One of the benefits of film and television as a visual medium is that you can do in a single frame what it might take a book several pages of description to pull off. We see this the most in its ability to build worlds in front of our eyes.
These worlds could be great space operas exploring galaxies, a small period piece that looks back in time, or anything. But when every part of the film is used to tell a story, you know it is good. It must be more than just what someone sticks in an opening scrawl, though it is also what someone sticks in an opening scrawl.
Our Highly Commended Films in 2025 are: Companion, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, KPop Demon Hunters, Predator: Badlands, Primitive War, Sinners, Superman & Wake Up Dead Man
Our Highly Commended TV in 2025 are: Andor, Foundation, Heated Rivalry, Murderbot, Paradise, Peacemaker, Silo & Skeleton Crew
So, without further ado, these films showed excellence in Worldbuilding 2025. Be warned that there may be slight spoilers ahead.
28 Years Later has a lot of heavy lifting to do; it has been so long since the last outing that you needed to introduce the world to people who have never visited before, but also they had to reintroduce it for those who did remember, given how the last film turned out. But whatever the case, we get a world dripping with story at every turn.
Flow’s worldbuilding is all subtle in the background, sitting there waiting for you to stumble across it once you start putting the dots together. It may be quiet, but it is still profound because it provides the foundation for the story, it gives you questions that sit in the back of your mind while you watch it and help bring you into this wonderful world.
Well, Mickey 17 might be the oddest film I’ve watched this year, and while not all of the bombast landed, what did work very well is the worldbuilding. It creates this fantastic science fiction world, but you can see that mirror reflecting right back at us. This odd combination of religion, science, and conquest comes together to create a fascinating story.
One Battle After Another is one of those films that feels like it could be just as appropriate to slap a “in the not too distant future” on it had America not dramatically escalated its decline over the last year. It creates a world that feels whole despite all its messiness, well, maybe, because of all its messiness.
PLUR1BUS has an oddly compelling foundation, “what if the zombie apocalypse was sentient and had a smile, only when you are looking”. For a global-spanning story almost exclusively set in one city in New Mexico, this oddness is the perfect base to build a story all about autonomy, consent, and free will.
Weapons is a film that is so in your face that it might as well be the cinematic equivalent of getting someone to follow you around with a trumpet and soundtrack your day. But it knows that, and it knows how to make that captivating at every turn. Its foundation is every parent’s worst fear, and they build that fear in every section as the horror gets ramped up a notch each time.
The Best Worldbuilding in Television or Film 2025 is: One Battle After Another
Directed by – Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by – Paul Thomas Anderson
Based on – Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
If I had to sum up One Battle After Another in one word, it would be ‘rich’. Every part of this world is so full of texture that you feel it everywhere. This is because they have spent so much time making sure that the world they are building here is grounded in reality, so when the more fantastical parts (or less fantastical now that we see them happening in the real world) come into play, you have already come into this world completely. The character’s actions in this film would not be as profound as they are if they didn’t create a world that felt tangible.
What film or television in 2025 built the best worlds? Let us know what you would have chosen as your number one in the comments below.
By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.
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Credits – All images used were created by the respective studios and artist of each film
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