From buzzy superhero stories to the return of Paddington, 2025 is filled with exciting new movie releases. But here’s some advice: Don’t count out real-life stories in the meantime. Documentaries can be just as gripping as fictional movies, and based on the current slate of upcoming nonfiction releases, the new year will be no exception.
In 2025, movie lovers can look forward to exciting new music documentaries with exclusive footage of iconic bands and subgenres, as well as timely films that provide intimate looks at modern topics like AI and the fight for LGBTQ+ rights. There’s even a tearjerker about hummingbirds! So, it’s safe to say there are exciting docs that just about anyone can look forward to. Below, we’re rounding up the best documentaries of 2025 that are on the horizon. (If you want even more recommendations of docs you can watch right now, check out our list of the best documentaries of 2024.)
'Avicii – I'm Tim'
Release date: December 31 on Netflix
This music doc may come out on New Year's Eve, but we'd bet many will tune into it in early 2025 (and still think about it long afterward). It's said to be the most personal and closest examination yet of who Tim Bergling, the Swedish artist behind his star EDM persona Avicii, was throughout his life before his death by suicide in 2018. Featuring home footage and clips from his private archive, Avicii – I'm Tim, which was made with his family and closest friends and colleagues involved, paints a never-before-seen portrait of the hitmaker and his innerworld.
'Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever'
Release date: January 1 on Netflix
Filmmaker Chris Smith has released several buzzy documentaries in the past few years, from Netflix titles like Fyre and the true-crime hit The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann to HBO’s 100 Foot Wave. His next is sure to rattle viewers, as well. Don’t Die’s subject is Bryan Johnson, a tech entrepreneur who has committed his life's work to try to defy aging through questionable and controversial practices, including plasma transfusions.
'Every Little Thing'
Release date: January 10
In the hills of L.A.’s Beverly Hills, Terry Masear spends her days tending to injured hummingbirds. Masear knows that her winged charges aren’t on Earth for long regardless, but the joy she takes in caring for her home’s little cast of characters soon moves past typical cute animal content into something more profound. Weaving together tales of Masear’s avian rehab with her history of overcoming an abusive rural upbringing and finding her place within L.A., Every Little Thing is a lovely reminder that everyday resilience and magic can be found in your own backyard, even amid hardships and loss,
'Eternal You'
Release date: January 24
Like it or not, AI seems here to stay. While some argue that it’ll help unlock a new era of human innovation, others’ view of this technology is more informed by…every sci-fi cautionary tale ever. The German documentary Eternal You attempts to parse the shadowy potential of AI with a moral quandary: What if you could use AI to talk to a late loved one? That might sound like a ghoulish Black Mirror episode, but avatars of the deceased are a real product engineered by tech startups. If any premise is ripe for soberly interrogating the boundaries this invention should have, it’s this one.
'Move Ya Body: The Birth of House'
Release date: January 26
These days, house music is a global phenomenon. (See Ariana Grande's eternal sunshine and Beyoncé's Renaissance as evidence.) But in the 1980s, it was still a brand-new sound emerging in the South Side of Chicago’s underground clubs. Elegance Bratton’s Move Ya Body tracks house’s journey from the Second City to the world stage, mixing interviews with some of the genre’s key figures with rare archival footage.
'Becoming Led Zeppelin'
Release date: February 7
Rock music lovers, this one's for you. As its title suggests, Becoming Led Zeppelin isn’t your typical career-spanning music documentary. Instead, it uses a “hybrid docu-concert” format to track the iconic British band’s rise to fame in the 1960s. The biggest draw? The film’s bounty of never-before-seen early concert footage and recordings, which will be available for fans to watch in IMAX.
'Heightened Scrutiny'
Release date: TBA; Premiering at Sundance and available to stream online between January 30-February 2
In 2024, a whopping 669 anti-trans bills threatening trans people’s basic access to healthcare, legal protections, and more were introduced in the United States, more than any other year on record. Now, director Sam Feder—who previously made the groundbreaking 2020 Netflix LGBTQ+ documentary Disclosure—is taking on this precarious moment for trans rights in his new film Heightened Scrutiny. The doc follows ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio as he contends with not only political scapegoating but biased media narratives in his mission to protect transgender Americans’ freedoms.
'Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore'
Release date: TBA; Premiering at Sundance and available to stream online between January 30-February 2
In 1987, Marlee Matlin shot into the spotlight when she became the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award at just 21-years-old for her performance in Children of a Lesser God. Her win, in turn, helped give Weeds and Grey’s Anatomy star Shoshannah Stern the confidence to pursue an acting career as a Deaf woman. Now, Stern is bringing things full circle in her directorial debut Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, in which the two women trace Matlin’s career and how navigating Hollywood has (and hasn’t) changed for the Deaf community.
