Nearly one decade has flown by. DMovies celebrates its 10th anniversary on February 5th, 2026. And this is our 10th “10 dirtiest movies of the year” compilation since our inception. During this time, we have published nearly 4,300 exclusive articles and reviews. We have attended both big and small film festivals and industry events of Europe, always digging the dirty gems of cinema firsthand and exclusively for you. And we have firmly established ourselves as a leading indie film publication in the UK and Europe.
In order to celebrate yet another incredible year, we asked our 10 most prolific writers to pick one film each and this is what they came up with. The outcome is a truly diverse and international list, containing very different films from every corner of the planet, some big, some small, some you can still catch in cinemas, some on VoD and some you will just have to keep an eye for, at least for now!
Don’t forget to click on the film title in order to accede to the our dirty review of the movie (not necessarily written by the same person who picked it as their dirty film of the year). The movies are listed alphabetically:
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Selected by Lida Bach
Pairing visceral visual language with a surprisingly tender emotional touch, Julia Ducournau‘s third feature translates collective trauma into a haunting psychosomatic parable. Family drama and dark fairy tale blend intertwine in an Aids allegory. The director uses her trademark body horror in order to further explore the human body as a site of uncontrollable urges, paranoid projections, and social scrutiny. Alpha imagines illness both as a near-mythic metamorphosis and catalyst for ostracisation, fear, and fractured relationships. A mournful tone, intense performances, and emotional extremes make the terror of death – something very different from the terror of dying – as palpable as the pain of living. It‘s a work that deepens her thematic concerns while simultaneously sharpening her confrontational edge.
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2. The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt):
Selected by Duda Leite
The Mastermind is a quiet and minimalist deconstruction of the heist film genre, done with precision by Reichardt, one of the most interesting voices of the American indie cinema at present. It’s far from perfect, but hey: aren’t we all? Josh O’Connor is at his best as James Mooney, a white privileged middle-class white man, that is completely oblivious to what’s going on in the United States of the 1970s. And there was a Riot Going On. The final sequence is one of the most ironic ones of the year.
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3. The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (Diego Céspedes):
Selected by Eoghan Lyng
When a character declares “I may be a whore, a thief, a liar, but I’ll never be a deserter”, it is because they mean it. Director Diego Céspedes focuses his attention on a queer family. Huddled together against the citizens of this Chilean town, the clan experience physical threats, purportedly because they can spread “plague” just by looking at the victim. Lidia, the 11-year-old daughter of the eponymous “flamingo”, does her own research into the disease, only to discover it isn’t a hex at all. It’s something far more devastating.
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo is a superb hybrid of genres. Driven by queer energy, Céspedes’ work is clearly based on the AIDS epidemic, evident from the legions on one of the supposed victims who feel foul to the “Flamingo’s curse”, but proves to be a riot for most of the first hour. A collage of colour, conversation and clothing, this motion picture is also a commentary on toxic Chilean masculinity, proving that ignorance is the greatest fear of all.
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Selected by Susanne Gottlieb
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5. Sorry, Baby (Ava Victor):
Selected by Paul Risker
Sorry, Baby is guided by the assured hand of first-time feature director Ava Victor, who finely judges the balance between humour and pathos. The quirky and playful aspects complement the difficult subject matter of depression and sexual assault, revealing the film’s wisdom. Victor never defines Agnes by her trauma, nor does she reduce her to someone that cannot laugh and smile because of her traumatic wounds. Sorry, Baby captures a glimpse that life goes on, and those wounds split the person between past and present.
It’s impressive how the director draws out sensitive and insightful observations in a disarming and engaging way through a mix of quirky humour and poignant emotion. Then, recognising the film’s craftsmanship, amongst its technical accomplishments are the unbroken takes that open up the character’s world and the light sound of the piano in the score that contrasts effectively with its darker tones. Sorry, Baby is unafraid to leave the journey incomplete. Bravo, Ava Victor!
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6. Sound of Falling (Mascha Schilinski):
Selected by Andre Vital Pardue
The heaviest film of the year. Through capturing these intricately realist moments of generational trauma, Sound of Falling feels like a hauntingly uncanny artefact. Mercilessly feminist, Schilinski allows for the microcosm of this home to transform into a universally invigorating commentary on the impact that patriarchal cycles have on young German women. Constantly pushing boundaries, the cinematography is undeniable in its grandeur and ambition, equal parts jarring and mesmerising.
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7. Two Seasons, Two Strangers (Sho Miyake):
Selected by Nataliia Serebriakova
Two Seasons, Two Strangers feels like the film of the year in its quiet confidence and restraint. Like the films of Hong Sang-soo, it builds meaning from small gestures, silences, and casual encounters, where repetition and simplicity reveal emotional depth. Sho Miyake turns creative paralysis and travel into a gentle meditation on how people change almost imperceptibly, making cinema that is modest in form yet profoundly human.
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8. Reflection in a Dead Diamond (Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani):
Selected by Anton Bitel
Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani like to bring their special brand of masterful, maximalist mannerism to lost genres, especially, in their features Amer (2009) and The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears (2013), to the sexualised stylisation and slaughter of the giallo. Their latest looks back, along with its ageing protagonist John Diman (Fabio Testi), to Eurospy films and associated fumetti neri. Diman is living beyond his means on the Riviera, where the sight of a young sunbather’s diamond nipple ring triggers, madeleine-like, a kaleidoscopic series of memories – although whether these are of Diman’s past life as a superspy or as merely a minor movie star remains unclear, as reality is confused with fantasy, memories come masked, and errant desires, as much as old nemeses, never die. This is an immaculately crafted, surreally mounted gem, whose many metacinematic facets are as mesmerising as they are dazzlingly surreal. This was – criminally – not granted a theatrical release in the UK beyond limited festival play, but it is now streaming on Shudder.
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9. The Voice of Hind Rajab (Kaouther Ben Hania):
Selected by Victor Fraga
Get set for one of the most harrowing film rides of your life. Forty-eight-year-old Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania delivers her most important to date, and one that could change the film industry’s staunch refusal to denounce Israel’s crimes against humanity. This is the very first time since the Gaza Genocide began in October 2023 that a major film festival has included a film that contains a real, raw, unflinching and unfiltered picture of Israel’s unspeakable atrocities in its Official Competition.
This 90-minute documentary, which was exec produced by Jonathan Glazer and Alfonso Cuaron, follows the staff of the Red Crescent call centre in Ramallah (in the West Bank) as they scramble to save the life of a five year-old girl trapped with the corpses of her uncle, aunt, and four cousins inside a vehicle in Gaza (52 miles from them). Israel fired 355 shots at the civilian vehicle. The devoted agents communicate with Hind on the telephone, repeatedly reassuring the child that aid is on its way. The audios are the real voice of the tiny Hind Rajab, while the call centre scenes are reenacted.
The Voice of Hind Rajab is also pictured at the top of this article.
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10. Yugo Florida (Vladimir Tagić):
selected by H.M. Ryan
Since watching it earlier this year, I think about Vladimir Tagić’s debut feature Yugo Florida two to three times a week. This Serbian film demonstrates how a man’s life can quickly go from stasis to total breakdown. Specific sequences and moments dance around my head, and I remember how I felt seeing them for the first time. It’s a film that is comfortable in the grimy and unpleasant routines of life, and it makes the moments where real, selfless acts of love and humanity beam through like the light from a lighthouse. The writing and direction are fantastic, and the actors deliver nuanced and lifelike and vulnerable performances. A beautiful, life-affirming film.