Inspiration comes in many forms. For some, a desire to create stems from watching others perform cinematic feats of excellence. For others, creativity comes from the pages of a good book. For me, my imagination soars when I listen to music, with bands like Daughter, HEALTH, Iress, and Puscifer fueling my workdays and scriptwriting sessions. Still, because filmmakers inspire on a grand scale, their work being available to millions across the globe, it’s fun for people to know what hit them the hardest throughout the year. Thankfully, Variety spoke to several of the film industry’s magic makers and discovered what impressed them the most throughout 2025.

Key Insights from Filmmakers

• Michael Mann’s Choice: Mann praises Avatar: Fire and Ash as a massive achievement in storytelling and world-building.
• Julio Torres on Bugonia: Torres highlights the film’s immersive experience and complex themes.
• Celine Song’s Surprise Pick: Song defends Ella McCay, emphasizing its exploration of personal happiness amidst societal responsibilities.
• Paul Thomas Anderson’s Favorite: Anderson lauds Sentimental Value, noting its emotional depth and strong performances.

Michael Mann books a trip to Pandora

For Michael Mann, James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash is the stuff dreams are made of. Speaking about the film, Mann said Fire and Ash “is a massive achievement.” He continues, “Jim’s artistry, intellect and heavy lifting creates diverse alien biology, anthropology, mechanical engineering, politics, visualization and taut storytelling. It’s extraordinary. Jim began with a blank piece of paper. No writer-director I can think of has invented as large a three-dimensional world of his own imagining as has Jim. Fire and Ash on its own is an incredible achievement. There are two more installments to come. From some point in the future, when regarded historically, the whole of Avatar will be seen as the magnum opus it truly is.”

Problemista director Julio Torres went to bat for Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia, an English-language remake of the South Korean film Save the Green Planet!. In Torres’s piece, he praises the film’s performances and bold themes, saying the film’s immersion goes above and beyond to draw audiences into a complex thriller.

“It’s in the dizzying, meticulous sparring between the protagonists — each working relentlessly to assert their version of the truth — that the heart of the movie lies. Yorgos’ emphasis and restraint in these scenes make us feel like another person in the room trying to make sense of things, going mad in the process. That unnerving synthesizer score which follows the characters takes this sense of immersion even further. The result feels like scrolling online reading vastly different takes on the same issues. At a certain point, one begins to question … is he right? Could she be an alien?”

Celine Song surprisingly celebrates Ella McCay

In what could be seen as a shocking entry in the series, Past Lives director Celine Song goes to bat for James L. Brooks’s critically panned political comedy Ella McCay. In a larger explanation for her curious pick, Song praises Ella McCay by saying, “Why does Ella, who knows how to make her city a better place to live — bylaw-by-bylaw, policy-by-policy, detail-by-detail — find herself to be so completely stumped when it comes to making her life a better place to be? Why does this magnificent grown woman feel like just a lost little girl in front of her husband and her father? Through her aunt’s love, will she ever learn that she deserves to be happy too, the same way she feels the citizens of her city deserve to be happy? In James’s impeccably written and joyfully directed “Ella McCay,” I feel as always with his movies that he knows me as a girl and a woman, both in my work and my personal life.”

PTA has big feelings about Sentimental Value

Meanwhile, Paul Thomas Anderson crowns Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value as his standout film of the year, being quick to note Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve as a gifted actor who delivers one of the year’s best performances in the inspired showbiz drama.

“We hit the jackpot with “Sentimental Value.” It’s like being gently grabbed by the most tender filmmaker working today; you don’t know he’s got you by the throat — he’s just creating people and images you cannot look away from for fear of missing a single frame. Joachim and his film family (Kasper Tuxen, Anders Danielsen Lie and Olivier Bugge Coutté, to name a few) have created a story about real families and cinematic families, memories, mothers, sons, sisters and fathers. And if that isn’t enough to get excited about, the cast includes Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning, who have a scene at a dinner table that will make any filmmaker ask themselves, “Am I really satisfied?”

J.J. Abrams is off to see the Wizard

Elsewhere, J.J. Abrams takes a trip to Oz for his pick, saying Jon M. Chu’s Wicked: For Good was a feat of effortless-seeming joy.

“Fans are embracing the film’s heightened drama, its richer psychological shading and the deepened complexity between Glinda and Elphaba. The narrative and visual ambition, and the film’s commitment to emotional scale are undeniable as is Chu’s operatic sweep; his ability to move from stillness and simplicity to muscular thrilling action,” Abrams wrote in his piece.

Make sure you check out Variety‘s complete presentation with testimonies from filmmakers like Janicza Bravo, Taylor Hackford, Barry Levinson, Kenneth Lonergan, Berry Jenkins, Ramin Bahrani, Embeth Davidtz, James L. Brooks, Mike White, Dan Gilroy, Paul Schrader, William Oldroyd,
David Lowery,
Michael Shannon,
Allison Anders,
Lee Daniels,
Jesse Eisenberg,
James Mangold,
and Karen Kusama.

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