The “Best” Film Scores of 2025

Although we’re now a couple months into 2026, I finally present you with the “best” film scores of 2025. As usual, there are some very mainstream scores in here that most observers would agree with and there are a few left field choices. If you’re a longtime listener, that shouldn’t surprise you too much, though this year I’ve managed to surprise myself just a little bit. As with all of these lists, although I say they’re the “best”, what I really mean is these are my favorites. Who’s to say what’s really the best? Surely not me.

This was a much harder list for me to put together than in recent years – there were a few scores that I immediately knew were going to make it, but a number of others where it took a lot more consideration, noticing that the passage of time had changed how I’d viewed a score (for better or worse); ultimately these lists are just a snapshot in time, but some decisions were made based on how I felt now while others were made based on how I felt in the past. It’s a good reminder as to the subjectivity of each of these lists, at how you felt when seeing the film impacts your memory of it (and its score) forever on. But all things considered, I’m happy to say that 2025 was another solid year, with a deep set of great scores that stretch far beyond the same handful that received most attention during the year-end awards and recaps.

If you can’t control yourself, look below to see what scores I picked, though you’ll miss out on the why of it all (and given some of the choices, the why is pretty important). And look, the why being important should be obvious, and it’s always the case, but there’s more that affects your thoughts on a particular film score compared to other art forms, since it’s shaped by both the score alone as well as your experience watching the film (and the film itself). For instance, the contrasting impacts of each of F1 and The Shrouds had on me (and how those impacts lingered or persisted) greatly impacted my view on the film. Meanwhile, that interrelationship between film and score allows you to consider how the film impacted the score on many fronts: plot, narrative, characterization, themes, etc. The numerous meta aspects of Baby Invasion really heightened my enjoyment of the score (on top of it being a loud as hell banger) while Eddington pushes the film’s satire ever further. All that said, sometimes you like a score just because it sounds good.

• Baby Invasion – Burial (Review)
• Sinners – Ludwig Göransson
• Anemone – Bobby Krlic
• 28 Years Later – Young Fathers
• Eddington – Bobby Krlic and Daniel Pemberton (Interview 1; Interview 2)
• Marty Supreme – Daniel Lopatin (Interview)
• Fantastic Four: First Steps – Michael Giacchino
• The Accountant 2 – Bryce Dessner (Interview)
• F1 – Hans Zimmer
• The Shrouds – Howard Shore

Listen to me ramble about these favorites below or on your podcast player of choice (including Spotify and Apple Podcasts).