2025 Endy Awards Nominations

These are the 2025 Endy Awards, wherein I pretend to give out maneki-neko statues to the best movies, performances, etc of this year in film. Awards for many other years can be found in the Rankings & Awards Index. Eligibility is determined by imdb date and by whether or not I’ve seen the movie in question. Films are presented in alphabetical order, and the winners will be announced on Oscar night. As always, the winners and nominees are subject to change as I watch more movies. And the Endy nomination goes to. . .


Best Picture:

1. Blue Fight
2. CITY the Animation
3. Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants
4. The Mastermind
5. Nouvelle Vague
6. One Battle After Another
7. Resurrection
8. Rewrite
9. Shifty
10. Sinners

Best Director:

1. Ishidate Taichi, et al, CITY the Animation
2. Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
3. Bi Gan, Resurrection
4. Matsui Daigo, Rewrite
5. Ryan Coogler, Sinners

Best Actor:

1. Kinoshita Danhi, Blue Fight
2. Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
3. Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Bullet Train Explosion
4. Joaquin Phoenix, Eddington
5. Josh O’Connor, The Mastermind
6. Oizumi Yo, Muromachi Outsiders
7. Guillaume Marbeck, Nouvelle Vague
8. Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
9. Ben Whishaw, Peter Hujar’s Day
10. Ayano Go, Sham
11. Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
12. Bao Beier, The Sixth Robber
13. Kamal Haasan, Thug Life

Best Actress:

1. Ranice Tay, Amoeba
2. Gwei Lun-mei, Dear Stranger
3. Emma Mackey, Ella McCay
4. Zhang Zifeng, Girl on Edge
5. Wen Qi, Girls on Wire
6. Liu Haocun, Girls on Wire
7. Miyazaki Yu, Glass Heart
8. Margaret Qualley, Honey Don’t
9. Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
10. Matilda Lutz, Red Sonja
11. Ikeda Elaiza, Rewrite
12. Shibasaki Ko, Sham
13. Hedwig Tam, Smashing Frank

Supporting Actor:

1. Andrew Scott, Blue Moon
2. Wang Yanhui, Deep in the Mountains
3. Marko Zaror, Diablo
4. Albert Brooks, Ella McCay
5. Andy Lau, A Gilded Game
6. Aubrey Dullin, Nouvelle Vague
7. Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another
8. Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
9. Peter Shinkoda, Prisoner of War
10. Robert Sheehan, Red Sonja
11. Delroy Lindo, Sinners
12. Yuen Biao, The Sixth Robber
13. Ralph Fiennes, 28 Years Later

Supporting Actress:

1. Margaret Qualley, Blue Moon
2. Non, Bullet Train Explosion
3. Alana De La Rossa, Diablo
4. Ni Ni, Dongji Rescue
5. Ma Yili, Girl on Edge
6. Seohyun, Holy Night: Demon Hunters
7. Zhuang Dafei, Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants
8. Zoey Deutsch, Nouvelle Vague
9. Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another
10. Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
11. Shu Qi, Resurrection
12. Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
13. Hailie Steinfeld, Sinners


Original Screenplay:

1. Deep in the Mountains
2. Fool Time
3. Resurrection
4. Sinners
5. A Useful Ghost

Adapted Screenplay:

1. CITY the Animation
2. Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants
3. Muromachi Outsiders
4. One Battle After Another
5. Rewrite

English Language Film:

1. In the Lost Lands (Paul WS Anderson)
2. The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt)
3. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. Shifty (Adam Curtis)
5. Sinners (Ryan Coogler)

Non-English Language Film:

1. CITY the Animation (Ishidate Taichi, et al)
2. Resurrection (Bi Gan)
3. Rewrite (Matsui Daigo)
4. Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)
5. Blue Fight (Miike Takashi)

Non-Fiction Feature Film:

1. Fool Time (Jon Bois)
2. Pee-wee as Himself (Matt Wolf)
3. Scorigami (Jon Bois)
4. Shifty (Adam Curtis)
5. WTO/99 (Ian Bell)

Animated Feature Film:

1. CITY the Animation (Ishidate Taichi, et al)
2. Predator: Killer of Killers (Dan Trachtenberg)
3. Ordinary Life (Mizushiri Yoriko)

Unseen Film:

1. Father Mother Sister Brother (Jim Jarmusch)
2. Girl (Shu Qi)
3. Grand Tour (Miguel Gomes)
4. Retro (Karthik Subbaraj)
5. What Does that Nature Say to You (Hong Sangsoo)


Film Editing:

1. CITY the Animation
2. Resurrection
3. Shifty
4. Sinners
5. WTO/99

Cinematography:

1. Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants
2. The Mastermind
3. Nouvelle Vague
4. Resurrection
5. Sinners

Art Direction:

1. The Mastermind
2. Muromachi Outsiders
3. One Battle After Another
4. Resurrection
5. Sinners

Costume Design:

1. In the Lost Lands
2. The Mastermind
3. One Battle After Another
4. Red Sonja
5. Sinners

Make-Up and Hair:

1. Blue Fight
2. In the Lost Lands
3. Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants
4. Resurrection
5. Sinners


Music:

1. Ella McCay
2. Glass Heart
3. The Mastermind
4. Nouvelle Vague
5. One Battle After Another
6. Resurrection
7. Sinners

Choreography:

1. Blue Fight
2. Diablo
3. Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants
4. Muromachi Outsiders
5. The Sixth Robber

Sound:

1. Avatar: Fire and Ash
2. Glass Heart
3. Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants
4. Resurrection
5. Sinners

Sound Editing:

1. Avatar: Fire and Ash
2. Bullet Train Explosion
3. Dongji Rescue
4. Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants
5. Sinners

Visual Effects:

1. Avatar: Fire and Ash
2. Bullet Train Explosion
3. Dongji Rescue
4. Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants
5. Resurrection

The Best Older Movies I Saw in 2025 (For the First Time)

An annual tradition here at The End, this is a look at my favorite film discoveries of the year, any movie more than a few years old that I saw for the first time this year. Previous years include: 2024, 2023, 2022, 202120202019201820172016201520142013201220112010,  200920082007, and 2006. I watched somewhere around 240 films this year, but only a sixth or so of them qualified for this list. Here are 30 of my favorites.

1. Girl Students’ Dormitory (Shi Shujun, 1983)
2. Seventh Code (Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 2013)
3. Angel’s Egg (Oshii Mamoru, 1985)
4. Scenes of City Life (Yuan Muzhi, 1935)
5. The Bullet Train (Sato Junya, 1975)
6. Killer Constable (Kuei Chi-hung, 1980)
7. The Cat (Lam Nai-choi, 1992)
8. Love Hotel (Somai Shinji, 1985)
9. Bright Future (Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 2002)
10. Blood on Wolf Mountain (Fei Mu, 1936)


11. Evil Cat (Dennis Yu, 1987)
12. Serpent’s Path (Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 1998)
13. The Red Spectacles (Oshii Mamoru, 1987)
14. Three Days of the Condor (Sydney Pollack, 1975)
15. License to Live (Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 1998)
16. Long Promised Road (Brent Wilson, 2021)
17. National Customs (Zhu Shilin & Luo Mingyou, 1935)
18. The Man Who Invented Christmas (Bharat Nalluri, 2017)
19. Queen of Triads (Venus Keung, 2021)
20. I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times (Don Was, 1995)


21. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky, 2012)
22. Confucius (Fei Mu, 1940)
23. Female Special Police Officer (Zhang Zhen, 2022)
23. 42 (Brian Helgeland, 2013)
24. Final Destination 3 (James Wong, 2006)
25. Enter the Girl Dragon (Ram Gopal Varma, 2022)
26. Conan the Barbarian (Marcus Nispel, 2011)
27. David Lynch: The Art Life (Olivia Neergaard-Holm, Rick Barnes, & Jon Nguyen, 2016)
29. Scrooge (Ronald Neame, 1970)
30. The Hours (Stephen Daldry, 2002)

Books of 2025

These are the books I finished reading in 2025.

1. McTeague: A Story of San Francisco – Frank Norris
2. Northanger Abbey – Jane Austin
3. A Moveable Feast – Ernest Hemingway
4. Cuba Libre – Elmore Leonard
5. Nicholas Nickleby – Charles Dickens
6. Gardens of the Moon – Steven Erikson
7. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
8. A Heart Divided (Legends of the Condor Heroes #4) – Louis Cha
9. Algorithm of the Night – AS Hamrah
10. Who Wrote the Bible? – Richard Elliott Friedman
11. Repertory Movie Theaters of New York City – Ben Davis
12. The Secret Origins of the Bible – Tim Callahan
13. Brian Wilson & the Beach Boys: How Deep Is the Ocean? – Paul Williams
14. Fab Four FAQ 2.0: The Beatles’ Solo Years, 1970-1980 – Robert Rodriguez

These are the books I read but did not finish in 2025.

1. The Dying Grass – William T. Vollman
2. The Plum in the Golden Vase #1 – The Gathering – David Tod Roy (Translator)
3. Dream of the Red Chamber #1 – The Golden Days – Cao Xueqin
4. The Confidence-Man – Herman Melville
5. Your Name Here – Helen DeWitt & Ilya Gridneff
6. The Path to Power – Robert Caro
7. Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov
8. The Great Game – Peter Hopkirk
9. The Decameron – Giovanni Boccaccio
10. Winesburg, Ohio – Sherwood Anderson
11. Deadhouse Gates – Steven Erikson
12. The Broken Seals (Outlaws of the March #1) – Luo Guanzhong
13. James Joyce – Richard Ellman
14. In Dreams Begin Responsibilities – Jonathan Rosenbaum
15. The Novel: An Alternative History 1600-1800 – Steven Moore
16. Shadow Ticket – Thomas Pynchon
17. The Olde Curiosity Shop – Charles Dickens
18. The Eye of the World – Robert Jordan
19. Dickens – Peter Ackroyd
20. The Book of J – Harold Bloom
21. The Victorian State of Mind – Walter E. Houghton