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2025 culture preview

7 January 2025

  • Rashid Johnson in the studio 2020

    The most exciting US art exhibitions in 2025

    The next 12 months offers a wide range of challenging and unusual exhibitions from artists such as Ruth Asawa and Rashid Johnson

4 January 2025

  • From left, Brie Larson in Elektra, Harriet Walter in Brian and Maggie, Malachi Kirby in A Thousand Blows, Louise Bourgeois’s spider, and one of Leigh Bowery’s costumes.

    From Edvard Munch to Central Cee: Observer critics choose their cultural highlights for 2025

    From Thom Yorke’s Shakespearean score to 25 years of Tate Modern, Bridget Jones to Leigh Bowery, our writers anticipate the most exciting shows, releases and events of the year

3 January 2025

  • Explosions of light and colour … Avowed.

    Games to look forward to in 2025: Avowed

    Fun combat, breezy banter and colourful characters promise to make this role playing game from Obsidian a must-play for fans of Skyrim
  • Sly Stone appears in SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Stephen Paley.

    Elon Musk, the Titan disaster and Sly Stone: the most anticipated documentaries of 2025

    The next 12 months promises a host of provocative and revealing new documentary movies
  • Matt Smith, Bridget Christie, Keeley Hawes, Jenna Ortega, Ashley Walters, Seth Rogen, Natasha Rothwell, Jerry Springer, Leo Woodall and Quintessa Swindell.

    The 50 must-see TV shows for 2025

    Sally Wainwright goes punk! Michaela Coel is back! And Robert De Niro smashes on to streaming like a man with something to prove! Here’s your complete guide to 2025’s unmissable TV

1 January 2025

  • stage

    Chills, chuckles and Cate Blanchett in Chekhov: the best theatre, dance and comedy coming in 2025

  • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

    Games to look forward to in 2025: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

31 December 2024

  • Composite image showing (from left) Chloé Zhao, Luca Guadagnino, and Claire Denis

    Auteurs assemble! Why 2025 offers a banquet of movies by cinema’s great creators

  • music

    Toyboys, divas and Bridget Jones: the films to look forward to in 2025

29 December 2024

  • Victoria Smith; Geoff Dyer; Adelle Stripe; Victoria Amelin

    Nonfiction to look out for in 2025

  • Colum McCann; David Szalay; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; Katie Kitamura; Eimear McBride,

    Fiction to look out for in 2025

28 December 2024

  • Zadie Smith, Lionel Richie, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Han Kang, Bill Gates and Pope Francis

    From Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Pope Francis: the books to look forward to in 2025

    New work from Zadie Smith, a memoir from Bill Gates, plus the third instalment in Rebecca Yarros’s romantasy series - here’s the biggest fiction and nonfiction for the year ahead

26 December 2024

  • art

    Sensual surrealism, Kiefer’s delights and Gehry’s Guggenheim: the best art and architecture shows to visit in 2025

    Anselm Kiefer’s homage to Van Gogh, Ithell Colquhoun’s seaside of surrealism and Gilbert & George fill the galleries, while the V&A opens its archives at the illustrious new East Storehouse
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