Kanopy's most-watched films of 2025

2025 was a big year for Kanopy watchers. With a plethora of films that’s always growing or being updated, you can connect with powerful stories with ease through the use of your library card. And it’s especially fun to see what everyone has been watching and enjoying throughout the year—including titles you may not have otherwise found, but also some of the most sought-after watches. With over 32,000 titles to choose from, there truly is something for everyone to watch on Kanopy. And so with that, here are the top streaming films & TV series on Kanopy in 2025. Cheers to more of our favorite shows in 2026! 🎊

Most-Watched Films

1. Anora
2024 | 2hr 18mins
Featuring Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn & Yura Borisov

A wild time with Anora from Brooklyn winds her up in a fairytale whirlwind marriage in Las Vegas to the son of a Russian oligarch. But it turns into an even wilder race to find her new hubby after he runs off because his parents are also not so keen on welcoming her into the fam. With chaotic love and cultural differences, Anora unexpectedly takes a journey of self-discovery. This film won the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Original Screenplay.

2. Longlegs
2024 | 1hr 40mins
Featuring Nicolas Cage, Maika Monroe, Kiernan Shipka & Blair Underwood

Nicolas Cage gives a chilling performance in this horror-thriller as he transforms himself into the mysterious serial killer, Longlegs, who is being investigated by a young FBI agent that’s fighting off the constant feeling that she’s strangely connected to the case.

3. The Return
2024 | 1hr 55min
Featuring Ralph Fiennes & Juliette Binoche

After 20 years away, Odysseus washes up on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable. The King has returned from the Trojan War, but much has changed in his kingdom. His beloved wife Penelope is a prisoner in her own home, hounded by suitors vying to be king. Their son Telemachus faces death at the hands of these suitors, who see him as merely an obstacle to their pursuit of the kingdom. Odysseus has also changed—scarred by his experience of the Trojan War, he is no longer the mighty warrior from years past— but he must rediscover his strength in order to win back all he has lost.

4. Lee
2023 | 1hr 57 min
Featuring Kate Winslet, Alexander Skarsgård & Andy Samberg

A gripping WWII historical drama based on a true story, this film follows war correspondent and Vogue photographer Lee Miller as she trades the glamour of fashion for the horrors of the front line. Embedded with Allied troops and fellow journalists, Lee is determined to expose the truth as she navigates battle-scarred Europe capturing images that would redefine war photography. As she ventures deeper into the heart of darkness, the trauma she’s documenting begins to mirror her own.

5. The Annihilation of Fish
1999 | 1hr 42min
Featuring Margot Kidder, James Earl Jones & Lynn Redgrave

Lynn Redgrave plays Poinsettia, a former housewife with an imagined lover in the form of 19th-century composer Giacomo Puccini. She moves into a Los Angeles boarding house with an energetic landlady. There she meets a Jamaican widower, Fish, who has recently been released from a mental institution despite his continued battles against unseen demons. In the face of personal challenges and differences, the couple grows together and begins to discover new things about themselves and the nuances of love and happiness.

Other notable films:

⭐ Across the River and Into the Trees
2022 | 1hr 46min
Featuring Liev Schreiber, Matilda De Angelis & Josh Hutcherson

Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway, this post-World War II drama follows the American Colonel Richard Cantwell in Venice as he faces his own declining health and battle-scarred past when he finds himself suddenly feeling revitalized by a burgeoning love affair with a young Italian named Renata Contarini.

⭐ Spotlight
2015 | 2hr 8min
Featuring Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, Mark Ruffalo & Rachel McAdams

In 2001, Boston’s finest newspaper, The Boston Globe, gets a new editor who’s ready to take on the hard stories no matter how powerful or highly connected the subject of their journalistic investigation. The Spotlight Team of journalists notoriously shines light on stories that have been deliberately buried, but how far will they have to dig to uncover the truth?

⭐ Annihilation
2018 | 1hr 55min
Featuring Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Jennifer Jason Leigh & Tessa Thompson

Lena’s life is upended for the second time when her missing husband confusedly returns home a year later and almost dies in front of her. She learns he’s been on a top-secret mission into a quarantined zone that only he has ever returned from alive, and she must venture into The Shimmer to find him a life-saving cure and stop the newly mutated landscape from growing.

Most-Watched Documentaries

1. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
2024 | 2hr 30min
Featuring clips of Abbey Lincoln, Andrée Blouin, Nina Simone, Dizzy Gillespie & Louis Armstrong

With the backdrop of a musical timeline, this documentary journeys through an examination of all the political plots, such as a CIA-backed coup, that led to the 1961 assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. Director Johan Grimonprez uniquely uses the collision between American Jazz and African politics to coax our auditory senses into his historical setting.

2. Joan Baez: I Am a Noise
2023 | 1hr 53min

It was 1957 when a 16-year-old Joan Baez bought her first acoustic guitar and a dream became history. Known as one of the greatest musicians who used her music for activism, Baez sits down for personal interviews and recounts her 60+ year career. She covers it all from her upbringing, her family, her heritage, her time in the Civil Rights Movement, and even her notoriously tumultuous relationship with Bob Dylan.

3. Horatio’s Drive: America’s First Round Trip: A Film by Ken Burns
2003 | 1hr 46min
Featuring the voices of Tom Hanks, Keith David & Adam Arkin

This documentary recounts the inspirational and hilarious saga of Horatio Nelson Jackson, an eccentric Vermont doctor, who in 1903, on a visionary whim and a 50-dollar bet, became the first person to drive an automobile across the continent.

4. Thank You Very Much
2023 | 1hr 39min
Featuring clips of Andy Kaufman, Danny DeVito & Steve Martin

Andy Kaufman was a one-of-a-kind comedian that was best known for his non-traditional quirky style of comedy. Often thought of as a comedic success who’s life was cut far too short, this documentary explores the huge impact he made in that short time.

5. Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story
2024 | 1hr 43min
Featuring Liza Minnelli, Alan Cumming, Darren Criss & Joel Grey

Being the daughter of the iconic Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli meant that Liza had big shoes to fill (that happened to be sparkly red). With the apple falling not too far from the tree, Minelli took over the stage on Broadway and the big screen in Hollywood. Follow Minnelli after the tragic death of her mother in 1969 and as she overcomes her grief to become one of top performers of the in the world.

Other notable documentaries:

⭐ I Am Not Your Negro
2016 | 1hr 33min
Featuring clips of James Baldwin, Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr. & Medgar Evers

After the assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin began writing his next project titled “Remember This House” where he planned to explore his life as a revolutionary and the experience of losing close friends. He had 30 pages of the project completed when he passed away in 1987. Director Raoul Peck uses the documentary to envision Baldwin’s completed book and this documentary was nominated for an Oscar.

Most-Watched TV Series

1. Blackshore
2024 | 5hr 3min (6 episodes)
Featuring Lisa Dwan, Rory Keenan & Aidan McArdle

DI Fia Lucey is facing disciplinary charges for assaulting a violent criminal and has reluctantly returned home to a town she left many years before. It’s not long before she finds herself investigating the recent disappearance of hotelier Roisin Hurley, a case everyone else seems strangely reluctant to pursue. After Roisin's body is pulled out of the lake, sordid secrets emerge.

2. Pride and Prejudice
1995 | 5hr 10min (6 episodes)
Featuring Collin Firth, Jennifer Ehle & Susannah Harker

This film adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel by the same name won multiple awards and tells the tale of the wily but witty Elizabeth Bennett and reserved Mr. Darcy during early 1800s England.

3. Miss Marple
1984 | 8hr 34min (10 episodes)
Featuring Joan Hickson, Ursula Howells & Samantha Bond

Miss Jane Marple is one of Agatha Christie’s famous characters, appearing in 12 of her many crime mystery novels. Joan Hickson portrays the amateur detective in this series that includes the stories from four of Christie’s books.

4. The Last Enemy
2008 | 4hr 53min (5 episodes)
Featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, Anamaria Marinca & Robert Carlyle

Stephen Ezard, a mathematician, learns that his brother has died and he returns home to England for his funeral. Something is off about his passing but while there, Stephen falls in love with his brother’s widow and gets swept into an international conspiracy when asking questions about his brother’s death.

5. Death in Paradise
2011 | 97hr 36min (14 seasons)
Featuring Elizabeth Bourgine, Don Warrington & Danny John-Jules

DI Richard Poole is sent to a paradise island in this police detective crime drama.

Other notable TV series:

⭐ Freaks and Geeks
1999 | 13hr 17 min (18 episodes)
Featuring Linda Cardellini, James Franco, Jason Segal, Seth Rogan, John Francis Daley & Busy Phillipps

Written and executive-produced by Judd Apatow, this series with an all-star cast is a classic period piece on suburban life in 1980s Michigan during teenagehood.

Most-Watched World Cinema Feature Films

1. The Count of Monte Cristo
2024 | 2hr 58min
Featuring Pierre Niney, Bastien Bouillon & Anaïs Demoustier

After escaping from an island prison where he spent 14 years for being wrongly accused of state treason, Edmond Dantes returns as the Count of Monte Cristo to exact revenge on the men who betrayed him. Based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas.

2. Perfect Days
2023 | 2hr 4min
Featuring Kôji Yakusho, Tokio Emoto & Arisa Nakano

Hirayama is content with his simple life cleaning toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine he cherishes music on cassette tapes, books, and taking photos of trees. Unexpected encounters reveal more of his story in a deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the world around us.

3. The Taste of Things: La passion de Dodin Bouffant
2023 | 2hr 15min
Featuring Juliette Binoche, Benoît Magimel & Emmanuel Salinger

Set in France in 1889, the film follows the life of Dodin Bouffant as a chef living with his personal cook and lover Eugénie. They share a long history of gastronomy and love but Eugénie refuses to marry Dodin, so the food lover decides to do something he has never done before: cook for her.

4. Bonjour Tristesse
2024 | 1hr 50min
Featuring Lily McInerny, Claes Bang, Nailia Harzoune & Chloe Sevigny

At the height of summer, 18-year-old Cécile is relaxing by the French seaside with her father and falling in love with her new boyfriend. The arrival of her late mother’s enigmatic friend turns her world upside down. A modern take on Françoise Sagan’s unforgettable coming-of-age novel. A Toronto International Film Festival premiere.

5. Anatomy of a Fall
2023 | 2hr 31min
Featuring Sandra Huller, Milo Machado Grander & Samuel Theis

Sandra, her husband Samuel, and their son Daniel live a secluded life in a remote town in the French Alps. When Samuel is found dead, the police question if he was murdered or committed suicide and Sandra becomes the main suspect. What follows is an investigation into the circumstances of Samuel's death and an unsettling journey into the depths of Sandra and Samuel's conflicted relationship.

Other notable feature films:

⭐ The Worst Person in the World
2021 | 2hr 8min
Featuring Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie & Herbert Nordrum

Julie is an erratic, witty, smart woman in Oslo, Norway learning to navigate various career switches, relationships, the idea of motherhood, and turning 30 years old. Renate Reinsve won the Cannes Best Actress award for her portrayal of Julie and it isn’t hard to believe when one thinks of her excellent acting alongside the films cinematic beauty.

⭐ Parasite
2019 | 2hr 12min
Featuring Chang Hye Jin, Cho Yeo Jeong, Choi Woo Shik, Lee Sun-kyun, Park So-Dam & Song Kang-ho

Greed and class discrimination threaten the relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan in Bong Joon Ho's darkly hilarious modern fairytale. This film brought in many awards, including Winner of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Film at the Academy Awards, Winner of Best Foreign Motion Picture - Foreign Language at the Golden Globe Awards, and Winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

⭐ Suspiria
1977 | 1hr 38min
Featuring Jessica Harper, Udo Kier & Alida Valli

Recently remade with Dakota Johnson, this film is the 1977 original and features an American ballet student, Suzy, who travels to Europe to attend a prestigious ballet academy. As Suzy continues to stay in the academy, she notices more and more that there’s something sinister brewing within the academy.

Most-Watched Kids’ Programs

1. Masha and the Bear
2009 | 9hr 20min

A retired circus bear settles into the woods and prepares for a quiet new life surrounded by peace and tranquility until he is introduced to an adventurous little girl named Masha.

2. Shaun the Sheep
2007 | 1hr 24min

Meet Shaun, Bitzer, the Farmer, and the rest of the Flock as they navigate life at Mossy Bottom Farm. Shaun and his friends hate working and have fun scheming against their master for a day off.

3. Go! Astro Boy Go!
2019 | 2hr 31min

Astro is a powered-up robot boy who can fly with rockets from his shoes. He’s on a mission to keep his planet safe and help anyone dealing with the troubling natural phenomena that has been occurring. Whoever is responsible, they can count on Astro Boy to save the day.

4. Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City
2021 | 4hr 22min

Strawberry Shortcake dreams to “bake the world a better place," which is why she's headed to Big Apple City to show the world what she can do!

5. Dog Loves Books
2020 | 1hr 31min

Dog is a dog of few words. Pug is a dog of many words. Together they form a delightful duo who like nothing better than getting into a good book. When Dog shuts his bookshop for the day, he picks a book from the shelves and then he and Pug are off on an exciting adventure. Anyone or anything could be waiting in these stories, with a problem for our heroes to solve.

*Access to films may vary.

RELATED READ: How to get started streaming films for free on Kanopy