In a year crowded with new film releases and streaming series, one film has just been named number one. Recently crowned Time Magazine’s Best Film of 2025, the film stands as a beautiful and powerful tribute to one of cinema’s most revolutionary moments, the making of Jean-Luc Godard‘s Breathless. Rather than offering a conventional behind-the-scenes biopic, Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) mirrors the very ethos of the film it celebrates. 

Set in Paris at the dawn of the 1960s, it follows a young Godard as he storms the streets with a camera, an idea, and a refusal to play by the rules. What emerges is not just the story of how Breathless was made, but how cinema itself was reimagined.

The French New Wave (in French, La Nouvelle Vague) was a groundbreaking film movement that emerged in France in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It marked a crucial moment when young filmmakers radically changed how movies were made, shot, and told, breaking away from traditional filmmaking.

Guillaume Marbeck delivers a striking performance as Godard, capturing both his intensity and restless curiosity.

Zoey Deutch shines as Jean Seberg, bringing warmth and wit to the American actress who became an unlikely New Wave icon, while Aubry Dullin embodies Jean-Paul Belmondo with physical charm and effortless cool.

Together, the trio recreates the raw chemistry that fueled one of the most influential films ever made.

Film critic, Stephanie Zacharek said the film is the “ultimate tribute.” She wrote in the Time’s Magazine: Breathless changed movies forever, and Nouvelle Vague is the ultimate tribute, standing boldly on the side of beauty, of pleasure, of art’s power to keep us going.”

Premiering at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Nouvelle Vague quickly became one of the year’s most talked about films. It went on to earn a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Deutch was also nominated for Best Supporting Performance at the 41st Independent Spirit Awards in Los Angeles.

Tomatometer-approved critic, John Urbancich wrote about the film: “Linklater’s reverent lens radiantly shows off the boorishness of Godard (Guillame Marbeck) as much as it does his genius in using unconventional methods to fashion his debut masterpiece and incite another kind of French revolution.”

One viewer wrote about the film in a review on Rotten Tomatoes: “Richard Linklater shows his love for cinema. This is exceptional filmmaking, performance, and highly entertaining for any cinema lover.”

Someone else added: “Another masterful ensemble film by Linklater, this one impeccably styled to mirror its French New Wave ancestry.”

Another person said: “A must see for anyone who loves film, filmmaking, and/or Paris. A total joy, as director Richard Linklater and all involved do an amazing job of recreating Paris and the French New Wave of the 1960’s.”