The AFI Awards Top 10 list for 2025 has been announced, and this year’s selections reflect a remarkable blend of box-office powerhouses, streamers pushing cinematic boundaries, and auteur-driven storytelling across film and television.
On the film side, titles like “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” and a major one-two punch from Warner Bros — “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners” — secured their positions among the year’s most celebrated achievements. Meanwhile, HBO Max’s “The Pitt,” Netflix’s “Adolescence,” and Apple TV+’s “Severance” and “The Studio” anchor the television selections, underscoring the dominance of premium streaming in awards-caliber storytelling.
AFI Motion Pictures of the Year — The Full Film Selection
This year’s AFI film lineup demonstrates the breadth of modern cinema — from stage adaptations and literary dramas to sweeping sci-fi and prestige studio epics.
AFI Top Films of 2025:
- Avatar: Fire and Ash (20th Century Studios)
- Bugonia (Focus Features)
- Frankenstein (Netflix)
- Hamnet (Focus Features)
- Jay Kelly (Netflix)
- Marty Supreme (A24)
- One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)
- Sinners (Warner Bros.)
- Train Dreams (Netflix)
- Wicked: For Good (Universal Pictures)
This set represents a high-caliber awards corridor:
- A24 and Netflix fueling indie prestige
- Warner Bros. emerging with two heavy hitters
- Universal and 20th Century Studios leveraging franchise and musical legacy
The lineup speaks to a stronger-than-expected year for theatrical exhibition — while still acknowledging platforms that now function like film studios.
AFI Television Programs of the Year — Streaming Platforms Take Over
In television, AFI’s honorees signal what the industry already knows: prestige TV is now almost entirely a streaming arena.
AFI Top TV Programs of 2025:
- Adolescence (Netflix)
- Andor (Disney+)
- Death by Lightning (Netflix)
- The Diplomat (Netflix)
- The Lowdown (FX)
- The Pitt (HBO Max)
- Pluribus (Apple TV+)
- Severance (Apple TV+)
- The Studio (Apple TV+)
- Task (HBO Max)
Apple TV+ and Netflix each landed three major placements, with HBO Max not far behind — a reflection of audiences migrating toward serialized, director-led storytelling arcs rather than broadcast-style programming.
AFI Special Award — Honoring the International Outlier
AFI’s Special Award this year went to:
- “It Was Just an Accident” (Neon)
The Special Award recognizes productions outside AFI’s traditional eligibility — typically international, non-U.S. or otherwise non-standard releases.
Past Special Award recipients include:
- The Artist
- Parasite
- Roma
- The Banshees of Inisherin
This explains the absence of other anticipated international contenders from Neon and others — not a snub, but a boundary of AFI’s criteria.
The Notable Omissions — And What They Mean
This year’s biggest surprises were the films left off the list, including:
- F1
- A House of Dynamite
- Is This Thing On
- Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
All of them arrived with Oscar-tier expectations — and their absence here could complicate their campaign momentum.
Likewise, mainstream titles like:
- Wake Up Dead Man
- Song Sung Blue
failed to make the cut — a reminder that the AFI Awards mirror aesthetic merit more than audience reach.
Our Take — Why the AFI Awards Still Matter
The AFI Awards remain one of Oscar season’s most reliable barometers.
Over the past decade, AFI’s film selections have overlapped with the Academy’s Best Picture slate by seven or eight titles per year, making the list a strong — if not infallible — predictor of what’s next.
Three industry signals this year:
| Trend | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Streaming commands prestige | TV is now cinema |
| Indie studios still matter | Awards ≠ franchise dominance |
| International films need special pathways | Rules haven’t caught up to the market |
In short — prestige is no longer format-specific. A movie or show can win cultural influence from theaters OR from your living room.
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