Welcome to the
Silver Linings of 2025.

A curated haven of good bits, the glacier cherries on the top. But let’s start with a short message. Sound on!

Film

There was one outstanding film this year that towers over the rest. Proving that both Thomas Paul Anderson and DiCaps can do no wrong. An unstopable film with the best car chase since Vanishing Point and a hypnotic soundtrack from Johnny Greenwood.

Highly Commended

Sinners, Weapons, Bugonia, I like me.

Australian made: Inside, The Surfer (Cage in WA!), Bring Her Back and for pure ridiculousness, Dangerous Animals.

Letterboxd top 50 click below

Pick of the ads

The Lamb Ad is like Christmas for adland folks, save for Christmas itself, of course. This year, Droga5 created a very, very funny instalment of the longstanding Summer campaign for Meat and Livestock Australia.

David & Dave.

Matt Damon & David Beckham Beer Commercial Officially wins The Super Bowl.

Waitrose, the English Rose of supermarkets, chose the English Rose synonymous with Christmas. But Joe Wilkonson steals the show in this modern-day princess and the pauper.

The takeaway isn’t to make a rom-com, but to package your message in a fresh, story-driven format that elevates your brand above functional communication. Think about how you can build a “world” around your solution: episodic content, behind-the-scenes storytelling, or campaign assets that feel more like entertainment than sales.

Nike returns to the Super Bowl after 27 years with So Win, an ad focused on women’s sports. Featuring star athletes Sha’Carri Richardson and Sabrina Ionescu, the commercial showcases perseverance, excellence, and the ongoing push for gender equality in athletics. The combination of striking visuals and a compelling narrative makes this a standout moment for sports fans.

Honourable mentions

‘Dept. Q’ (Netflix)

Jussi Adler-Olsen’s novels about a cold-case squad made up of underestimated misfit detectives have already been adapted into multiple films in his native Denmark. Now they’ve translated smashingly to an English-language take, with Scott Frank (The Queen’s Gambit) and Chandni Lakhani relocating the cops to Scotland, and in the process creating a slightly less acerbic police version of Slow Horses.

‘The Pitt’ (Max)

The show of 2025 so far — and something’s going to have to be awfully great to dislodge it before December. More than 30 years after the debut of ER, actor Noah Wyle and producers R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells reunited for a simultaneously retro and forward-looking new hospital drama, set over 15 consecutive hours on the same relentless emergency room shift. Whether the staff — including wise veteran Dr. Robby (Wyle), no-bullshit head nurse Dana (Katherine LaNasa), and endearing rookies like Mel (Taylor Dearden) — were dealing with minor injuries or victims of a mass shooting, The Pitt was a celebration of competence and compassion in the face of nonstop horror.

Highly commended

The Bear Season 45 (Disney), Blue Lights Season 3 (SBS), Slow Horses Season 5 (apple), The Pitt (HBO), The Diplomat Season 3 (Netflix), The Studio (apple), Severance (apple), The Chair Company, Paradise (Hulu/Disney+), Asura (Netflix), The White Lotus season 3 (HBO), Black Doves (Netflix), Mobland (Stan), Black Rabbit (Netflix).

Australian:
Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple Cider Vinegar follows the rise of wellness guru Belle Gibson, exposed as a fraud. The show is billed as ‘a true-ish story based on a lie’ inspired by the book The Woman Who Fooled the World by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano.

Bingeworthy Best

‘Adolescence’ (Netflix)
| Rolling Stone review

The technical feat of this four-episode miniseries — each instalment was filmed in an hour-long unbroken take — would be the most impressive thing about it, were it not for everything else about it. When 13-year-old Jamie (Owen Cooper, jaw-droppingly good in his screen debut) is arrested for the murder of a classmate, everyone around him tries to make sense of it: his father (Stephen Graham, who co-wrote the show with Jack Thorne), the detective assigned to the case (Ashley Walters), and his court-appointed psychologist (Erin Doherty), among others. The more they learn — not only about this specific tragedy, but about the larger sociological forces driving it — the more maddening this tale becomes. An instant classic.

Spotify Wrapped

Australia’s 5 top local artists on Spotify in 2024:

Riptide – Vance Joy
Don’t Dream It’s Over – Crowded House
Somedays – Sonny Fodera
NIGHTS LIKE THIS – The Kid LAROI
Sweet Disposition – The Temper Trap

Amy charms the world

2025 was a massive, career-defining year for Amyl and the Sniffers, marked by global festival domination (Coachella, Glastonbury), supporting AC/DC in Australia, selling out international tours, a Grammy nomination, and sweeping the ARIA Awards (Album of the Year, Best Group, etc.) for their acclaimed third album, Cartoon Darkness. They also won the APRA Peer-Voted Song of the Year for "U Should Not Be Doing That," solidifying their status as Australia's most electrifying band. After their free Fed Square was cancelled, the group shouted 6 pubs to $35,000 worth of free drinks.

Oh and one of the best acceptance speeches of all time.

As the new prime minister of Australia, I’d like to say: all immigrants welcome. I’d like to say: land back, the dole’s going up and every pub gets a million dollars.”

Taylor said that the album had changed their lives: “Probably won’t have to work at IGA ever again!”

It’s a long way to cover your ears.

Possibly one of the worst sounding instruments but used on two of Australia’s biggest bangers, You’re the Voice and …

Hundreds of bagpipers claimed a new world record on Wednesday by belting out AC/DC’s rock and roll classic “It’s a Long Way to the Top.”

Billed as “The Great Melbourne Bagpipe Bash,” the eclectic performance took place in Melbourne’s Federation Square, on Swanston Street, which was the scene of the Australian hard rock band’s 1976 film clip in which they played the hit on the back of a flatbed truck traveling slowly through downtown traffic with music blaring from speakers.

AC/DC made a riotous return to Australia this month, back playing to Aussie crowds for the first time in a decade. Guitarist Angus Young, 70, is the only band member who played on the truck and is performing on the latest Australian tour.

Thousands of spectators crammed the square for the world record attempt. Many of the 374 pipers had to squeeze through the crowd to the stage area. The oldest piper was 98-years-old, organisers said.

Treaty

Victoria's treaty is Australia's first-ever treaty between the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria and the state government, which was passed into law in late 2025. The treaty establishes a new representative body, Gellung Warl, to give First Peoples a formal voice in the state's decision-making, and includes commitments to reform areas like education and place naming. The treaty is intended to create a new relationship based on justice and respect, and to ensure First Peoples have a say in policies that affect them.

Silver Lining attended 2025 B Corp Assembly on Darkinjung Country. One of the key take outs was to ‘Stand Up’ more. Silver Lining actively support Clothing the Gaps campaign ‘Not a Day to Celebrate’.

Sign the petition

Humblebrags

As a non-profit making agency, we have a tight awards budget of $2,000.
Which in today’s economy gets you four entries.

So for every entry we made this year, we won or were shortlisted.

This year, we won a Good Design Award in the product category for our Bank Australia x Parley for the Oceans banking card design.

At the global CreativePool Awards, we took out the Silver in the Product category.

As well as shortlists for three free-to-enter categories:

> Social Good | Bank Australia x Parley for the Oceans
> Best Place Place to Work
> Cutting Room Floor | for our work with Conservation Volunteers Australia

At the B&T Awards, we were shortlisted for the Award for the Planet for our Comms Declare campaign ‘Smoke Kills’.

Reels

Jet2Holiday Jingle
Unless you're living under a rock, you'll know by now that nothing beats a Jet2 holiday.

Millions online are pairing the cheerful audio with travel chaos, irony and mishaps.

Louvre Heist

In less than 10 minutes, a group of four thieves broke into the museum in broad daylight, within an hour of opening, parked a truck right out front with a retractable ladder, did a smash-and-grab and then drove away from the centre of Paris on scooters. Just in time for Halloween and the biggest costume opportunity since Stranger Things season 1.

The Collins Word of the Year 2025 is... Vibe coding

‘‘Vibe coding’
An emerging software development that turns natural language into computer code using AI, has been named Collins’ Word of the Year 2025.
The term was popularised by Andrej Karpathy, former Director of AI at Tesla and founding engineer at OpenAI, to describe how AI enables creative output while he could “forget that the code even exists”

Pantone of 2025: PANTONE 17-1230 Mocha Mousse

A trend-led fashion colour with a rich neutrality, PANTONE 17-1230 Mocha Mousse extends our perception of brown, crossing from the humble and earthbound to the luxurious and aspirational. Infused with a sensorial warmth that comes through in soft touch weaves, buttery leathers and suedes, cushy velvets, cashmere, angora and shaggy, and furry knits.

What a load of 🤬

Nature and biodiversity

David at 99 gives hope.

A visual marvel, governed by his own matchless authority and striking a steady tonal balance between warning and hope, David Attenborough’s film about the oceans is absorbing and compelling. He makes a passionate case against the ruin caused by industrial overfishing and the sinister mega-trawlers which roam everywhere, raking the seabed with their vast metal nets, brutally and wastefully hoovering up fish populations of which the majority is often simply thrown away, depleting developing countries and fishing communities of their share. Attenborough says that this is the new colonialism.

Sir David Attenborough expresses hope that the ocean can recover from destruction, highlighting how reefs can bounce back when given protection. Evidence from places like the Channel Islands and Palau shows this recovery is not just possible but happens faster than expected, offering a powerful message of hope if the ocean is given the "space to recover".

Australia's most endangered marsupial has had a comeback

Once thought to be extinct, the Gilbert's potoroo (best name ever) might be back.

Australia's most critically endangered marsupial was rediscovered near Albany, Western Australia in 1994 after being presumed extinct for over a century.
Now, Australian scientists from the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) have found that their conservation efforts are showing signs of recovery, with potoroo numbers exceeding the original population. To help preserve the species, DBCA established 'insurance populations,' which are now showing signs of success.

Here are some of the finalists from the 2025 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards.

And a Tawny Frogmouth in a Pear Tree.

The biannual Australian Bird of the Year by Birdlife Australia and The Guardian swooped in like a flock of flaming Galahs.

While the nation went gushy for Pink Robins, Gang-gang cockatoos and Willie Wagtails,
it was the bridesmaid (3 years of coming second) that finally succeeded. All hail the Tawny Frogmouth, part of the Nightjar species. Do not call this bird an ‘Owl’.

Silver Lining created a campaign for Bank Australia, a supporter of the Australian Bird of the Year 2025.