Shortlist 2025:

We are excited to announce our shortlist for the 2025 Observer / Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism.

Writers were challenged to produce an 800-word review of a recent book, film, album, concert, exhibition, ballet, play, TV show, online stream, performance-art piece, or anything else that might be covered in the review pages of a national newspaper.

2024’s winner Oscar Jelley reviewed Isabel Waidner’s novel Corey Fah Does Social Mobility. You can read his piece on the Guardian website. We received entries from all over the world, from Stockport to Singapore, and we enjoyed reading every single review. Thank you to everyone who submitted. The subjects covered in the 2025 longlist include a hip hop drama partly in the Irish language, a collection of modern fairly tales, an art exhibition revelling in human body parts, and a TV drama about an elusive assassin.

We will announce a winner, along with two runners-up, at a live ceremony in London on 14 May 2025.

You can see the 2025 shortlist below.

The final result

To be announced on the evening of Wednesday 14 May.

The shortlist

Fatima Ahmed Ballah on the Rashid Diab exhibition at One Off Gallery
Will Franken on Richard Gadd’s TV series Baby Reindeer
Robert Leeming on the Robert A. Caro exhibition at the New York Historical
Damien Le-Hoste on Making a Rukus! at Somerset House
Anuj Mishra on Payal Kapadia’s film All We Imagine as Light
Richard Pound on Olivier Schrauwen’s graphic novel Sunday

The longlist

Fatima Ahmed Ballah on the Rashid Diab exhibition at One Off Gallery
Adam Alcock on Roland Barthes’ writings on Marcel Proust
Thomas Barrie on Walter Salles’ film I’m Still Here
Ishmael Bradley on Jesse Eisenberg’s film A Real Pain
Janice Chan on Mohammad Rasoulof’s film The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Sian Dennis on Lottie Mills’s short story collection Monstrum
Susan Finlay on Nate Lippens’ novel Ripcord
Will Franken on Richard Gadd’s TV series Baby Reindeer
Ami Guest on Gia Coppola’s film The Last Showgirl
Alexa Hall on the Bruno Zhu exhibition at the Chisenhale Gallery
Phoebe Harper on Nora Fingscheidt’s film The Outrun
Oliver Hodges on Sky Original TV drama The Day of the Jackal
James Howell on Brady Corbet’s film The Brutalist
Robert Leeming on the Robert A. Caro exhibition at the New York Historical
Damien Le-Hoste on Making a rukus! at Somerset House
Ross McIndoe on Wim Wenders’ film Perfect Days
Anuj Mishra on Payal Kapadia’s film All We Imagine as Light
Amelia Moran on the Helen Chadwick exhibition at the Tate Modern
Caroline Oulton on the Lonnie Holley exhibition at the Camden Arts Centre
Richard Pound on Olivier Schrauwen’s graphic novel Sunday
Mia Ramage on Rich Peppiatt’s film Kneecap: The Movie
Henry Roberts on Alex Garland’s film Civil War
Miriam Sallon on Eline Arbo’s stage adaptation of The Years
Gayle Sequeira on Rose Glass’ film Love Lies Bleeding
Mischka de Silva on Clair Wills’s memoir Missing Persons, Or My Grandmother’s Secrets
Stephen Smith on the Francis Bacon exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery
Kirsten Tambling on The Lost Gardens of London at the Garden Museum
Elizabeth Tiskina on Edward Berger’s film Conclave
Katie Tobin on the Francis Alÿs exhibition at the Barbican
Qifei Zou on Huzama Habayeb’s novel Before the Queen Falls Asleep

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