From The Wizard of Oz to Trainspotting: 25 films to watch before you turn 25
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- The Guardian curated a list of 25 films recommended by filmmakers, critics, and industry figures for viewers under 25, framing it against anxieties about screen time and Orson Welles' advice to "not be marinated" in films.
- Edgar Wright chose Run Lola Run (1998), recalling that he left a summer 1999 matinee "completely envious and fizzing with excitement, desperate to make a movie that very day," and credits the film with inspiring him to direct.
- Ken Loach broke from the list's family-friendly tone to recommend Gaza: Doctors Under Attack (2025) and Louis Theroux: The Settlers (2025), calling them depictions of "Israel's genocidal war on Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank."
- Catherine Bray opened the list with Fantasia (1940) as the film she wants to share with her first child, due in autumn, citing "the music, the dancing ostriches, Mickey Mouse just trying to have a rest."
- The picks span animation classics (My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke), British and American staples (The Princess Bride, Trainspotting), and international cinema (Mulan, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), with contributors including Prano Bailey-Bond, Julia Jackman, and Naqqash Khalid.
- Naqqash Khalid picked Scooby-Doo (2002), describing it as "an autopsy of the American project post-9/11" and "a deeply felt exploration of the value of friendship under late capitalism" — arguing it's "the exact kind of film a seven-year-old should be watching."
Why it matters: When established directors like Edgar Wright and Ken Loach publicly endorse specific films, they shape which titles survive in young viewers' cultural canon. The list's deliberate inclusion of hard-hitting 2025 Gaza documentaries alongside Fantasia and The Wizard of Oz signals an editorial stance that pushes back against the article's own lede framing screen time as inherently harmful.
