Last year, in a pique of contrarianism, I released a 100 Original Scripted Films Released in 2024 list. Despite doing it more out of annoyance over a certain argument that the only movies in theatres are franchised corporate films, I nevertheless enjoyed the process of pouring through box office charts to find 100 movies released in the United States and Canada that were not sequels, nor prequels, nor spin-offs, cinematic universes, franchised characters, and not even adaptations.
Let’s call them cinema-native films, stories and experiences built for theatrical projection first before becoming known in other formats.
I ended up learning a lot more about the North American domestic film market than I thought such an activity would provide and discovering a lot of movies I would have never have previously heard of, even as an avid cinephile to follows the trades and has access to limited distribution screenings here in NYC.
What are “Original Concept Films”?
I slightly mis-titled the first article because I called them “original scripted films” instead of “original concept films”, but “scripted” in the industry implies no documentary, concert, and event films, which in and of themselves can be experiences originated primarily for cinema screens.
I chose “original scripted” over “original concept” because the latter can set up the false expectation that each film is an idea you’ve not heard of before — this falls into “no new ideas under the sun” and “everything is a remix” territory I don’t want to get into. Plainly spoken, an original concept is merely a work that does not draw upon previously existent and familiar intellectual property to bring in fans of previous work into new work. The idea is conceived as a movie from scratch, for the purpose of being a movie.
To repeat: “original concept” does NOT equal “a novel premise,” it means it does not draw from previously extant IP.
Working on a project like this, you quickly discover how vague the definition can be. Last year, I excluded Barbie as an “original film” because it was based on previously known franchised characters, even if it was the first widely released big budget feature film and not based on a book, comic book, video game, or other medium of storytelling, but merely a brand. However, last year I included Biblical adaptations, which this year didn’t seem correct, particularly when there are plenty of faith-based movies and sometimes a Biblical times set movie that is nevertheless an original story.
This year saw a couple-three event movies released by musical artists in tandem with their music work: Taylor Swift’s The Official Release Party of a Showgirl , The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow, and to some degree the science-fiction movie Ash that was directed and scored with original music by Flying Lotus. The third movie, to me, clearly counted, whereas I was not going to include Taylor Swift’s promotional movie until I accepted Hurry Up Tomorrow. Maybe I’m wrong to include them, maybe I won’t include similar event films next year, but doing this project for two years has already shown me the importance of event films of various sources1 to theatrical exhibition, and it seems wrong at this point to exclude products specifically designed to be theatrically exhibited and not really any other format.
There’s also a ton of biopics from across history and cultures, which raises the question of whether ‘life rights’ counts as previously extant IP, particularly of a recognizable public figures such as Jeff Buckley or the bandmembers of Led Zeppelin in a documentary, or the 3 different boxers, Mark Kerr (The Smashing Machine) Claressa Shields (The Fire Inside), and Christy Martin (Christy) each with their non-documentary narrative films. I exclude biopics adapted explicitly from published biographies, but I include biopics that seem to be written from original research.
One Battle After Another provides another such dilemma, in that it is “inspired by” rather than “based on” the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland. As a huge Pynchonhead who recognizes and appreciates the hard tangential turns PT Anderson took to make the movie his own story, it’s still too set in what Pynchon established to be considered an original concept film. It is not included in this list because I consider it an adaptation, particularly since there’s been clear communication about the novel’s and movie’s relationship to each other, generating a lot of cross-analysis and inspiring people to cross media to experience the story in different ways.
This decision, unfortunately, means I cannot include my beloved Sanatarium under the Sign of the Hourglass on this list either, as it is based on Bruno Schulz’s work, despite the fact that watching this movie is nothing like reading the book. Moreso than One Battle After Another, it is truly “inspired by” vibes and a few general plotting points and otherwise a work straight out of the Quays’ psyches and workshop. But they say it’s an adaptation, so therefore it is.
As a last example, Bollywood cinema regularly throws me for a loop, as Indians are masters of multi-media phenomena with free exchange between music, film, promotional, and tabloid production, usually based on an impressive mixture of both biographical people, historical events, and religious myths, sometimes making it unclear which part of the IP is really the movie or the entire campaign around it.
Thus, you can see that this is not exactly an easy task to parse through, and some decisions on what constitutes an “original concept” can excise a wide variety of work or include a lot of stuff that would make people looking for original narrative films grumble.
If you have any beef with any listing being a truly “original concept film”, let me know! This project will shift over time as I see fit. Also it’s difficult to track down what many movies are based off of, so if I included any that are actually adaptations, I can remove it and add something else later.
The Rules
Original script, documentary, or event: no franchise, remake, sequels, prequels, establishing franchises, off-shoots or spin-offs, serials, nor… even adaptations.
Meaningful US domestic theatrical release: over $500k gross and multiple weeks in cinemas.2 Avoiding streaming services just throwing into a single screen to win awards.
Ranked by box office revenue as pulled from The Numbers at the time I made the list. Total box office may have shifted over the last week or will in the next few.
Asterix means I’ve seen it myself.
Descriptions are custom written myself either from seeing the movie, or put together from a combination of IMDb and Wikipedia listings with an eye to expressing both the story and the appeal the movie should have while avoiding any negative or derogatory editorializing.
Genres are composed of widest acknowledged genre listings on IMDb and Wikipedia, in as few words as possible.
Rules that changed from last year:
No longer capping number of writers to two, as that was overly punishing to documentaries and animations particularly.
No longer excluding event films.
Without further ado….
Sinners *
Written & Directed by Ryan Coogler | Action Horror
A music-infused Southern gothic about identical twin brothers Smoke and Stack whose attempts to found a blues venue is sidelined by vampires summoned by the reality-warping power of local crooner Miles’ voice.
F1: The Movie *
Dir. Joseph Kosinksi, Written by Joseph Kosinksi & Ehren Kruger | Sport Drama
A Brad Pitt vehicle (pun intended) about a racecar driver who returns to Formula One at the behest of an old friend to mentor a rookie driver and save their ailing team.
Weapons *
Written & Directed by Zach Cregger | Dark Comedy Horror
Cregger’s follow-up to Barbarian features a similarly POV-and-chronology jumping narrative about the mysterious disappearance of every student from a public school classroom — except one.
Elio *
Dir. Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian, & Domee Shi, Written by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer, Mike Jones | Animated Family Adventure
Left alone with his aunt as his legal guardian after his parents’ untimely death, Elio channels his feelings of alienation on Earth into the attempt to be abducted by actual aliens, only for them to heed his call and bring him in as an ambassador to prevent an intergalactic war.
One of Them Days *
Dir. Lawrence Lamont, Written by Syreeta Singleton | Buddy Comedy
Ambitious waitress Dreux and talented but directionless Alyssa discover Alyssa’s boyfriend has blown their rent money, sending them on a comedic adventure through their neighborhood of colorful characters in pursuit of means of making it back before they are evicted.
Marty Supreme *
Dir. Josh Safdie, Written by Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie | Sports Dramedy
In Josh Safdie’s first feature film directed without the collaboration of his brother Benny, Timothy Chalamet races for his Oscar as a table tennis champion (loosely based on real-life Marty Reisman) whose surprise upset and need to pay off his debts gets him into trouble with an eclectic variety of 1950s New Yorkers burned by Marty’s narcissistic ambition.
Materialists *
Written & Directed by Celine Song | Romantic Comedy
A cynical matchmaker played burnt out by the literalization of the dating “market” seems to have found her perfect pairing in rich and handsome Pedro Pascal, but is still held back by her lingering feelings for poor ex-boyfriend and handsome Chris Evans.
Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl
Written & Directed by Taylor Swift | Documentary Event
Music, music videos, behind-the-scenes, lyric videos, commentary, and reflections on the production from Taylor Swift on her twelfth studio album cut into a “movie musical event” designed to enable fans to participate in a nation-wide release party.
Heart Eyes *
Dir. Josh Ruben, Written by Phillip Murphy, Christopher Landon, & Michael Kennedy | Dark Rom-Com Horror
Some Valentine’s Day counter-programming mixes romcom with slasher horror when two rival but flirtatious diamond ring marketers accidentally get confused as an engaged couple by the Heart Eyes Killer.
Flight Risk *
Dir. Mel Gibson, Written by Jared Rosenberg | Action Thriller
An Air Marshal transporting a fugitive to trial finds herself locked in a plane with a sadistic contract killer flying high above the remote Alaskan wilderness.
Him *
Dir. Justin Tipping, Written by Skip Bronkie, Zack Akers, & Justin Tipping | Sport Horror
Premised around the pun of GOAT as “Greatest of All Time” and the Satan-coded animal, Him follows the extreme hazing and exploitation of a college football star with a head injury as he is invited to champion’s ranch to be scouted for the NFL.
The Woman in the Yard *
Dir. Jaume Collet-Serra, Written by Sam Stefan | Horror
After her husband’s death, the mother of two children must protect them against a nefarious veiled lady who shows up in the yard of their struggling rural farm.
Black Bag *
Dir. Steven Soderbergh, Written by David Koepp | Espionage Thriller
The second Koepp / Soderbergh collaboration to be released in 2025, Black Bag follows a super spy as he investigates his friends, his colleagues, and his own wife after she is suspected of betraying their intelligence agency.
Together *
Written & Directed by Michael Shanks | Horror
A body horror about codependency featuring real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie who, after a wayward encounter with a mysterious sinkhole in the forested backyard of their new house, find their bodies attracted magnetically and their skin sticking to each other.
Companion *
Written & Directed by Drew Hancock | SciFi Thriller
A sort of reverse Running Man comedy thriller about a deeply affectionate robot who learns her goofy awe-shucks boyfriend is framing her for murder.
Novocaine *
Dir. Dan Berk & Robert Olsen, Written by Lars Jacobson | Action Comedy
A banker with congenital insensitivity to pain decides to use his disability as a superpower to save the cute new colleague he’s romantically interested in after she’s kidnapped by bank robbers.
The Phoenician Scheme *
Dir. Wes Anderson, Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola | Dry Comedy
Wes Anderson’s signature diorama-like style and characteristic dry humor is given a relatively action-packed and surprisingly spiritual makeover in a movie about wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda trying to execute a final deal with the help of his daughter, a nun, whom he hopes to succeed him.
Bring Her Back
Written & Directed by Danny & Michael Philippou | Horror
The Philippou brothers return with a folk horror about orphaned step-siblings targeted by their foster mother for an occult ritual.
Drop *
Dir. Christopher Landon, Written by Jillian Jacobs & Chris Roach | Thriller
A single mother on a highly belated night out in a high rise luxury restaurant receives a series of threatening DMs threatening to kill her young son unless she poisons her date.
Good Fortune
Written & Directed by Aziz Ansari | Comedy
An inept angel life-swaps a struggling gig worker with a wealthy venture-capitalist.
Friendship *
Written & Directed by Andrew DeYoung | Dark Comedy
Is the cure for male loneliness Tim Robinson’s special brand of cringe comedy as he falls into a not-necessarily-reciprocated bromance with his charismatic new neighbor?
Love Hurts
Dir. Jonathan Eusebio, Written by Matthew Murray, Josh Stoddard, & Luke Passmore | Action Comedy
A Ke Huy Quan vehicle about a retired criminal working as a realtor, who gets pursued by his crime-lord brother back into the underworld.
The Last Rodeo
Dir. Jan Avnet, Written by Jon Avnet, Neal McDonough, & Derek Presley | Faith-based Drama
A rodeo star returns from retirement to save his grandson and reconnect with his faith and his family.
Death of a Unicorn *
Written & Directed by Alex Scharfman | Horror Comedy
A father and daughter hit a unicorn on their way to a retreat with his employer, a superrich, privileged family of pharmaceutical billionaires, who intend to use the unicorn’s body for its curative properties but for the creatures in the dark who want it back…
The Smashing Machine
Written & Directed by Benny Safdie | Sports Drama
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stars as real-life MMA and UFC champion Mark Kerr in this biopic helmed by Benny Safdie writing and directed his first feature film without his brother.
Becoming Led Zeppelin
Dir. Bernard MacMahon, Written by Bernard MacMahon & Allison McGourty | Music Documentary
As the title describes, this documentary focuses on the four members of Led Zeppelin as they worked their way into the music scene of the 1960s and eventually met in 1968 and formed in the dawn of the 70s.
Eddington *
Written & Directed by Ari Aster | Dark Comedy Thriller
Set in a fictional New Mexican small town, Ari Aster returns us to the height of the pandemic lockdowns as Joaquin Phoenix’s Sheriff Joe feuds with Pedro Pascal’s Mayor Garcia amongst a postmodern Western backdrop of a close-knit community losing their minds and realizing all their worst anxieties in conspiracy theories.
Sketch
Written & Directed by Seth Worley | Family Fantasy Adventure
A family must unite to stop the quirky monsters that came to life from a young girl’s sketches after they fell into a strange pond.
Presence
Dir. Steven Soderbergh, Written by David Koepp | Horror
The first Koepp / Soderbergh collaboration of 2025 is a haunted house story from the ghost’s POV told in first-person long takes.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
Dir. Kogonada, Written by Seth Reiss | Fantasy Drama
Colin Farrell’s and Margot Robbie’s characters get to hang out in important moments of their respective pasts after meeting at a mutual friend’s wedding and then finding a portal.
Good Boy
Dir. Ben Leonberg, Written by Alex Cannon & Ben Leonberg | Horror
Not originally slated for theatrical release, the trailer for this haunted house movie from a pet dog’s POV went viral and caused the distributors to expand to cinemas by audience demand.
The Alto Knights
Dir. Barry Levinson, Written by Nicholas Pileggi | Period Crime Drama
Robert DeNiro faces off against himself as both famed NYC mob bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese.
Truth & Treason
Dir. Matt Whitaker, Written by Matt Whitaker & Ethan Vincent | Historical Drama
The true story of Helmuth Hübener, a German teenager who resisted the Nazis via guerrilla pamphleteering. An extended version exists as a streaming miniseries.
Honey Don’t! *
Dir. Ethan Coen, Written by Ethan Coen & Tricia Cooke | Crime Comedy
The second in Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s Lesbian Crime trilogy stars Margaret Qualley this time as a small town PI who investigates deaths she thinks are connected to a strange church while trying to protect her teenage niece. Note: though part of a thematic trilogy, this is an original story with original characters and therefore NOT a sequel to Drive-Away Dolls.
The Senior
Dir. Rod Lurie, Written by Robert Eisele | Sport Drama
The true story of Mike Flynt, a 59-year-old who returns to his former college to play football as a linebacker.
Hurry Up Tomorrow
Dir. Trey Edward Shults, Written by Trey Edward Shults, The Weeknd, & Reza Fahim | Psychological Thriller
Taking the concept of a ‘visual album’ to the next level, this feature length film about an insomniac musician struggling to keep his tour going was inspired by a time The Weeknd lost his voice during a concert, and pairs with his album of the same name.
Brave the Dark
Dir. Damian Harris, Written by Dale G. Bradley, Lynn Robertson Hay, & Nathaniel Deen | Coming-of-Age Drama
Based on the true story of a high school teacher in 1980s Pennsylvania who takes in one of his students who is homeless and been arrested, hoping to help him graduate and uncover the traumas of his past.
Shelby Oaks
Dir. Chris Stuckmann, Written by Sam Liz & Chris Stuckmann | Horror
The most-funded horror film on Kickstarter, Shelby Oaks follows a woman who searches for her missing sister, a paranormal investigator, in a mysterious abandoned town.
Rental Family
Dir. Hikari, Written by Hikari & Stephen Blahut | Dramedy
A good vibes Brendan Frasier vehicle about a struggling actor who joins an agency in Tokyo to play stand-in family roles for strangers.
Keeper
Dir. Osgood Perkins, Written by Nick Lepard | Horror
Prolific filmmaker Osgood Perkins returns with a cabin-in-the-woods horror about a couple on a romantic getaway who discover a sinister presence tied to the cabin’s haunted past.
Shadow Force
Dir. Joe Carnahan, Written by Leon Chills & Joe Carnahan | Action Thriller
A divorced couple and their son team up together to outrun the parents’ former employer: a shadow ops unit sent to kill them.
Fight or Flight
Dir. James Madigan, Written by Brooks McLaren & D.J. Cotrona | Action Comedy
Josh Hartnett plays a mercenary who finds himself having to protect his own target when both of them are attacked on a jumbo passenger plane.
After the Hunt
Dir. Luca Guadagnino, Written by Nora Garrett | Psychological Drama
A ripped-from-headlines dark academia drama about a college professor stuck between her student’s #metoo accusations against her colleague and the professor’s own secrets
Hell of a Summer
Written & Directed by Billy Bryk & Finn Wolfhard | Horror Comedy
A genre throwback about a group of summer camp counselors targeted by a masked ax killer.
Relay
Dir. David Mackenzie, Written by Justin Piasecki | Thriller
A fixer who assists whistleblowers while hiding behind a relay service for the deaf gets involved with a new client who seeks his protection from a corrupt corporation
The Fire Inside
Dir. Rachel Morrison, Written by Barry Jenkins | Sports Biopic
The true story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, an Olympic boxer and the first American woman to win a gold medal, who returns home to financial insecurity and lack of supporters or endorsements
Rule Breakers
Dir. Bill Guttentag, Written by Jason Brown, Bill Guttentag, & Elaha Mahboob | Drama
Inspirational film about a Middle Eastern woman who educates young women despite it being prohibited by law.
Dangerous Animals
Dir. Sean Byrne, Written by Nick Lepard | Horror Thriller
A surfer girl must figure out how to escape the serial killer who abducted her on his boat before he feeds her to sharks.
Eleanor the Great
Dir. Scarlett Johansson, Written by Tory Kamen | Drama
Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut features June Squibb as a nonagenarian who wanders into a Holocaust remembrance group in NYC by mistake and tells the story of her dead friend as if it were her own.
No Other Land
Dir. Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, & Hamdan Ballal, Written by Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, & Hamdan Ballal | Documentary
A self-distributed documentary by a Palestinian-Israeli activist collective that recorded the destruction of communities and forced displacement in a “firing zone” that Israel declared in Palestine.
The Legend of Ochi *
Written & Directed by Isaiah Saxon | Family Fantasy Adventure
A shy Carpathian girl discovers a wounded (but adorable) baby “ochi” and goes on a quest to bring it home while reckoning with the buried history of her own parents.
Sorry, Baby *
Written & Directed by Eva Victor | Dark Dramedy
A dryly humored but sensitive drama about a PhD student recovering from sexual assault who nevertheless takes over her assaulter’s university position while navigating panic attacks and other difficult aspects of her recovery.
Ella McKay
Written & Directed by James L. Brooks | Dramedy
A lieutenant governor struggles to balance her ambitions to rise in the ranks of political leadership while dealing with her exasperating family.
Oh, Hi! *
Dir. Sophie Brooks, Written by Sophie Brooks & Molly Gordon | Dark Comedy
A couple on their first romantic getaway are in the middle of spicing up their sex life with some minor bondage when questions of their commitment to each other sends everything hilariously out of control.
Game Changer
Dir. S. Shankar, Written by Ranjeet Bahadur, Sai Madhav Burra, & Rajendra Sapre | Action Thriller
Bollywood movie about an IAS officer who fights against a corrupt system for fair elections.
Christy
Dir. David Michôd, Written by Mirrah Foulkes, Katherine Fugate, & David Michôd | Sports Biopic
The true story of Christy Martin, America’s best-known female boxer in the 90s whose husband, who is also her coach, attempted to murder her.
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (Jane Austen a gâché ma vie) *
Written & Directed by Laura Piani | Romantic Comedy
A bookseller, writer, and hopeless Austenite romantic is accepted to a Jane Austen residency she never applied for, where she tries to defeat writer’s block while navigating a love triangle of her own.
Splitsville *
Dir. Michael Angelo Covino, Written by Michael Angelo Covino & Kyle Marvin | Comedy
An “unromantic comedy” that follows an affable private school coach who gets in an absurd menage-a-quatre after his wife Ashley leaves him to experience all the dating FOMO she fears she’ll regret and he sleeps with his best friend’s wife after learning they’re in an open relationship.
Pets on a Train (Falcon Express)
Dir. Benoît Daffis & Jean-Christian Tassy, Written by David Alaux, Eric Tosti, & Jean-François Tosti | Family Animated Adventure
A thieving raccoon and a police dog team up to save the animal passengers of a runaway train.
Riff Raff
Dir. Dito Montiel, Written by John Pollen | Crime Comedy
A family reunion gone wrong as ex-criminal Vincent is unexpectedly visited by his ex-wife and their son while celebrating the holidays with his new wife and step-son.
Blue Moon
Dir. Richard Linklater, Written by Lorenz Hart, Robert Kaplow, & Elizabeth Weiland | Biopic Dramedy
Ethan Hawke plays Lorenz Hart as he slips away from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s opening night production of Oklahoma! to complain to a bartender and piano player about the musical’s success and Hart’s career failures.
Opus
Written & Directed by Mark Anthony Green | Thriller
A journalist travels to the compound of a newly returned pop icon who has twisted plans for the crowd of fans and journalists he’s summoned.
Kuberaa
Dir. Sekhar Kammula, Written by Divya Prakash Dubey, Krishnakant Jonnalgadda, & Sekhar Kammula | Action Thriller
A beggar is conscripted by a corrupt businessman to be registered as the owner of a fake company to transfer and hide newly-found oil wealth, only to get wrapped in a web of investigations and plots.
Green and Gold
Dir. Anders Lindwall, Written by Missy Mareau Garcia, Michael Graf, & Anders Lindwall | Drama
A Wisconsinite farmer bets on the Green Bay Packers to win the Championship in the hopes of saving his farm.
Mirai
Dir. Anil Anand & Karthik Gattamneni, Written by Varadaraj Chikkaballapura, Ratheesh Earatte, & Karthik Gattamneni | Fantasy Epic
A Bollywood movie about a warrior who must protect nine sacred scriptures that hold the power to make mortals into gods.
Dead of Winter
Dir. Brian Kirk, Written by Nicholas Jacobson-Larson & Dalton Leeb | Action Thriller
A woman saves a teenage girl from kidnapping in a snowbound area of Minnesota far from any town or cellphone service.
The Ballad of Wallis Island
Dir. James Griffiths, Written by Tom Basden & Tim Key | Dramedy
A wealthy lottery winner on a private Welsh island pays a folk duo to reunite and perform for him.
The Home
Dir. James DeMonoco, Written by James DeMonoco & Adam Cantor | Horror
Pete Davidson plays a former foster child ordered to work community service at a retirement home, only to find strange and sinister occurrences related to the elderly tenants.
Eden
Dir. Ron Howard, Written by Noah Pink & Ron Howard | Psychological Thriller
A true story isolated island thriller about a group who settle on an island only to fall to distrust and discord.
Bad Shabbos
Dir. Daniel Robbins, Written by Daniel Robbins & Zack Weiner | Comedy
David brings his Catholic-raised fiancee and her parents to a Shabbat dinner to meet his parents, only for everything to go terribly wrong.
Sentimental Value *
Dir. Joaquim Trier, Written by Eskil Vogt & Joaquim Trier | Drama
An actress’s estranged, out-of-work film director father returns to her life to plead his case that she should star in his long-simmering masterpiece, a meditative feature about their family’s history of suicide and role in Nazi-occupied Norway.
It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley
Dir. Amy Berg, Written by Jeff Buckley, Mary Guibert, & Ben Harper | Music Documentary
A behind-the-scenes, newly-released-footage look at Jeff Buckley, a talented musician who only released one album before his untimely death in 1997.
October 8
Dir. Wendy Sachs, Written by Nimrod Erez, Inbal B. Lessner, & Wendy Sachs | Documentary
A documentary that explores the rise of anti-semitism on college campuses and across social media after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
Bone Lake
Dir. Mercedes Bryce Morgan, Written by Joshua Friedlander | Erotic Thriller
A couple schedules a secluded getaway at a mansion only to find it is double-booked with another couple who begins hooking them into plots and mind games.
The Damned
Dir. Thordur Palsson, Written by Jamie Hannigan & Thordur Palsson | Folk Horror
A 19th century remote village is threatened with starvation after a supply ship wrecks right off the coast, leading to a widow to make an impossible decision.
The Surfer *
Dir. Lorcan Finnegan, Written by Thomas Martin | Thriller
A retro Ozploitation thriller featuring Nicholas Cage as the unnamed “The Surfer,” an estranged father attempting to buy the decadent beach house property of his boyhood in order to reconnect with his son, only to face off against a gang of violent surfers lead by a manosphere guru who try to take away everything The Surfer owns.
It Was Just an Accident
Written & Directed by Jafar Panahi | Thriller
Iranian director Jafar Pahani is currently threatened (once again) with incarceration for his recent movie about a former political prisoner encountering his sadistic former jailhouse captor and rounding up his fellow ex-prisoners to exact revenge.
Twinless
Written & Directed by James Sweeney | Dark Dramedy
After losing his twin brother, a young man joins a support group for “twinless twins.”
My Dead Friend Zoe
Dir. Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, Written by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, Cherish Chen, & A.J. Bermudez | Dramedy
An Afghanistan veteran keeps her friendship alive with an Army colleague who died, in the process alienating her estranged Vietnam veteran grandfather.
Valiant One
Dir. Steve Barnett, Written by Eric Tipton, Steve Barnett, & Daniel Myrick | Action Thriller
The survivors of a US helicopter crash on the North Korean side of the DMZ must protect a civilian tech specialist while finding their way out without the help of the US military.
Magazine Dreams
Written & Directed by Elijah Bynum | Psychological Drama
An amateur bodybuilder with body dysmorphic disorder becomes obsessed with becoming a Mr. Olympia champion, even as his ambitions push his mental health to the edge of breakdown.
Anemone
Dir. Ronan Day-Lewis, Written by Daniel & Ronan Day-Lewis | Psychological Drama
Daniel Day-Lewis stars in his son Ronan’s feature debut about a troubled recluse whose brother tries to convince him to reunite with their family.
Ash
Dir. Flying Lotus, Written by Jonni Remmler | SciFi Horror
An astronaut who awakens alone on a strange planet with amnesia must decide whether to trust a man who claims to be there to rescue her.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You *
Written & Directed by Mary Bronstein | Psychological Dramedy
An in-your-face (literally composed mostly of extreme close-ups) story of a therapist herself falling into psychic disarray over the stresses of caring for her special needs child and simmering attraction to her colleague, both while her husband is away.
The Mastermind *
Written & Directed by Kelly Reichardt | Historical Drama
A caper film set in the 70s about an out-of-work artist who steals some valuable paintings out of a local museum, only for the heist to fall apart.
In Whose Name?
Dir. Nico Ballesteros, Written by Nico Ballesteros & Shy Ranje | Documentary
18-year-old Nico Ballesteros started recording this documentary about Kanye West in 2019, which covers six years during which West unsuccessfully ran for president, broke up with Kim Kardashian, and struggled with bipolar disorder while gaining newfound infamy for antisemitic public outbursts.
The Unholy Trinity
Dir. Richard Gray, Written by Lee Zachariah | Western
Pierce Brosnan and Samuel Jackson lead a classic Western set-up about a young man traveling to Trinity, Montana to avenge his father’s death.
Sneaks
Dir. Rob Edwards & Christopher Jenkins, Written by Rob Edwards, Erica Harrell, & Dylan Hartman | Animated Sports Comedy
An anthropomorphic talking shoe must find his other half and his way home after a conniving sneaker collector steals it from his owner, a high school basketball player.
My Mother’s Wedding (North Star)
Dir. Kristin Scott Thomas, Written by Kristin Scott Thomas & John Micklethwait | Dramedy
A long-delayed release of Kristin Scott Thomas’ directorial debut about three sisters returning to their family home to attend the wedding of their mother, who has been widowed twice before.
Harbin
Dir. Min-ho Woo, Written by Min-Seong Kim & Min-ho Woo | Period Drama
A South Korean biopic about the Korean independence activist Ahn Jung-geun, who assassinated the first Japanese Prime Minister, Itō Hirobumi, in 1909.
Rosario
Dir. Felipe Vargas, Written by Alan Trezza | Horror
The titular protagonist travels to New York City to sort through her newly deceased grandmother’s belongings, but while waiting out a winter storm, strange entities take control of her grandmother’s corpse.
Secret Mall Apartment *
Written & Directed by Jeremy Workman | Documentary
The story of a guerrilla artist collective, headed by Michael Townsend, who built a secret apartment in the Providence Place shopping mall in Rhode Island that they were able to use as a meeting place to coordinate their street activities from 2003 until they were caught in 2007.
Good Bad Ugly
Written & Directed by Adhik Ravichandran | Action Comedy
NOT a remake of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, this Tamil film follows a retired gangster who must return to his old ways after his son is wrongfully convicted.
Hard Truths *
Written & Directed by Mike Leigh | Drama
A story of two sisters in London, the relatively jovial Chantelle and the embittered and irascible Jean-Baptiste, who lays a trail of verbal abuse wherever she goes.
Cleaner
Dir. Martin Campbell, Written by Simon Uttley, Paul Andrew Williams, & Matthew Orton | Action
A former soldier turned window cleaner must rescue hostages from extremist activists who intend to murder them to send a message to the world.
The Baltimorons
Dir. Jay Duplass, Written by Jay Duplass & Michael Strassner | Comedy
A Christmas tale from mumblecore master Jay Duplass about a man in need of emergency dental surgery who strikes up an unexpected romance with his older dentist.
40 Acres
Dir. R.T. Thorne, Written by R.T. Thorne, Glenn Taylor, & Lora Campbell | Post-Apocalypse Thriller
A family of farmers descended from Civil War migrants must defend their homestead against cannibals.
The Shrouds *
Written & Directed by David Cronenberg | SciFi Thriller
Cronenberg’s body horror meditation on grief after his wife’s death follows an industrial video maker Karsh, his dead wife’s sister, and her ex-husband as the three fall into a web of intrigue and paranoia after Karsh’s “shroud” graves, designed for the bereaved to view their loved ones’ remains as they decay, are desecrated.
Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie
Written & Directed by David Bushell | Documentary
A remembrance tour of Cheech & Chong’s lives and professional collaborations while on a roadtrip to “The Joint.”
Sacramento
Dir. Michael Angarano, Written by Christopher Nicholas Smith | Buddy Comedy
Single and carefree Rickey convinces his married and soon-to-be-father friend Glenn to take a road trip to Sacramento.
The above 100 movies were listed in order of domestic box office returns. As I did last year, I am including here some additional original concept films I saw myself in cinemas released during 2025, even though they earned far less. They are arranged chronologically by when I saw them, not by box office receipts:
Santosh
Written & Directed by Sandhya Suri | Crime Drama
A non-Bollywood Indian independent film about a widow who, because of an inheritance law, takes over her husband’s position as a police officer and discovers firsthand the injustices and corruptions of her small village police forces.
Bloody Axe Wound
Written & Directed by Matthew John Lawrence | Horror Comedy
The daughter of a prolific supernatural serial killer who tapes his victims’ murders and rents them out as slasher flicks at their local video store is ambitious and impatient to take over, setting off events that fall quickly out of her control. Full disclosure: I am friends with the co-cinematographers of this feature.
Myth of Man
Written & Directed by Jamin Winans | Science Fiction
In an abject future where periodic red dust storms turn all unprotected humans to dust, a deaf-mute woman discovers a scroll that she believes asks her to assemble a troupe of people with specific auras to sing a song that will return a spirit to earth to save humanity.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Written & Directed by Rungano Nyoni | Drama
A family patriarch’s death splits the women in his family into the older generation who grieve him out of ritual and superstition while fighting over his estate, and the younger generation who grieve his abuse they independently must recover from.
Familiar Touch
Written & Directed by Sarah Friedland | Drama
Told from the perspective of an elderly woman succumbing to cognitive decline as she tries to adjust to life in a memory care clinic, sometimes while forgetting why and how she got there.
Boys Go to Jupiter
Written & Directed by Julian Glander | Animated Dry Comedy
A viby lo-fi vaporwave animation about a teenage hustler named Billy 5000 who tries to get $5000 out of a glitch he found in a delivery app to move out of his dead-end Florida suburban life, instead running into strange beings possibly from another dimension.
East of Wall
Written & Directed by Kate Beecroft | Drama
A widowed horse trainer sells her ranch to a Texan horse dealer to try to keep her business afloat so that she can take care of the various orphaned and abandoned children in her community.
Left-Handed Girl
Dir. Shih-Ching Tsou, Written by Shih-Ching Tsou & Sean Baker | Drama
Sean Baker collaborator Shih-Ching Tsou’s directorial debut about a left-handed girl in Taiwan who believes that her “Satan’s arm” is driving her to petty theft as her family tries to keep afloat running a small night market noodle kiosk.
Commentary
Why is this list important?
Regardless of whether Netflix or Paramount buys Warner Brothers, the number of movies made will decline and the focus will be on IP management over talent development. The four brothers by the last name of Warner who founded the studio in 1923 did so to make and release newfangled ‘motion pictures’ within a burgeoning industry we now call the film business — the modern CEOs couldn’t be less interested in movies themselves, preferring to see their job as managing the decline of theaters while mining IP rights to buy and sell like any sort of financial asset. I have personally edited interviews in my day job with some studio execs who see their primary competitor as YouTube, and the only way to compete, as they see it, is to make film production as cheap as YouTube content. Since YouTube content is user-uploaded, its cost to Alphabet is zero. If YouTube is the competitor, we might as well just shut all the cinemas down and close shop.
But of course YouTube is not the competitor, because feature films are better than 99.9% of people whipping out their cellphone and recording their cats’ antics, their political rants, or their political rants dubbed over the antics of cats. This is obvious and self-evident, that in a world where human beings can watch whatever on YouTube to entertain themselves, they still choose other media to attend to, because of their special qualities that make them valuable to read, listen to, watch, and pay for.
This buyout is particularly frustrating because Warner Bros had a particularly stellar year. Turns out making successful product does not incline CEOs to prefer production over financialization. Meanwhile, despite healthy growth of both audience and interest in theatrical exhibition (PDF alert), 2025 box office is only up 1% over 2024 despite original predictions hoping for 8% increases, a stumble largely attributed to reduced number of titles available for audiences to show up for after the production disruptions of the pandemic, labor strikes, and now AI disruption.
So if we want more butts in seats, we have to make more movies. And since the studio conglomerates are consolidating, they are making less movies. And since they’re only interested in financializing IP rather than developing talent, they’ll continue to constrict the number of original movies coming out year by year for the foreseeable future.
That puts special onus on audiences to check out original films, sure, but it’s also an opportunity for smaller shops, indie labels, and NonDē to fill the void of demand. In between, theater execs should realize that most film execs do not have their best interest in heart and tinker with unique ways to remake theatrical exhibition, of which partnering with original filmmakers and filmmaking collectives is probably a good idea. Distributors also have a role in finding new ways to connect original features to screens in the communities that want them outside of the reflexive and probably no longer useful ‘limited run to expanded release’ approach.
However, I recommend you browse this list for to-watch adds, because it offers a lot of stuff you cannot get from the franchise tentpoles. Faith-based films once again battle with horror over who has the most dedicated and reliable audience. Special interest docs and indie family adventures rub shoulders. I’m under the impression that only about 5% of films per year are directed by women3 — this list has 22 female directors composing about 18.8%4 of the 118 directors included. There are foreign films, American black cinema, and conservative documentaries.
To appropriate my reasoning from last year, you may not find yourself interested in many or even most of these titles, but as a “major film goer” is defined as someone who sees about 6 movies theatrically per year, I’d be surprised if you can’t find six movies on this list that you like.
For more to add to your watch list:
To read more of my FilmStack posts:
Buy me a treat?:
particularly, literally, “Fathom Events” distributed films, plays, and concerts
This isn’t actually a real rule. I was going to make a minimum box office take to exclude movies shown for like three days in a small town somewhere, but in the end I don’t have to — there’s probably more like 200-300 original concept films made per year, the top 100 get wide enough releases to earn over $500k each.
This statistic is really hard to nail down. If anyone has some real numbers from a good source, please let me know
This number is higher than 100 because more than one director can direct a movie and it also includes the 8 additional movies I saw myself at the bottom.
Solid list. I have a lot to catch up on.
Thank you for putting this together, it’s great to see original film ideas made for their own sake. I just covered 'The Ballad of Wallis Island' in my own newsletter, and I remember reading that it’s based on an earlier short film by the same creators. I suppose that still counts as original, or does it? I guess it would be in the adapted screenplay category in awards.