As libraries continue to grow their digital collections, Kanopy remains one of the most widely used streaming platforms for both education and entertainment. Each year, millions of viewers across public, academic, and school libraries turn to Kanopy for thoughtful, high-quality cinema that challenges, inspires, and connects.
The platform’s 2025 viewing data reveals a compelling mix of acclaimed dramas, festival discoveries, and modern classics. From indie standouts like Anora to psychological thrillers such as Longlegs and rediscoveries like Possession, this year’s top narrative titles reflect the wide range of interests among library audiences.
Below are the ten narrative films that drew the most viewers on Kanopy this year. Each one offers a distinct look at storytelling, history, and the human experience, making them excellent choices for library discussions, campus film programs, and community screenings.
Anora (2024)
Anora follows Ani, a Brooklyn stripper whose whirlwind romance with the son of a Russian oligarch thrusts her into an unfamiliar world of wealth, control, and danger. What begins as a Cinderella story quickly evolves into a sharp and emotionally layered character study of a woman navigating class boundaries and personal freedom. The film explores how identity can be shaped and distorted by power, and how love can become a weapon when money and reputation are on the line. Directed by Sean Baker, Anora brings together realism, humor, and heartbreak in equal measure, making it one of the year’s most talked-about independent releases.
▶Click here to buy Anora on DVD.
Longlegs (2024)
Longlegs is a deeply unsettling thriller about FBI agent Lee Harker, who becomes obsessed with a decades-long series of ritualistic murders tied to a mysterious figure known only as “Longlegs.” As she deciphers coded letters and traces the killer’s path, the investigation begins to blur the boundaries between logic and the supernatural. Set against a bleak Pacific Northwest backdrop, the film builds dread through silence, symbolism, and slow revelation rather than gore. It is both a psychological study of inherited trauma and a terrifying exploration of how evil hides in plain sight. With chilling performances and meticulous direction, Longlegs has quickly become a standout in contemporary horror cinema.
▶Click here to buy Longlegs on DVD.
The Return (2024)
In this reimagining of Homer’s Odyssey, The Return follows Odysseus as he finally reaches his homeland of Ithaca after twenty years of war and wandering. Worn down by loss and haunted by memory, he finds his kingdom overtaken by suitors competing for his wife Penelope’s hand. The film blends mythic grandeur with human intimacy, showing Odysseus not as a hero of legend but as a man facing the consequences of time and violence. Rich in atmosphere and visual detail, The Return captures both the poetry and brutality of ancient storytelling while making its themes of longing, endurance, and forgiveness feel entirely modern.
▶Click here to buy The Return on DVD.
Lee (2023)
Lee dramatizes the extraordinary life of Elizabeth “Lee” Miller, who transformed from a celebrated fashion model into one of the most fearless war correspondents of the twentieth century. As Miller photographs the devastation of Europe during World War II, she confronts not only the atrocities of conflict but also the personal toll of witnessing them. The film moves fluidly between glamour and grit, showing how Miller’s artistic vision evolved from studio beauty to uncompromising truth. Through vivid cinematography and a compelling lead performance, Lee celebrates the courage of a woman who refused to look away, even when the world wanted her to.
Annihilation of Fish (1999)
This tender, character-driven drama introduces two solitary souls living in the same boarding house who find an unexpected connection despite their eccentricities and imagined companions. James Earl Jones stars as a man haunted by his past, while Lynn Redgrave brings warmth and complexity to the woman who gradually draws him out of isolation. Their relationship unfolds with gentle humor and deep empathy, revealing how love can heal even the most hidden wounds. Annihilation of Fish balances melancholy and hope, offering a quiet meditation on aging, loneliness, and the simple power of companionship.
▶Click here to buy Annihilation of Fish on DVD.
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Paul Thomas Anderson’s offbeat romantic dramedy follows Barry Egan, a mild-mannered entrepreneur whose fragile world begins to unravel after a series of bizarre encounters. When Barry meets Lena, an equally unconventional woman, he experiences affection and confidence for the first time. Yet his attempts at love are complicated by extortion schemes, embarrassing family dynamics, and his own barely controlled rage. Punch-Drunk Love blends absurd comedy with genuine emotion, using vivid color and sound design to mirror Barry’s inner turmoil. Adam Sandler delivers one of his most acclaimed performances, turning vulnerability into a kind of grace.
▶Click here to buy Punch-Drunk Love on DVD.
Level 33 Entertainment
Across the River and Into the Trees (2022)
Adapted from Ernest Hemingway’s reflective novel, Across the River and Into the Trees follows Colonel Richard Cantwell, an American officer confronting his mortality in postwar Venice. Haunted by memories of battle and lost love, he spends his final days revisiting familiar places and engaging in a delicate relationship with a young noblewoman. The film’s pace is contemplative, its visuals painterly, evoking the melancholy of late Hemingway and the beauty of a city still marked by the scars of war. It is a moving meditation on courage, tenderness, and the fleeting nature of time.
▶Click here to read Video Librarian's review of Across the River and Into the Trees.
▶Click here to buy Across the River and Into the Trees on DVD.
Spotlight (2015)
Based on true events, Spotlight chronicles the Boston Globe’s investigative team as they uncover decades of child abuse and institutional cover-up within the Catholic Church. The film meticulously portrays the slow, methodical work of journalism, showing how persistence, skepticism, and collaboration can lead to seismic social change. Its ensemble cast delivers understated yet powerful performances that reflect the moral weight of the story. More than a procedural, Spotlight is a tribute to accountability and the role of the press in protecting truth. It remains essential viewing for educators, journalists, and anyone interested in civic ethics.
▶Click here to buy Spotlight on DVD.
Oh, Canada (2024)
Directed by Paul Schrader and adapted from Russell Banks’s novel Foregone, Oh, Canada explores the final reckoning of an aging filmmaker who reflects on the choices that shaped his life and the relationships he damaged along the way. As he sits for a career-spanning interview, fragments of memory blur into confession, creating an elegiac portrait of art, ego, and remorse. The film’s quiet intensity and intellectual rigor make it one of Schrader’s most intimate works, pairing his signature themes of guilt and redemption with an aging artist’s search for peace. Oh, Canada is an introspective study of the stories we tell ourselves and the ones we wish we could rewrite.
▶Click here to stream Oh,Canada on Prime Video.
Possession (1981)
Few films combine psychological horror and emotional rawness as powerfully as Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession. Set in Cold War era Berlin, it begins with a husband returning home to find his wife acting in increasingly erratic and disturbing ways. As their marriage disintegrates, the story spirals into surreal territory, revealing a monstrous embodiment of emotional collapse and repressed desire. Isabelle Adjani’s performance remains one of the most intense in film history, while the movie’s combination of political allegory and body horror has earned it cult-classic status. Both terrifying and tragic, Possession endures as a masterpiece of psychological cinema.
▶Click here to buy Possession on DVD.
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