 Women (WA)
2. Dirty Work (Vinegar Syndrome)
3. Une femme douce (Radiance)
4. Choose Me (Criterion)
5. Girl with a Suitcase (Radiance)

BEST UPGRADE
1. Killer of Sheep (Criterion)
2. He Who Gets Slapped (Flicker Alley)
3. the Brood (Second Sight)
4. City on Fire (Arrow)
5. Donovan's Reef (Kino)

BEST BOXSET
-
BEST LABEL
Deaf Crocodile

BEST CRITERION RELEASE
Killer of Sheep

BEST INDICATOR RELEASE
Bonjour Tristesse

BEST RADIANCE RELEASE
Une femme deuce

BEST WARNER ARCHIVES RELEASE
7 Women

BEST DISCOVERY (RELEASED THIS YEAR)
-
BEST COVER
Hell's Angels

[AfterTheRain]

Official Ballot:

BEST OVERALL RELEASE
Beau Geste
Flow
Oscar Micheaux: The Complete Collection
7 Women
Tom and Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology

BEST OVERALL UPGRADE
Barry Lyndon
Danger: Diabolik
Dark City
Donovan's Reef
He Who Gets Slapped

BEST BOXSET
Hard Boiled: Three Pulp Thrillers

BEST LABEL
Criterion

BEST CRITERION RELEASE
Flow

BEST INDICATOR RELEASE
Bonjour Tristesse

BEST RADIANCE RELEASE
Hard Boiled: Three Pulp Thrillers

BEST WARNER ARCHIVE RELEASE
Tom and Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology

BEST DISCOVERY
The Ogre of Athens

BEST COVER
Hell's Angels

[therewillbeblus]

BEST OVERALL RELEASE
1. The Mother and the Whore (Criterion)
2. The Movie Orgy (AGFA/VS)
3. King Lear (Criterion)
4. Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Season One (Imprint)
5. Radical Japan: Cinema and State - Nine Films by Nagisa Oshima (Radiance)

BEST UPGRADE
1. Winchester '73 (Criterion)
2. Science of Sleep (Umbrella)
3. I Love Melvin (WA)
4. Lili (WA)
5. Ms. 45 (Arrow)

BEST BOXSET
Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Season One (Imprint)

BEST LABEL
Criterion

BEST CRITERION RELEASE
The Mother and the Whore

BEST INDICATOR RELEASE
Bonjour Tristesse

BEST RADIANCE RELEASE
Radical Japan: Cinema and State - Nine Films by Nagisa Oshima

BEST WARNER ARCHIVES RELEASE
I Love Melvin

BEST DISCOVERY (RELEASED THIS YEAR)
The Shepherd of the Hills (Indicator)

BEST COVER
une femme douce

[domino harvey]

Would people want another week to figure out their ballots? Three in with one day to go gives me limited confidence in having a list to compute

[GoodOldNeon]

BEST OVERALL RELEASE
1. Une femme douce (Radiance)
2. Va savoir (Radiance)
3. King Lear (Criterion)
4. Nomad + My Heart is That Eternal Rose (Radiance)
5. Dirty Work (Vinegar Syndrome)

BEST UPGRADE
1. Je t'aime je t'aime (Radiance)
2. Splendor in the Grass (WA)
3. Cure (Masters of Cinema)
4. Barry Lyndon (Criterion)
5. High and Low (Criterion)

BEST BOXSET
Peckinpah's West (Plaion)

BEST LABEL
Radiance

BEST CRITERION RELEASE
King Lear (Criterion)

BEST INDICATOR RELEASE
-

BEST RADIANCE RELEASE
Une femme douce (Radiance)

BEST WARNER ARCHIVES RELEASE
Splendor in the Grass (WA)

BEST DISCOVERY (RELEASED THIS YEAR)
-

BEST COVER
Une femme douce (Radiance)

[criterionsnob]

BEST OVERALL RELEASE
1. Flow (Criterion)
2. Une femme douce (Radiance)
3. Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers (Radiance)
4. The Barnabáš Kos Case (Second Run)
5. The Inquisitor + Deadly Circuit (Radiance)

BEST UPGRADE
1. I Know Where I'm Going (Criterion)
2. Killer of Sheep (Criterion)
3. Eclipse 47: Early Kiarostami (Criterion)
4. Scanners (Second Sight)
5. Jean de Florette / Manon des sources (Criterion)

BEST BOXSET
Hard boiled: Three Pulp Thrillers (Radiance)

BEST LABEL
Criterion

BEST CRITERION RELEASE
Flow

BEST INDICATOR RELEASE
The Gentle Gunman

BEST RADIANCE RELEASE
Une femme douce

BEST COVER
Une femme douce

OTHER FAVOURITE DISCOVERIES OF 2025
Altered Innocence has become one of my favourite labels and I don’t think they get the credit they deserve. They released a bunch of great titles in 2025, including: Angst by August: Zappa / Twist & Shout, Eat the Night, Endless Summer Syndrome, Lost Country, and The Maiden.

I enjoyed the many excellent 4K Ealing Studios releases (The Ship That Died of Shame, The Gentle Gunman, Saraband for Dead Lovers, Alec Guinness: Masterpiece Collection).

Other releases that I loved: Fire Will Come (Kimstim), Priest (BFI), The House of Mirth (BFI), Pavements (Utopia), Hookers on Davie (Canadian International Pictures), Winter Kept Us Warm (Canadian International Pictures), The Wes Anderson Archive (Criterion), Eyes Wide Shut (Criterion), Last Summer (Criterion Premieres), Misericordia (Criterion Premieres)


WISHES FOR 2026
I hope we finally see these in 2026: Atlantics, Weerasethakul restorations, The Spirit of the Beehive, and more 4K upgrades for Godard, Powell & Pressburger, René Laloux, and Claire Denis. Also looking forward to a lot more Eclipse releases!

[Lowry_Sam]

BEST OVERALL RELEASE
1. Radical Japan
2. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour 1
3. World Noir 4
4. Tom & Jerry
5. Beau Geste

BEST UPGRADE
1. Jean Vigo
2. Barry Lyndon
3. Jean de Florette/Manon de Sources
4. Sunset Boulevard
5. The Wages Of Fear

BEST BOXSET
Radical Japan

BEST LABEL
Criterion

BEST CRITERION RELEASE
Jean de Florette/Manon of The Spring

BEST INDICATOR RELEASE
Carnal Knowledge

BEST RADIANCE RELEASE
Polish Animation

BEST WARNER ARCHIVES RELEASE
Tom & Jerry

BEST DISCOVERY
Who Wants To Kill Jessie? (Second Run)

BEST COVER
une femme douce

Best Deaf Crocodile
Alraune/The Student Of Prague

Best Eureka/MOC
Wrack & Ruin

Best Arrow
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Best BFI
Priest

Vinegar Syndrome
Last Tango In Paris

Film Movement
The Great Silence

[Red Screamer]

BEST RELEASE
01 Radical Japan: Oshima
02 King Lear
03 Va savoir+
04 7 Women
05 Oscar Michaux box

UPGRADE
01 Early Kiarostami
02 Je t’aime je t’aime
03 I Love Melvin
04 Killer of Sheep
05 Donovan’s Reef

BOX SET
Radical Japan: Oshima

LABEL
Radiance

CRITERION
King Lear

RADIANCE
Radical Japan

WARNER ARCHIVES
7 Women

BFI
Wiseman box

COVER
Une femme douce

[Lowry_Sam]

BFI
Wiseman box

I think this is 2026 (January).

[Yakushima]

BEST OVERALL RELEASE
1. Midnight (Criterion)
2. Choose Me (Criterion)
3. Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (Criterion)
4. Girl with a Suitcase (Radiance)
5. The Science of Sleep (Umbrella)

BEST UPGRADE
1. Dark City (Arrow)
2. A History of Violence (Criterion)
3. Complete Jean Vigo 4K (Curzon)
4. Barry Lyndon (Criterion)
5. High and Low (Criterion)

BEST BOXSET
Radical Japan: Cinema and State - Nine Films by Nagisa Oshima (Radiance)

BEST LABEL
Deaf Crocodile

BEST CRITERION RELEASE
A History of Violence (Criterion)

BEST INDICATOR RELEASE
Harlequin

BEST RADIANCE RELEASE
Malpertuis

BEST ARROW VIDEO
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

BEST DEAF CROCODILE
Treasures of Soviet Animation: Volume One. The Mystery of the Third Planet

BEST VINEGAR SYNDROME
Let's Scare Jessica to Death 4K

BEST DISCOVERY
Malpertuis

BEST COVER
Malpertuis