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If the first half of 2025 felt like the year of the music documentary, political features showed up to finish out the second half on a much somber tone. Films covering censorship in Russia, the rise of Brazil’s religious movement, and Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” laws now lead the race for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards—even if there’s still a long road ahead before the ceremony in March 2026.
So, there’s still plenty of time to enjoy some documentaries about DEVO, Led Zeppelin, and comedian John Candy before you dive into the heavier material. In the list below, we also highlight Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), a much-needed send-up of the funk pioneer Sly Stone and a five-hour documentary on Billy Joel. Plus, behind-the-scenes looks into the lives of filmmakers Martin Scorsese (Mr. Scorsese) and Francis Ford Coppola (Megadoc).
Then, once your ready for the political projects, Mstyslav Chernov follows 2024 Oscar winner 20 Days in Mariupol with this year’s 2000 Meters to Andriivka—a brutal reminder of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. There’s also Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever, a Netflix film about a multimillionaire’s quest to leverage his wealth into eternal life.
Of course, we’ve enjoyed quite a few more docs this year, running the gamut from NFL cheerleading to a Safdie brothers–produced Andy Kaufman film. Here are the best 23 documentaries of 2025.
2000 Meters to Andriivka
After winning Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2024 Academy Awards for 20 Days of Mariupol, director Mstyslav Chernov is back with new film. Titled 2000 Meters to Andriivka, Chernov’s follow-up feature for PBS’s Frontline continues the documentarian’s work covering the war in Ukraine. This time, he joins up with a platoon hoping to liberate the Russian-occupied town of Andriivka that was unfortunately leveled in 2023.
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John Candy: I Like Me
Remember John Candy? The Canadian comedian from Uncle Buck, Home Alone, and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles was the king of feel-good comedies in the late ‘80s. They were the kind of films that Hollywood forgot how to make nowadays, about family, friendship, and putting aside all the nonsense to be there for the ones you love. In I Like Me, actor Colin Hanks—Tom Hanks’s son—paints a beautiful portrait of what Candy brought to those movies to make them so special.
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The Perfect Neighbor
Compiled primarily through police bodycam footage, The Perfect Neighbor follows the gut-wrenching true story of a long-running neighborhood dispute in Florida built on one white woman’s prejudice against her Black neighbors and the state’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” laws. Though it’s not an easy watch, the documentary won multiple Critics Choice Documentary Awards including Best Feature and Best Director.
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Apocalypse in the Tropics
Apocalypse in the Tropics is directed by Petra Costa, who won a Peabody Award for her former documentary about power politics in Brazil titled The Edge of Democracy. The latest update follows Jair Bolsonaro’s strenuous tenure as the country’s President, as well as the rise of evangelical Christians in Brazil and its effect on the country’s politics.
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DEVO
Chris Smith, the director of Fyre, “Sr.”, and last year’s Mr. McMahon is opting for lighter fare in 2025: a documentary about DEVO. The artsy new wave band most famous for the single “Whip It!” are explored through sarcastic interviews and creative music videos that breathe new life into the cult-favorite ’80s group.
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Grand Theft Hamlet
The best video games make the player feel like anything is possible. And during the Covid-19 pandemic, many people turned to the medium to communicate in a world shut down by a dangerous virus. During that time, actor Sam Crane and his friends attempted to stage a production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet digitally, all in the video game Grand Theft Auto Online. Their documentary, Grand Theft Hamlet, explores their commitment to create art despite the challenges in the real world, all shot and told through their in-game avatars.
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Megadoc
Francis Ford Coppola’s production of Megalopolis was fraught with oversized budgets and production delays resulting in a critical train wreck of a film that was supposed to be the celebrated director’s magnum opus. What happened? Well, in Megadoc, filmmaker Mike Figgis has the answers as he walks through the strained production of Megalopolis with nearly unlimited access.
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Mr. Scorsese
It’s impossible to fit the entire story of Martin Scorsese’s life into just one documentary. So, director Rebecca Miller split Mr. Scorsese into five episodes—chronicling the respected filmmaker’s life, filmography, and troubles fitting in with Hollywood. “It’s about how the man creates the films, but the films create the man,” Miller told Esquire. “That’s the bullseye.”
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My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow
Leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, several journalists documented what happened to their TV station in Russia after Vladimir Putin began censoring their coverage of Russian troops at the Ukrainian border. My Undesirable Friends could hit close to home with American audiences, as Donald Trump and the FCC’s own attacks on the media continue.
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My Mom Jayne
Mariska Hargitay never really knew her mother, the actress Jayne Mansfield. She was just three years old when Mansfield died in a car accident, and Hargitay’s avoided speaking about her mother’s death in public until now. In watching interviews and exploring Mansfield’s home movies for the first time, Hargitay comes as close to closure and understanding as one person can.
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Life After
There’s a reason why film critic Max Cea listed Life After in his running Best Movies of the Year list for Esquire. In the film, documentarian Reid Davenport revisits the complicated and influential case of Elizabeth Bouvia, who was massively influential in the right-to-die movement. “Now, 40-plus years after Bouvia’s case, care for people like Bouvia has barely improved,” Cea writes, “and Davenport makes a strong case that the right to die is being used to encourage society’s most expensive citizens to end things.”
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Billy Joel: And So It Goes
There’s no other way to put it: Billy Joel: And So It Goes is the ultimate portrait of the Piano Man. In the two-part docuseries, codirectors Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin track the Grammy-winning artist from childhood to early fame and the struggles that followed. It’ll take you about five hours to complete—and that’s a good thing. It’s well worth your time.
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Pavements
Pavements also received the documentary treatment this year? You might’ve missed it somewhere between the Led Zeppelin and Sly Stone docs, but yes—and it’s just as essential. Taking on the ’90s indie rockers, filmmaker Alex Ross Perry uses just about every tool at his disposal, and it gets weird. As in: faux-biopic weird. But we have a feeling that the band wouldn’t have it any other way.
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Pee-Wee as Himself
At least once (or, let’s be honest, several) times per year, HBO drops a documentary that pierces you right in the heart. And, yes… Pee-Wee as Himself did absolutely that. A few years ago, Paul Reubens—the comedian/actor behind the legendary children’s program Pee-Wee’s Playhouse—was finally ready to open about his long, impactful, and sometimes controversial career. For Pee-Wee as Himself, filmmaker Matt Wolf spent over 40 hours with Reubens, who died in July 2023. The result is a master class in maintaining both empathy and journalistic integrity in documentary filmmaking.
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America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders
Season 2 of Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders has made just about every best-of list at Esquire that it qualifies for. It’s for good reason—sports documentarian Greg Whiteley (Last Chance U, Cheer) continues to tell America’s most important sports stories. This time? He shows how some of our most important female athletes are still underpaid. Thankfully, Whiteley’s work—as well as that of the entire Cowboys cheerleading squad—paid off.
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One to One: John & Yoko
One to One: John & Yoko focuses primarily on John Lennon’s life from 1971 to 1973, when he and Yoko Ono moved to New York City. Lennon performed his only solo show during this time, which was fraught with radical politics and one of his strangest records, Some Time in New York City. As Alan Light wrote in Esquire’s review, the documentary is “a chance to reassess, yet again, one of the most consequential and confounding artists, in any medium, of the 20th century.”
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Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)
Following his Best Documentary Oscar win in 2022, the Summer of Soul director and Roots drummer returns with a deep look into Sly and the Family Stone. Sly Lives! examines an artist who sought to bridge the divide with a mix of Black and white musicians with hits such as “Everyday People” and “Dance to the Music.” The documentary also features testimonials from André 3000, Clive Davis, Nile Rodgers, Chaka Khan, and more.
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Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever
Netflix releases a mountain of documentaries every year, but there’s only so much true crime I can handle. Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever is another story entirely. The film follows multimillionaire Bryan Johnson, who has spent the past few years attempting to reverse aging. While Fyre director Chris Smith likely saw another controversial grifter in Johnson, Don’t Die is also a fascinating portrait of someone who truly believes that they can use their wealth to achieve immortality.
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Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey
Speaking of Netflix documentaries, I can’t recommended Pangolin any more highly. Directed by the team behind My Octopus Teacher, Pangolin follows one of the most endangered mammals on the planet as they’re rescued by a kindhearted stranger and reared to rehabilitate safely in the wild.
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SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night
While Saturday Night sought to dramatize the story of the show’s first night on air, SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night features the behind-the-scenes stories told by the comedians themselves. Among all of SNL‘s concerts and live celebrations, the documentary was easy to miss. Luckily, the four-part series dives deeper into some of the late-night variety show’s best sketches.
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Seeds
In Brittany Shyne’s directorial debut, Seeds and its look into the lives of Black farmers in the South won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. The film highlights the struggle of Black farmers as they fight for better working conditions, especially as the government continues to neglect the workers who produce America’s crops. Seeds is a meditative and wholesome film. It’s also the strongest contender yet in the way-too-early Oscar race.
Sundance Film Festival
Thank You Very Much
The wonderfully bizarre comedy of Andy Kaufman is explored in Thank You Very Much, a new documentary produced by the Safdie brothers. The comedian is often viewed as one of the creators of cringe comedy, and his life is celebrated with testimonials from Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, the late Robin Williams, and more.
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Becoming Led Zeppelin
Produced in cooperation with the band itself, Becoming Led Zeppelin follows the creation of one of the most celebrated rock outfits in history. It’s the first time ever that surviving members Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Robert Plant agreed to feature themselves in a documentary including testimonials, archived audio interviews, and full performances from some of their earliest shows.
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