My 2025 favorites animated movies
2025 is ending, and once again I wanted to recap my 10 favorite animated films (and shorts) I first watched this year. Not all came out in 2025 (and some will only come out in 2026 XD), but here's the ones that moved me the most, in an approximate order because it's hard to rank anything.
All in all, I watched 62 films this year! I'm really happy because I tried to widen my horizons, and I mostly succeeded.
I love animation as an art form and medium very very much, so all of these are piece of art I think are worthwhile, be they for children or adults.
10. The Square, by Kim Bo-So. It’s a South Korean animated movie, set in North Korea & following the forbidden relationship between a Swedish diplomat and a local traffic officer. Honestly, it’s got a really unique style, that sets it quite apart, and I think that despite broaching a not so easy subject, it both doesn’t shy away from the danger both face while living in such an authoritarian dictature, while avoiding the caricature or villainising north koreans either. Overall, I do wish it did a bit more to really sell the romance between the two, but frankly it’s really well shot and atmospheric. I was able to see it thanks to a local film festival, and I think it’s coming out to the wider public in 2026, so if you have a chance to watch it, it's worthwhile.
9. The Glassworker, by Usman Riaz. The first 2D animated Pakistani movie ever! Honestly, it’s overall a well made tale about continuing to see the worth in art in the face of pointless war, and I really enjoyed it. It’s incredibly well made & quite beautiful, even if I think it borrows a bit too much stylistically from Ghibli at times, and I hope the next films this studio do is able to find more of their own style.
8. Prychynna. The Story of Love, by Andrii Shcherbak. This one is an Ukrainian short that lasts around 11 minutes, and is fully silent, based on the poem of the same name by Taras Shevchenko. The visuals are frankly mesmerizing, and even though I didn’t know the poem when I first watched it, it really moved me. Honestly, I would recommend both it and the poem (and Shevchenko’s poetry as a whole tbh)
7. Nezha (and Nezha 2 tbh special feature i love them both), by Jiao Zi. What hasn’t been said about them already? Incredibly well animated, very fun movies for kids, hit well when they should, funny when they should be, a Bit long sure, but it’s time well spent. I watched both for the first time this year so they can share <3
6. Josep, by Aurel. A French film about the Spanish cartoonist Josep Bartoli, set after the Spanish civil war in 1939, when many Republicans were fleeing Franco’s horrors. A far too often forgotten fact of history is that these refugees were forced to live in concentration camps by the French government, and the movie is about Josep’s time in those camps, and his fictional friendship with a local guard. It’s a really beautifully animated movie, and led me to do some more research on an artist I knew relatively little about before. I think if you can find it, it’s worth a watch.
5. Le secret des mésanges (or The songbirds’ secret in english), by Antoine Lanciaux.
It’s a French animated movie done fully through paper dolls, about a young girl’s holiday helping with her mom’s archeological work, and also searching for some buried family secrets. It’s really beautiful, one of the most unique animation style I’ve seen this year, and really one that’s worth watching if you like animation as a medium! I know I’m fully mixing kids movies and ones that are more directed for adults but well. I love animation as an art so much, what can I say?
4. Ibuka, Justice, by Justice Rutikara. This one is another short, this time about the Rwandan Genocide, and told through parents retelling their memories of it to their daughter, Justice. It is an autobiographical movie, and the animation itself fits incredibly well considering the very heavy subject it is talking about. A piece of art that I think everyone should watch.
3. The Legend of Hei, by MTJJ. Somehow, even though I had already seen the first season ages ago, I had actually never seen the movie?? I haven’t had the time to watch the second yet either, hence why it’s not here. What else can i say tbh?? Xiaohei is incredibly dear to my heart, I love this cat, and the animation in this movie is breathtaking!
2. Allah isn’t obliged, by Zaven Najjar. Based on the book of the same name, it is about Birahima, a young child that after losing his mother, is thrown into the midst of civil war and conflicts across Sierra Leone and Liberia, and ends up becoming a child soldier. It follows his experience through war, loss and a broken childhood. I have already seen a few films animated in a similar style, and I was lucky enough to be able to see an early screening at a local film festival with some of the film’s crew, and it is a really moving movie, that deals with an incredibly heavy but sadly very real subject with the weight and respect it deserves. It will be coming out officially in 2026, and I think if you consider animation art, and care about the wide variety of stories it is able to portray, then I would say please go watch it.
Arco, by Ugo Bienvenu. I’ll be honest, I’ve been waiting for this one for a while. A lot has also been said about it, deservedly, but frankly, I think it is the one that moved me the most this year. Everything from the animation, to the character acting, to the story, and to the theme of climate disaster and trying to find any sort of reason to continue in a world where everything seems doomed, from families feeling ever so distant, to any hope of a better future seeming like a far fling dream, I think bridging all of that through rainbows and time travel worked really well. I mean, it’s not a very surprising pick, and I do expect most people have seen or heard of it but, really. It’s worth a watch.
And that's it!! Honestly there were so many others I loved, and many that came out this year that I also didn't have time to watch. Animation is such a vast medium, and I firmly believe that not only is it for everyone, but it can tell any story, and I hope this short selection can help you discover a few you might not know, and I invite you to give them a shot!
