The 10 Must-Watch Documentaries of 2025
As 2025 rolls into 2026, it's a good time to unwind and reflect on your life, your goals, and what kind of person you want to be in the new year. Sometimes the best way to crystallize what that all looks like is to reflect on real-life stories from the real world. We all love binge-worthy fictional TV shows, but documentary films and docuseries sometimes center us in a different way.
Ranging from music to film, to sports and more, here are 10 great documentaries and docuseries from 2025 to take you into the new year.
10. Mr. Scorsese
He's a legend and has given us classics like Casino and modern classics like The Wolf of Wall Street. But with Mr. Scorsese, this series gives us the actual down-to-earth guy who created so many iconic cinematic tough guys.
Mr. Scorsese streams on Apple TV+.
9. Grand Theft Hamlet
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of people did strange things at home. But what about the folks who created a version of Shakespeare's Hamlet within the video game Grand Theft Auto? This brilliant documentary reveals how this odd feat happened, and what one of the greatest stories of all time looks like inside of an interactive video game.
Grand Theft Hamlet streams on Mubi.
8. Becoming Led Zeppelin
One of the greatest bands of all time is newly immortalized in a tight, two-hour documentary, Becoming Led Zeppelin. What this doc lacks in extreme detail, it makes up for in pure classic rock energy.
Becoming Led Zeppelin streams on Netflix.
7. Fire and Water: The Making of The Avatar Films
Today, we take for granted the omnipresence of all visual effects. Two documentary series on this list highlight why visual spectacle in cinema is such hard work. With the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash, the new documentary Fire and Water takes viewers back to the 2000s for the making of James Cameron's first Avatar, and through the two newest sequels.
Fire and Water: The Making of the Avatar Films is streaming on Disney+.
6. The Beatles Anthology 4
Originally released in 1995, this eight-part documentary series has been newly dusted off and now has a brand new ninth episode. Can we ever hit bottom with new Beatles stuff? Well, the nice thing about the ninth, brand new installment of The Beatles Anthology, is that it's almost like a great introduction to the 1995 series, which is a strange kind of double-nostalgia.
The Beatles Anthology streams on Disney+.
5. Light and Magic Season 2
Beginning in 2022, this Lucasfilm documentary series told the detailed story of how Industrial Light and Magic, the famous special effects house that began in 1976, has made movie history. In 2025, Season of Light & Magic moves into the era of the Star Wars prequels. Again, like Avatar, we take some of these VFX innovations for granted today, and the new Light & Magic episodes make it clear, even CGI has come along way since 1999.
Light & Magic streams on Disney+.
4. Pee-wee as Himself
Paul Reubens was known publicly as Pee-wee Herman, but the man behind the legend was a complicated soul. The new HBO documentary, Pee-wee as Himself, dives into the various ways that a persona can overcome a person. None of us has ever become quite as immersed in another persona the way Reubens did, but there's something for everyone in this documentary.
Pee-wee as Himself streams on HBO Max.
3. Pavements
Technically, Pavements isn't really a documentary, but instead, a fictionalized docudrama about the beloved slacker band, Pavement. We're including it here because, though the film was released at film festivals in 2024, this movie was finally released to the public in 2025. A can't-miss movie for fans of the band, and really anyone who loves music with a bit of a wink.
Pavements streams on Mubi.
2. Starting 5 Season 2
The excellent NBA documentary series might not get a third season, but in 2025, Starting 5 dropped a great set of episodes. Following Jaylen Brown, Kevin Durant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Tyrese Haliburton, and James Harden, Starting 5 Season 2 gives NBA fans a very tight, focused personal look at what an NBA season is really like, from the perspective of just a handful of incredible players.
Starting 5 streams on Netflix.
1. The American Revolution
Documentarian Ken Burns delivers what might be his smartest and most important documentary of all time. Yes, this is a standard super-long Burns documentary, which is dense and sometimes laborious. But what Burns pulls off with The American Revolution is a documentary that avoids partisan politics and instead takes an honest look at how the United States was really started.
As with all great work from Burns, it's not so much the information but the profound way Burns has the stories unfold. From the personal to the historical, The American Revolution will help you think differently about history, time, and life.