Across movies and TV series, the best documentaries of 2025 are a disparate bunch bound by shared value and gleaming purpose.

The true crime genre continues to evolve, as evidenced by the wealth of documentaries on offer in 2025. From The Perfect Neighbor to Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, we’ve ranked the 15 best titles released this year.

The films ‘Seeds’ and ‘Apocalypse in the Tropics’ also won major prizes at the association’s annual ceremony on Saturday.

The concept of the sporting documentary has taken a beating in the past few years. Browse through whichever streaming platform you prefer and you will be confronted with oceans of slop, superficially plausible productions of thrown-together clips and sub-Wikipedia voiceovers.

Be it entertaining or educational, documentaries can appeal to every viewer — and it's easier than ever to tune in on every major streaming service.

The North Macedonian film "The Tale of Silyan" was named 2025's best documentary at the IDA Documentary Awards

Netflix has three Best Documentary Feature contenders, including 'The Perfect Neighbor,' but festival winners may rally

A documentary about an Arkansas journalist who was killed while covering the war in Ukraine has landed on the Oscars shortlist for best documentary short.

The Oscars said in a release on Dec. 16 that 117 films qualified for the documentary short film category, and only 15 made the shortlist.

A new sneak peek at Endless Cookie uses trippy animation to tell a story of tradition surrounding one of Toronto's old pizza staples. Watch it here!