Our 10 Favorite Movie Posters from 2025 – Dreams of a Good Ballad | FirstShowing.net

Our 10 Favorite Movie Posters from 2025 – Dreams of a Good Ballad

by Alex Billington
December 22, 2025

With the year winding down, it’s time to look back and highlight some favorites from the world of movies. The past few years I’ve published collections of the best poster designs, highlighting tons of excellent work (from real humans not AI!) that deserves extra attention. Below is my personal set of 10 Favorite Movie Posters from 2025. These aren’t necessarily the “best” rather they’re my own favorites that stuck with me – though I’d say many of them are the best posters anyway. The only qualification is they must be official posters released by the distributor, not fan art or other posters created unofficially. My taste in poster art continues to be: colorful, unique, minimalistic, bold design choices that accent the themes and plot elements of the film they’re made for. I despise posters that are literally just a still frame from the film turned into a one-sheet (they always look so lazy – like this). These 10 posters below stuck with me as the most appealing, striking, inventive designs that really make me want to watch every one of the films. Check them out below.

Here are my 10 favorite posters. Full-size image can always be found on our favorite poster site IMPAwards.

Ballad of a Small Player (dir. Edward Berger)
Design by Intermission Film [Agency]

I’m a fan of any poster that uses bold colors and goes against the grain of the typical expected color palette of most movie posters. Not only is this a fascinating design the neon colors for the text are a brilliant choice.

Good Boy (dir. Ben Leonberg)
Design by MOCEAN [Agency]

🐶 Indy the Dog! Best dog performance of 2025! This is such a creative, clever poster design for this little indie horror film told entirely through the POV of this doggo watching out for his owner in a haunted cabin.

The Ballad of Wallis Island (dir. James Griffiths)
Design by ARSONAL [Agency]

Another good film where the other posters for it are pretty bad, but this one caught my attention. It’s eye-catching, I like how the waves are hand-crafted as if it’s a collage, and the playfulness of these 3 characters.

Jay Kelly (dir. Noah Baumbach)
Design by Aleksander Walijewski

Yes I’ll admit this poster is very similar to the Irma Vep series poster (seen here) but I still dig it anyway. I admire that they created such a visually stunning design for this charming Netflix film considering all the other posters for this are not good. And I like how George Clooney’s eyes are seen along the entire film strip.

Lurker (dir. Alex Russell)
Design by Unknown

Whoa! Such a cool design – I’m glad they went with something different than most posters. The vertical title makes it stand out, along with that red color, but it also connects to the film’s plot about celebrity obsession.

Sirât (dir. Oliver Laxe)
Design by Bangers & Mash [Agency]

Those SPEAKERS! So big. So awesome. This incredible Spanish-Moroccan film is one of the best films of the year and this distinct poster design perfectly captures the techno-filled vibes of this film and how ominous the music is in it. Perhaps it all makes sense only if you’ve seen the film? I don’t care, I think it’s totally rad.

The Plague (dir. Charlie Polinger)
Design by mcgillivray llc [Agency]

A clever throwback to classic horror film posters. This design for The Plague (a thriller about bullying) only appeared a few weeks ago and instantly earned a spot on here – along with the first poster for this film, too.

A Useful Ghost (dir. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke)
Design by Fable [Agency]

A great poster not only because of the ghost head created by the vacuum cleaner tube (this kooky Thai film is about a vacuum cleaner possessed by the ghost of a dead wife) it’s also the vivid purple color that makes this really pop. I’d stop and look closely at this if I saw it at the movie theater – which is what really matters.

Rebuilding (dir. Max Walker-Silverman)
Design by Katie Dokson (in the style of colcha embroidery)

Love when they make an especially unique poster for an especially unique film – this takes the cake this year. It’s an embroidery style called “colcha” connecting to Colorado’s history which is where the film takes place.

Train Dreams (dir. Clint Bentley)
Artwork by Sally Deng / Design by GrandSon [Agency]

Utterly gorgeous painted art for one of my Top 10 films from 2025 anyway! I adore this poster – just perfect. And anyone who has seen the film (on Netflix) understands how important this shoes-in-the-three image is.

A few others that barely didn’t make the cut: this distinct red design for the Japanese film Happyend, all the foliage on the official Hamnet poster, bright orange & piano keys for Köln 75, weirdo Colombian poet Oscar Restrepo on the poster for A Poet (Un Poeta) which is also a great film, the creative uniqueness of Hlynur Pálmason’s The Love That Remains, and the poster for the 2025 Telluride Film Festival (by Daniel Clowes).

So there you have it! Those are my favorite designs from 2025. After a bad dip during the pandemic years, it looks like poster artwork is finally getting better again. Some distributors (though not all) are realizing a good looking poster is still worth it! And we’re seeing an improvement in the uniqueness of many posters (as long as they don’t turn to AI – ugh). Other best of 2025 poster lists to check out: Adrian Curry’s annual list of The Best Movie Posters of 2025, and Creative Review’s Best Movie Posters of the Year, and The Reveal’s 15 Best Posters. There are so many posters released every year, sometimes it’s hard to remember the very best ones. However, truly great artwork usually stands out so much that other design geeks remember them and mention them over and over. Let’s continue to highlight non-AI, artist-made movie posters as much as we can. And of course a final shout out to IMPAwards, my own favorite place for movie posters on the web. In these though times for websites, please keep visiting them so they keep running. What are your top posters?

Find more posts in: Editorial, Feat, Lists, Looking Back